Restaurant Review: Noble Rot Gives Noble Effort in Portland

Noble Rot has a clever name. It also has a decent and fairly priced wine list. It does not however have a dinner menu that matches the wine list. And if you are headed there on a Saturday night, go early or there may not be any dinner to speak of.

Noble Rot is located a block off the main thoroughfare of East Burnside in Portland, Oregon. Named after the sometimes-friendly fungus, botrytis, Noble Rot is a wine bar first, and a restaurant second. And being in Portland, you can be assured of finding any number of Oregon wines on their somewhat limited wine list.

Let me explain that, for Noble Rot has many different varietals listed, but usually only two or three examples of each. But Noble Rot is not huge, so the list seems to fit the maybe sixty seats in the dimly lit restaurant. The website lists 450 wines by the glass or bottle, but frankly that seems to be a rather high estimate. When I asked for the wine list, I had to ask twice, so I never bothered to ask about a reserve list.

Now, it is mentioned on the wine list that things change, such as vintages and availabilities, so be prepared to have a second choice. That can also be said for ordering food items. Noble Rot is closed on Sundays, so I was told, and they do not prep more than the bare essentials for Saturday dinner service. One night, I felt badly for the gentleman at the door, as he had to basically tell me they were out of everything but the cheese and meat plates.

Luckily for me, I never mind filling up on cheese, meat, and bread. Oh, wait, they are out of bread. Miraculously, some bread ended up on my table, after being told by the host and the server they were out. Maybe they were out of the four-dollar bread, but had plenty of the cheap stuff.

But of course, I went back, because what kind of reviewer would I be if I didn't? This time, it was Friday and they had food. Which was a good and a bad thing. The polenta with Chanterelles was more like a soup with all of the olive jus the kitchen added. The pork was, well, pork, nothing spectacular, but moist. The onion tart, which was explained as a "favorite" was bland and confusing, as to why anyone would order it twice.