McMenamins Cypress Room

Great atmosphere. The bartender was friendly. Definitely have to go

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Great, cozy little barMusic sometimes gets excessively loud

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 4

The Cypress room is a hybrid little side room, half bar, half restaurant (and thus minor friendly), just across from the main Courtyard restaurant, specializing in light bites, desserts, brews and cocktails. Unlike Honors, Detention, and the Boiler Room, it's open *most* of the time, with no real blackout times or dates (other than the early morning), making it among the most accessible, thus it's probably the room in which I've spent the most time at the Kennedy School, other than the soaking pool.Service is usually quick and attentive; easy to do in a cozy little space like this. And as its just one piece of the McMenamins pie, the prices and quality of drinks and food are the same as you'll find elsewhere on campus. If your visit to the Kennedy School involves coming early, or bringing kids, you're probably going to find yourself in the Cypress Room at some point!

Kid-friendliness: Minor friendly (and the only "bar" on campus that is).

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Great experience!

Original review:“Been here for over an hour with no service. Got a beer at the bar at 45 minutes and we were told a server would be over for food. It's been 70 minutes, no service. We're leaving. Then as we leave 2 employees are smoking at the main entrance with two other people that may be employees.“Additional information:It’s not very often I get to go out with my wife and toddler. This really ruined one of the few nights we get together to go out. I'm rather beside myself. And it's not like no one was getting service. The family next to us was given children menus and crayons and was well taken care of.I called Mcmenamins after putting the kiddo down for bed. I was either disconnected hung up on. I called back and got a voicemail. ? Okay, I've been going there for over 20 years, it appears they just don't want me as a patron anymore. Message received.

I had always gone to the McMenamins restaurants in town at the coast and was really excited to check out this location! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was inviting. I got a salad and appetizer and was pleasantly surprised on how fresh the vegetables on the salad were. The hummus plate was really good too and even came with some pita bread that was warm and cozy in the middle. I met a friend in town and they wanted to share the experience with me and boy was I impressed!

We stayed one night while in town visiting family. Bars on site were awesome. Food was delicious, movie theater was fun and the bed oh-so comfortable. We didn't get to enjoy the soaking pool but next time!

People are super cool and the atmosphere is so awesome. Deserves at LEAST a 4.5

Love this secret spot! Kirk, a waiter, is so nice and welcoming! The food always comes out at a reasonable time! Even on a brewfest day they are popping food out! Drinks are great! Love the Bob Marley vibe as well! Really enjoy coming to this bar! My neighborhood favorite!

Love this secret spot! Kirk, a waiter, is so nice and welcoming! The food always comes out at a reasonable time! Even on a brewfest day they are popping food out! Drinks are great! Love the Bob Marley vibe as well! Really enjoy coming to this bar! My neighborhood favorite!

The area around the school is sketchy. I didn't feel comfortable leaving my car, but it was fine. AWESOME job they have done with this property. The detention and honors bars are not to be missed. Will go here again!

Such an absolute let down. If you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know I typically try to be really understanding and aware that maybe I’ve caught a place on an “off night”. In this case, whether or not that’s true—that doesn’t matter. The overall experience was rough. A bit of our experience is hard to communicate: body language, passive comments, eye rolling, etc. We had family in from out of town so we originally went to the courtyard restaurant at the Kennedy School. It was not packed, but the host stopped texting long enough to tell us there would be a 25 minute wait for a patio table and an additional hour to receive food—unless we ordered pizza, which would “be faster”. We originally opted for an inside table (still with an hour wait for ticket times) but quickly decided to move to the Cypress room since it was less busy and had shorter ticket times. Well, our experience at the cypress room was not great either. The 4 of us ordered—2 sandwiches, 1 fish and chips and 1 pizza. The burgers were alright. Definitely not great and super soggy, sadly. The fish and chips was pretty burnt and exceptionally oily. The pizza…didn’t come for 45 minutes AFTER the rest of the food arrived. Apparently, since the courtyard restaurant was telling everyone to order pizzas, the pizza kitchen was overwhelmed all of a sudden ?. Not to mention the waitress dropped the first pizza, needing us to wait twice as long for the replacement. I went inside to check again on the status of this tiny pizza and was told it would take even longer so we would get it for free. Great! That’s awesome. Except We kinda didn’t even want the pizza at that point since everyone else was done eating, but I guess it was free so they probably though “who cares?” When the pizza came, it was sad. Burnt, SALTY, oily and not very tasty. The service was incredibly slow and the staff seemed so annoyed with us diners. Almost every single one of them—Like they all hate their jobs and weren’t afraid to show it. Our family, without another experience to compare it to, was super underwhelmed.m and bummed out about their food. Begrudgingly, we paid. I didn’t want to make a scene with family there. However, it’s very unlikely we’ll be back.

My husband and I ordered a butter beer because of the Harry Potter theme that weekend. Enjoyed a flight of cider (3) and a flight of beer (6). Big glasses & we could not finish them all. All excellent though. The pool area is quaint & peaceful. Valuable artwork adorn the walls. Unique building alright.

This used to be one of my favorite places to have a relaxed dinner and a drink, but the service has become atrocious. Especially if you are sitting on the patio. What staff there is won't even bother to clean the tables or check on you to see how you're doing or if you need anything. Bad form McMenamins.

I have always wanted to stay here and it was just as much of a delight as I hoped it would be! The classroom style guest rooms are darling but the best part of this hotel is all the “extras”! The soaking pool was incredible and I made sure to end every night with a long soak, I loved that it wasn’t crowded in the evening and that you could bring a drink out with you. The movie theater and restaurants on site are all lovely additions and even just a walk around the historic building is a fun activity. Location is great as well, having off street parking while still being in the heart of Portland is a big plus. Definitely worth a stay or even just popping in for a soaking pool dip!