Lili Patisserie

Great drip coffee. Had the fantastic Devil’s Mess. They’ve since closed.

We tried to go here for breakfast today — wanted to give it another chance because I like to do that and because it is a beautiful day and they have outdoor seating.
We were seated almost immediately with very friendly service. The atmosphere is truly charming.
However, we were left with menus and no service for 15 minutes! Though were other tables, most were in the finished-​everything stage and we saw the two waitresses talking in the kitchen.
I honestly don’t know why the service is so slow (bad), or why they feel that talking for 15 minutes when you seat a table who hasn’t ordered yet is a good idea.
But, we will not be back!

I purchased a Groupon to use at Lili Patisserie. I thought it would be a great chance to try a new brunch spot in Portland. I was a little unsure of how it would go down as the reviews consistantly mentioned that the service was terrible.
We ventured in on a Saturday morning at 9:45am and were told our wait would be 20 minutes. It took a little longer, about 30 but we didn’t have anywhere to be so this was fine. The place was starting to clear out when we took our seats. We were brought water and ordered mimosas right away. And that was the last check back until over an hour later when our food finally arrived. It looked good, we were starving so we dug right in.
The food was flavorless. I ordered the wildmushroom egg scramble. There wasn’t any salt, pepper or any seasoning. I added some from the table, but it serisouly didn’t help. My daughter ordered the swedish pancakes. They came looking real nice, but they were not cooked all the way through. She also had bacon with heres that was burnt and hardly warm at all. My husband ordered the Devil’s Scramble (or something to that relm). It was spicy, but not filling. He ended up eating both the undercooked pancakes and my scramble.
What was really upsetting was watching the head chef litterally stand around while the sous chef did everything. When you are that busy it should be all hands on deck.
I don’t believe we will be returning.

We apparently had a much better experience than several other reviewers. The service was curteous and prompt. We received our orders in a timely manner and the food was quite good. We ordered two of the egg dishes and a couple mimosas. The layout is very open and it’s a little more «upscale» than a diner breakfast place. So the prices are higher and the portions smaller, but it’s more specialty dishes. We were glad that we tried this place for a change.

Lili has a sweet interior, self-​serve coffee, and decent breakfast food. But I’ve been here 2 times for brunch and the wait time between ordering and getting our food was 45 minutes at our first visit and over an hour at the second.
The second time, the server explained that they had not been nearly as busy the day before (not surprising, since the day before was a Friday) and asked us to please come back and try it again. I didn’t have the heart to tell her they had already spoiled their second chance.

I don’t often go here even though its right in my backyard, but every time I’ve been here for breakfast, I haven’t been disappointed. This time I had the (seasonal) pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon butter, organic maple syrup and bacon. I nearly licked the plate clean. Even the server noticed. Can’t help it. I have a pancake addiction. Great bacon, too. Done just right: chewy, not too crispy but not overcooked. I wish the prices were a little lower (which is why I don’t go that often), but the prices are relatively comparable for the area.

Service was VERY slow, although the food was excellent. The place had every table filled from the moment we walked into the time we left. Be prepared fora long wait for your order to appear on your table, in addition to what could be a lengthy wait for a seat.

I love Lili’s. The people who work there are so very kind, and always happy to accommodate our dietary needs. Over the past few months, we have found ourselves going to breakfast there at least once a week, and we have grown to love the easy pace and calm feeling the place has.
The owner is so sweet, and always makes a special effort to come say hello. The food is top-​notch — so, so yummy. It may take a little bit to get your food, but it is well worth the wait. This is the perfect Sellwood breakfast hub, and I love every minute I’ve spent there.

What a great experience. All homemade with a nice variety of great favors. Spinach omelet was the least original, but overwhelmingly good service.

I’m giving Lili two stars because we have had some okay enough experiences there. Today was not such a day though and that’s what this review is about… A funny thing, on the drive over to Lili today I was thinking, «We’re kind of becoming regulars there…» and indeed, when we want decent-​enough breakfast, relatively quickly, and not far from home, we head over. And generally it’s fine, though we have noticed a revolving door of waitstaff. Today though, was not fine.
We grabbed our coffee and sat down at a table. The place was half-​full; busy, but not slammed. The older guy who dropped off menus and who would be our waiter (and seemed by disposition and attitude to be an owner), let us know their regular cook wasn’t there, and our orders might take a bit longer. We were fine with that; in no hurry and we understand stuff happens. We ordered and settled in. After about 50 minutes the guy approached our table for the second time since we arrived and with and odd tone of irritation, curtly told us they had sold out of what I ordered, and did I want anything else? I responded «no» (because I didn’t want to wait 50 more minutes). He walked away without a word.
Finally, my husband’s food arrived: toast, 2 eggs, bacon and potatoes. The eggs were very clearly not over hard like he had ordered so while the guy tried to quickly drop the plate and run away, my husband alerted him that he, a) still needed silverware and b) had ordered his eggs over hard. The waiter double checked his order pad, which confirmed the order was for eggs over hard, looked at the plate and said with irritation, «Well, those are over hard. It’s a fine line.» My husband, trying to be polite said, «I will double check them when I get my silverware.» The guy stalked off to grab silverware, plopped it down on the table, and ran away quickly before my husband cut into the eggs.
Sure enough, the yolks ran all over his plate. Now, it’s problematic when a breakfast place doesn’t know the difference between eggs over easy and eggs over hard, and then treats the guest poorly when it is pointed out that the order is incorrect. The guy never came back to check on us or see if the food was even okay. If he had just offered to cook them up more, we would have been fine with that. My husband ate everything but the eggs so when he took the bill up to pay, he asked for the eggs to be removed from the bill. The guy/owner/waiter’s response was a snarky: «So where’s YOUR business so I can come get things comped for free?!» Now, I understand having a bad day, absent/​sick staff, stuff happens. What I can’t understand is taking it out on your clientele and being too irritated by their presence/​patronage to provide any semblance of very basic customer service. I also can’t understand how if one employee is out sick, the entire business operation erodes quickly. If you are *that* dependent on one person, you are doing it wrong!
After being insulted and treated poorly at a place we used to go to often, we left, drove 5 minutes up to Zell’s and had a downright pleasant breakfast where we were treated well. Oh, and my husbands eggs were perfect, and just like he had ordered.

If u want overpriced but decent food with poor service, you cant go wrong with this place.
The waitress took our order and as she was leaving she said, «Help yourselves to some coffee». It seemed to imply that the coffee was complimentary. Although we both barely had a cup each, we were charged $ 5 for some pretty bad coffee.
She also seemed to be in a rush and took away our plates before we were even half way through.

I loooooved the breakfast here! It was a cute little place with a nicely decorated interior and a pleasant outdoor deck. We sat outside and the server was so sweet and nice. I ordered the scramble with zucchini and goat cheese — -it had a great flavor! We had to wait for about ten minutes for an outdoor table but they had self serve coffee for me to enjoy while we waited. The mimosa’s looked great, although I didn’t order one. The orange juice we had was super fresh and delicious! I loved this place and would go back soon!
If you want to see photos, check out my blog post

We came here for a late weekend lunch with our two small kids. The restaurant was about 50% full. To start, the espresso machine was out of order, the drip is serve yourself and the decaf was stone cold. Our server neglected to bring any water to the table, so that became self serve too.
Our order was taken quickly but the food took forever, I complained to the server that the decaf was cold and she only offered to make more when I specifically asked off some that was above room temperature. When it came, she plopped down a cup that was so hot as to be undrinkable, black — so I had to get up and get my own cream. You can bet I was still charged for it.
We had to ask for cutlery, a bottle of water and the server offered a scone for the kids after we asked where the food was and pointed out that the kids were ready to eat their own hands.
The food was actually pretty good — unfortunately the wait combined with the rotten service ruined the experience.

I had been coming here for awhile and don’t know why I waited to come back today. Li knows how to bake — we started off with the ham and cheese croissant. Delish and warmed. My one concern is the house made local coffee should be stronger. Unfortunately, the espresso machine was out; (.
I loved my Danish pancakes with a marionberry compote. Huge portion to share one with the boy and came with thick bacon. The boy had an egg plate with homemade bird seed bread.
And of course, I love the French Parisian Paris feel.
Everything is made fresh and homemade — from the bread to the jam.
PS Service can be slow, but everything is fresh and made to order and the place is packed for brunch so whatever.

We went to this establishment a few times years ago and had faintly pleasant memories. So when a Groupon appeared I snapped it up.
On Friday May 27 my wife and I went to use it. On arrival at approximately 12:30 half the tables had diners and a bus person was cleaning a recently vacated one. We waited to be seated and were given menus. The waitress then tended to other tables. Taking orders from three of them. One. Table. At. A. Time. We waited. The waitress delivered some food. We continued to wait. After 10 minutes with no further interaction with anyone on the staff we left.
I did purchase a Groupon for Friday breakfast/​lunch. We’ll be back to use it. Hopefully whoever is working in the small dining room when we do go back has more of a clue than the waitress from last Friday.
Or maybe she will recover from whatever bad day she was having and return to providing good, or at least OK, service.

To the Owner: please add staffing! If not on a regular basis, then at least on Sunday when crowds flock to your yummy offerings. That said, the two very friendly young servers did their best to take orders, seat, bus AND run the register. So maybe add one part time person to just handle two of those functions. I just don’t get why owners think it’s a good thing to run so thin on personnel. There were three empty tables, but customers lined out the door couldn’t use them as the smiling gals did not have a spare moment to clean them.
…the food. The Biscuits and Gravy rivaled any top notch offering in town. The veggie sausage wasn’t just a throw-​in, but full of flavor; the garlic potatoes about average. The pastries in the case were meh, but very reasonably priced. The Swedish pancakes are a must try next time, they looked wonderful. I heard at least three people ask if there was another sugar option for the self-​serve coffee. Would it kill the bottom line to address this demand? Atmosphere: very cute.

This is a very casual breakfast place. I always expect a line but somehow they don’t get one. There is very limited seating and the food takes a while to prepare. Bring good company or a good book if you are alone. The food was tasty and simple. One might say it’s provincial style.

I always forget about this place for breakfast on the weekends, it is rarely packed until after 10 (suck it Tin Shed line waiting suckas!) and close to home.
I need to eat here more. Me and my old lady went there for breakfast, sat by a window, ate delicious sweet bacon eggs and Swedish pancakes.
The Swedish pancakes were appropriately custardy from a southern Swedish perspective, a little heavy on the powdered sugar from a northern perspective, though they could be considered a national sovereign and would be right at home to-​go in a Volvo. The powdered sugar gave me a Lohan look, like I had just come home from a van Halen concert, but I did not care, the lingonberry sauce was not too sweet.
My old lady likes her bacon flimsy, my mom likes her bacon crisp and sends it back every time it is not crispy. This is flimsy bacon, but it has some crunch, but oh is it good.
The self service coffee is annoying (tin shed fans would be used to it), the mimosas served in small glasses, but those were my only complaints.
A lovely café with a euro flair, a small but tidy menu and good service.

+: Decent breakfast.
-: Flies kept swarming around us while we ate, annoying.
!: N/​A.
?: N/​A.

Lili’s is to cute. Visually it looks straight out of a scene in a romantic comedy where a newly in love couple goes for breakfast to put a cap on their wonderfully blissful weekend. So just coming in and sitting with a cup a coffee can make you feel more joyful if you ask me.
I live in sellwood and love to explore the hidden gems in the area. It took me a few months to try Lili because their winter hours are limited. But now that I have I cant get enough… ill break down the reasons why below:
1) as mentioned before the atmosphere here is amazing
2)Mimosas, bellinis, and even a decent black velvet
3)the portion sizes are perfect
4)the food is high quality and tastes good
I have been here for lunch and breakfast. Breakfast is where its at. The swedish pancakes with lingonberry and the french toast are both superb. I am vegetarian so having soy sausage as a side choice makes the meal even better.
Reasons why this place did not get 5 stars
1)service can lack there… the employees are friendly but sometimes slow
2)the food is good but not mind blowing amazing good you know
This place is for sure a place to hit up for a mellow b-​fast if your in Sellwood.