The Bite of Oregon

The new location is better, nicer seating is available, it's right there on the Max.

Lots of Food Trucks, many vendors. Maybe a little lite on the food side, some spots still setting up at lunch time Friday.

Feels a lot like a midway, I have to say.

Nice stage with a live band.

The location next to Moda Center is cool for using transit, it is ez to get to it!

I still wonder why more of the big names in Portland dining are not here, seems like it would be a cool way to advertise and do a community service with a worthy cause, Special Olympics Oregon.

An "A-OK" rating describes this event perfectly. It wasn't anything special, but I'd still recommend it to someone (with some time to kill and money to spend). As a disclaimer, my rating is based on how well the festival compared to my expectations. I was under the impression that there would be food options galore, offering small bites at a reasonable price (under $5 preferably). Although a few places met my expectations, I was particularly disenfranchised by the limited food options. Regardless, I was still able to find some tasty food and left the festival happy.

Highlights:
- One section of the fair was dedicated to the "Oregon's Bounty Chef's Table." This was a row of chefs cooking smaller portion plates for $5 each. Each chef represented a different "commission," offering plates that incorporated a highlighted ingredient. More concretely, this year had a potato, seafood, blueberry, beef, cherry, and dairy commission. This row is definitely the place to be if you're looking for bites and not full meals! I unfortunately only tried one dish from the potato commission. It was a baked fingerling potato poutine with cheese curds, mornay sauce, and garnished with sausage, egg, and onion. It was pretty yummy, though sadly a bit lukewarm with the cold cheese curds and egg cooling down the mornay sauce. Although I would give my dish a 3 out of 5 stars, I definitely recognize the potential of these special offerings at the Chef's Table.

- I ordered a $2 slider from Doug Fir. The burger was cooked quite well and it was nicely seasoned. I really appreciated that Doug Fir embraced the idea of having a small plate at a low price (this is the BITE of Oregon festival after all!)

- I ordered a German Bratwurst from Urban German Grill ($7) and it was well worth it. I was definitely satisfied by my $5+ purchase! The bratwurst was flavorful and had a great crunch to it. I got mines with spicy mustard and sauerkraut (highly recommended). The spicy mustard added the perfect amount of heat to the bratwurst without overpowering the flavor of the sauerkraut. Although this wasn't really a "bite," it was definitely a satisfying meal.

Low points:
- As I mentioned earlier, there weren't that many food options. For a food festival, I was expecting quite a bit more. There were a lot of weird booths that just took up valuable space for a FOOD convention, such as Lyft, Comcast, and PGE.

- There's a lot of bottled wine for sale. One section of the event was exclusively people selling bottled wine. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there's already so many festivals that highlight Oregon wines. I think this festival should focus on getting more food carts and/or restaurants to participate, given that this is a food festival in the end.

- There were a lot of places offering small plates at not so low prices. One place in particular (won't mention the name) was offering a CUP of food for $8. That's ridiculous. It was also highlighted as one of 40+ dishes for under $5...and that simply wasn't true.

- Avoid Anything's Pastable. I was really excited to try their deep fried ravioli, as I am a huge pasta fan, but it did not meet my expectations. The ravioli were super small and didn't have much filling, or taste for that matter. Grocery store ravioli is exponentially better. Really.

TLDR: Check the festival out! $6 isn't really that bad for an outing that'll take up a few hours. Even if food offerings are limited, I still think you will leave full and relatively pleased!

This year was truly a disappointment. It is promoted as "the state's premier culinary festival on the waterfront." Ugh, no. Maybe it's the only culinary festival on the waterfront?

You can get a better variety of vendors and free samples at the Portland Farmer's Market. And while I am sure there was good food and beer to be had, I didn't see any of Portland's Top 100 restaurants (Oregonian's list) represented.

It seemed that Portland's restaurants for the most part gave the festival a pass and the only highlights for me were the wonderful folks in the wine area. Winemakers are just great and interesting people and my favorite winery happened to be there offering tastes of their reserve pinot noir. The Southern Oregon tourist bureau reps were also great fun and had a lot of information.

I got in with my Bridge Pedal race bib at a reduced rate and still felt like it was primarily a waste of time.

Just got back from The Bite - got there when it opened at 11 am today when the admission fee was only $3. Not sure this food fair is worth $8 or $10 (the normal prices), but it's for charity, so there you go.

I filled up on samples from the Lara Bar tent, Cascadian Farms tent, Reser's (free bag of chips, salsa and cheese dip) and also $1 Pie Spot samples. Good for Pie Spot for keeping in the spirit of The Bite, and offering affordable samples.

As for Koi Fusion, PBJ, Garden State, Mio Sushi, Voodoo and Whiffies....offering the same ole same ole, at the same prices or even slightly higher prices: harumphf.

Gustavs: thank you for selling smaller versions of your normal fare: I love my kid-sized fondue and bread for only $4.

If you are a Portland foodie, you will not be stunned and amazed at this shindig, because none of the vendors are doing anything different than they normally do. It just seems silly to pay a $3 admission fee (or $8 or $10) for the chickpea sandwich you can get at Garden State any day of the week. And you may even be surprised at some of the low-brow fare (Burgerville and Papa Murphy's??)

Apparently there are some chef competitions and demonstrations, and you can pay $4-5 to sample little bites of their creations, but I'm suspicious of the quality of these, taking into account that they are prepared not in a commercial kitchen as usual, but in a tent.

Great wineries and wine tasting, great beer garden, clean porta-pottys...friendly bag-checkers (shoulda checked my bra, dude, I had like 3 or 4 shots of vanilla vodka in there).

Thomas Kemper $2 natural sodas, for the mixing of the afore-mentioned vodka cocktails, and I actually had a great time at The Bite of Oregon 2010!

The new 2017 Rose Quarter location is a major flop. About as much ambience as a church bingo game.

At the waterfront the wine area last year is covered by trees with grass beneath your feet. Here it is like a high school cafeteria.

Never seen so few people attend the Bite of Oregon and I have gone every year. 6pm-10pm and 80% of the tables and chairs unused. Felt sorry for the band NU Wavers. Only about 22 people in the seats in front of the stage. Would have much bigger crowd at any local dive bar.

If 2018 is here again avoid like the plaque.

I had high expectations about The Bite. So many of my co-workers and friends have told me about how great it is. They were all wrong. Every damn one of them.

The Iron Chef of Oregon seamed like a cool thing to see. We got their early and grabbed good seats only to be bored to death. There was no competition. It was the head chef and sous chef from Wong's King. They weren't battling each other... They were giving a painfully slow instructional presentation on how to make one of their dishes. I'm sure they are great chefs and I hear GREAT things about their restaurant, but they are not public speakers. I could have watched the Food Network at home and had a better time.

There were a lot of restaurants there that I had never tried or even heard of. I thought they might be giving out samples to spark my interest to come and buy their food.... I was wrong. All we got was some signage telling me how much their food costs.

I would be upset about paying the $8 entry fee if it wasn't going to a good cause, because this festival was soooooooooooooo not worth it.

The Bite of Oregon can BITE ME!

Unfortunately I was unaware of the 2 for $5 deal, we paid $20 for 2 people :( One vendor had free tea samples and another had some small cupcake sample for a fee. Then of course there are small samples you can buy of wine but this is the food festival right? Though I am glad for the wineries because my buddy loves wine. So that is my focus. That was it for samples. I even would have been willing to pay a small amount for small samples at various places, that's always fun to do, but that was not an option 99.99% of places. Without the food tastings, it didn't feel like a foodie festival at all, and there were no more food vendors than there was at the non food themed festivals. Though the options seemed decent. I did, however, enjoy Bob Blumers cooking presentation, I give that guy 5 stars! And he is the only reason why I'm even giving this festival an extra stars at all.

My understanding is that vendors paid to be there and contributed a portion of sales. It should be public information how much of proceeds go to the Special Olympics, without my even having to ask. Though when I asked I got nowhere. We're already paying $10 just to get in. Then I am paying the same or more than I would at the restaurant for a smaller portion (15 mussels, half closed, $7!).Their not waiting on us, their not washing our dishes or cleaning our tables, were not paying for the restaurant atmosphere. I mean, no matter what, they get exposure which is priceless. *****So then, why are they skimping on portions, how does that help the special olympics?*****

At benefits, people & business are suppose to give up some time and/or money, especially if listed as "sponsors." I am ALL for worthy causes, I am just wondering how much the businesses gave up versus their *profits* for this "fundraiser", or was it all on us as consumers to deliver via high costs? (pie chart please!) At the very least make it fun and offer little samples so when we do buy that $8 hot dog, it's the one we want. Give a little won't you?

P.S. Where were the elephant ears!??! Their at other festivals, I have come to expect them. Great, now I have to drive to the zoo lol.

I was looking forward to this year's festival since I enjoyed it quite a bit last year. I went on an early Saturday with a friend and noticed right away it was not very crowded. I also noticed there were not as many vendors as they were last year too. Lines were contained to a minimum so no need for a long wait. The prices were very reasonable and I tipped a lot of the times to support the special olympics.

I caved in and got some fried rice first and enjoyed the complimentary dip and bagel chips from Reser. I then had a kobe beef burger which had a lot of flavor and no sogginess present. Corn on the cob was mediocore at best but managed to finish up my appetite. I did enjoy the wine garden with quite a few sample pours as low as 50 cents. I enjoyed the sakes sampler deal with the coconut sake being my favorite as the plum sake.

I did not stay as long this time since overall the festival was simply not quite as big. The food stage didn't interest me that much either. I did bump into someone who was helping out at the festival. She said funding was short because of the economy hence the less vendors and more notable celebrity chefs. Will I attend again next year?? Probably as long as it continues to support a good cause.

Considering I worked this festival I'm going to be pretty biased -

I got in for free, win.

I can't comment on the food because the only bites I took were mushy and luke warm, then turning stone cold as I was made to appease the swarm of thirsty vampires looking for their lifeblood.

I was shocked at the amount of people who swooned over fruit, heavy syrup and bubbles when there were a ton of great wines to try.

I felt dirty and cheap with the amount of dollar bills thrown at me, its if I were doing sex parlor tricks with champagne bottles instead of pouring them.

The wine area brought some serenity with its shade, plentiful seating and close proximity to the bathrooms.

Standing for 10 hours taxes more than your legs as my sanity started to slip away much like the patron's motor skills.

With less than 30 min left of the show I set a new world record in wine tasting with 5 wineries and a case purchase.

Security tried to kick me out but with red glowing eyes and madness my teen wolf expression convinced them otherwise.

If I ever see belini's, fake ID's, VIP's, cougars with too much clevage, or people who talk more than me it will be too soon. Shit nevermind, I have to go to work tomorrow.

My review is in comparison to The Bite of Oregon, The Bite of Seattle and Taste of Honolulu. The Bite of Oregon was the best of the three.

Hawaii is my home town and therefor holds higher expectations. Seattle being extremely mysophobic leave most restaurants restricted to three options: fried, over cooked and/or vegan.

This was my second visit and I felt it did it's purpose of introducing me to new options and flavors. In my opinion, Bite and Taste Events should be attended sporadically. It does not impress if not given the time to expand and refresh.

Overall Likes:
Atmosphere and Overall Experience
Entertainment and Organization
Street Parking
Vendors

Top Vendor: PBJ's and my recommendations:
Spicy Thai (Challah bread, orange marmalade, sriracha, fresh basil, curry, PBJ's peanut butter) - Just like a Pad Thai Sandwich.
Oregonian: (Challah bread, Marion berry jam, Rogue Creamery blue cheese, Oregon hazelnut butter)
Betty: (Challah bread, Gruyere cheese, bread and butter pickles, white pepper, sea salt, PBJ's peanut butter) - and I am not a pickle fan.
Good Morning: (Challah bread French toast, blueberry jam, apple wood smoked bacon, 100% maple syrup, PBJ's peanut butter)

My only complaint would be the expensive entry fee.