Red Star Restaurant Review

As I've mentioned before, M and I are very fond of Hotel Monaco (formerly 5th ave Suites) in Portland. We stay there whenever we go because it's such a nice place, and also such a good value for quality. We've also enjoyed at least two good meals in the hotel restaurant. Therefore, on our last trip, we looked forward to staying the night and enjoying dinner in the Red Star Restaurant. The hotel is still very nice, however, the meal we had left quite a bit to be desired.

Before booking for dinner, I checked the menu and found that they did have one vegetarian entree. We arrived at the appointed time, were seated at a very nice table near the window, and placed our orders. I asked for beet salad to begin and the leek and morel tart as my main course. I was very much looking forward to both courses since beets and morels are two of my favorites. However, it was not to be. The waitress returned and said that the mushroom tart was "out, or actually sort of, um, unavailable" I'm not quite sure what was actually going on with that, but it was clear that I wasn't getting a tart.

I asked if there were any other vegetarian options, and while she tried to be helpful, there was not much she could suggest. I ordered one of the green salads as my main course (how exciting is that?!) because there wasn't really any choice. When the mains arrived, it took me a while to realize that she'd brought the wrong salad. Instead of greens with goat cheese, I got greens with hazelnuts. I hate, hate, hate hazelnuts. I was not feeling up to sending it back, so I just pushed the nuts to the side and ate my greens. At one point I saw that a nut was buried among a forkful of salad, but I decided just to soldier on. This turned out be a bad choice because the "nut" turned out to be a clod of dirt. I was spitting mud for several minutes.

The meal finished with a dessert billed as something like "three flavors of berry" which included a cherry sidecar so viciously alcoholic that not even M could stand it. All in all, it was NOT a good experience. As we were leaving the hotel, one of the clerks was chatting with us about our stay. M told him the truth that we love the hotel but did not like the restaurant. He explained that the chef was new and having trouble getting the hang of things. "There have been meetings!" he said severely. We sincerely hope the meetings help and Red Star gets back on its feet.