Brix Tavern - Tualatin, Oregon

Obviously, I don’t just eat at fine dining places. Could you imagine if I only ate at tasting menus every single night? What kind of pretentious idiot would I have to be? While I do have a sophisticated palate (natch), I enjoy hanging out in the occasional bar, eating up burgers and fries and sipping on sweet sweet old fashioneds. Bourbon and I are friends.

To that end, we visited Brix Tavern in Tualatin. The front door looks rather foreboding, with a big black door that looks like you’re about to enter some kind of prison system. But once inside, it was spacious and bright and decorated in what I’d call “industrial chic”. You can see the kitchen area to the right as you enter, along with a lovely seating area with green couches that I’m sure gets used during their busier days.

I’d arrived about fifteen minutes early for my reservation, but they still sat my party immediately. I’d come prepared to wait a bit, so that was a nice surprise. They tucked us into one far corner of the room, between two other parties just finishing up their meals. For the size of the space, they actually have the tables tucked together closer than I would have liked. But I’m a germaphobe, so maybe that’s just me that even noticed.

Our waters were filled promptly, and we went about looking at the menu to decide what grub to have for the evening. And here’s where the veneer slightly began to peel away, because I don’t know if they were short staffed or what, but it took a solid 10 or 15 minutes before anyone came to our table for drink orders or appetizers.

I’m a really understanding customer. And I know, I know, every Karen and boomer and insufferable asshole you hear screaming in a restaurant just thinks they’re being reasonable. But I really am. I’ve worked in the industry. I’ve waited tables. I’ve worked kitchens and mops and cleaned dishes. I’ve dealt with the screaming maw of a woman that didn’t get her exactly correct order sent to her table within ten seconds.

So, with all that being said, I can tell you that Brix has some work to do in organizing their wait staff. The place wasn’t nearly full, or super busy. It felt like maybe they had some new people on staff this night and nobody really knew what their role was, or maybe it was just an evening where everyone was tired and feeling off and Bob didn’t know that Steve wasn’t covering the table in the corner. I totally understand that. Eventually our drinks were ordered, and they were delivered within just a few minutes.

If that initial delay had been all, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed. But then it took another twenty or so minutes before anyone took our food order. It sounds pedantic, but it definitely felt like a theme that was rolling on in the dining room. A lot of tables had the hapless, looking around, slightly confused look from diners that weren’t quite sure why it was taking so long.

I ordered the fried chicken, and my companions ordered the prime rib, a burger, and the mac and cheese. We also ordered the calamari as an appetizer, but it didn’t actually get delivered and at the end of the night they were nice enough to remove it from our bill.

Barring all the—admittedly small, but compounding—service issues, how was the food?

It was…. okay. My fried chicken breast was crispy. The exact kind of crispy you definitely want to see in any kind of fried chicken. Amazing! It’s actually hard to get that correct sometimes, so I was pleasantly surprised. But it was lacking in flavor. As far as I could tell, there were no spices at all in the batter, or if there were, they were being skimped on considerably. The vegetables were perfectly cooked, which is no easy task, but again were lacking in any seasoning and at the very least needed a dose of salt.

The mashed potatoes were creamy and they tasted fine, but if they were supposed to be garlic mashed potatoes, I didn’t taste garlic at all. And I love me some mashed potatoes. At Thanksgiving, I use up a ten pound bag of potatoes JUST for the mashed potatoes. But these here. Meh. They were alright. They could have benefited from some salt, some butter, and certainly more garlic.

My companions had similar complaints—the burger was overcooked a fair bit, with a fair bit of char on the outside. I love my char and so I tried a bite of the burger, and it was sort of like biting into a bit of coal for the first few seconds.

The prime rib also needed salt and probably isn’t being slow roasted with any real herbs or rubs—or at least, none that I could detect while stealing from my friend’s plate. I really thought I was coming down with covid with how mild everything tasted, but we went for ice cream right after and everything there tasted perfectly fine. So, whew.

The highlight at our table, surprisingly, was the mac and cheese. Holy fuck. I mean, I know it’s a dish that’s hard to get wrong, but they managed to get it pretty right. The noodles weren’t all mushy like happens at a lot of other bars. They weren’t quite al dente, but that’s not a deal breaker so long as the noodles can hold up to the abuse. The cheese sauce was wonderfully light, but full of flavor, and they obviously seasoned it well.

Overall, it was a fine meal. Not great, not terrible. Fine. And that’s normally totally okay. But they’re not charging fine prices. Our meal cost a little bit north of $120 after tip. In these years of corporate greed—cough, excuse me, I mean inflation—it’s hard to justify spending over a hundred dollars on a single meal if it’s just… fine.

Would I come back? Yeah! I’d try it again. Like I said, I understand some places have off nights. Things go wrong. New staff don’t quite get trained. All sorts of insanity can ensue within the walls of a restaurant. But would I recommend it to someone, right now, as it is? Nope. I’d need to have a better experience before I could do that. Unfortunately, Brix Tavern in Tualatin is a place that I wouldn’t currently recommend.

We’ll come back someday and maybe the experience will be a better one.

The Portland Critic Verdict

Cost: A bit high for what it is—essentially, bar food. Expect to spend about $30ish per person, and that’s assuming you don’t have a date that drinks like a fish.

Taste: 6/10 thumbs up. There were clear misses here: lack of seasoning, lack of flavor, overcooking. I don’t think it would take much for these issues to be remedied, however.

Staff: 7/10 thumbs up. The staff, when they were at the table, were lovely and kind and patient with my party. But the delays in ordering and general confusion make it hard to rate much higher than a 7.

Ease: 9/10 thumbs up. The parking lot is large and attached directly to the restaurant. There’s no need for street parking or parking meters or what have you.

If you want to visit Brix just to see if I’m completely full of shit—you can find them here:

Brix Tavern - Tualatin
8187 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Rd
Portland, OR 97062

https://brixtavern.com/brix-tualatin/