Al-Amir Restaurant 223 Southwest Harvey Milk Street, Portland, OR 97204

"This place is the real deal! My husband and I used gift cards to dine on a Wednesday. We had not been to downtown Portland because the homeless/drug environment is not pleasant. We were able to park in front of this beautiful building that used to be the Bishops house. Atmosphere was really “old town”. I have been lukewarm in the past about Middle East fare so Al Amir was an unexpected surprise. First off, the red wine was as good as I have had in any restaurant. The combo appetizer had the BEST hummus with plentiful pita bread. I ordered the chicken kabobs and the spice they used left me wanting to come back right away. My husband ordered lamb and it was a very generous portion. The service was very warm and attentive. We came back several days later and was greeted by Mo who made us feel so appreciated. He remembered our wine selection and told us to order anything off the menu and they would make it work. This time I ordered the shrimp kabobs and thought I died and went to heaven… I gave my husband one and he felt the same. One of the owners, Lydia, spoke to us and we told her how impressed we were and we were their new best customer. They have been in business for 33 years and have had to adapt to the Portland issues. Used to be vibrant /open lunch and dinner and now are only open limited hours. Lydia has been very involved giving back to the community (in one case Transitional Youth) also meeting with city leaders to help Portland come back to its old self. She wore a shirt with “faith” on it. She was so determined that things would get better. Please go to this restaurant, it deserves all the support they can get. PS: they sell their wonderful hummus at FM, Safeway and other. Try their hummus and it will definitely lead you to try the restaurant!"

"Ordered the family style meal. The apps were amazing. Can't even decide which was the best. Then the main course comes out, omg, the Kosta and lamb were to die for. Had never had veggies prepared the way it was but the khudar was so yummy. We will definitely go back, just hope the bellydancer is working that night"

"We haven't been here since well before the pandemic and remember it as having amazing food, service, and atmosphere - it still does. I love stuffed grape leaves and these are some of the best I've had. The humus and lamb (bone in - always...) were outstanding. The service and atmosphere were welcoming and relaxed. I wish more restaurants had this level of service (reminded us of being in Europe). Al-Amir is definitely worth the trip downtown and should be on your shirt list of restaurants."

"First off there are quite a few good Lebanese food places in this city, so the competition is high. We ordered take away Kafta Kebob, Shish Kebob, Hummus and a salad. The meals came with light fluffy, ever so slightly under seasoned rice. Which in my book is better than soggy over salted rice, like at some places. The Kafta didn’t come with hardly any vegetables that we had become accustomed to (maybe an incorrect expectation set by other establishments) and the meal was not on a skewer. it was a nice mix of lamb and beef and tasted good but didn’t have the kebob look. The Shish kebob was also off the skewer and tasted good. The hummus was delicious with plenty of pita bread. The salad salata al amir was good , nice nothing to write home about. Visually the food is outclassed by some other places, but we enjoyed our meal. Critically I think a touch more care in the seasoning department could go a long way to making the taste better. If I could give 3.5 stars I would. So much potential, would love to see the quality increase a little. Prices were in line with other similar restaurants."

"This was our first time at this restaurant and it was absolutely delicious, flavorful and fun to try something new. The server was very helpful in explaining the different Lebanese dishes and we felt the pricing was very reasonable for it and that delicious food that we were served. The restaurant atmosphere was very pretty. I have attached some photos of some of the delicious food that we were served. Parking was somewhat difficult and that we had to park a few blocks away to find parking. We also could have used a parking structure and that probably would have gotten us a little closer."