When we were last in Portland -about 5 years ago-I thought I remembered this dining room as a more traditional place but maybe my memory 's wrong. We met some nice people and I thought the food and service were fine.

We went for the Russian Tea, we try to do this tradition at the Heathman every December, usually it's an English tea, I was a little disappointed at first as I was expecting and looking forward to another English Tea and this year it was Russian tea, but other than the fact there were no scones, jam and clotted cream (I was looking forward to that). The Russian tea was wonderful, I had the chocolate mint tea, very yummy, there was a choice of a variety on Russian teas, the food...savories and sweets were brought on tiered plates, and all were delicious, most I had never tried or heard of before. The waitstaff were very nice and explained all the different teas and pastries, and the room was so beautifully decorated. Only complaint I had was the waiting area to get in the restaurant got extremely crowded and rather confusing, we had a 91 year old with us and there was really nowhere we could sit her down... ...hopefully they may one day get this sorted...it has been like this every December, but for the food and ambience it is worth it. We will be back next year, hopefully try some tea from a different part of the world?