Kim Brater

Review of Kenny and Zuke's Deli Bar

Food is good but be prepared for long waits and pr...

Food is good but be prepared for long waits and pretty poor service. Recently went for lunch on a day that the restaurant should have planned to have more staff. Appeared they were short staffed and a line. We were seated fairly quickly outside and then waited for more than 25 minutes for the server to even bring water after having gone in to the hostess twice to ask when we'd be able to order. People seated before us were ordering. It was a huge cluster. We finally ordered and it began to rain, so we saw empty tables inside and asked to move. They promptly cleaned up one and sat us inside as our food was coming out (finally). Food was good, but jacked up pricing. The burger my son ordered wound up costing more than $17. And is was not Waygu. Every item you add like cheese, bacon, etc. is all extra. For a $12 burger there was more than $5 cost for extras. Then for my order I asked to swap toast for a bialy which I knew was an additional cost. Server asked if I wanted cream cheese, and I said yes. She didn't say it was an extra $2.50 for a small little amount of cream cheese. I could buy a tub of cream cheese at the store for $2.50. The nickel and diming at Kenny & Zuke's was ridiculous, so much so I won't go back. To the server's credit, when I asked about the upcharge for cream cheese and that it was ridiculously priced AND she never told me of the extra cost, she wound up removing the entire cost of my lunch ($20). So, at least she knew that the situation was pretty bad. My LEO was solid. Bialy was good, with the super-spendy side of cream cheese. My son ate his burger and it was good - not the best burger he's had and likely not worth the $17 price tag. Most Portland brew pubs don't charge that much for burgers and their's are better and come with fries. This $17 burger only had tasteless chips. So beware. Long wait times for good food, but with all the great restaurants in Portland, why settle for crappy service and the ridiculous upcharging?