Penguin Pub & Eatery

Who closes a bar at 9:45pm??? Aaaand turn away customers because of it?
They doooooooo!!
Ugh, seriously... I was so looking forward to hangin out and having some of their yummy fish n chips but was sooo disappointed that Amber wasn't there and to top it off, the bartender that was working last night hollered out that they were closing in half hour?? WTF...
I usually like this place because some of their food is secretly awesome and it is just over the Sellwood bridge to my house. But after tonight  it made me pretty mad. So my Husband and I hurried to finish our beers and had to find another dive bar close by.
Lame.

It's funny reading the other reviews because it seems like everyone has fun here but nobody wants to give a good rating... what is up with that? Yeah, it's a dive... so what? Penguin does it right! Five stars!

This is a crowded neighborhood dive that doesn't serve PBR. They have a top-secret food menu and usually have off-beat shows on the TVs like cops or Nascar crashes.

But, wait, what did I say? There's no PBR? Whatever shall you drink? Try one of the other drafts, you'll probably like something they have. This is not really a hipster dive, which is one thing I enjoy because so many dives on the east side cater to that crowd.

The women's restroom has one of the stalls chained off. I think that's funny, and I am also very curious as to why. WHY? There's never a long wait to relieve yourself, anyway, so don't you worry 'bout that.

Karaoke is going on Friday and Saturday nights and it gets busy. Lots of fun to be had by all. And, yes, you must crane your neck to see your song lyrics for karaoke. I personally like that the karaoke monitor is up high because then you don't have the singers staring down or hiding behind a screen - it definitely encourages you to be more outgoing.

The tacos and fries are yum. Order them. And some jello shots.

Penguin Pub hosted a viewing party for Portland Men's Roller Derby last night and prior to arriving, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I live in Milwaukie, easily pass by this place easily a dozen times/week and hadn't heard feedback from anyone who'd pass through here before.

I was pleasantly surprised!  They have a great beer list and a pretty good menu.  I'd expected our party to easily overwhelm the bartender, but she was a champ!  Between pulling all of the short order duties, she was hustling to make sure the 20 of us had refills, extra fries and the tv remote super fast.  Tipping 50% was no mistake.

I'm eager to go back for a happy hour and check out the rest of their menu.