Road Runner Cafe

My party of six arrived 10 minutes before our scheduled meeting time. We always expect to wait with that size group, but today we waited 45 minutes. The restaurant has only two tables that seat more than four people, and the host sat two people at one of those tables before we showed up, so we had a longer wait than normal. There were a couple tables that could have been pushed together to seat our group, but they chose not to do that for some reason and sat a lot of people ahead of us that came in after us. The host was new, however, his first day — he was very apologetic and friendly, so the very long wait isn’t factoring in *too much* to my negative review.
Our waitress, on the other hand, seemed easily confused and inexperienced. One example — she carried one plate at a time to our table. Not a huge deal, just odd. One of the orders came out wrong, but my friend was too polite to send it back. I’m sure it could have been easily fixed, but it wasn’t a complicated order, so I’m not sure what happened there. When it came time for the bill, one person in our party had a debit card, the rest paid in cash. When she brought the change back she had the nerve to question the amount of tip she was getting. (At least three of us gave her 20%.) She pointed out that the long wait had nothing to do with her service or the food, then gave a little eye roll as she left the table. If I’d seen that before I’d already put out my tip, then maybe she’d have had a reason to eye roll.
All that said, the food was good and the atmosphere was bright, cheery, and clean, but I won’t be back. There are too many other restaurants with better overall service. I don’t see the check box for «not good for groups,» so just a heads up if you are dining out with any more than four people.

I live down the street on Division and have been meaning to stop in this place and finally did. The service is a bit slow but friendly (Typical for Portland brunch spots). The atmosphere is like a diner in some weird small town, kinda strange (I prefer strange). The food was really good though and they have secret aardvark hot sauce so that knocked it up a star!
Overall, I have a good experience and will definitely return! No waiting in line like Screen door or some of the other trendy brunch spots. So, if you are hungry and want good food and don’t care if you are in the «hippest place in town», Road Runner is a great little spot for brunch!

Road Runner Café is one of my favorite brunch spots in SE Portland, mostly because it is under-​hyped. Nothing against Broder or Screen Door or even Pine State Biscuits, but sometimes I don’t want to wait in line that stretches out the door for my weekend brunch. I think Road Runner is the perfect balance between quality brunch and reasonably short wait times.
I typically describe their food as southern-​inspired… it’s not really Southern but has a sort of vibe to it. You can get fried okra, you can get biscuits, but you can also get pancakes or a scramble. I’m a big fan of their Cuban breakfast burrito, as much for the homemade hot sauce and avocado that tops it as the melt-​in-​your-​mouth shredded pork on the inside.
If for some reason you can’t be seated immediately, there is a waiting area where you can help yourself to coffee and read a magazine. The place is well-​staffed and make it a priority to get you seated as soon as possible.
My biggest knock on Road Runner is they have just a single unisex bathroom. During peak business (read: unlimited refills of coffee) hours, that really doesn’t cut it. I’ve waited in longer lines to use their bathroom than for a table.
All things considered, this is a great brunch spot that I will undoubtedly return to. I’m a fan.

We really wanted to like this place. I appreciate that they do local sourcing on their animal products and produce, and the décor is charming, sort of a bright fresh take on a farmhouse look. Also, the location is within walking distance for us, a huge plus. Prices seemed reasonable for a place touting quality ingredients.
The service was friendly, generous, and apologetic. Yes, there were plenty of mistakes and oversights to apologize for. We didn’t mind the slow start — it apparently got busy all of a sudden. But the service lagged during the entire meal, including delays on the first glasses of water, and then for water and coffee refills. I just wonder if perhaps they were a bit understaffed for a Sunday — I think our server was trying really hard and just having trouble keeping up. Or maybe inexperienced. There was barely any wait, great for a Sunday morning.
The food was unfortunately not very good. Don’t bother with the mini-​biscuits; neither texture nor flavor hit the mark, and the just-​okay jam didn’t help. I had the Greek scramble which arrived so full of the add-​ons that it actually kind of ruined it. The whole dish smelled really strongly of Kalamata olives (which I like! but there is a right amount). I picked through and left about 15 olives sitting on the plate when I was done. The egg part suffered from the overwhelming toppings, but I did manage to eat it. My husband’s Haystack Hash was recommended by the waitress and seemed tasty. He has also tried one of the burritos and liked it. I may give it a second chance and try a burrito next time.
Again, there are some positive aspects to this place. I just wish the food was better, which is of course the main point.

I was in Portland on 11÷02÷13 and noticed this place near the guesthouse where I was staying. Stopped in for breakfast and was very glad I did.
The server was very friendly and helpful. She was also prompt and responsive.
She suggested a scramble that had cheese and spiced pumpkin and it was quite good. Next time I go to that part of Portland, I would definitely be open to going to the Road Runner Café again.

My husband and I like coming here for brunch. It’s nice to support a brunch place in our neighborhood. I always get the brunch salad because the asparagus is great, the bacon is good and I feel healthy after I’m done. They also serve Cellar Door coffee which is awesome.
The owner, Tamara, is really nice and our favorite server is Emily, who is super friendly and welcoming.
One downside to Road Runner, however, is that it isn’t a fun experience at all when it’s busy and they’re short staffed servers. In fact, it’s miserable. I also hate hate hate hate hate sitting in the pit in between two tables where we can all hear each other’s conversations.
Other than that, it’s a good business I like to patronize.

I think this is my new favorite Portland brunch place! I had only moderate expectations with a 3.5 Unilocal rating, but after eating here, I can confidently say this place deserves more stars!
First off– Sunday morning with a minimal wait. We were seated almost immediately in a spacious, airy portion of the restaurant. The entire café is decorated in this sort of eclectic, yet quaint style. It was a great mix of comfortable and cool.
The menu was great with tons of options for vegheads. Almost every meaty option could be remade vegetarian/​vegan. The boyfriend and I decided to split two dishes– the Oklahoma scramble and the Biscuits with Mushroom Gravy and Asparagus. The Oklahoma was out of this world– cornmeal breaded okra? Candied carrots? Havarti?! Who thinks this stuff up? They deserve a medal. The Biscuits and Mushroom Gravy was pretty spectacular, as well– the asparagus was cooked perfectly! We opted for the buttermilk biscuit, but vegans be on the know– you can get vegan biscuits as well! The meal’s little touches really sent me over the edge– delicious jam, mini-​biscuits brought out pre-​meal, perfectly seasoned potatoes, and amazingly brewed cellar door coffee.
Look, I’m a girl in love… with Road Runner. I’m already looking forward to the next visit when I fully plan to indulge in one of their many breakfast cocktails! Happy stomachs are made here.

The Road Runner Café serves okay café breakfast fare. The menu consists of scrambles, some options from the griddle, simple egg breakfasts and the like. It’s nothing too fancy but decently good. Think diner breakfast, but definitely a step above your average greasy-​spoon diner.
I stopped in here right when they opened and got some gashouse eggs (I think they call ‘em «toad in a hole»). Two pieces of bread with circles cut in the middle and eggs fried in, served with bacon. My experience was sub-​par — the yolks were broken in both eggs, defeating the point of having the bread to sop up the yolk, and the bacon was too crispy. I wrote this off as opening week jitters and declined to review.
My recent visit was with the wife, and I went for the basic 3 egg breakfast with potatoes and toast, add bacon. She got the broccoli and roasted garlic scramble with cheddar, and fruit instead of potatoes. My eggs were scrambled hard, and again my bacon cooked to brittle crispiness. While thick cuts of bacon, they’re simply fried too hard. I wasn’t a huge fan. But I sampled the wife’s and it was actually decently tasty — with a large portion of scramble and lots of roasted garlic flavor.
My first visit didn’t leave me wanting to rush back in, nor does my second, but sometimes I really just want this simple style of breakfast food, and so maybe I’ll be back to try some other scrambles, since they have some (like jack + green chili) that sound tasty. I’ll probably avoid the bacon next time.
Props to the nice service, too. No real complaints with that.

I’m a big fan of breakfast (and if you read my reviews, you know it is because I can drink Bloody Mary’s without feeling like a lush on an early Sunday morning).
The bf and I stumbled upon this spot when looking for breakfast one day (we were living in Hawthorne then). The biggest draw was that the place didn’t have a line wrapped around the block, being that it was relatively new.
In we went and we’ve since visited many times. Each time there’s been improvements to the place both on their menu and with the overall layout and ambiance of the restaurant. I know that they’re currently planning on expanding both their kitchen and cooler areas to be able accommodate a larger menu and to allow for the addition of gluten-​free items.
Their Bloody Mary’s aren’t over the top but they’re no less enjoyable. Their biscuits are to die for (and like a fat little grub, I fill up on their freezer jams). I typically stick with eggs, potatoes and bacon (extra crispy) but I have had their Haystack Hash and I was really impressed. A great combination of simple flavors that add a twist to a traditional breakfast staple.
I’d give them 4.5 stars if I could, leaving them a half of star for room to improve (because they’re still figuring certain things out). And one more thing, when you’re there, ask to be seated in Emily’s section, she’s amazing (and a hugger which after a good meal and a few Bloody Mary’s is always welcome).

Just driving past this place many many times made Sue and I want to go here. This is another one of those places in Portland that seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. I don’t know that they don’t have lines out the door for breakfast on the weekend, but there certainly wasn’t a line when we went in for the first time on a recent Sunday morning.
Within 5 minutes of walking in the door we were seated at a two top just off the bar area. This place is not small, but it didn’t seem like they had a ton of tables. There was a room in the back, a few two tops near the bar, a few bar stools and then an area in the front that also had a few tables. The place is very bright with blonde wood dominating and white and orange as the main color scheme.
Enough description of the place. We came for the food and you probably came to this review to hear about the food. Neither one of us were super hungry so we split a plate of potatoes (plenty for 2 if you are a light eater) and we each got the Fried Egg Sandwich ($ 5.50) which consisted of a fried egg, cheddar cheese and bacon or veggie sausage and grilled to perfection. We both had the sandwich with the veggie sausage (it really didn’t have much flavor on its own and I’d go with the bacon next time around) as well as on a housemade biscuit. The biscuit came out in the shape of a heart. Everybody say it with me. Awwwwwwwwww.
Overall the sandwich was a good representation of a fried egg sandwich. The biscuit was a bit on the dry side, but had some good flavor. As I said the veggie sausage worked with the cheese and egg, but on its own it was very bland. This is why you always go for the bacon. I don’t mind eating veggie sausage on occasion, but it isn’t something I go to very often.
Service was very good. They were always around with coffee for Sue. They always had a smile on their face. Seems to be a good place to work. Or at least the employees seem happy.
Would be cool to check this place out for another meal. I believe they are at least open for lunch. Wonder what they are serving? Guess I’ll just have to get back to find out.

The Road Runner Café is the ‘new kid on the block’ in terms of places for breakfast in my hood. It took them a little while to get rollin’ and it was sketchy at first, as most new places are in those first few months, because there were some kinks to work out… but trust me when I say… the kinks are out!
I love this restaurant. Not only is the staff attentive, friendly and competent, the food is outstanding! A big plus for me is the fact that they use Aardvark hot sauce. Any place that would set Aardvark hot sauce on every table HAS to be ok… but the Roadrunner is so much more than just ‘ok’. It’s really great!
The gigantic, heart shaped biscuits are served with housemade strawberry jam. The egg dishes are light and fluffy, and are served in the most interesting flavor combos. One of them has grilled okra… and another, green chilis and sour cream. They use Gimme Lean veggie sausage, have amazing gravy and are a pleasure to visit for me. I live within walking distance of this place and am SO glad that it is in the hood! Everything is fresh and made from scratch, and the place has a real homey feel. I love it!
I read a review on here saying that they falsely advertised being wheelchair accessible and that’s rubbish! The place is totally wheelchair accessible. In fact, there were two people in the place this morning who were in wheelchairs. There is a lot of room for wheelchairs, and that front step can easily be maneuvered by a wheel chair, so I really don’t know what that person was talking about.
This place is my new neighborhood favorite. I recommend it as highly as one can recommend anything. There simply isn’t anything negative to say about it. Food’s great. Staff’s great. Go there! Try it! See what I mean! It’s fantastic! I consider it a neighborhood gold mine!

This place is NOT WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE. This makes me wonder who is in charge of designating that in a profile– the restaurant, or the first reviewer? There is a six inch step from the sidewalk to the door. The interior is lovely, and once inside, the place is accessible. But until they resolve the issue of the step in front, they should not be allowed to be considered accessible. It’s false advertising.
The food itself was decent but not great, and our server was absolutely horrible. She was very short with us, and bordered on downright rude. Really disappointing. I love the atmosphere and music play list. It could be great here. But it just didn’t hit the mark this time, from beginning to end.

The coyote will not want any part of this Roadrunner Café.
The portions may have been large but you are not going to WANT to finish eating any of the dishes they serve. The food was very bland. In our party of four for breakfast, none of us enjoyed our food or drinks. Dishes ordered breakfast burrito, corned beef hash, and biscuits and gravy. We did not bother asking for doggy boxes for the portion on our plates remaining– they can keep it. Our friend took two two sips of the bloody Mary and left the rest.
They did offer mini scones appetizers– do not bother trying these; it was a waste of good jaw muscle.
The wait staff was inattentive and was NOT knowledgeable about the menu.
We live nearby and it would have been very convenient to make this our breakfast spot, but it was a big miss.

This place was good – I found a deal for it, so I decided to check it out. So awesome. When you look at the menu, it’s underwhelming. It looks like it’s all regular and traditional breakfast food. What they don’t tell you, is that it is all AMAZING. I’m used to regular diner food, and I remember the quality of this stuff being pretty damn amazing.
Also, I’m a bit of a biscuit and gravy snob. Let me tell you – they have the best gravy I’ve ever had in Portland. I wanted to dip EVERYTHING in it. I ordered the Greed with a biscuit, and I never looked back. So good.

This is a review that I’m going to struggle with a bit, so bear with me. There’s good and bad to be had at Road Runner
We recently had breakfast at RR, which is in our ‘hood. I knew it was there, but hadn’t seen or heard anything about it, so I was a little suspect. Usually I’ll see lines outside or hear people talking about a place if it’s good. There are some good things at RR, but they still need to work some things out.
On the positive side, the restaurant has plenty of space, it’s bright and cheery inside. It’s nice to go to breakfast with the sun pouring in the windows. The service was cheerful and familiar. No snootiness from the staff here. The coffee was good and relatively plentiful.
Some of the minor things RR could improve on are the attention to detail from the servers. We asked for coffee from two servers before finally getting it after the third ask. The leftover box also took a while to get. Both of our menus were stained and torn, which I almost thought was a gimmick. And the interior is cheerful, but it lacks coherence. There’s plenty of space for more tables and the entire space seems sparse.
Where I think RR really struggled was the quality of the food. I had a scramble which was cooked just fine, but lacked flavor I kept finding myself reaching for the pepper and/​or hot sauce to beef it up a little. The potatoes were cooked and sprinkled with a spice mix, but they also lacked any real compelling flavor. We were given samples of the vegan biscuits which simply seemed like chunks of dry-​ish dough. And the non-​vegan biscuit that my wife got with her meal was in the shape of a heart and almost lifesize, it was so big. I’m not sure how good it was, but my wife loves biscuits and didn’t comment except to say that it was a little too brown for her.
Anyway, I think RR has real potential and I hope they can tighten up on some of these things. It would be really convenient to have some place we could walk to and work off some of the calories in those biscuits.

If you tried Road Runner Café during the first few months they were open, you may have been a bit disappointed by the disorganized service. I strongly suggest that you give them another try. Suitable for the carnivores, vegetarians, and vegans in your life, this is a nice little brunch spot.
Today we had a nice, quick breakfast with friendly and attentive service. The difference today was that they knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it very well. We were seated promptly, someone brought us drinks right away, they took our order as soon as we were ready, and we had our food probably within 15 minutes. And it was tasty! I am a sucker for anything with green chile on it, and I had a delicious egg scramble. Their homemade biscuits are not to be missed.
I always liked the food here, but I really feel like now I can truly recommend this place as a great neighborhood brunch spot. Check it out!

This is a nice little café and I’m definitely a fan!
I got the broccoli cheddar roasted garlic scramble and it definitely hit the spot. It came with two really nice, crusty whole wheat toasts and potatoes. The scramble was studded with huge chunks of the roasted garlic, which I really enjoyed a lot. My boyfriend got the egg sandwich with veggie sausage, and that one was really good as well. I kind of wanted to steal it from him (which is usually the case most of the time.) We also got the vegan biscuits and gravy to share. We definitely both loved the gravy, which was full of mushrooms (looked like baby portobello to me). The biscuit itself was ok. It was too heavy and dense for me, especially since I’m used to fluffy and flaky biscuits. The blackberry preserves that came with the complimentary biscuit we got was really tasty, also I wish we got more.
Service was ok. I really loved the décor though. They had a lot of old pictures and it just made the whole place a bit comforting and homey. It also gave me decorating ideas for my apartment!
Overall, if you want a filling and reasonably priced breakfast, then you’ll like Road Runner Café!

Good breakfast café in a great location in SE Portland.
I’m always on the lookout the next fantastic breakfast place, and this was one of those places that I drove past a lot and was always mesmerized by the «Breakfast Etc» signage, so it was only a matter of time before I stopped in.
The atmosphere inside I would describe as country farmhouse. The place felt unpretentious and positively un-​urban. The decoration was austere, but pleasant and I was struck by how open the layout was. There are booths, tables, and even counter stools. Even if every seat in the house was taken, the place wouldn’t feel cramped.
The service was ok. The staff all seemed friendly enough, they just seemed a little disorganized and things took a little longer than they should have. This wasn’t a problem for me as I wasn’t in a hurry, it’s more of an FYI for people who do are. They did give me a sample of a biscuit and jam while I was waiting, so again, the wait wasn’t an issue for me.
I ordered the french toast which was okay. Perhaps I should have been more creative.
All in all, it’s a good little breakfast spot in a great location. If other local options are busy, this isn’t a bad second option.

We arrived on a sunday at 11:30 with our 3 year old. No wait. Food came out shortly thereafter. Corned beef hash (not canned) with bisquit upgrade was too much bisquit but worth it. Good food yo…
Clean lines and hand crafted tables, bars make this place a cozy eatery.
Only has one bathroom of which I never got to use.

We’re really fond of Road Runner. A very quaint and simple interior with old photos strung on a line along one wall. I like the horseshoe wall.
Yes, it did take a while to us to get our orders, but that gave us time to go over stuff JP and I have to do before we hit Mexico next month.
If I had been more pious, I would have tried their healthy sides like asparagus and braised greens. But no, I went with the «Lightnin’» cakes, which came with two strips of bacon and an egg. What I liked is that the pancakes were normal sized, not the amazons that fill the entire plate like at most diners.
The best dish was the vegan biscuits and gravy. Five star gravy. Period. The seasonings — and everything else in the dish — were perfect. I could live as a vegan eating chow like this.
The owner was very nice and we had an interesting discussion about soy milk and coffee, that pure soy milk clumps up in coffee. But providing soy milk with additives that prevent clumping isn’t an appealing option. So yeah, the soy milk might clump a little in your coffee at Road Runner. But it doesn’t matter to me personally, since I take cream with my coffee.
We left on an especially good note because even though this popular restaurant had a waiting list, our server placed our check on the table with the comment, «take your time», along with yet another offer of a refill of coffee and water. Oh, double bonus points for the pint water glasses.