Food was very "solid" and fresh . Dessert was excellent. Only wish was they need to have blue cheese olives for the Martini's. Staff knowledgeable and engaging.
Little Bird Bistro in Downtown Portland is the casual younger sibling of lauded restaurant Le Pigeon and features a menu that focuses on no rules versions of French classic dishes, with a good dollop of American influences.
The popular spinoff of Eastside Le Pigeon, the French-inspired Little Bird’s charming dinging room is decorated in soothing blue tones. It’s classy but not fussy as tables are set with brown butcher paper. Dishes are an inventive blend of classic French and American staples with a twist such as the Seared Foie Gras with Apricot Poppy Seed Chutney or the Double Brie Burger with Spiced Ketchup.
I know you all have been waiting w bated breath for the next edition of my very serious burger quest so alas, here we are at @littlebirdpdx! 🍔🍟 The meat was delicious, great flavor, not too dry or juicy although the double patty made for a logistical challenge. Brie cheese, always a win. The burger had sweet pickles which unfortunately I'm not a sweet pickle type of girl. 😝 There was also a little spice, I couldn't tell if it was part of the pickle or in a sauce but I also don't really like spicy. 😬 The bread was tasty but a wee bit soggy... Great patty:bun ratio. Fries were 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼. Another PDX burger down! 🍔😍🍔😍
After eating at Le Pigeon in Portland, I was absolutely impressed that I must check out their sister restaurant, Little Bird. Foie gras is one of my guilty pleasure. Little Bird’s version came with a plum-filled crepe and squashes. The foie gras was seared perfectly with soft and creamy center and crisp outer layer, paired with contrary hard texture from the squash that were a little undercook. Plum filling in the crepe was spicy, meaty and very delicious.I had a bite of my friend’s bone marrow with ham and cheese which was quite interesting; I believe the ham and cheese took away the distinctive fatty bone marrow flavor.Chicken fried trout was a clever and fun dish. Fish itself was tender, and meant to be eaten like a lettuce wrap; light and delicious.I was a little disappointed with the duck confit’s skin being ...
Delicious food, but no veggies as side dishes, and pricey.. We loved the food at Little Bird Bistro, but we were surprised that there were no vegetables served with our entrees; nor were hot vegetables (e.g., roasted brussels sprouts, asparagus, etc.) available as side dishes. They do offer a couple of small salads as appetizers. The food was high-priced, but not any higher than other places of this caliber, but the wines did seem much higher-priced than other fine dining restaurants we've tried in Portland. Service was very, very good, but not outstanding; same for the decor and atmosphere. We'd go back, but we'd try to do so during Portland Dining Month, when they have special menus for $29.
My new favorite spot downtown. I've been hearing about it for years, but I just got to this charmer - at last! The atmosphere is welcoming - almost old-world, with understated decor and an upstairs balcony.
My companion and I both chose the Prix Fixe menu ($25 for a choice of starters, chef's special and any dessert). She had butter lettuce served on a bed of lentils and showered with flakes of roasted lamb (odd, but delicious). I had a lovely bowl of smoky lentil soup. As our entree, the crispy-skin filet of salmon was exquisite: tender and moist, served on a mushroom tartlet.
For dessert I chose the chocolate mousse cake, which was good (but Papa Haydn's is better) and my friend had a selection of (six) delectable house-made candies.
Throughout, service was attentive and friendly - adding to an overall near-perfect experience!
Spontaneous dining, loved the space. Popped in for a snack, I loved the space and my smoked trout salad was lovely. My sweetie chose the roti and wasn't expecting it to arrive as a wrap...it was ok. I wanted to go back but it wasn't in the cards. Maybe next time.
Lovely!. Used Portland Dining month as an excuse to go here. Absolutely great. Two of us had the dining month menu, my husband had the burger, and rated it the best in town. All of us loved it.
Calm and quaint. This is what a bistro should be. Terrific, attentive and responses service. Tasty food, that was not too complicated, nor overly indulgent. Warm, inviting interior. A great experience for a calm, quaint Sunday night.
Spectacular! We can't say enough about the fanastic service, food and wine at Little Bird Bistro. The restaurant is beautiful, warm and inviting from the hostess to all servers. Classic bistro food that was superior. Ask for Lauren's section -she is very attentive :) you cannot go wrong with the marrow bones, duck breast or cassoulet!
Loved it!. Walked in with a friend on a busy Saturday night with no reservation. The staff were accommodating and found us a table with a very minimal wait - less than 10 minutes. Service was prompt and efficient and not in your face. The food from the bread and butter to the tiny macaroons served at the end was delicious. I ordered a soup to start, which was a potato leek with truffle vinegar and fried haystack onions and it was the best potato leek soup I have ever eaten. Then I had their take on duck a l'orange with creamed kale and it was very tasty, with a generous portion of grilled duck, pink in the middle how I like it. I am normally not a huge fan of kale, but I really liked how they prepared it. My friend had a ham and cheese baguette, and said it was very good also.
We sat in the bar at a very small table. We didn't have a reservation so they were accommodating.
Service was great. In fact we were studying the wine list then set it down. Out of know where I think the owner popped up to see if she could answer any questions.
Food was very good. They do like using lemon which we like. The citrus does brighten things up a bit.
The main courses are French with a definite Morrocan or Asian influence.
Their sauces have some kick to it. I'm not saying they are hot they just are not your typical French sauce.
Overall I would give this a 4 out of 5.
Fantastic Evening!. The Little Bird Bistro is just wonderful! Intimate and warm, with excellent food, wine and service. We enjoyed the bread (warm, crusty, perfect), mussels (sauce is to die for!), gnocchi (a bit rich but delicious), and the creme brulee! We will definitely be back again...this is our new favorite in Portland.
You can't go wrong with this place. Artfully-prepared inspired dishes that taste amazing in a cozy romantic atmosphere.
Tasty Little Bird. Darling small restaurant with super tasty food and coffee.
So, I finally ate lunch here! Had the burger. Good quality meat. Made med-rare unless you request otherwise. I should have asked for 'medium' cook on my burger, med-rare was too rare (lots more pink than I was expecting). Anyway. The toppings, mustard, ketchup, and lettuce mixed w/ an aioli--a bit heavy on the aioli, but not completely over-whelming. I opted to eat my burger w/ a salad instead of fries. Butter-lettuce (layered full leaf instead of chopped up) dressed w/ bleu-cheese goodness. Other menu items looked/sounded delicious. I would like to make another visit. No burger this time. It's good, but it compares to the homemade burgers I make (ground chuck from New Seasons, lightly seasoned and loosely packed into a patty, grilled on high heat). Small location, but not too crowded. I don't know what dinner is like, but make a reservation if you plan on going during the evening! Enjoy!
Great place, just dial down on the details.... I've been to this restaurant three times now. I'm from out of town, and make this restaurant a destination when I visit Portland -- it's that good. I probably don't need to get into all the details as to why it's good -- surely others have written that here.
My only suggestion to the staff and management is to dial it down on what has become a trend (sigh) in finer restaurants -- basically, reciting the list of ingredients of each special. If you are offering a glazed pork chop as a special, tell me that -- honestly, I trust that your talented chefs will prepare it in a delicious, memorable way. I don't need, nor do I want to wait for you to (sometimes, stumblingly) recite that it's served on a bed of this or that, finished with this or that reduction, etc. Make sense? It's a silly trend that's developed. Those of us that are cooks will figure it out when we get the food, or ask if we have questions; those of us that are not cooks probably can't appreciate what you're detailing to us anyway. :)
Our server last night described two specials to us, and I think it took her a full minute to get through them. In those situations, we end up politely listening, and are eager to just get on with ordering and eating.
Awesome oysters oh so tasty.... Awesome
oysters oh so tasty
Duck breast & salmon yum
But the green beans WOWZA
Good wine & desert. Had to have rhubarb tatin again yum
Service great
Have to say worth the $$$!
Excellent!. I had the grilled trout and it was excellent. Wonderful flavors and appropriately crisp skin. Loved the clam and bacon stew. I tried a bit of the pork shoulder and that was really good as well... that may be what I get next time!
What a lovely restaurant! My husband & I went for a late lunch on a recent visit to Portland. The menu was innovative, the food was fresh & tasty, & the service was great. The wine list was also full of great choices from several regions we have visited in France. Finally, the decor was charming - kind of quirky, but very inviting & romantic.
The menu has a nice variety of choices. The meal was excellent. The cheese plate was disappointing and included 2 hard & very dry selections (cow & sheep) along with a boring goat cheese. It could easily be done better. The service is good but needs a dash of polishing. Seating not that comfortable.
Keeping Favorite Status. To Pigeon or Little Bird....such tough decisions. We like the seating better at Little Bird in the dining room but enjoy the counter to watch the chefs at Pigeon. But Little Bird has delighted us twice and we will be back.
Charlotte Blackheart
+4.5
One of the best meals ever!. I had the Parisian Gnocchi followed by a chocolate pot de creme. I nearly wept it was such a beautiful experience.
Excellent nw/french bistro. Le Pigeon with elbow room. More formal but still fun and you can get in.
Love, love, love it!. Much better then le Pigeon.... Love the bartender. had dinner at the "low bar" Service was unbelievable. Food was out of this world. Forgot one of our sides-no charge and put it in a to go box!
Fantastic!. I tried Little Bird for my birthday and was really impressed with the expansive menu. I tried beef tongue for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Loved this place!. What a wonderful little place! The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable. My boyfriend and I visiting Portland from Vancouver B.C. had a hard time finding a resturant open late, and willing to serve after 9PM.
Little Bird was friendly even with our late request, and being visitors of Portland, we left very pleased AND full! If I'm ever in Portland again, I'll be sure to drop in.
Late night bite. Had a great meal until it was cut short by the bartender dropping the check on us... It wasn't even midnight yet (their advertised closing time). I didn't bother asking about dessert because I no longer felt welcome. I'll have to go back at an earlier hour as to not interfere with bartender bed-time.
LE Pigeon burger and menu items are fabulous. What can I say about the burger except it is absolutely awesome!!!! I've never had such a fabulous burger well except for In'nOut but that doesn't even compare to this burger! So moist and tender and juicy and not to mention very mouthwatering! The soups are also fabulous and rightly so. The salads and everything else on the menu are outstanding. The service is top notch. If you want great food please go here and try them out cause you will not be disappointed at all.
-----30 Mar, 2011-----
What a fantastic place for food!!!! Great soups great salads and great food all the way around! Recommend this place highly!!! It's even better than Le Pigeon!!!
Great food done well. Have been here 3 times, twice for dinner and once for lunch. Prices are very reasonable for the quality of the food. Food is well executed and the wine list provides some lesser known, but great selections. The upstairs provides a great venue for a larger group of friends. Look forward to going back for a fourth time!
One of Portland's best restaurants. Been for lunch and dinner, and the food does not disappoint. These guys have a skill for blending ingredients into something greater than the components they started with. I had wonderful food and great service. Try the mussels if they are on the menu. They are to die for. Lunch was a pleasant surprise: reasonably priced for really great food. And don't forget to try the Creme brûlée for dessert. I can't say enough..
Nice Find. Thoroughly enjoyed our meal at LIttle Bird. And they even had whipped salt cod on the menu - not easy to find. Delicious. And thank goodness we didn't have to deal with the annoying Pearl. Bravo.
Awesome burger. Wonderful frog legs. Unfortunately the poor frogs were farm raised instead of free range, but nobody's perfect!
Fantastic food, beautiful decor, arrogant waitress.
Different Decor, but Same Good Food!. Little Bird is the second restaurant of Gabe Rucker. I have always enjoyed Le Pigeon and frequently take out of town visitors their as our "epitome" of Porltand grub. Little Bird is a great little space, which is still a little larger than Le Pigeon, that has a more lively vibe.
The food, which is where it really counts, is the good Rucker menu we all love. French in style and Northwest in ingredients, with a burger on the end, the food is really well executed and enjoyable for all.
We started with a charcuterie plate (mostly because they had run out of the Marrow Bones, d'oh!) and it was good. The three salumi's were from Olympic Provisions and the rillette was house made. We continued with the frisee and butter salads, which were very different but refreshing. The frisee salad has a slab of pork belly and a 6-minute egg with a partially runny yolk, which is my kind of salad. Finally, we progressed to the mussels and burger, which were absolutely amazing. I wish I had known how tasty that Le Pigeon burger was as I would have camped outside his restaurant to eat at least one a week.
In the end, we really enjoyed our meal and the service was good, so we will be returning as soon as possible. (my wife is about ready to give birth to our daughter, so it may be just take out for a while....I wonder if Little Bird delivers?)
Definitely going back. My burger club met here for lunch and was impressed. The meat was superb and cooked just med-rare. It is an expensive burger, but worth it.
The decor is very comfortable, nothing like Le Pigeon. The staff are smart, attentive, and helpful. Reading the rest of the menu, I'm definitely going back for happy hour, dinner, and then another lunch!
For dinner in Portland, you can always rely on a great meal from one of the restaurants of Gabriel Rucker (2011 James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year). His second restaurant, Little Bird, is a French bistro which opened in December 2010 and became an instant hit. The menu choices are constantly evolving, but some of our favorites have been the Onion Soup Gratinée, Navarin of Lamb, Roasted Beet Tart, Cassoulet, and the ‘Le Pigeon’ burger (not as limited here). Desserts at the restaurants are from Lauren Fortgang, formerly of Paley’s Place, and include items such as Butterscotch Pot de Crème and a Sorbet and Ice Cream Sampler at Little Bird.
Seven hours later and I am still euphoric from this meal…besides I honestly feel my sexiest devouring a messy, finger-licking cheeseburger (especially when grasping it in my cocktail ring adorned fingers while dressed in something very career-woman-esque/Chanel as I hap
...our last experience there was outstanding.
I have been to Le Pigeon and loved it, so I wanted to try Little Bird to see how the two compared. I also had my eye on the burger that has been written up a ton. I know, I’m a sucker for a good burger. It’s sometimes the one thing that stops me from ordering other things off the menu. That can be good or bad. I have discovered some good burgers out there for sure, but probably missed out on something else good. I don’t know what waits are like at this place. What I do know is that a great time to come is Friday around 5pm. The place was empty, which was nice for taking it all in. This place is really cute. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was a chalkboard with the specials of the night including the oysters they had. On the list was Netart oysters. These are my favorite of all oysters because they don’t taste like salt water to me, they have their own flavor. You can read here o n how we
I was definitely glad that I made the trip back to Little Bird after not being able to get in the first time. It was easy to see why it was a talk of the town restaurant on Urbanspoon. It was the perfect example of a place that didn't try to overdo things. It was just good quality ingredients cooked well. Apparently this is what real French cooking is about...who knew? (Ok, I'm sure plenty of people knew, but I was not one of them). Absolutely worth the trip if you find yourself in downtown Portland. Just be sure to call ahead if there is going to be more than one of you or you might be waiting until 9:30 for a table.
Arguably, in many people's opinions, Portland's Le Pigeon is one of the finest restaurants around. When the chef decided to open outlet # 2, 'son of Le Pigeon" he called on his culinary skill to make a downsized, casual version, " Little Bird Bistro ," across from the US Bank Tower in Portland. Featuring a wide variety of traditional bistro foods, Little Bird also delights with rarities like bone marrow. (Mrs BDB will be pleased). But my burger companion, Portland Attorney William Du Val , and I, went for the burgers, of course, tho I will (spoiler alert) be back many times to cruise thru the rest of the menu ! Described on the menu only as "Le Pigeon Burger", the meat (I don't know the supplier, asked, got a vague answer), comes perched between and betwixt a fantastic roll from Ken's (I almost didn't get to the burger, the table bread (Grand Central) was so nummy, and has a light cheese, bacon, pickled onion, greens and house sauce. Your choice of fries or greens
Little Bird Bistro is the cute name to the second restaurant of Gabriel Rucker, who opened the popular Le Pigeon (get it?). Little Bird, opened in late 2010, is Rucker’s casual, more accessible French bistro in downtown. While in Portland, I got together with a college friend Ann and wanted to try Little Bird because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get last-minute reservations to Le Pigeon. It was easy to get reservations at Little Bird just a week before I arrived in town. The vibe: A fun, eclectic place with a brightly lit dining room with mirrors that carries a Parisian bistro vibe. The rustic animal paintings of owls and other birds gave it a Pacific Northwest feel. The menu: An interesting menu with a lot of French
I wish I could give 4.9 stars. The restaurant is really cute and some of my dishes were amazing. The duck breast was tender, juicy and full of flavor. I ordered multiples of their Old Fashioned (not all restaurants do drinks right). But their tuna tartare was diced tuna and could have used more tuna, even though jt was tasty. Their french fries, you get a ton, was just alright. The mini macarons was a nice touch.
We wanted an atmosphere and food that were more on the fine dinning side but still a bit casual and this place did not disappoint! The food was amazing! The lamb and duck were some of the best I have ever had and paired with really unique and create flavors. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable! The atmosphere was beautiful and had a lot of small unique home touches! If you are looking to eat at a certain time just make sure to make a reservation.
Unique and delightful dishes. Everything on the menu.was spectacular right down to the bread. The old fashioned cocktails are some of the best I have had in town. We ate the duck, tuna tartare, and fries. My favorite of the three was the tartare.
Oh man! What a place - all of the dishes were excellent and so was the server- Jaye. The best and most unique was the deep fried trout. The bone marrow was satisfying, oysters fresh, so were the liver mousse and the doughnut. Excellent place will come again if I can.
Excellent experience in downtown Portland.
Cute, solidly designed French bistro styled restaurant in heart of downtown.
We were really only here for drinks and a few snacks.
Fried trout wraps were inventive. Spring peas are right in season. But gnocchi with beef Bourguignon was real winner
Having spent a month in France earlier in 2019, I can appreciate what they are trying to do.
Our server was nice, but a little green, for prices commanded.
Otherwise, super experience. Well done!!!
5 star dining defined. Amazing dishes reflect the preparation and execution of the best restaurants. Staff working together to make everything perfect for all diners. Dishes like the King Salmon and duck breast reflect the best of now and seasonal. Plus a great setting.
One of the best meals we had in Portland! Awesome staff and service coupled with great tasting plates! Below is the chicken liver pate and a selection of local oysters. Both were excellent.
Superb spot from James Beard award winning chef Gabriel Rucker that always delivers! Great for a casual or business lunch with French inspired cuisine that is hard to top in PDX. Creative beverage list is a plus. The only inconsistency? While never subpar, service can be either some if the very best the city has to offer or merely good on any given day. Try Rucker’s iconic Le Pigeon and latest opening Canard to complete the trifecta of what very well could be the best food PDX has to offer. A-/A
The staff here was absolutely stunning in how they handled service. I have to give absolutely kudos for them handling the group I was in, there were four of us total with a very wide range of varying dietary restrictions/allergies. That's even before how gorgeous the presentation of the food was.
This restaurant and the overall experience I had in it with my friends truly made my trip to PDX.
Well it was my second time at Little Bird after three years but it was the first time that we did the Happy Hour and its awesome, the amazing brie burger was only 7 dlls and it’s the same double burger as the regular menu, the fries were perfectly crunchy, the sup of the day was deli and the smoked salmon pasta was pretty decent for me because I’m not a big fan of dill, I strongly believe that it kills all the other flavors.
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