Ava Gene's, Portland OR

Good service great food. Small portions. Hard to get reservations at a normal time. Very hard on a weekend. Worth the wait though. One of my favorites.

This place is fantastic in every respect. Great place to go on a date!

I made a reservation for my girlfriend and I a week in advance and the only time available on a Thursday was at 8: 45pm. I knew they were very popular so this didn’t surprise me and I was happy to just to get a spot at all. My girlfriend and I arrived on time for our reservation and ordered drinks not long after being seated. Friendly service and great ambiance. We were surprised at exactly 9pm when we were informed that the kitchen would be closing soon and that we needed to put in our food orders, so we quickly ordered a few things. Felt let down that we were rushed and unsure why an 8: 45 reservation time was offered if this was the policy. I also double checked later and confirmed that they also offer reservations for 9pm, so that’s pretty frustrating.

Our server disappeared for about 30 minutes only to return to apologize our food was taking a while and that they would be leaving, so we’d have a different server. We eventually interacted with a couple of different food runners but couldn’t tell if we had a new server or who they may be. We were also seated next to the server station and could overhear the waitstaff complaining about the tips they used to make working next door and at previous jobs. The food was great but nothing remarkable and frankly not worth the hassle. We also couldn’t help but notice that our original server was still there waiting on other tables, just not us. We were given a free desert for the long wait time. Was caught off guard when we received the check there was an automatic 20% gratuity for a table of two. To be clear, I’m happy to tip at least 20% (usually more) however, I felt uneasy that the staff was not upfront about this policy. It felt like adding insult to injury after an already disappointing experience. I was really looking forward to coming here regularly and was very let down by the service and their way of doing things.

Recommend going with lots of people, because the menu is large and you’ll want to try everything. Food was great but really want to shout out the service. Hostess was friendly & helpful. Our server was personable, had great dish descriptions, and took good care of us even with a very crowded dining room. Can’t wait to go back!

I am so glad they are back open! The food and service were as good as we remembered.

I write this review tearfully and fearfully. Tearfully that it’s been so long since I’ve eaten here (damn you pandemic), and fearfully that it’ll never open again. Come back to me you beautiful angel you