Yalla Reviews

Fantastic experience! Four of us with a reservation. Started with a glass of wine each. Then, wanting to try many things on the menu, we did not order individually. Instead, we ordered a lot of everything and tried small portions of each dish. Appetizers: Hummus with burnt ends, Schmaltz Cornbread, Charred Broccolini, Fries. Entrees: Bolognese, Bulgarian Lamb & Beef Kebab, Grilled Octopus. Dessert: Citrus Olive Oil Cake Each item above were some of the best I have ever had, especially the octopus! Pricey meal, but worth it. Excellent service too! Go check it out!!

First and last visit to Yalla. I have been wanting to try this restaurant for a while and when I finally did, it wasn’t that good,, disappointed with the food, specially for the prices you pay, I think is over priced. I had the summer salad , which was ok, fried eggplant was really good but the octopus was over cooked so it was almost too rubbery. Another bad thing is that you keep breathing in the smoker everywhere. Had to change my clothes, couldn’t wait to get out of the restaurant because of the smoke smell and Not sure how a handicap person or older person would go to the restroom, have to go downstairs and stairs are pretty stiff. Service was ok, anyway, I won’t recommend this restaurant

It was a good sign when it was tough to get a reservation on a Thursday so I had high hopes. I was not disappointed! The drinks, food, service and ambiance were all terrific. We WILL be back!

Love this place and keep going back. Also during these trying times their take out menu hits the spot!!!

The food and atmosphere were great. Sadly one server accidentally spilled an “on the rocks” drink on one man. Server very apologetic and got lots of towels. Water and ice cubes remained on floor. When our food server brought the check the man’s wife asked if there was an adjustment made . The server was perplexed and in the dark about the accident. She explained and he said he would check with the manager who was also seemingly in the dark. The manager offered to remove the least expensive item we ordered!! Such generosity. The man sat through dinner with wet clothes and went to a stage play damp. From our experience as patrons and many restaurants and as servers ourselves, the norm has been to comp that person’s meal. Not here. Very disappointed.

Yalla had friendly service. The food was excellent! Best tasting food I’ve had in a long time! The waitress recommended several dishes which were awesome! I’d recommend making a reservation.

Excellent, delicious food, environment and drinks for a hot date. We sat at the bar. We know they are small plates, but the prices seemed quite high for the amount of food that came. I appreciate costs are rising, but for the $128 we spent on food and drink, I shouldn't be hungry two hours later.

If you don't really like who you are dining with and you just want to get it over with, this is the place! It is harried and way too loud to comfortably converse. 80db for much of our dinner. The food is good but not worth the assault to the nervous system. Too bad.

As others have noted, Yalla is pricy. Our meal for two (no alcoholic drinks) totaled $98.00 before gratuity. Despite the higher prices, management chooses to add a 3% surcharge for "Employee Wellness!" Thought that was already included in the higher prices! Those notwithstanding, we found the food here uniquely tasty and distinctive. We do want to call attention to our experience last night with an order of Eggplant Carpaccio. " Carpaccio is a dish of thinly sliced or pounded meat, fish, or vegetables that is typically served raw or slightly cooked." Our entre serving consisted of one 3 1/2 -4" sliced oval of cooked eggplant covered an obscured with an excellent tasty sauce. It was a small serving placed on a small plate, was no way an entre portion, and despite the fact that it tasted good, clearly overpriced at $20.00! We called the matter to the attention of our server and later a manager. In each case, they politely listened, offered no compensation, only excuses. "The kitchen may be short on bigger plates." "Normally the serving consists of a single slice of eggplant - this may have been a small one!" We expected better!

To mark the end of our 34th Foodaversary, we had dinner at Yalla. We didn't want to leave. From the cornbread to the fries to the pastrami to the pasta - we were in h e a v e n. It was a perfect night on the balcony with perfect weather and lighting. And the waiter was wonderful. We ate waaaay tooooo much and loved every bite. We will definitely be back!

I get it, there’s a labor shortage and costs have risen but $15-18 for a radicchio salad with a few breadcrumbs is excessive. Sadly this restaurant isn’t alone which may account for the why fewer people are dining out. That said our plank salmon was tasty. It came with a lemon. Any sides were extra. If not for celebrating our friend’s birthday, we would have opted for eating at home .

The chefs are geniuses! The combinations of flavors in the small and large dishes open your eyes to the rest of the world. They are palate-cleansers, that make you expect more from all other meals out. No more ordinary traditional cuisine for us - we will be at Yalla's whenever we are in Portland. The service and atmosphere were memorable! Congratulations and thank you to all the hard culinary workers at Yallas that made this a wonderful experience for us.

Our party arrived at 8pm on time for our reservation last Tuesday night but was greeted rudely by the Hostess. She demanded our Vaccine cards and I didn't have mine with me but assured her I was vaxed. She continued with her attitude and refused us entry. You just screwed up my night, please don't compound it by being an jerk.

Fantastic cuisine and great service. A real gem in Multnomah Village. The Village is moving up with this restaurant. Very popular.

Everything is so good here! Just walking by and smelling the pastrami cooking makes me drool. It's always packed too. That's how good this place is. I will say this is not the kid friendliest place. Depending on what you order it can be a few minutes to get your food, and the kids menu is pretty limited. If you have picky eaters, or antsy kids I'd say hire a babysitter.

I keep reading about Yalla (IG, Yelp, etc.) and have wanted to try it for some time. We had to plan ahead a bit to get a reservation and I am glad we did as it was pretty full. I had requested outdoor dining and we sat on the back patio, which is really lovely. They have small heaters to put by your feet if you need them. Service was professional, friendly and quick. Now the food. The food was good. But due to the hype I was expecting something really special. The prices are on the high end considering this is basically small plates to share. We had the hummus with burnt ends ($16) which comes with one pita. Now it was a fresh and tasty pita but only one! The hummus wasn't any better than what I buy at Whole Foods and the burnt ends, while tasty and fun, were very fatty. Next course was the house smoked pastrami (half order $18) which was two slices of pastrami that were literally half fat, three small slices of very good rye bread, and some mustard and beet relish as condiments. It was well smoked and tender, but again, half of it was all fat which we cut off and left. Last dish was a beef pasta - fairly small bowl of pasta with a small amount of beef and olives. It was good, a tad spicy for me, but really underwhelming. I understand small plate style, you don't expect sides with your dishes, but $16 for a small bowl of pasta seems pretty high to me. Dinner for two with one beverage was nearly $75 and it just was good, not great, not super interesting or special. So it just wasn't for us. I was ready for something really out of the ordinary.