M Mother's Bistro & Bar · Portland
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The Menu

Made from scratch.
Mothered to perfection.

Slow-cooked dishes, hand-made dumplings, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits, and a different macaroni & cheese every single day — refined with classical technique by Chef Lisa Schroeder. Everything below is cooked with Pacific Northwest wild salmon, Carlton Farms pork, Cascade Natural beef, and European-style butter.

Breakfast Brunch Lunch Dinner Bar & Beverages M.O.M. & Specials

A note from Chef Lisa

"The best meals of a country aren't in its restaurants. They're found in its homes, made with love by mothers cooking for their families."

Lisa Schroeder, C.C.P. — Executive Chef & Owner

Tuesday — Saturday

Breakfast

The right way to start a morning in downtown Portland — fluffy, buttery, golden, served hot.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Tall, fluffy, golden-edged. Pour the maple syrup with both hands — they earn it.

Belgian Waffles

Crisp on the outside, tender in the pocket. Best with European-style butter and a slow second cup of coffee.

Crunchy Challah French Toast

Thick-cut challah, soaked in custard, finished with a crunchy crust that holds up to syrup, fruit, and the lot of it.

Buttermilk Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

Melt-in-your-mouth biscuits under a generous ladle of peppered, pork-rich gravy. The breakfast that built the South.

Migas

Jack cheese, onions, peppers, corn tortilla strips, chipotle sour cream, housemade salsa, green onions, and roasted potatoes. A Mother's signature.

Omelet of the Day

Ask your server what's filling it today — the kitchen builds it around what's freshest and most in season.

Wednesday — Sunday

Brunch

A leisurely weekend meal in our window-wrapped dining room. Voted best brunch in Portland by more than one publication.

Best Brunch — Portland

Stuffed Frittata

A baked Italian-style omelet, layered and stuffed with what the kitchen is loving this week. Cut at the table.

Lox Platter

Silky cured salmon with the classic accompaniments — capers, red onion, tomato, cream cheese, and a fresh-baked bagel.

Wild Salmon Hash

Pacific Northwest wild salmon over crispy potatoes. The components come together rich and creamy, with the salmon wrapped right in.

Migas

Our breakfast signature, on the brunch menu too — jack cheese, peppers, chipotle sour cream, tortilla strips, salsa.

Wednesday — Sunday

Lunch

A midday pick-me-up of comfort classics and new favorites — soups, salads, and sandwiches built with fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Mom's Meatloaf Sandwich

A thick slab of yesterday's pot-roast-style meatloaf piled between rustic bread. The way a mother would have packed it.

Grilled Wild Salmon Bistro Bowl

Pacific Northwest wild salmon over a bowl of grains and bright vegetables. Clean, generous, satisfying.

Matzo Ball Soup & House Salad

Old-world chicken broth, a soft fluffy matzo ball, dill, and a crisp house salad on the side. Penicillin you can order.

Mother's Mac & Cheese

A different preparation every day — sometimes baked, sometimes brothy, always built on European-style butter and real cheese. Ask what's on today.

Daily Soup & Salad

A rotating soup of the day and a seasonal salad — built from what's freshest at the Carlton Farms and local-grower deliveries that morning.

Daily Lunch Special

A new plate every weekday — Chef Lisa cooking whatever her mother (or M.O.M. of the month) would have served on a Wednesday.

Tuesday — Saturday Evenings

Dinner

Hearty, slow-cooked dishes — braises, roasts, stews — refined with classical technique but plated to feel like the best version of dinner at home. Cocktails from the bar, sparkling chandeliers in the dining room.

Featured tonight

The $15,000 Dungeness Crab Cakes — the recipe Food & Wine called one of America's top restaurant bargains.

Five-Hour Braised Pot Roast

Cascade Natural beef, braised five hours until it falls apart at the touch of a fork. Served with mashed potatoes and the pan jus.

Chicken & Dumplings

Hand-pulled, hand-rolled dumplings simmered in rich chicken broth with carrots and herbs. The kind of bowl that resolves a hard day.

Chicken Fried Chicken

Buttermilk-marinated, dredged and fried golden, plated with cream gravy, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable. Flavorful and crisp through.

Mother's Signature Mac & Cheese

A different preparation daily. Always real cheese, always European-style butter, always finished the same evening it's made.

Dungeness Crab Cakes

$15,000 recipe

Mostly crab, barely any binder. Chef Lisa's celebrated signature — the recipe Food & Wine put on its list of America's top restaurant bargains.

Grilled Wild Salmon

Pacific Northwest wild salmon, simply grilled, served with seasonal vegetables and a sauce built on classical technique.

Mom's Meatloaf

Carlton Farms pork and Cascade Natural beef, herbed and baked, plated with mashed potatoes and brown gravy. The Sunday dinner you remember.

Daily Dinner Special

Chef Lisa cooks a rotating dinner special every evening, often pulled from the M.O.M. of the month's recipes. Ask your server for tonight's.

From the bar

Bar & Beverages

Sparkling chandeliers, velvet upholstery, a full cocktail program, and a thoughtful wine and beer list — sit at the bar before dinner, or pull up beside a window booth for brunch.

Cocktail at Mother's Bistro

Signatures

Steph's Bloody Mary

Bracing, peppery, garnished generously. Brunch in a glass.

Momosa

Our take on the brunch standard. Citrusy, dry, served cold and tall.

Mother's Blend Coffee

A custom blend brewed all day. Bottomless with breakfast and brunch service.

Full Bar

Cocktails

A classics-leaning list — Manhattans, Sazeracs, a rotating bartender's choice, plus our seasonal house creations.

Wine

By-the-glass and bottle pours from Oregon, Washington, and beyond. Ask for a recommendation against your dish.

Beer

Local Portland taps and bottles, refreshed seasonally. Cold, well-poured, served properly.

A new mother every month

Mother of the Month (M.O.M.)

Each month we feature a different mother — sometimes from Italy, sometimes from Mexico, sometimes from down the street — and prepare her special dishes in our kitchen. Authentic home cooking from her recipes, in our dining room, for a month at a time.

Ask your server who this month's mother is, or where she's from. The M.O.M. menu rotates across breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner — three to five dishes that change in step with the calendar.

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A scratch-made dish at Mother's Bistro

Desserts

Sweet endings

The pastry side of the kitchen makes a rotating set of desserts each service — pies, cobblers, and the housemade ice creams Chef Lisa keeps refining. Ask your server what's plated tonight.

Daily Specials

Always something new

Our daily specials change frequently with the seasons. A bright summer salad, a hearty winter stew — Chef Lisa cooks around what's freshest from Pacific Northwest growers each morning.

From scratch

What we cook with

Pacific Northwest wild salmon. Carlton Farms pork. Cascade Natural beef. The finest European-style butter in everything we cook and bake. The best possible ingredients, in every dish.

Willamette Week

Restaurant of the Year

Food & Wine

America's Top Bargains

IACP

Chef/Restaurateur of Excellence

★ 4.6 / Google

5,400+ guest reviews

Hungry yet?

Come sit at a window booth.
We saved you a place.

Reservations on Resy or by phone. Inside the Embassy Suites by Hilton at 121 SW 3rd Ave, downtown Portland — between Pine & Ash.

Reserve a Table Call 503.464.1122

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