Bistro 153

Well this time when we came here the music was loud.  But like always good food, drink and service.  Love coming here even if it is loud at times.

Bistro 153 has the MOST AMAZING Spinach and Artichoke dip I have ever tasted! Plus they have a great event line up and happy hour deals on various dates throughout the week. I just happened to stop in here the other day but I will certainly be back to check out their Karaoke night as well as their Prime Rib special on Friday evenings!

First off, don't follow the Yelp Map and address. Bistro 153 is actually on the other side of this light industrial area, off of SW 154th Terrace.

While I'm only able to give them three stars at this point in time, I'm glad that they are here. The Cafe that was here before was definitely only 1star. It only got business because it was the only walkable place to eat for the local Nike Employees. (Nike ended up putting their own small cafe in for this reason.)

Let me state that the service was excellent here. My only real complaint, and not even that, is that the Happy Hour food was pretty mediocre. On the other hand, it was also a pretty dang good price. With drinks and four HH menu items, $25 for two is not a bad price.

We had the fried pickles, the hummus, the polish dog, and tater tots.

I was rather disappointed in the fried pickles, they weren't bad. But they're pickle spears dipped in tempura that just left me craving more. I had visions of pickle chips dipped in a slightly spicy batter, like what I see in the South all the time (but can't seem to find in Portland.) But the Dill Dip they served with the pickles was excellent.

Everything else was good, but mediocre. The Polish Sausage was the exact same sausage you can find anywhere, in fact it might have even been a Costco one. The tater tots.... were tater tots. They needed salt. The hummus plate was pita, hummus, cucumber, olives and tomatoes. Nothing fancy, but edible.

That all being said, there are several items on the dinner menu that I have the expectation of jumping my review to four stars. But I think my biggest disappointment is that I feel this place is less Bistro and more local Tavern. As such it hits the mark, as a Bistro I feel it falls a bit short.

On the other hand, they have solid food and decent drinks. They're within walking distance of a large population of people who will be hungry at lunch, and they have the longest happy hour hours I've ever seen.