Patanegra

I have been here a few times but I always forget how good it is. They aren’t touting themselves a regional and seasonal but it definitley did seem to be seasonal foods. Good paella. The manchego is overpriced. The flan was a great dessert. The pork stew amazing.

Good overall but not stellar like so many in PDX.
Grilled shrimp a tad overcooked. Lovely café seating on the street and very attentive waitstaff. We didnt try the Paella but the waiter did warn us to allow 30 minutes. I was impressed they offer 5 different kinds, this clearly is their signature dish.

We had the hardest working waiter we’ve ever seen, but it still affected our experience at this restaurant. He was the only server in the entire place on a busy Friday night.
To be brief, the atmosphere is very crowded, I had to hunch over the table the entire time just so that I could hear my husband. Other patrons had to bump into our table just to get to theirs.
Things we ordered were forgotten, it took three tries to even get bread. The tapas we ordered were okay, but expensive enough that you felt you should have received something truly wonderful.
This wasn’t a bad restaurant, but it left you feeling pretty «meh» after all the money you spent. If given the choice, I’d say wait it out at Toro Bravo if you want a fantastic tapas meal.

The BEST Paella in the Northwest! Prices are not high, atmosphere is nice, didn’t feel rushed, music was low enough to talk with friends, wine list was very good. Out of this world food and great service. This is my new best place. We were on a 90 minute wait list at the competition, but drove quickly over to Patanegra and there was no waiting, no loud music and better food!!!

Wow, my first one star review, I had hoped this day would not come for my palate’s sake.
We had the marinera paella:
1) Apparently it takes 30 minutes to cook — something they should write on the menu and not tell you until you order and get all excited for it.
2) The rice did not taste cooked correctly, and it was not even that flavorful.
3) The two scallops in the dish were way overcooked.
4) I was very excited about the quantity of the mussels and how large they were — but the excitement ended there. They were the mushiest mussels I have ever eaten — not the least bit chewy at all. It reminded me of chewed up pâté. I nearly spit it out on my plate but I did not want to offend the table next to me.
5) The overall dish had a disgusting fishy taste. Granted, it was a seafood paella and often times a fishy taste can be good, but this was just bad. I really question the quality of the seafood used here.
Overall this was a BAD dish. VERY BAD.
My boyfriend had a sausage tapa appetizer that he thought was okay, but I did not try it since I don’t eat meat. I almost gave the review two stars because I did not try other dishes, but changed back to one star because the paella was THAT bad.
The server was okay. He came by intermittently. He told me the paella was great though, so he loses all credibility with me there. This place was also pretty pricey. I can’t believe we had to pay $ 40 for this dish. I have had way better paella for $ 20 and it was the same size.
Bottom line, if you decide to try this place out — do NOT order the marinera paella.

I’ve been here a few times and am always pleased with the food. The gazpacho tradiocionale and vegetarian paella are my favorites!

Since I lived in Spain for 5 years I know what real Spanish food is like. However there are a few places that claim to have tapas, but they are just Spanish influence cuisine.
If you are after the original, the most authentic Spanish cuisine in the NW then Pata Negra is the ONLY choice. My favourite dishes are: Tortilla Española, Paella, Zarzuela, Chipirones rellenos, Championed con caracoles.
The selection of wine is excellent (favourite is Rioja) and the red sangria is really yummy. However in autumn they also have the white sangria which is truly amazing.
Ricardo Segura is one of the best chefs in PDX.

A friend and I were there on a slight late weekend night around 9ish so there was no line at all and only about half of the place was fulled. The menu seems to have a extensive wine/​drink list but we were mostly there to try their foods.
The place had really nice ambiance. The wait staff was friendly and prompt.
The two of us shared a Paella Marinera. And you have to have 2 people to order and share paella; and still at $ 20/​person. We were intrigued by the wide selection of seafoods that Marinera offered: mussels, clams, scallops, white fish, prawns, squid, saffron and valencian rice.
The dish was served with good presentation — in a pan decorated with different seafoods, clams and mussels tossed in a circle, white fish as the center piece… The flavor however was just A-​OK… I was wow’ed by it and I guess I was expecting more a bit for the price and based on other reviews.
We only had one tapas — chicken croquettes. and was just A-​ok as well… I’ve had better tapas elsewhere in portland.

I had high expectations for Patenegra, especially because their décor and ambiance screams delicious.
I found the food to be rather bland and on the smaller portion side for tapa’s. I ordered one thing after the other hoping that I had just ordered the wrong thing, but I kept finding myself a bit disappointed. They have the right theme and idea going, but I think a few changes in their menu could really spice up their potential.

I agree with the most of the other reviews who seem to find the food bland and unimpressive. It’s pricy too but not unexpected for this neighborhood.
The service was good but because this place does not get much foot traffic, they’re going to have to do a better of job of standing out by improving the food to make it worthwhile. This entire restaurant was almost completely empty.
Also, maybe I was just «han-​gry» and I know they’re trying to be authentic, but I found it a bit pretentious to attempt to decipher the menu written almost entirely in Spanish with no break down of what the dishes are. I butchered the names of the dishes we ordered and the waiter had to correct me and explain what the dishes were made with. Ugh. My husband speaks Portuguese and he had no luck either.
Our meal consisted of a few tasty eggplant and roasted pepper dishes with some stale bread. We ordered the soup of the day which was completely inedible and sat untouched till we left. After sampling a few overpriced and expensive dishes– we gave up on a date night out and grabbed a movie and a few slices of sizzle pie pizza on the way home-​Yum!

I was there with my boyfriend for dinner the other night for the Groupon. We were pretty excited to go try out new restaurant. I called and made a reservation at 8pm, we were there 15min early, they finally seated us at 8:35pm… It was packed instead and we didn’t leave because of the Groupon we had.
We ordered a couple tapas and drinks. The waiter forgot my drink, then messed up the food order by ordering something that he was recommending but we said «no» to (since I don’t eat beef, and he recommended a steak plate). We tried explaining to the waiter but for some reason he couldn’t hear us that well, so we gave up and my boyfriend ate it.
The food was good, but not enough for me to say that it was amazing… Maybe because they took forever to come… By the time the food started coming, our excitement level died down. We finally started eating at 9:15pm, our plates were slowly coming out, there was one plate that took way too long and we just asked them to pack it to-​go since we ordered dessert already… (We thought he mis-​ordered this plate to the steak plate and we were sure if it was really coming until he cleaned up our silver wear, but still bringing to dishes out…)
I think it could be better… The food could’ve been a 4-​stars. But. the wait, the service, and more wait… and it’s kind of spendy… I’m not sure if I’m a fan.
It could’ve been better… yah.

We went here for lunch a couple of years ago and I really liked it. But recently, the food and the experience was disappointing. There are better tapas places in Portland especially for prices. Super spendy.
And this was not a groupon deal of any kind.

I bought the Groupon for Patanegra and I made reservations because they said it was required. I hadn’t heard of this local restaurant before but when I saw their tapas menu I was sold!
It was a very romantic restaurant with dim lighting. The restaurant itself was very cool: rustic and industrial at the same time. The ceiling was exposed beams with track lighting.
The kitchen was visible from the dining area. The place was completely packed. Luckily we had reservations. The restaurant was also a bit loud and not as intimate as I would have liked.
The only complaint I have about Patanegra was that the service was insanely SLOW. We were seated and it took about 20 minutes before a waiter came and even gave us water or took a drink order. Yes the place was packed but seriously, they need to hire at least one more waiter if it’s going to be that busy on a Thursday night. I shudder to think how slow the service would be on a Friday night!
I had one glass of a nice red wine. It was just their house Rioja but I enjoyed it. (I would have ordered a second glass had the waiter ever made it to our table!)
We ordered five tapas to share. The first was Tortilla Espanola: «Spain’s Most Famous Tapa.» It’s basically a cold quiche with eggs and potatoes. It was just okay.
Next was the Vieiras a la Parilla: grilled scallops wrapped in serrano ham on some delicious rice. This was my second favorite dish of the night. The scallops were absolutely perfect: they were soft and melted in my mouth. The ham was smokey and salty.
Morcilla: spanish morcilla sausage with sweet oloroso and caramelized onions. It was a delightful surprise. The sausage was black-​a tad disconcerting but we split it and both loved it. The sausage was soft and salty and the sweet onions were a lovely combination.
The calamari was crunchy and flavorful. Calamares Fritos: deep fried calamari rings with alioli. The alioli was garlicky and the lemon complimented the whole dish.
And the star of the night: The Empanadas! Empanada del Día: turn-​over of the day with spicy sofrito. The Empanada of the day was filled with Mexican cheese, ham, beans and onions. It was amazing. The salsa was spicy and sweet at the same time. The combination was a winner and I immediately said «I wish we had four more of these.» The empanada was crunchy and melted in my mouth. If I go back to Patanegra I would order these again!
Flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce for dessert. It had nuts in it and a crunchy topping (not sure what it was-​white chocolate maybe?). It was dense and the flavor was very mild.
I enjoyed the food and would like to go back but the slow service makes me pause. I wasn’t in a hurry to eat and leave, but I do like having a waiter that is a little more attentive.

3 Stars solid
I was excited to try out another Spanish Tapas place in the Portland neighborhood. Unfortunately the food fare did not come to sweep me off my feet.
My boyfriend and buddies came here one night to dine and try out their food. Don’t get me wrong, it was decent, but not up to par compared to other places I’ve had.
Let me explain in detail:
You would think that Paella would be the golden dish in a Spanish tapas environment, but unfortunately they did not cook the paella quite well. I know that Paella’s are to have that krispy rice stuck to the paella pan, we ordered their house paella and apparently the rice was just a bit mushy instead of crispy as it should. It was a bit of a bummer.
I did fall in love with a couple of their hot dishes — the duck (pato) and their ham & cheese croquettes. I must say their manchego cheese platter (cold dish) was also yummy as well.
They share their restroom with another restaurant nearby, which is off in a hallway of the building that the restaurants share.
Service was great. Our server was very helpful with giving us choices since we couldn’t decide what kind of wine to drink or dishes to choose from. Very helpful and took care of our table very well.
Although we have phenomenal service, the food was meh (mediocre) and I felt that I would’ve gotten better tapas for a better price at Toro Bravo. Overall, I probably won’t be coming back any time soon.

Where to begin… I guess we’ll start with the Groupon sign at the front door. Do you really need to remind your guests what is and is not allowed for Groupon users? I would think that most people who purchase Groupons pay attention to the fine print. I think it’s a bit pretentious to have a sign at the door saying that Groupon people aren’t allowed purchase paella, «as previously stated» or however the sign said it. I would like to remind Patanegra that nowhere on the Groupon does it say you cannot buy paella. Nowhere.
My second, and rather significant, irritation with this place stems from their wine list. They have a rather large selection of bottles from which you can choose, but that’s just the point — it’s all bottles. I was really looking forward to going to this place so I could have a nice glass of Spanish wine, but to my supreme disappointment they only have one, let me repeat that, one red wine by the glass. And it wasn’t even good. I wouldn’t even call it mediocre. It was crap. I’ve had better wine from the Grocery Outlet store. Hell, I’ve had wine out of a box that could run laps around the wine I was served tonight. It had absolutely no nose and was practically devoid of any flavor on the palate.
I won’t spend much time on the service we received. I will say that our server had some vulture-​like qualities as he was constantly lingering around. It must be awfully important to sweep in there and quickly bus the table that was just emptied as the other 6 tables in your section might get sat soon. The people hadn’t even pushed their chairs in and he was leaning on the bar staring in their direction, waiting for them to leave.
The food was ok. We got a lentil and squid salad, peppers stuffed with fish and mashed tators, some sort of toasted bread with pork on it, patatas bravas and prawns in a garlic and wine sauce. I can’t say we’d come back again just for the food however. We don’t go to spendy places very often as we aren’t rollin in dough. But while we were paying our bill we compared this experience to our recent experience at Higgins. At Higgins we went all out. We had pre-​dinner cocktails, an appetizer, wine with dinner, two entrees, two glasses of dessert wine and split a dessert — all for about $ 120. At Patanegra we had two glasses of crappy wine and five tapas and our bill came to $ 64. We had a Groupon, thankfully, but next time we’ll just go to Higgins when we want a nice dinner as the food there was phenomenal and the service was exquisite.
I’m not one to pick at a place just because I can, but I’m just thinking that maybe there’s a reason we were there from 6 — 7pm on a Friday night and there were approximately 2.5 other tables in the place for the entire time we were there. We definitely have a sour taste in our mouths from this place and will not be returning. Both my husband and I felt unappreciated for patronizing this establishment.

Was here a few weeks ago for a Groupon fixing. It was as I remembered it. We sat at the bar and the plates kept coming and coming; along with the food. Even if my stomach burst, I would still consuming everything to the last drop.
The bartender gave us a taste of their sangria and it was very good. We were amazed that he could converse and work, while juggling so many tasks at the same time — all with a smile.

The food was great. The service not so much. It didn’t help that a large party came in after us and possibly because we had a Groupon. If you have time to wait the food is worth it. It took 30 minutes from when we finished to when we got our bill. Way too long.
If you do go try the venison.

We went to Patanegra last Friday night to celebrate my wife’s birthday. We had a Groupon to use – not because I’m a cheapskate (ha ha ha), but to stretch our budget and allow us to eat *more* – and also had made a reservation. Good thing too, because the place was packed. They had a sign by the front door indicating the Groupon was for wine and tapas only, *no paella*. So, they were used to accepting us Groupon-​ies.
The place was loud, buzzing, and tables are located quite close to one another. Definitely not a place for a quiet, romantic dinner! Our waiter was very friendly and thought our selected items were a good choice. We had: empanadas del dia (zucchini, another veggie, and manchego), salt cod (bacalao) fritters, grilled housemade chorizo on a bed of lentils, beet and chevre salad, and dates wrapped in cured ham (jamon). The dates, which came last, were the most phenomenal by far. The salad was good as well. The other items were solid but not outstanding. We had a good meal and were happy we had the Groupon to use as the menu is definitely pricey.
We’d go back again and maybe try the paella ($ 20/​head, min. 2 patrons), although it seems to get lukewarm reviews here on Unilocal

I may not be an expert on Spanish cuisine but I know flavor and the majority of food we tried had very little.
I like the plate concept– allows you to try more items than in other restaurants. Our server was nice enough to tell us to stick with small plates which was perfect. Later he got our order wrong– bringing a dish we didn’t order and forgetting one we did. He seemed spacey or overwhelmed which was odd as the place was ¾ empty on a Saturday night.
We had the local peppers (pedrons), the jamon with manchego cheese on crostini, the calamari with lentils, the tortilla espanola, the grilled shrimp, and the tuna on saffron rice. The tuna dish was completely unremarkable served in a nicoise style but with no flavor and a bit mushy. Beyond that, I didn’t taste anything I couldn’t do myself which is not why I dine out.
There is an extensive wine list which is great but no mention of wine by the glass so you have to rely on your server and unless you ask won’t know what it costs until the bill comes.
Overall, this really was a disappointing experience.

I wasn’t sure where to start with this review, so I’m just going to list the items that added up to an overwhelmingly bad birthday dinner experience (dining company excluded of course!)
Empty restaurant at 7:00 p.m.
Extensive Spanish wine list — seemed authentic and cool at first, but quickly became obvious it was just overwhelming and pretentious
Received the tapas on our table before the bottle of wine we ordered
Once wine was on table, we stared at it for 10 minutes before the server opened it!
Only one server in the place who displayed very strange and uncomfortable sentiments and body language
About half of the 8 – 9 items ordered were good, the other half were bland or way too greasy
I’m doubtful this place will be around for too long based on the empty restaurant, strange servers, and lackluster food. Skip this place and stick with some of the other far superior tapas restaurants in town.