Jonathan’s

We used to visit Jonathan’s before they changed from a high end seafood restaurant to serving pub food. Our most recent visit was characterized by terrible service, and worse food that was highly over priced. When I contacted the manager about it, he offered to mail me a $ 10 coupon to entice me back… this was after we spent almost $ 200 for 7 people of what was essentially bad bar food! Never going back.

I highly recommend the Huckleberry Vodka, white cran and lime cocktail (I think it has the name Jonathan in the name of the cocktail). Anyway — it’s amazing! My friends and I had a great time here last weekend. Great service by Jake & JR! they seemed to have this perfect timing the entire night! haha
All kidding aside, you can’t have a bad time here. :]
The only reason I rated 4 stars is because I didn’t eat the food.

Horrible.
Why is this place listed as being seafood/​cajun when the name on the menu says ‘Johnathans Publick House’? The name suggests English fare, not seafood and definitely not cajun.
The menu looked like some cartoon drawing. Nothing about it evoked classiness and only reinforced the fear I held that this food would be on par with every other crappy bar. I was right.
My friend and I ordered the poutine. It arrived quickly. So fast, in fact, that our drinks didn’t have a chance to make it out to the table first. The poutine was just ok – it had chicken gravy and shredded cheddar so what it really was was cheesy gravy fries. Where were the cheese curds?
We then ordered the bacon wrapped scallops that are described as being wrapped in bacon, sauteed, and then sprinkled with truffle oil. I guess we got this (minus the truffle oil), but the size was RIDICULOUS for $ 10. We got 5 nickle sized OVER COOKED scallops wrapped in fatty bacon. If I didn’t know better I would suggest that they had been deep fried! So Bad.
I was all hopped and ready to tell the waitress what I thought of the dish. Problem is, she never asked. Neither did the waiter who was also serving us. These two dim-​wits walked up to our table only to drop off food and pick up plates, never once asking us how the food was. And no, they were NOT busy. I don’t know what these two were doing as we were the only ones in the back seating area!
When I went to use the bathroom I had to turn in disgust at the smell. Jeebus.
When I asked for the check, the waitress dropped it on the table without saying a word. Needless to say I left a big fat zero in the tip section.
When we walked out we saw no less than 4 staff members standing around the bar. They were sure to shout, «Have a nice evening ladies». We did, but not because of you!

Over a year and a half ago, I went with some co-​workers, but this time, I returned alone to satisfy a craving that had built up for five days.
I happened to be in town late last month and I remembered Chuck B. mentioning that Jonathan’s has poutine. While it’s usually made with fries, brown gravy, and cheese curds, Jonathan’s departs from such tradition. The poutine here ($ 8.99) is on the appetizer menu. It’s probably is at least a pound of french fries, creamy chicken-​based gravy, and shredded cheddar cheese. Panda gluttony must commence.
The server looked at me before placing the poutine on the table and hoped I «wasn’t on a diet.» To her defense, I was wearing a jacket over my dress shirt that probably made me look about 50 pounds heavier in the gut. But nope, the panda is a skinny dude that needs more layers of fat to combat winter. The poutine stood no chance.
Great job on the fries; crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Also gotta give high praise for the gravy; nice consistency and not too salty.
Usually, one can’t go wrong with melted shredded cheese. Here, in all likelihood, it was a packaged, processed shredded cheese after noticing some of that cheese «melting» a bit weird. Or turning a weird orange. But it’s panda logic to just keep stuffing my face regardless. I’d love it if they just shredded a real block of shredded cheese if they had to. Or just cough up more money to get local cheese curds from Tillamook.
I received great service. There were probably only a couple other guys in the pub at the time; I was there just a few minutes after 11 a.m. I thought the place was clean and inviting. Staff dressed professionally.
Hope to return to try more items in the future!

On our way back to Portland from the country fair we decided to stop in Salem for some dinner. After a search on a smart phone, we found Jonathan’s and decided it looked like a good spot for some food.
Upon entering on a Saturday night, the place was relatively quite. There was a high school reunion happening on the second (?) floor which seemed to be pretty noisy and there were a few other couples inside having dinner. Thought there might be more of a crowd, but it seems Salem has many dinner options. This was really only the second time I’ve been to our state’s capital and probably the first that I’ve been to the downtown area.
We were immediately seated and shortly realized we were in happy hour. $ 3.50 for pints of beer and I had one of those. It was time for a beer after the heat of the country fair. Tasted great. Along with that we both started out with a cup of clam chowder which we added to our meal for an extra $ 1.99. The chowder was good. My date (who is from Vermont and knows her clam chowder) thought it was a bit too salty. I didn’t get that at all. Salty, but not too salty. Definitely loaded with clams which was nice.
For the main course she was going to have the Lobster Ravioli ($ 18.99) but chose to get fish. I ended up getting the ravioli and was not unhappy about that decision. Sometimes these dishes have a cream sauce that is way too heavy, but that was not the case here. I thought there should have been a few more ravioli’s for the price, but I understand the steep price was for the lobster.
Our server was very good. Good enough that my date used the comment card to leave some nice words about him. All in all a very nice dining experience.

The bad: The place was very busy on a Wednesday night, and there was little waiting room. Also, I gained about eleventeen pounds from the meal, because I could NOT stop eating it.
I ordered a reuben sandwich. It was my first ever, so I’m not certain whether I love reubens now, or just Jonathan’s reubens. The fries were some of the best I’d ever had. I noticed a lot of people in suits when I walked in, but I was dressed pretty casually, and I still received excellent, friendly, polite and efficient service.
I am trying to lose weight for my wedding, but afterward… I will be back. On rare occasions, so I don’t ruin my figure.