PDX Downtown - Roots Food District

I have written before how food courts were great resources when traveling - especially in Honolulu and Washington DC - but they have also been convenient and economical places for eating here at home. We used the one at Pioneer Place often, and were disappointed when it closed.

After a longer than initially indicated time the replacement opened: Roots Food District. That sounds like it is trying to be something higher end.

To be fair, it is still kind of under construction. There are supposed to be more places that are coming soon. Maybe when the additional two places open, there will be more correlation between the banner and what food is actually available.

I am more concerned with how it sprawls. Some listings seem to include the Yard House - a casual but still a sit-down place on an upper level -as part of the district. That takes away much of the convenience of food courts, where one of the key selling points is that people who want to eat different things can still eat together.

Beyond that, some of the restaurant spaces seem much larger than necessary.

There is still general seating, where you could bring your food, but there are many seats for each food place, far more than the amount of usage seems to indicate would be necessary.

This was especially true of Yong Kang Street, which seemed to contain three sections within its space - not just for seating, but for different types of counter service as well - but with nothing happening there. It feels wasted, and makes me wonder where the "coming soon" places (BurgerFi and Raising Cane's) are going to go.

Prices are also higher than they were in the old food court days. It is served on fancier dishes (at least at Yong Kang Street, not as much at Bad Hombres), but that is not enough to justify the price.

That's not to say that the food is bad either, because it is in general pretty good, but it is not significantly elevated over what you could get at any mall.

All of that together makes Roots Food District frustrating. They are trying to be something grander, but with no indication that there was any demand for such a thing. In addition, the long delays with construction may have permanently damaged the existing customer base, because the old food court was always pretty busy before.

There has been a big tendency lately for malls to try and change to "lifestyle centers", hoping for a higher end clientele and greater profits. If the old model is not working that needs to be examined, but it should be thought about really carefully before uprooting the tried and true.

 https://www.pioneerplace.com/en/dining/roots-food-district.html