Oba

This place is great. The vegetables Fritos were exquisite and unlike anything I have ever had. Roasted to perfection. Highly recommended.

I had my husband’s 40^th birthday party here with a group of 20 people and LOVED it. The food was delicious, the staff was so friendly, and the private room is so beautiful. The staff was so nice, they put up with turning down the music when giving speeches and quickly turning the music back on. I would completely recommend this place for private party’s and for their great service.
Only thing I would say is I was told a table would be set up for decoration and it wasn’t when I got there, but they quickly found what I needed and set it up for me, also they had told me that I could only make one payment but at the end of the night they took more than one.

Great happy hour menu! We tried the jalapeño martini for fun, a little spicy but good flavor! We got the wet nachos and Brussels sprouts, both were so good! The steak tacos weren’t that great. Wish there was outside seating, but the inside is huge, lots of places to sit. We will def be back!

Love the happy hour menu food and drinks are amazing & priced right but Dinner is a little on the expensive side– One of my fav places on PDX to eat I had the burger & fries & Vegetales Fritos

Had Steelhead for Portland dining month. It was the best fish I have had during this dining month. Oba always delivers. One restaurant we recommend and always enjoy.

Went here for the PDX dining month, so the review pertains to the prix fixe menu for the PDM. Started off with the salad which was crunchy and delicious. Also tasted the potato and leek soup which was excellent and creamy. Had the steelhead for the entrée, was superb, especially the mole based sauce. Again, also tried the lamb meatballs which were excellent as well. For dessert there is no choice, so the whole table got the sweet empanadas filled with apple pie. They were ok, a bit too much sugary I felt, could have done without the excess sugar dusting on the outside. Overall, a good meal, starter and entrée are great, you can’t go wrong with whatever u order.

We went to Oba for the Portland dinning month. We also went into the bar before hand for happy hour. The waitress at the bar was very nice and great at her job. The drinks the four of us ordered took about 15min to get maybe cause the place was so busy. My husband and I ordered a chorizo burger to share off the happy hour menu and it was so so. Nothing I would order again.
Dinner– again our waiter was very nice and on top of it. The food not so amazing. I had a kale salad that was alright, then a steelhead dish that was nothing special. For dessert we had apple empanadas and they were wonderful. I don’t think we will go there again with all the amazing restaurants available in Portland. I would say skip this experience.

Oba is awesome for their Happy Hour!!! We love going there regularly.
We did the living social special and we would NEVER do that again!!!
Put in a dark room in the back with only 2 other couples, isolated living social deal folks.
Handed the ‘special’ living social menu with only 2 options on it.
Made feel by the male waiter who wanted the proof of coupon first like a second class citizen.
After 2 drinks and with 19% tip automatically added to the bill BEFORE our coupon was applied we ended up spending more money then if we both had regular entrée items to our liking!
Definitely not a good deal and a bad dining experience!!!
Avoid our experience!!!

I went in with high expectations and wondered why such a great restaurant could have a living social offer. It was definitely too good to be true. I understood how our different menu would be, but I thought it would at least have some type of Latin flare added to the menu.
We were seated in the back dining room, on Sunday evening, only one other table was back there, but the main dining room had almost every table taken. When our server came around to greet us she handed us a «living social» menu, their typical menu, then the cocktail and wines list. First of all our menu had LIVING SOCIAL in the boldest, biggest font possible. They made it very clear that the menu was different. So different that we were bummed out that it didn’t look anything like the main menu! I guess that’s a catch to bring you back to try it out, but dang, from this experience that my boyfriend and I had, I think there’s no need to. The server said to us, «it’s a very simple and straight forward menu.» One last thing about the living social part of the night, before ordering, the server asked me for the voucher– I guess to prove we had it? I’ve had groupons and things before, but I’ve never had someone ask me before paying for the meal, it just felt a bit odd.
When the server came back to order she said «are we ready to order or do we have any questions? It’s a pretty easy menu, right?» You could tell she was a very very sweet girl, so I know there wasn’t any sarcasm and she wasn’t trying to be rude, but is that the way you work up someones meal at your restaurant? Wouldn’t you say– our chefs have put together this menu as different pieces from our typical dishes, to highlight some of our favorites… but even just the way she worded it and she was so so soft spoken, not sure if she was new to the position– perhaps?
It’s not going to help a lot of people to read this review if they want to know about the food on the actual menu, because I am reviewing what we had off the living social menu, but it gives you an idea I guess of what to expect. Starting with the appetizer that was made for us to share. To put it bluntly it was a bowl of warm shrimp in a red tomato and spiced sauce, with two crostinis. The crostinis had something like a pesto spread across the top, but they tasted stale and there were only two of them. All around a hit and miss dish for us. My boyfriend had the salad as the next course and I the soup. Salad, was… a salad, nothing special and my soup was supposed to be a potato and pablono or something, something that was supposed to give it a kick. The soup tasted like potato soup, with nothing else. It was bland and lacked flavor. I wanted to at least add pepper to it, but there wasn’t salt or pepper on our table. It was strange looking for those two things, because I never add salt or pepper to my meals– maybe a salad, but that’s it. We were less than excited to see what the main course was like…
But, low and behold we were pleasantly surprised. My steak was cooked really well to my liking and the mashed potatoes were nice as well. The vegetables were an after thought and just, there. My boyfriends salmon was cooked well and his manchego polenta cakes were pretty delicious. This was the only thing that kept this experience from being terrible, to just poor. Because it was lower than average– especially for such a beautiful establishment. The place inside is beautiful. The bar area was great. I probably wouldn’t even consider coming back here. But when I spoke with my coworker and told them where I went to dinner the night before, their face lit up and they said «oh didn’t you love it?» Ummm no, we didn’t. We barely even liked it. She talked about her experiences there and it gave me hope that this place wasn’t a lost cause, but for a first impression for someone, it was a waste of our time and definitely our money. For what we paid?! We could have dined elsewhere, had more food and a bottle of wine. I hate writing bad reviews about places, but I would want to know about these things before I went here… there’s so many other restaurants in Portland worth trying and that are cheaper than this.

Mothra Says… Disappointed
I have had Oba on my list of must dine restaurants for some time. On a recent weekday evening with about 7 of the 25 or so tables in the Oba dining room occupied, we were seated and Bart our server greeted us.
Because I made a reservation and announced that I had a «Living social» as instructed on the coupon, the hostess dropped two «living social, pre fix menus» on our table. Whether right or wrong, I felt from the beginning that K and I were being rushed. Our server greeted us and ran quickly through our courses. I stopped him and asked for a wine list. I asked our server to order us two glasses of house chard from the Happy Hour menu. He declined. So, I walked over to the bar and ordered them myself. Shelby greeted me with a big smile and poured two generous glasses of wine.
Back to the table, our server recommended the shrimp appetizer with pesto crostini and asked for our order. I advised our server that it was Mothra’s birthday and we wanted to have a slow relaxed evening. Over the course of the night, we added to the prefix menu a bowl of warmed olives in a herbed shallot and tequila oil; an order of fried calamari with cilantro with honey chipotle and a lime ginger aioli. Both were quite good.
The house white wines paired nicely with these two dishes and, our salad which were forthcoming. I inquired what the corkage fee was for my bottle of 09′ Ballentine petite sirah from the Napa Valley. $ 25.00 sir. What? Wow. Really, there is no reason for that.
I asked him to open it and allow it to breath while we dined on what might be the best dish that night: an arugula salad, lightly tossed with a vinaigrette with pears and toasted quinoa. This was a light fluffy, very tasty salad with thinly sliced pears and the toasted quinoa was fantastic. I tip my hat to the chef!
Unfortunately, just 8 minutes after the salad was presented, here came dinner. We had not yet finished our salads and two New York strip steaks, rare, over Yukon mashed, roasted green beans, and hard blue cheese arrived. I will say the chef cooked our steaks as we ordered them. However, these were not top of the line steaks. They were ok, seasoned nicely, but not outstanding. The Yukon mashed potatoes were good and the long beans firm and crisp.
Two cups of coffee later, as our bill arrived with a pre-​loaded 18% tip on it (???), we exited stage right.
Pluses: The Chef is amazing, despite the choice of the steak on the menu; Shelby in the bar.
Minus’s: Too many. Service, corkage fee, attitude in the restaurant.
Mothra says… 2.80 of 5.0 This giant bug won’t be back. sigh.

Our visit was on a busy night. We had reservations and came about 15 minutes early to enjoy a drink at the bar prior to dining. There were five of us (and we tried each others drinks) so we had the opportunity to taste several things. The tequila tasting flight was great, and worth the price for the generous pours. We got the guava margaritas and they were incredible. A few of our party stuck with those all night. The El Jefe margarita was also excellent. I stuck with that one. The bartender was friendly and made great recommendations and even better drinks. You can’t go wrong when they make their own mix from fresh limes.
But then, we sat down and the food. Lordy, the food was incredible. We chose to get mostly tapas: Baked oysters (on special), the queso dip with chorizo (OMG), the bacon-​wrapped-​stuffed jalapenos (what?), calamari, and seared ahi were incredible. The ceviche and butter lettuce salad were not our fave, but not terrible either. Then we got the Mahi Mahi (just one to share because we were getting full from all the tapas). It was SO good, we had to get one more even though we were entirely STUFFED! No dessert this time, maybe on our next visit because there will definitely be one for this awesome restaurant.
A bit pricey– definitely a special occasion spot. Our server was nice but used the same generic adjectives for everything, which really doesn’t describe a dish. Certainly no reason to complain; he wasn’t a bad server, just not a great one. There are many others that might wow us on future occasions.

The service was excellent, but food was average. We ordered the ceviche, queso fundido, and vegetable enchilada. Queso fundido was rich, but quite good. Other dishes were ok. Also ordered the ice wine for dessert, but they gave me the «full-​pour» without asking.

The food was excellent. I’m only knocking off a star because I thought it was a bit overpriced.
We started with the full portion of calamari which was $ 17 — probably the most I’ve ever paid for calamari… it was enough for 2, maybe 3 people. It was good but the best ever.
Entrees were both excellent, including the shrimp which were nicely grilled atop some interesting polenta and a few sauces and some broccoli. Husband had the veggie enchiladas which were also great, topped with Israeli couscous and some good sauces.
Service was good.

I’m super upset. This place is struggling to keep repeating customers. Food quality went down. Their service sucks. We found a hair in our soup bowl at the bottom, told the server and he never did anything about it. Not even an apology and just took our bowl away, saying «oh that’s not good». Uhh, what? He was also very slow and didn’t bothering checking in. Our glasses were empty and did not get the warm fuzzy feeling that you should get in a fine dining restaurant.
No plans on coming back here!

Excellent cocktails, quality ingredients, good for groups. Upscale latin american grub. Good mojitos!!!
Slower service, but that was okay, so we could enjoy each other’s company more.
Also desserts we not the best, but the main course and drinks made up for it.
Will definitely go again!

I love tapas so I was super excited when my friend told me she had made reservations here. We decided to share a few tapas and split an entrée. Heres the rundown.
Bacon-​Wrapped Jalapeños stffued with chorizo and cream cheese — Thought these were ok. I just found the amount of cheese and chorizo to be too much.
Chips & Guacamole — This is made table-​side and costs $ 18. I find this OUTRAGEOUS. $ 18 for an avocado! My friend REALLY wanted it so we got it. It was good, but NOT worth $ 18!
Ceviche del Día — On the day we went, it was scallops. This dish was inedible! The scallops were doused in a sweet, syrupy sauce. We actually had to send this back because we simply could not eat it.
We split the prime rib entrée — It was ok. Idk how «Latin American» it was. It just tasted like any old steak you can get at an American restaurant.
Dessert — Banana buñuelos (mini donut holes stuffed with banana) — This was also just ehhh. They served it with some awfully tangy sorbet which was very off-​putting. I wouldnt order this!
Sangria is great, service is spot-​on, ambiance and décor are wonderful. Too bad the menu isnt on par. I wouldn’t go back here.

Good food, fast service, fresh ingredients, great selection of happy hour drinks which are well mixed. Not an over pour, good balance and proper tasting. I recommend the grapefruit mojito.
Atmosphere is good for groups as well as intimate enough to hold a conversation. Sidewalk seating is available and there is ample seating at the bar or at high tops in the bar area.
Good place to meet after work or for a night out.

I love good Mexican food ! Fresh upscale Mexican food! Great place for a few happy hour drinks and food !
The grilled corn was delicious ! It has a jalapeño glaze that makes it spicy and delicious !
If you want a fun experience with friends please order the group plate of guacamole! Someone comes to your table with all of the ingredients and customizes your guacamole to your liking !!
Love the location it’s close to work and very large ! So you never feel like there are to many people !
Amazing service. They are fast and extremely polite !

I am going to side with some of the other Elite’s on this one. Prices are ridiculous with respect to portion and quality. Three of us tried Oba for a company dinner one evening, service was on par as was the menu. Appetizer prices were way too steep for what we ate. «Let’s order some chips and Guac.» Okay, so 10 mins later a guy walks over and beats some avacados in front of you, hands you a few chips, $ 18. Whatever. We ordered another dip-​themed appetizer, basically that Nacho cheese sauce put into a bowl/​oven, that was also small, nothing exciting about it, $ 12. We had some drinks from the bar and I went with a local beer I had not previously tried, which everybody enjoyed.
On to the Entrée portion. Two of us ordered the Halibut ($ 34), and other went with the flank steak ($ 26). The fish was cooked to perfection and seasoned nicely, but it was a good thing I did some damage on the appetizers, because this is one of those places where portion size is not emphasized by the entrée alone. If you are hungry and do not order an appetizer, expect to hit up Micky-D’s golden arches sometime on the drive home. Overall, a fair experience, nothing to amazing or too dull. It’s possible I’ll be back, haven’t decided. Cheers!

I got excited to try this place as soon as I saw someone making guacamole table side. Unfortunately, that is where the excitement ended.
Upon seating we (myself & 3 coworkers) ordered margaritas. When brought out, one ended up being the wrong flavor. The waitress said we could have the wrong one on the house and she would get the correct one. Not wanting to be difficult my friend said, «No big deal, I’ll drink this one on the house. You don’t have to get me another.» Then we ordered appetizers. The guacamole mentioned above was $ 18! You read that right, $ 18. So, we opted for the plain $ 8 guac with some salsa. We also wanted to place our meal order because we had been there for a while at this point. However, our waitress told us she had already taken too many orders at other tables and that we couldn’t place ours yet. Ok? Whatever.
In the meantime, we got our guac, sans the salsa. We were completely finished with it when our waitress finally came back and when I told her about the salsa she stated, «Oh, you wanted salsa too? I’m gonna have to charge you $ 5 extra for that.» Forget it, can we just order now?
One of us got a salad and we all laughed when it came out because of its size. It was 4 lettuce leaves, 4 chickpeas, and 2 oranges. That’s it. $ 9. My friend was frustrated but was able to laugh it off. I ordered fish tacos and while they tasted fine, there were bones in my fish. And to me, that’s just not ok. We also had to request silverware from a different waiter because we were never brought any.
We received the check, paid, and were about to leave when we realized my friend was charged for the «free» margarita. When we questioned the waitress she stated, «Well, you said it was fine and you drank it so I charged you for it.» My friend replies, «I didn’t want 2 margaritas and I didn’t want to be difficult so I kept it because you said it was free» Waitress reply, «Oh, just take it out of my tip.» You have got to be kidding me! Did she really just say that?!
Sorry for the lengthy review but this place was SO BAD I wanted you to hear our full experience. The four of us will never be here again. Worst food experience in Portland yet.