Paiku

This is an incredibly busy restaurant on a Sunday so please arrive with the correct patience and expectations. The customer service is superb, the food is flavorful, the serving sizes are sumptuous. You should expect your meal to take over half an hour to be served. The workers were moving nonstop but the customers kept pouring in.

Great breakfast right in the middle of St Johns. One of the slight downsides to all of the unique (but good) restaurants in Portland is that sometimes it's harder to find a more traditional breakfast/brunch menu. Paiku does a great job with stuff like pancakes, eggs, bacon, potatoes, biscuits, hash, etc. It would be 5 stars if they had fruit they could add to their pancakes

This is a lovely cafe and breakfast spot! The drinks menu is refreshing complete with the best freshly squeezed orange juice you will ever have the pleasure of drinking. This is right one block off from central downtown and gets good shade under a covered patio. Prefect for a which drop by, to go, shared seating, or sitting back over 6 cups of coffee and a slice of quiche writing the next best seller of solving crime. Complete espresso options. Inclusive menu considering vegans and gluten free etc. Perfect portions and one of the slightly less well known cafes which makes it a novel meeting spot. Being right next to the farmers market I stopped in here for a blood sugar kick. Keep it local and sample the brunch menu here sometime!

Came in about 10 or so on a Saturday and were seated within 10 minutes. They got busy pretty soon after though. Food was delicious and service was quick considering the amount of people that were there. I think my favorite was the gallet, but the French toast was next up I think. Cocktails were very well-priced. My only complaint is that I didn't think their coffee was good, maybe a little burnt? But otherwise everything else was yummy!

DayummmmDelighful! Paiku sets the perfect tone for a satisfying breakfast experience and exceeded any expectations of a great dining experience. Staff members were friendly, attentive, and super knowledgeable. I had so many questions! They gracefully explained ingredients and processes, i learned all of the ingredients are local, and everything is made in house, making this an underrated scratch kitchen gem. I have sea4ched and searched for a go-to breakfast place being im from the east coast and we are big on breakfast. This makes is a perfect spot for out of towers to feel right at home. The menu offered a wide range of options to suit various tastes and dietary restriction, something for the whole family, even if you have picky eaters ! the Paiku Benedict, twist on the classic Eggs Benedict, f77cking greaaat. perfectly poached eggs, sleeping on a bed of spinach and topped with a flavorful hollandaise sauce, on a fluffy English muffin. The combination of flavors was simply mouthwatering. I'm waiting for them to open right now. 2 more hours to go! The commitment to using fresh and quality ingredients was evident in every dish i have tried, from the hash plate to the venison, to the biscuits and the benedict. Their house-made pastries were a treat, with flaky croissants and buttery scones i take some to go everytime. I haven't had the coffee but I did see someone doing some fancy brewing thing haha. Their presentation is nice too so great for dates because it truly feels like super fine dining at a reasonable price. After you have the food you'll think the price is cheap for sure. Paiku is a hidden gem, 100% exceeds expectations with its quality food and welcoming atmosphere.

To start, the place is charming and the staff seems sincere and friendly. The quality was good and and I wanted to leave the full five stars, but there were a few little things nibbling on my judgements like those little doctor fish that nibble on your toes during a fancy pedicure. It was a nice day and I thought it would be nice to sit outside and bask in the welcome spring, but none of the outside tables had been bussed. In fact over half the tables in the place had not been bussed so choosing a place to sit was more of a what's left than a where would you like to sit. Staff is hard to get and the server was probably on break or something. I ordered Chai tea, which came with no milk or stirring utensils, so I went and fetched those myself. Maybe that's what you are supposed to do, but no one explained that to me. I ordered the BLT, which when done well is a nostalgic joy and this one, when it arrived looked like a veritable tower of fond memories and motherly love. It wasn't bad. I think maybe the bread should be reassessed. It had a good crunch, but lacked a certain chewiness that is not only a good mouth feel, but allows the sammie a structural cohesiveness. When I bit into it broke up like a globally warmed ice flow and I had a heck of a time holding it together. Just a tad too crunchy. Good flavor. Good layered structure with plenty of fixins, but a little hard to actually eat. Does that effect the overall charm and rating of Paiku"s? Not really. The food felt like it was made with love and it was only a minor observation. They get dinged because the service, although friendly was not particularly on top of the game. I would be perfectly willing to try again and see if that was just bad timing on my part or a normal burp in the flow of the day. The name Paiku was a little confusing. My years in Japan led me to think it might be related to fish (Pike), or some other obscure Japanese reference, maybe a Haiku with a P, but on enquiring it turns out to be the term the owner's child used for the word Pie, which makes much more sense and is suitably charming. So it's a gem of a place. A little treasure tucked away in the eclectic twists and turns of Saint Johns. I'd love it if they took another look at their bread and stream lined the service a bit, but none of that would make me not want to go back... If they'd have me.