[Portland, OR] Beast

Had an enjoyable brunch at Beast, chef Naomi Pomeroy’s restaurant in NE Portland. Beast is a tiny restaurant, one small room with two communal tables and a kitchen area in one corner. You can see the chefs assembling each round of courses on the counter of the front kitchen. For both brunch and dinner, there is a fixed price menu with set times for seatings, and the restaurant is reservation only. This was nice as you don’t have to wait in line. Brunch is apparently kind of a big deal in Portland.

Coffee was served and refilled regularly, with brown and white sugar cubes and cream. They also have a wine pairing available for $18 extra. I was thinking about doing that but in the end figured 10am was a little early for a wine pairing.


Rhubarb Rose Clafoutis
whipped crème fraîche
maple-glazed house bacon

This was kind of like a sweet soufflé. There were chunks of rhubarb on the bottom, which were a little sour to complement the fluffy soufflé and cream topping. The single piece of bacon was excellent and was encrusted with sweet crunchy glaze.


Coriander Seared Bigeye Tuna
smoked aïoli, oil cured olives
spring greens, radish & chive sauce verte

Kind of odd course in a brunch I think, but this was delicious. Nice chimichurri-like green sauce and aioli along with the seared, mostly raw tuna.


Beast Hash
braised Lan Roc Farms pork cheeks
carrots, turnips, oyster mushrooms,
turnip greens, fennel, asparagus, confit potatoes
poached duck egg & dijon hollandaise

Hash was quite good. Pretty dish and nicely composed, the vegetables were all diced into uniform little pieces. Came with toast. Pork cheeks were a little sweet and chewy. Duck egg was perfectly poached and runny. Light lemony hollandaise.


Petit Fours
A little piece of a very good moist carrot cake, a cube of huckleberry pâte de fruit, and a chocolate truffle.


$35 before drinks. Service is included. No sales tax in Oregon.

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I signed up Bookbub, so I get regular notifications on discounted ebooks. Pomeroy’s ebook Taste and Technique is on sale now for $3. I got curious and downloaded it. The food seems to be French influenced. Enjoying the book and found this post.

The brunch looks good, the portions didn’t seem big, was it enough?

I thought it was more than enough for brunch - the soufflé and hash in particular were fairly substantial. To be fair though I usually don’t eat breakfast so it was kind of an early lunch for me. Would definitely recommend checking it out if you happen to be in Portland.

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