The Mark Restaurant

Ladies night on Thursday at 6pm-8pm and your tab is cut in half 50%. That is mainly why my friends and I go there. I don't see myself going any other time. The atmosphere is good, food is delicious and drinks are ok. It's a fun happy hour spot. If I had to pay full price I probably wouldn't go. The place can get busy and they are slightly short staffed so it can take a while to get your tab. I can't complain when I paid for 5 dinners and drinks at $80. I'll be coming on Thursdays as long as they keep the 50% ladies night.

I found myself in Beaverton in need of breakfast with my husband. Yelp sends me here, my husband was concerned about dining in a hotel restaurant, I assure him Yelp has never led me astray.... Until now.

We show up at the hostess stand which is in the hotel lobby. There is no hostess, I peek in the restaurant, a few diners, but no waitstaff. No seat yourself sign. No one behind the hotel desk greets us. Five minutes later we are seated.

The table is sticky and smells of maple syrup, oh well. I order my standby Eggs Benedict. Hubby gets a scramble. My breakfast was unfortunate, the hollandaise sauce was runny (and did not taste great) and the English muffin under toasted, that combo lead to a very soggy, downright unpleasant Benny. Go figure, M, who had the concern about my choice, enjoyed his meal.

Maybe the chef was having an off day, I will never know since I won't be back.

I'll preface this by saying that we'll be going back to The Mark, and overall the food tasted pretty darn good.  I'll further admit my hypocrisy in giving this a 2-star review on what I recognize could have been one-off circumstances when I routinely criticize others for doing the same.  That being said, Yelp's description of two stars as "Meh, I've experienced better" is spot on, so I'm going for it.  Carrying on.....

As noted, The Mark is a restaurant in the Shiloh Inn in SW Portland/Beaverton.  Loved the atmosphere; it's old school, and reminds me of the old "nice" restaurants my grandparents would take me to growing up.  I don't mean that as a criticism at all.  It's seriously a very comforting atmosphere that they should continue to embrace.

We went there for Sunday brunch*, and the food was very tasty, and for the most part reasonably priced (more on that in a sec).  I sampled most of what the table had, which included the Country Scramble and the Shilo Skillet, and would order it all.  Portions were generous.  My complaint: I was indecisive, and the server pushed me pretty hard towards the Chicken and Waffles, the most expensive item on the reasonably-priced menu (other than Dungeness crab something) at $13.00.  The fried chicken was good, but was limited to a single, relatively small breast, and the waffle was something I could whip up at home with store bought batter.  I know not every restaurant can be Screen Door, but at Screen Door you get 3 or 4 pieces of fried chicken for the same price.  I was way underwhelmed.  

Now to the service. Again, I understand that service issues can be simply someone having a bad day.  However, it was bad enough that it really tainted the experience, so I'm bringing it up.  There were six of us for brunch, and we were a little nervous when our very nice but seemingly rushed server took our order (which included a few custom requests) without writing anything down.  Our nerves were justified, as noted when she came back shortly after the order having completely forgotten one of our orders and confusing another.  When the food came, the order that had requested both no cheese and no gravy had both cheese and gravy.  Another order was also without the requested change, but that was minor enough to let be.  The "quick fix" on the cheese and gravy of course was not, and led to the awkward picking at food slowly while we waited.  The server comped the $2 hot chocolate "for feeling bad," which almost seemed worse than her not comping anything.  Topping it off, when she dropped off the check she noted the comment card and suggested we "let corporate know they need more help."  The restaurant wasn't very crowded, and the only "more help" our server needed to make our experience 10 times better was a note pad.    

*Note that others have mentioned a "brunch buffet."  My wife's recollection of a brunch buffet is actually why we went, but there wasn't a buffet nor any indication that there has been one in some time.  It's still a good brunch spot with a good menu.