slow bar

well worth the wait. been wanting to visit here for a while. it's in a weird place and i expected to drink alone, but it was packed by 11 on a saturday. well, service was great, beer selection was good, food was superb. their burger is in the run for the best of portland. very good.

i had mixed feelings about the slow bar. the environment is grungy and a little loud, which is meh but okay for the sake of good food. service was friendly and quick.

i had the winter slowburger, which was really good. meat cooked properly and some great flavor! the fries were so-so, really needed some seasoning or salt. the most disappointing part of the meal was the drink selection--although they had a full cocktail menu, mixing did not seem to be high on their priority list. of the three drinks we ordered, only one of them was something i'd drink again. the other two were poorly mixed and not well balanced at all. it's entirely possible that their beer selection is better...i don't drink beer, so it's impossible to say.

overall, not a bad dining experience, but definitely the worst i've had in portland so far (here on business). kind of disappointing.

touted by many as both divey and sexy (but not dirty, well, maybe “dirty,” but not grimy), slow bar offers a sophisticated yet affordable array of dinner items, the most notable being the slow burger, which consists of a 1/2lb. of painted hills natural beef, gruyere, onion rings, butter lettuce and pickle relish. i’ve heard good things, but i wasn’t there for the burger. i was there for the bloody.

order the white limes. trust me.

good music on the jukebox. food is affordable, fresh, and tasty. friendly server.

i don't go here for the burgers like many other people who gave a review. ive had the burger once and it was good but a little much for me. great for people that want a crazy big burger. i go here for the chicken curry salad sandwich and the fondue if i am going to stay and hang out awhile. those two menu items are always fresh tasting and perfect. the service has always been good even when things get really busy. they have always done right by me.

if you want something you have to work for it. if you want to enjoy something you have to slow down and savor it.

my meal: the fall slowburger.
the review : do yourself a favor, try it. if i had to pick a burger place in portland this would be the pinnacle of joints.

the taplist is good, the food is great, the staff is enjoyable. the cooks deserve a handshake and a thank you.

if you are lookin for a change of pace, slow down and enjoy a mighty fine burger.

good hipsterburgers. slow bar is the kind of place where you can sit at the counter and overhear portland hipsters comparing high-end burger joints where they've eaten, and discussing the killer-ness of various hot sauces. lots of inked body parts on the staff and customers, some quirky facial hairstyles on the guys, but the portland hipster style seems to be ironic hats like beanies instead of thick-rimmed glasses like other towns' hipsters wear. slow bar is in a neighbourhood where there are help organizations for the street people, and it struck me that many of today's slumming-it hipsters are going to be the homeless people of the future, after too many years of working at dead-end loading dock jobs and drinking too much cheap beer.

the restaurant's signature slowburger is big -- half a pound of coarsely ground but lean beef (no gristle in mine). it was cooked perfectly, a little char on the outside, not too tough on the inside, good soft bun. what was outstanding were the two onion rings that came on top of the burger. they were freshly made, not frozen, about an inch thick, good batter coating, nice sweet onions (walla wallas?) they should make a sandwich out of those onion rings, they're that good. better than the fries that come with the burger, which were skin-on and overcooked for my tastes.

slow bar is a bar, too, with 10 beers on tap, mostly microbrews. you know it's a hipster bar when you see pabst blue ribbon being served on draught. excellent selection of canned beer as well, including hamm's. that's the brand of cheap beer that your thinking hipster drinks when he wants to say "i'm so cool that i drink crappy old beer that my grandfather drank when he didn't have any other choice, but i'm too hip to drink pbr like all those other trend-following hipsters." dude -- it still shows that you're a hipster. support your local brewer by drinking something from the area, not freaking hamm's from milwaukee.

worst service ever. so we were a party of five and we all sat at the bar, the music was loud and we couldn't really hear each other, but we expected the volume. we were waiting for a booth so we could see and hear each other and when one opened, one of us moved over to the booth so we could claim it, but the waitress came over and said 'you don't need to swarm the booth!' strike one.

we all ordered our drinks and food. the drinks seemed to be a bit over poured and a bit strong, but the zerpatrick was pretty good. it was a pomegranate martini with peppercorn tequila, and i would have loved to have a second, but it was so hard to get the waitresses attention and when she does finally see me trying to get her attention and she kind of waves me off and doesn't return for another 10 minutes. we all tried to order a second round of drinks and she only got two of our orders and brought the rest of us water when we were trying to order sodas and alcohol. one person in our group tried to order a
white russian but the waitress walked away came back with the two drinks that were ordered and then it took another ten to bring back the wr. i asked for ketchup for my fries twice and by the time i got it, they were cold. strike two.

when we finally got the bill after trying to catch someone’s attention, we looked at the receipt and someone else’s drinks had been added to our ticket. when i told the woman that we didn't order the drinks on the ticket, she huffed and said 'fine', taking our credit cards, got them back nearly 10 mins later. strike three.

needless to say, the tip was very small. we will never go back there.

i pretty much loved everything about slow bar.

beast of a burger. more often than not, my experiences with portlands most revered burgers, (and there have been plenty of them), is that they rarely deliver on the hype that precedes them. places like foster burger, eastburn, violetta and matchbox lounge left me wondering if there was something i had missed. perhaps i was expecting too much? then, when i had almost given up, low and behold, i wander out of slow bar drunk on the knowledge that a hamburger can still indeed be; a mighty fine thing.
first, while i am often left scoffing at cost vs. value in these situations, for the first time in a coons age, i felt like my money was well spent. it was obvious from the outset that everything in front of me was quality with a capital q. handmade (1/2 pound) patty made with local, grass fed beef, gruyere cheese, grand central bun, crisp cool butter lettuce and of course; their house made onion rings. they even chill their ketchup!? honestly, who does that? awesome. the fries (i believe) are of the frozen variety, but still; are pretty damn good. anyhow, i take a bite of this thing and viola! there it was; happy lights began flashing in the burger graveyard of my mind. once there was a view afforded, i took a peek into the makings of this beast and could see the herbs and seasoning in there that made it be more than just a bite of meat. the flavor of the gruyere worked in with these others faultlessly. grand centrals dense, but delicate pillar of strength never came close to faltering and the onion rings brought their own crunchy texture and hint of sweetness to the table. fries were also excellent. all this for $9.75. (which is cheaper than every place i have listed above). on the other side of the table my wife was gushing over her summer salad; a medley of grilled chicken, bacon chunks, cucumber, mixed baby greens, spiced nuts, rogue blue cheese and basil showered in a raspberry vinaigrette. she said it was probably one of the best salads she's had since we moved to portland 2 years ago.
i still love my club 21 burger (especially for the price) but this is a horse of a different color. one that we will gladly hop back up onto sometime very soon.
grade: a (the gentleman bartending left us wanting for nothing)

yes please.. the spring slowburger ftw. that thing was freaking delicious. and stinky cheese fries? see title.
the place is dark and stylish and friendly and those three things don't often occur together.
it was an awesome, relaxed eating experience.

sad burger. pros: good service, good beer, clean bathrooms (!)

cons: atmosphere, burger. i read the other reviews here, and so i decided to get the burger. so disappointing. ordered it rare, it came out medium well. fries were barely crispy. this is probably a great burger if you haven't had the burger at yakuza, le pigeon, gruner, foster burger, etc. but if you're used to these other great pdx burgers, you might be a little disappointed.

$9.75 for a burger with fries is affordable, but way better burgers aren't far off (le pigeon and yakuza are $12, gruner is $11, foster burger is $13 with fries, $8 without).

on visit one, i had the seasonal special, the "fall slowburger". it was devastating. i think i shed a tear of joy. it was a thoughtfully conceived autumnal burger with edam cheese, procuittio, a cheeky little slaw, and roasted red pepper relish. poetically seasoned and served perfectly medium rare, i swear i swooned after the first bite. on visit two i got the signature slowburger. less devastating, but still pretty earth shaking. it shares many of it's seasonal bro's attributes, but with gyuyere and butter lettuce. bottom line; it's a delicious burger topped with a stupidly huge onion ring. fries ; pretty dope. but i prefer the salad (local greens with a oh-my-

the regular slow burger has got to be one of my favorite burgers in portland, but i can never wait until winter rolls around to eat the delicious pancetta and blue cheese that top the winter burger!