#9 Le Bistro Montage

Le Bistro Montage is one of those places that if it wasn't recommended so much, you would probably never give it a shot.  It's located right under a bridge in NE industrial.  We've only gone for brunch, but I could see how it'd be a little sketchy at night.  Location aside, the brunch was pretty good.  From the reviews I've read, lunch and dinner seem like their star attractions.  1/2 price wine Monday and Tuesday.  Worth checking out again for this, but I'm not in a rush.  


Moving onto the good stuff - our experience and the food.  Naturally, as seems to be the trend on this blog, my husband and I had brunch =).  See their brunch menu here.


I ordered their Biscuit Sandwich and Brent ordered the Cajun Chicken Fried Steak.  

My biscuit sandwich was really good with the right amount of spice in the country gravy and onion rings.  To top it off, I ordered a "large" glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.  The glass was pretty small despite ordering a large, but we both watched her squeeze orange after orange to make this small glass.  I might call it a large too ;).  The OJ hit the spot and was both refreshing and delicious.


Brent also enjoyed his meal.  He finished his and then worked on mine afterward.  I warned him of the necessity for leftover though so he fought the compulsion we so often get with these brunches to stuff ourselves to the max.  Why do you ask did we need leftovers?  Because Montage is known around here for the creative ways they wrap up your leftovers.  Here is what we got to hold the rest of my meal:

Awesome right?!     


Cost: Very affordable.  Average cost per plate is $6-$9.
Menu: Nice sized brunch menu.  Their dinner menu is even more impressive with a lot of unique dinner options - gumbo, catfish, frog legs, you name it.  It's like New Orleans moved to Portland!
Food:  I would rate it a 3/5.  We enjoyed our brunch, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.  I would be more interested in trying their dinner and see what I think then.  
Service:  The waiters are on their own clock.  Do not expect timely and efficient.  We didn't have any issues with them being rude or unkind.  It's just got it's own pace here.  The food came out in a reasonable amount of time and neither of us were openly frustrated with the service.  After reading multiple reviews, it looks like this 'laissez faire' attitude can tend to be more frustrating when they are very busy, but we didn't experience them during a time where we had to wait.  Until that time, I think this is a keeper and I expect we'll be back at some point for dinner.