38 Degrees
The other day I got this comment about the newish Bend restaurant, 38 Degrees:
Linda Brown writes:
I was wondering if anyone has said anything about the new restaurant, 38 Degrees. I don’t know if you can help me but I had the worst experience there that I want people to know about it. Could you help out.
I don’t know much about the restaurant, but most reviews I’ve seen are favorable. I want to say I remember reading an article in the Bulletin about it when it opened, but I can’t find that online anywhere. At any rate, it is a Mediterranean-style fine dining restaurant located in Northwest Crossing, over on Bend’s westside. According to their website they are a "Mediterranean Bistro and Sangria Bar," open for lunch and dinner every day except Sunday.
I found this review on The Source Weekly’s dining guide (which seems to have switched URLs when I wasn’t looking). It’s a favorable review.
Also found a brief blurb on this blog about it: "Dinner at 38 Degrees – one of the best dinners I’ve ever had, anywhere."
I haven’t eaten there myself. Any locals want to submit a review? Linda Brown? I’d be happy to post your experiences here, as well as any other reviews anyone would like to submit.
Most reviews your find around here a simply smoke blown up yer arse… I had two terrible experiences at Staccato, yet they’re highly ranked. Many people have complained about Blacksmith, yet the reviews are all exemplary.
They’re written by trendy people about trendy sites. All useless I say.
I do know one of the chefs at 38 degress, and he’s only worked at places that haven’t sucked (Awbrew Glen, Scanlons) so it can’t be that awful.
But no, I haven’t been there.
My boyfriend works at a ‘nice’ place here in bend as the exec. sous chef, and just because you have a chef who has worked at ‘nice’ places doesn’t mean that they make good food. One Exec friend of ours cooks awful food, but has been in the industry for a very long time and happens to know the right people. Bend has a small group of trendy people that make nice reviews for thier trnedy friends. I cannot remember the last bad review I read in the paper. I don’t really give much stock to reviews, anyhow.
I haven’t heard of any bad experiences at 38 degrees yet, though. When I end up going I’ll let ya’ll know :]
It was awful. I’m with Linda on this one.
Overpriced, greasy, wimpy food. I’ve got photos and a review on the back burner, but as you know, I’m moving out of Bend and gave up the review gig.
Suffice to say that the experience was far from pleasant, and we stopped at Parrilla on the way home for real food.
We had an office lunch there and all of the meals were served at different times, making it very awkward for eating together (8 people). The meals themselves were good, but not very generous in portion sizes for the price paid. Not worthy of a return visit in my opinion.
TJ… agreed. I rarely read reviews that aren’t favorable, though sometimes they slip by. As far as Staccato, I’ve eaten there once for lunch, once for dinner, and the food was good though the service was iffy. I’ve only eaten at the Blacksmith once, years ago, and it was decent, but I’ve very rarely heard anything good about it in a long time. So it goes.
Of course, that why I enjoyed BrENDa’s reviews so much… she was refreshingly harsh when it was warranted!
I’m with you guys on 38 Degrees, as well. Terrible service, they tried to charge us for their sample sangria’s and gave our whole order to another table!! I agree that the food was good but the portions were small and the price’s were high. Won’t be going back.
We frequently eat at 38 Degrees. We like the casual atmosphere and the wines. We also like the food but feel you have to "know" what to get. We seldom get the entree as they are too small and quite expensive for their size. However, the tapas are wonderful, the salad generous and the lentil soup terrific. The service has been great for us. I do not recommend their desserts at all, but we are picky when we go for the additional calories. However they serve a great dessert wine with a scoop of mint sorbet which is amazing.