Lil’ Cooperstown Bar & Grill

Came here on the 4^th of July to have dinner before the fireworks show. Walked in and there were over a dozen empty, and CLEAN, tables that no one was sitting at, despite an overflowing lobby. Stood at the hostess counter for over 20 minutes while two employees worked on trying to figure out what tables were available and what weren’t. Neither of them bothered to even say hi or welcome us to the restaurant, let alone get us on the list to get a table. We actually stood right in front of them staring at them, barely an arms length away, and they ignored us despite our attempts to get their attention.
After we finally got on their list, we then waited another 20 minutes to get a seat, this despite the fact that the tables in the place were only about 2/​3rds full.
Once we finally sat down, we requested to speak to the manager about the issue up front, and lo and behold, the manager was one of the two people up front who went out of their way to ignore us. He bought us an appetizer to apologize for his rudeness.
The waitress who waited onus did an ok job, but it was obvious that she was overworked because they were understaffed, which makes no sense as this is probably one of their busiest days of the year.
The food was good, but I have trouble overlooking bad service, hence only two stars.

Its a Sports bar trying to serve all kinds of food while mastering none. We were in a group and had one waitress. She was trying her best however they continued to seat people in her section while thirty of us waited. Then some of us went to the bar where tje general manager then refused us service saying he didn’t know how much we had already had. We just got there! It was rude of him to say the least. The service improved when we just moved outisde and broke into tables rather than one group. The food came all at once. So that meant a lot of it sat there. It was all run by the invisible manager who never came to check on us. The food was fair but nothing that I would be recommending for you to order. I cant imagine taking a group there again other than jist for drinks.

Unfortunately this place is going down hill for the great location it’s at. They don’t appear to have any management and service is extremely slow. I watched a waitress pull out a bag of make up and put on blush, powder and lipstick in front of everyone while people were waiting for menus and she knew they were there. Too bad!

Classy little place. The bar is awesome I love the layout how it goes all the way around the room. Food is totally delicious! Waiters and waitresses are quick and listen. Outside seating is nice and comfortable. You can see the Wilamette river. The happy hour has a good selection and is decently priced. I think $ 3.50 for a well. And a Cosmo martini for $ 5. They validate parking also which is nice. But it’s only for 30 min. So you pay out the ass of you stay long and don’t park on the street.

Average 3-​star place. Inside seems a little outdated. People were sat in awkward areas away from other guests. We sat on the patio which was very enjoyable.
Ordered a pitcher of beer and lots of food. Service was good. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to brag about either. Food was what you expect at a Chili’s or Fridays. Not bad at all. Just average.
My son ordered the Turkey Club. He only ate half, so I got the left overs. Decent sandwich. Again, just average. Hard to mess up turkey, cheese, and bread. We had a party of 5 and no one was overwhelmed with a great meal. Looks like a good spot to catch a game, but there are ZERO sports after the MLB All-​Star break. So I missed that part.
All-​in-​all a decent place. Good location. Nice patio. Average food and predictable beer selection. I would go back, but Portland has SO much to offer, I’d prefer trying for the WOW factor somewhere else.

This place is a lovely scenic 15 minute walk from my home. They have great patio seating, good prices, tasty specialty cocktails and great beers on tap! I came here for some lunch with outdoor seating because it is a lovely summer day in Portland! I had the huckleberry-​limeade seasonal cocktail to start. Then I got the pulled pork sandwich with a Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Everything was delicious. The service was great! Although I sat on the patio this place looks great on the inside too! Can’t wait to bring my wife!

This will be the third review I write for this place. The first review I wrote was ten months ago and I gave it a 5 star review. The next review I wrote was four months ago and I gave it a 2 star review. Now I’m back with a final update and have decided that 4 stars is the rating to go with. Why am I mentioning all of this? Because it should be an indication of how hit-​or-​miss this place can be. Sometimes I’ll go and everything is perfect, other times I’ll go and everything is lackluster, but at the end of the day, I keep coming back.
I think the reason why I keep coming here is the variety. No matter what type of food you’re interested in, there’s usually at least a couple of menu items that will appeal to you. I’ve been coming here pretty regularly for about a year now, have tried almost every dish on the menu, and speak highly of everything I’ve eaten. I’ve rarely eaten the same meal more than once because the menu is so varied that I’m always curious to try something else. Prices are pretty reasonable too. I’m sure you could find a cheaper place if you looked hard enough, but the prices here are comparable to the prices I’ve seen everywhere else in Portland.
This place has a great, spacious environment. So many times I’ll go to a restaurant and feel cramped or uncomfortable (I.E. Pine State Biscuits), but I really like the layout and accommodations at Lil’ Cooperstown. The many, many TVs hanging up all around the restaurant are a nice touch, and although I’m not really a sports fan, it at least gives me something to look at while waiting for my food. The bathrooms and restaurant itself have always looked clean when I’ve been there.
Now that I’ve talked about the good, it’s time to get to the major negative and the reason why so many people give this place bad reviews: the service is terrible. It’s not uncommon to wait 10 minutes just to be seated or given a menu (even when they’re not busy). On my latest visit here, I walked into the bar area, the waitress saw me right away & said hello, I sat down at a near-​by table, and yet it still took her 10 minutes to get me a menu. If the waitress saw me walking in and sitting down, you’d think she would give me a menu ASAP, right? I could understand it taking 10 minutes to get a menu if the waitress didn’t see you and didn’t know you were there, but in this case she clearly saw me, so I have no idea why she arbitrarily decided to make me wait 10 minutes.
In defense of the bad service though, the place is usually understaffed. One time when I was eating there, they had 1 person waiting on 8 tables. When you only have one person waiting on every table in the dining area, it’s understandable that service would be poor. Normally I would blame management and say they need to hire more people, but in all honesty, this place is hard to predict. Sometimes I’ll come in during peak hours and I’ll be the only one eating here, other times I’ll come in during those same peak hours and the place will be relatively busy. I’m not trying to make excuses, I’m just saying I can understand why they might be understaffed. Still, the bar area has always been busy during Happy Hour and it’s understaffed every single time, so maybe it is just poor management after all.

For a chain, I surprisingly enjoy this place. It still seems to have character and maybe it’s the waterfront location and all, but I’ve always had a good experience here. The food is actually pretty good too and they have a huge variety. I would almost compare it to a Portland style, better Red Robin. And for the record, I don’t like Red Robin. But I’m rating this place for what it is.

Not. Good. Slow service. Bad food.
Sorry, but there are simply better places to get a beer and food in the immediate area. My suggestion is to pass.

I found this little gem while traveling on business. What a great local joint! The prices, service and food is the best in the area. The staff is friendly and attentive, and the atmosphere is sports-​themed and comfortable. Very clean place, which I tend to note.
I’ve been here so much already that I probably have tried most everything on their happy hour menu. Oh, and if you’re looking for a good full-​size salad, I loved the Sesame Chicken salad. Their honey-​sesame dressing is one of my favorite!
Visit once to try it! You will definitely be back.

Not a lot like the other Coopers I have been to. A bit more dive-​y and a different menu.
Service was really slow, but happy hour prices to food quantity/​value were more than reasonable.
For something like 2 drinks, a milkshake, and four orders of food, it was $ 21. I can’t really argue with that.
I would not recommend the steak bites. But I would recommend the burger, nachos, and quesadilla.
I do kind of wish they could figure out a way to control the smell that the copper table tops emit after being wiped down with the cleaning rags. It was pungent and didn’t fade at all during the entire meal.

Stopped by here before going on a stroll along the waterfront. It was New Years day, and Cooperstown was one of the only places open in the area. We sat at the bar to get the quickest service. Turned out there was Happy Hour too, which was nice. Unfortunately, it took over an hour to get in and out.
Sat down, waited about 5 minutes to be given a menu. Ordered some drinks. Took about 7 or 8 minutes to get a beer, and around 15 minutes to get my fiancé’s wine. We overheard the bartender grumbling about how someone called out, but the beer tap was literally 2 feet in front of where we sat. My beer sat, completely poured, for a good 3 or 4 minutes after he started. This would be understandable if the bartender was busy the entire time helping customers, but he was watching a game that was on TV and chatting with a ‘local’ for most of the time. UNACCEPTABLE!
We finally get her wine, and he takes our order after insisting that we would like food and are ready to order. I get fish and chips, she gets a burger. Both should be ready in 10 to 12 minutes. It takes another 20 minutes or so to get our food. The food comes, we both enjoy our choices, then our plates sit in front of us empty for another 5 to 10 minutes. The bartender takes our food and our empty glasses and we are left sitting there with nothing in front of us for another 5 to 10 minutes. We finally flag him down and ask for our check. Fearing another long delay, I gave the bartender my card to immediately run without checking it over. I signed, we left, and that was that.
This whole transaction should have easily taken 30 to 40 minutes start to finish. Unfortunately, it took nearly 1 hour and 10 minutes. In that time, the weather had turned, and our stroll ended up being much colder and shorter (due to darkness) than we had preferred.
When I got home, I realized I had been charged for a large beer even though I only had a small. The difference is only $ 1, but it’s still annoying to know that the service was bad AND they can’t get a simple 4-​item transaction right (2 food items, 2 beverages).
Hopefully they get the service issue figured out. Otherwise, this place has a lot of potential.

Huge menu! My goodness they had a ton of food on that thing. Seemed clean and had a good atmosphere. Typical bar and grill, but we will be back for the Duck games. Decent beer selection too.

Good place for late night food… u can go healthy (salads, salmon, chicken breast…) and it’s not expensive.
The salads are big!

A good place for burning time before/​after dragon boat practice. Nice bartenders, decent drinks, standard happy hour fare with a dark wood man/​den feel. I daresay that I’ve never had a chance to meander into the grill side, the bar is the only place I feel like being seen after paddling around the Willamette River.
Solid three star bar, nothing more, nothing less.

I’m not the greatest fan of chain type places but this location of Lil Cooperstown is pretty legit.
Tucked away on the waterfront it provides a pretty decent view on the walk inside. Not to mention they will comp you 2 hours of parking if you’re in the neighboring garage.
I’ve been to the Hillsboro location and didn’t have the best experience. This Portland location however was much, much better. It was Happy Hour and not totally crowded. They had plenty of TVs for catching the latest games and a decent HH menu to boot. Prices ranging from $ 1.99 — $ 4.99 with plenty to choose from. I opted for the $ 3.99 Fish Tacos.
Fish was grilled nicely and was decently surprised by the overall flavor. Tacos were pretty good! The menu notes it comes with cold slaw and chipotle sauce on them but what I received was cabbage, pico de gallo, crema, and cotija cheese. No biggie it was good… just wish menus would be specific and consistent.
HH drinks were fairly well priced. Approx. $ 3.99 -$ 5 for specialty cocktails or beer. Didn’t feel like it was much of a savings on beer. I believe I paid $ 4.29 for a pint of Bridgeport. Oh well. For under $ 10 I can grab food and a drink with little hassle.
Staff was friendly and attentive. I would definitely come back here to watch a game or something especially if I were in the area.

It’s official. This is our favorite home bar. The TVs are quality and plentiful. Not a bad seat in the house. Super friendly staff, great happy hour deals (3 – 6 & 9 to close daily). Not over crowded yet since it’s fairly new and we love it that way. Never have to wait for a drink!
Food is great for a sports bar, good prices especially at happy hour. Way better than Buffalo Wild Wings (and cleaner, with waaay better service!). Love their margaritas and mojitos since they make them with fresh lime/​lemon. Oh. And the best deal of all? The beer tower. 100 ounces for $ 20! And that’s anytime… not just happy hour. Love this spot!

My boyfriend and I recently ate here with a LivingSocial deal. When we entered there was no one at the front to greet us or let us know about any wait time. After a few minutes of standing around someone came over and seated us. The service was friendly and prompt after that.
They have a wide assortment of burgers and sandwiches. I ordered a chicken sandwich and my boyfriend ordered a monte cristo. My sandwich was made with a frozen chicken breast that looked like it had been quickly microwaved, but regardless it actually tasted really good. However, I do expect a bit more when I pay more than $ 10 for a sandwich. The monte cristo was okay, but nothing compared to that restaurant in Disneyland that serves them. We also shared a brownie after lunch which was good, nothing special.
The décor was well maintained. The lighting was a little dark, but I actually liked that. They had complimentary newspapers to look at as well. They also quickly processed my LivingSocial deal on the phone. I probably wouldn’t come here again unless someone else I was with wanted to come. It just wasn’t anything special, but the sandwich tasted good and I’m glad I experienced the restuarnt at least once.

Finally made it in to check out happy hour. I live like 200 yards away, and have tired of most of the happy hour deals in the marina area. My last review for McCormick and Schmick’s mentioned my displeasure with their cooked-​to-​death happy hour burger. Who cares if it’s $ 3.95 when it’s WELLLLLL done?
I digress… Lil Cooperstown is not my typical restaurant/​bar; I’m not a sports fan so the TVs everywhere is a bit much. The happy hour menu has lots of choices, ranging from fries for $ 1.95 to 1/​3# cheeseburger and fries for $ 4.95. Their burger was much better than the M&S’s. It was actually cooked to order, and came out as I requested. The fries were perfectly cooked, but a tad bit too salty for my tastes. I hope this place stays open; they know that they opened during the slow-​season. This area needs more dining options, and while not my ideal type of place, I’m sure it will be a big hit with the sports crowd.
The bartender, Matt, was friendly, engaging, and seemed to actually care about giving good service. This is hard to find sometimes at chains like this. He made a great vodka soda (well drinks are $ 3.79 during HH, with small upcharges for higher quality booze). I left full, slightly buzzed, and tipped out, all for like $ 18 or so. Not bad. I even found myself watching the Australian Open… I lied above, I will watch tennis occasionally…

So far, so good!
The food is good and consistent. Typical bar fare. We are already regulars at their happy hour where you can get really decent pork sliders, burger, rings, and the like for great prices.
The staff consistently goes above and beyond. Very friendly and personable.
The ambiance is upscale sports pub and very comfortable. Lot’s of TVs; and they are willing to change the channel for you if you want to watch a different game.
Their breakfast on Saturday and Sunday is DELISH. We don’t even like pancakes but we get theirs on the side every time. They call them «Cream Cakes» or something like that… Seriously, really good. Well, the breakfast burrito was just okay. But the pancakes, omelets and corned beef hash are all worth your time.