No Dishes to Wash

So my sister and I are RIDICULOUSLY early for a movie at the Academy, (hats off to Kit for telling us the wrong time) and we decided to stop in and have some chips and salsa at Romo’s.  It’s been open since January 2008 (although I thought it was still in it’s remodeling stages then, but hey, you have to believe the owner) but due to poor marketing (insert, no marketing at all) nobody’s heard of it.  The owner, Romo, has had 2 other restaurants in the area, and judging from the interior, he knows that clean sells.  Maybe it’s just clean because no one has gone there to eat yet, but it is so sparkling clean, a great break from the normal Mexican place.  And yes, that is what it serves, don’t let the name fool you, this is Mexican food. However, there are better Mexican places out there. The Mexican part of the menu seems a little overpriced to me, but the steaks and “stuff” are about ball park.  Don’t come here if you are expecting a big plate of rice and beans for nothing.  Katie (our waitress) helped us figure out that the name is meant to upscale the place, because face it people, Mexican is not super upscale.  Especially in Montavilla.  But he also has Cuban and Brazillian inspired food on the menu, so Latin is not far off, I guess.  The Guac and Chips ($6) were really good, just imagine smashed avacado and salt with the TINIEST bit of tomato, served in a mini tostada bowl that doubles as chips.  And the chips are guranteed out of the fryer in the last 15 seconds…. or something like that.  (Shame on my memory.)  You also get  a choice of corn tortilla chips or flour tortilla chips.  So while my sister and I are sharing the guac and chips (also a margarita for me), Romo tells us to come back after the movie, he will be starting a bar menu, $4 choices, from something like 7-10 or 8-10.  My sister is underage, so I put the idea out of my head.

Until Kit says she’s hungry after the movie.  So we send my sister home, and head to Romo’s again.  Romo has gone home for the night, and we ask Katie about the bar menu.  Funny enough, it was something Romo had made up on the spot for us….. so there was no bar menu.  Katie was really funny about it, picking things off the appetizers menu that we could get for $4.  We ended up with guac and chips again (Kit also thought they were terrific) and ordered full dinners.  I got the Surf and Turf special…. it was about 6 oz of filet mignon medallions and 4 breaded prawns, with potatoes and veggies.  The steak was in a balsalmic glaze that was TERRIFFIC! and the prawns had a cream sherry cilantro sauce, also very good.  When I say breaded prawns, they had a little bit of crunchy outside, but we’re not talking VandeKamps fish sticks or anything.  Kit had the Pollo Madrid, which had a chicken breast stuffed with bacon and some sort of tomato paste, it was really good too.  And she had the balsalmic glaze on her veggies. I did too.  I want to learn to cook veggies like that!  Katie was so funny, chit chatting with us the whole time we were there, talking about drinks, how business is going, etc, she said Romo is a really funny guy to work for (the bar menu fiasco being a good example.)  The drinks were good, he makes a decent house margarita, no watery drinks here.  I had a strawberry marg the second time, and it was made with strawberry puree and whole strawberries, tasted like the grownup version of Red Robin’s Freckled Lemonade.

Who knows what Romo’s hours are, because Katie said he has changed them since they were first posted, but they are open for lunch and dinner, and close at 10 pm…. unless they have paying customers. PS, they don’t take kids under 6…. Romo’s Latin Quarter, 7915 SE Stark St.

My husband and I have been in love with Portland City Grill for a long time.  And now that he gets off work earlier, we can catch the early Happy Hour at this popular place.  In the US Bancorp tower, on the 30th floor, where Atwaters used to be. If you can snag a window seat, it’s great.  We usually head up early, (about 4:15, for the 4:30 HH) or really late (11 or so for the later one) to get a window seat.  In fact, the HH is totally slammed and hard to get a seat unless you go early or late.  The piano man is playing, your waiter is in a tux jackets, the yuppie crowd is in, talk about ambiance.  And the food can be truly sensational.  Don’t expect big portions, because they don’t exist here.  Just like if you were coming here for a meal, it is all about fancy-shmancy pants artsy food.  But that doesn’t mean the food is not delicious!  I love the Thai Lemongrass beef tenderloin satay (think skewers),  with coleslaw, and the Ginger Hoisen Chicken satay.  Caleb almost always gets the cheeseburger.  The drinks are pro-fessional here.  They even have the number one cocktail waitress in Oregon working for them.  If you go after a Blazer game, don’t be surprised to see a few Blazers, and or coaches to show up - I think the time before last, we saw Patrick Ewing.  Or maybe the time before the time before last.  Anyhow, this is where the IN crowd hang out.  So, expect it to get a little noisy with young 20-somethings giggling over the guy getting his mac on with them.  I do swear, I have heard THE funniest conversations here.  It is a veritable meat market towards the weekend.  If you have anyone visiting Portland, the view of downtown, the river, and Mt. Hood is spectacular, you must take them, they will be very impressed.  (Unless they are the type that hate on the rich and famous, or wannabe rich and famous, in that case, definitely don’t take them here.)  There is a dress code, although I don’t think it’s very strictly enforced, I believe that ripped jeans, shorts, baseball hats and bikini tops are no-no’s.  Besides, if you show up in anything remotely like that, you will feel slightly out of place, unless you are totally oblivious to that kinda stuff.  (Read=most men.)  There is not a late HH on Friday or Saturday, although they do have the early one on both days.  Last year, they had a leeetle problem with health inspector reviews, but not one word has been heard since then, so, (whew) I think it’s safe to enjoy.  Portland City Grill is located at 111 SW 5th Ave, 30th floor.  Open M-Th 11am-midnight, F 11am-1am, Sa 4pm-1am, Su 4pm-11pm.  HH 4:30pm-6:30pm M-Sa, 10pm-midnight M-Th and 4pm-11pm Su.  Props to Operators are Standing By for the picture of the view from the Grill.

The more I blog, the more I realize a) how much I eat out (scary) and b) what nice places we have in P-town.  Laurelwood Brewing Company is a great home-town brewery that serves decent food.  I’ve only ever had the happy hour, and there are a few tips and tricks to that.  Nachos- great.  But they have a tendency to keep them under the heat lamp for a while until all your chips are brown.  Feel free to make them re-do them.  Garlic Fries - are weird IMO.  The garlic is funny tasting every time.  It’s like the crushed garlic out of a jar, and they put a LOT on with parsley… I think they may be trying to counteract the garlic breath with the parsley, not sure if it works though.  Pork sliders - don’t bother.  It’s dry pork smothered in BBQ sauce on a white bun.  Hummus plate - good.  Has marinated artichoke, eggplant, kalamata olives, tomatoes, cucumbers and pita bread.  Fish tacos - great.  Their beers are all hand crafted, I really enjoyed the seasonal they have right now called Imperial Hefeweizen.  Their most popular beer is their red ale called Free Range Red.  They also have won a few awards with a spinoff of that, called the Double Deranger.  All of the Laurelwood brewpubs are really kid friendly, which has made them really popular with our parent-friends.  On Monday nights, they have wings on special, and happy hour every night.  The original Laurelwood, at 40th and Sandy, is now a pizza joint…. have yet to try it.  Our server last time was Matt, and he was super friendly… even let me get a  kiddie fry instead of having to order the garlic fries.  I’ve had a few girls their, too, who are super sweet, always including the kids at our table.  Overall, this is a nice way to support local business without breaking the bank, because their prices are reasonable. The HH is $4 a pop… watch out, because as soon as you at meat to the nachos, they are $7.  Laurelwood also gives back to the community - for example, Sept 15th, 20% of all sales go to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a great cause.  So let’s all eat out Monday Sept 15th at Laurelwood!  Located at 5115 NE Sandy Blvd. Open M-F 11am-11pm, Sa-Su 9am-12am.  Brunch served weekends 9am-3pm, and HH 3pm-6pm and 9pm-cl every day.

Alessandro’s bills itself as fine Italian food, and has the prices to match.  But the funny thing is, you just don’t feel it.  Caleb and I are wondering how they stay in business.  It’s at the bottom of Caleb’s parking garage downtown, and everytime we go by, there is NO ONE there.  So we took pity on them tonight and had dinner there.  It’s a little creepy to go into a restaurant that has only 2 other couples in it.  Maybe it’s the layout… maybe it’s the lack of hustle and bustle, but it just feels cold and empty inside.  By the time we left, there were about 8 tables filled, but still the same feeling persisted.  Caleb’s Caesar salad had bitter romaine,  but the starter of minestrone soup was good.  Rather brothy, but lots of fresh vegetables.  Our server, Elio, was very pleasant, and cracked a few one-liners, but still, this big, cold, empty room feeling pervaded.  The girl that filled my water was there about every 5 minutes (or maybe even less)… a little too often for me.  But what else are you going to do with only 3 tables filled at the restaurant?  I didn’t think the food was any better than a chain restaurant like Romano’s Macaroni Grill or Olive Garden, I had the fettuccine pesce, with shrimp, scallops, clams, and salmon.  The cream sauce that accompanied it was very rich, it made it hard to eat a lot (which is probably a good thing!)  Caleb had the tortellini with alfredo - I think he was in love with it.  He described it as

“Having one food in an Italian restaurant, and one foot in a soul food restaurant… It was a cross between an alfredo and a sausage gravy.”

Me? I think he was exaggerating a little bit.  Overall, this restaurant has fine food, but something is just not right… I mean, they would be a lot busier on a Friday night than 8 tables at 7 pm, if there wasn’t something off about the place.  Located at 301 SW Morrison St, open M-Th 11:30am-10pm, F 11:30am-11pm, Sa 12pm-3pm and 5pm-11pm.  There is a Happy Hour in the adjoining bar.  Oh, don’t let me forget the bread! It was the best thing.  The bread was a moist sourdough, fresh from the oven, and they had an olive oil with crushed garlic and chopped kalamata olives.  It was the only redeeming thing about dinner!

We are really fortunate in Portland to have a LOT of happy hours, whether just for drinks or with food as well.  But the day of the super cheap happy hour is coming to an end, I think.  It used to be that almost all places had food for $2-3 and drinks were $3.  Not anymore.  But one place that still packs a punch is any of the McCormick and Schmick’s happy hours.  We’re talking Jake’s Grill, Jake’s Famous Crawfish, The Pilsner Room, McCormick and Schmick’s, the M&S Grill, or McCormick’s Fish House.   Last night we enjoyed McCormick’s Fish House with some friends.  It’s on the westside (shock and Horror!) but well worth the drive (especially since it’s right off Hwy 26.)  Each McCormick and Schmick has a slightly different happy hour menu, and I like this one the best. (My least favorite? It’s a tie between McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood and the Pilsner Room. Which is sad, because the Pilsner room is such a cool place to go!)  We all ended up ordering the same thing, except for me.  That was 6 half-pound cheeseburgers with french fries,  thank you very much.  Oh yeah, and they put bacon on it too. For….. only $1.95.  Crazy Talk!  And this burger is big, with all the trimmings, as big as any Red Robin burger out there, for two bucks.  And a lot of places happy hour (Newport Grill, Stanford’s)  don’t even put fries with their burgers anymore.  So this is a total score.  I tried the Vegetable plate last night, it was meh.  The hummus was just weird tasting, but they had a curry mayonaise that was pretty good, and then a dill aioli.  I also had the buffalo wings.  The thing is, they aren’t wings.  They are entire drumsticks, and not small ones at that.  Each one is a good 5 or 6 bites of meat.  The sauce is good, not anything spectacular, but the amount of meat on these babies blows me away.  And you get about 7 or 8 of them for, again, $1.95.  Crazy Talk!!!  It’s a plate full!  They also have Jarlsberg Cheese Fondue, Fresh Cut Potato Chips, Cheese Quesadilla, Southwest Black Bean Dip, and Roasted Chicken Flautas.  And that’s just on the $1.95 menu… for $3.95 they have Cornmeal Fried oysters, Ahi Tuna Skewers, and for $4.95 you can get Surf and Turf Kobe Beef Sliders.  There are a few more choices on the more expensive menus, too. They also have a happy hour Dessert selection for $3.95.  Their drinks aren’t crazy cheap, but they are not expensive either.  Most of their cocktails are about $7-8, and they are well made, no skimpy watered down drinks.  So please, go and enjoy the many McCormick and Schmick Happy Hours - I’d love to hear which one is your favorite.  McCormick’s Fish House and Bar located at 9945 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, Beaverton.  Happy Hour is 3pm-6pm M-Sa, 4pm-6pm and 8:30pm-11pm Su, 9pm-11pm M-Th, and 9:30pm-12am F-Sa.  (Whew, got all that?)  Our waitress Whitney was a little slow with our waters, but also, we kinda trickled in at different times, so every time she came back to our table, we had more people there.  She did a excellent job splitting up the bill (most waitresses balk at having to split 7 people 5 ways,) and also let us take home our extra food (usually happy hour is no to-go.)

I was blown away.  Quite literally.  The hand dryers at Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) are the loudest, noisiest, strongest and driest hand dryers around.  That’s the first thing you have to try out there.  The second is the hummus!  It rocks!  It’s way smooth, garlicky, and has roasted red bell peppers.  It’s on the appetizers list… called Humus among us.  (That’s just how they spell it.)  Our server ROCKED because he brought us another thing of hummus and bread for a dollar!  That’s the kind of service I’m talkin’ bout.  He was from Iran, his name was Farhad, and he was teasing us because none of us were drinking beer because we really don’t like it.  (Ok, I like it and Andrew likes it, but none of us wanted it that night.)  Turns out, after he was giving us all crap, he likes cider better anyway!  He made us shandy’s (at HUB they call them Radley’s. I think.  It was hard to hear him.)  Half lager and half lemonade.  (JUST IN CASE some of you didn’t know what a shandy was.)   We loved it.  We had a large 18″ pizza, the four of us (me, Caleb, MANdrew and Micah). We got a  D.N.F (never found out what it stood for, sad) but it had bacon, pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, olive, green and red bell pepper. I like their thin crust pizza, they also make a sicilian style, too, but their thin crust is just crisp on the bottom, not crunchy through the whole crust like some.  Hopworks is a little spendy… probably because you are paying for all the organic-ness.  This is the same guy that was the brewmaster at Laurelwood.  Except everything here is organic.  It’s pretty amazing, a whole restaurant and brewery that is completely organic and sustainable.  Very green. Parking for up to 50 bicycles.  Very Portland.  This is why I love living here.  Located at 2944 SE Powell Blvd, open Su-Th 11am-11pm, F-Sa 11am-12pm.  Happy Hour Su-Th 3pm-6pm and 9pm-close.  F-Sa 10pm-close.  Don’t forget the hand dryers!

I would much rather be telling you about some of the “cool” McMenamin’s around, like Kennedy School, Edgefield, or Baghdad, but tonight I happened to be at the Mall 205 McMenamin’s, so that will have to do.  These are local brewpubs that are only here in WA and OR, aren’t we special! (BTW, I just heard officially that Portland has more microbrews than anywhere in the world - it used to be anywhere outside of Germany.)  I had the Ruby, which is a light wheat beer with raspberries - very refreshing and light.  If you like something a little darker, there is Terminator Stout, or the Porter, which is slightly nuttier, and I prefer it, especially if they have it on nitro.  If you don’t like beer (shock and horror!!!)  you can go with Caleb’s choice, homemade hard cider, or they have fresh pressed apple cider for the kids.  They have a full bar as well, if you’d rather take the hard road.  Our server tonight was Danie, (such a doll, she was from Newcastle, England) and she was right on the money, at my elbow as soon as my pint was dry.  Our table was dirty when we sat down (that happens a lot here) but she was over to clean it in seconds.  I got my usual, the hummus plate sans pita, I just have them put extra cucumbers and tomatoes.  The hummus is not really anything to talk about, it tastes rather pasty in fact, could use a little more olive oil.  It tastes like it’s made from a powder mix.  So why do I keep getting it, you ask?  Because they serve it with large chunks of solid feta, olives and red onions marinated in red wine vinegar.  Yummy!  Caleb likes their spinach artichoke dip, it’s very cheesy, not so much runny like the Newport Grill counterpart next door.  I kind of feel about McMenamin’s that the food is kinda the second reason you would go, the first is if you like McMenamin’s beer.  You can buy it to go, bring your own LIDDED container and they will fill it for you! (Must be beverage style container, they don’t do just tupperware, guys.)  Located at 9710 SE Washington St, open M-Sa 11am-1am, Su 12pm-12am.  Happy Hour everyday.  Check out their Kennedy School (hotel, theater, restaurant and bar) at 33rd and Killingsworth, or Edgefield (a former poor farm and then nursing home, situated on 74 acres) where you can see a movie, concert (just recently went to Death Cab for Cutie there, best outdoor venue I’ve been to, which is another topic for another time), watch a glassblower, get a massage, or a myriad of other things.  McMenamin’s also makes their own wines, whisky, brandy and gin, and roasts their own coffees.  Or don’t pass up the Crystal Ballroom, where you can “dance on air” (the wooden floor is on springs!).  Anywhere you go, I’m sure you’ll love the drinks! 

So for a long time Cadillac Cafe has been a favorite.  I mean, who doesn’t love the place, especially since they remodeled?  But we hadn’t been there in while, and today I was really bummed about my breakfast!  I remember days when your plate was heaped with a huge omelet, and those crispy Cadillac potatoes?  Mmm-mmm-good.  Back then it was, anyway.  I noticed when we went this morning that there was no line.  NO LINE on a Saturday morning.  I though, well, it is only 9:30.  But still, you used to have to camp out to get a table Sat and Sun mornings. Or order to go.  So we waltzed right in, sat down, and ordered.  Everything came super fast, we had mimosas (funny, I told our waiter Justin that I was fine with water, but I got a mimosa anyway, I just figured what the heck, that’s what brunch is for, right?) Caleb ordered the special, which was french toast with pomegranate molasses syrup, but when he got it, there was hardly any syrup on it, Justin said the kitchen was “going light” because it was running out.  So he also brought regular syrup, which was nice, but wouldn’t you think that the kitchen would keep giving normal portions until they ran out, not half portions because they didn’t want to say “We’re out”?  The french toast was wonderful though, dipped in custard, the syrup really tangy.  I had the special omelet, which came with potatoes and breakfast bread.  I subbed the potatoes out for fruit (which cost $2, ridiculous) and all I got was a small slice of pineapple and a small piece of watermelon.  For an extra $2.  You goddabekiddinme.  The omelet was about the size of a Reser’s burrito, and the onions were still raw inside.  It had (some) chorizo sausage, cilantro, tomatoes and sour cream.  For $9, you can get much better omelets elsewhere.  (Like even Elmer’s for heavens sake!)  The breakfast bread was still super yummy though.  And two mimosa’s later, I was not caring as much.  Caleb tried the pear mimosa, really good stuff, and only $4.50.  I think I’m going to be headed for fuller plates next time I want brunch though.  Justin, our server, was attentive and great.  Although I would have appreciated being told my fruit was going to cost me so much, especially after giving up the potatoes. Which brings me to  a funny, at first I just asked Caleb if he wanted my potatoes (he loves hash browns and stuff) and he looks around furtively, and says “Don’t tell anyone, but I don’t really like the Cadillac potatoes.”  But I think he is in the minority, most people love them.  Located at 1801 NE Broadway, open 6am-2:30pm M-F, 7am-3pm Sa-Su.

Take out.   Not really sure how I feel about take out.  I mean, sure, you don’t have to cook, it keeps your house cooler during the summer… but you still have dishes to wash.  Unless you are really good about eating out of the containers.  Or use paper plates.  There’s a novel idea, my whole blog could be useless if we just all used paper plates.  But anyway, Caleb worked late tonight and so I brought him take out down town.  Now, where we used to live in New Jersey, it was great, all the take out places were like total fancy restaurant food, and they delivered for nothing.  Here, you never get delivery unless you call Delivered Dish.  So I called India Grill and ordered a chicken vindaloo, chicken cheera, choley and garlic naan.  This was the first time I had chicken cheera (I’m a big chicken tikka masala fan myself)  but it was good, they should really just call it chicken in saag paneer.  (Saag- spinach, paneer-Indian cheese).  I’m actually a little suspicious, because chicken cheera is supposed to have tomatoes in it, and there were no tomatoes in my dish.  Not even tomatoes masquerading as something.  So maybe I just got leftovers of something.  Their garlic naan is ok, nothing like the naan at Bombay Cricket Club.  I didn’t get my choley (chickpea dish) but they didn’t charge me for it, either.  So I guess that part was a wash.  All told, if you pick it up, it’s an ok price, but if you get it through Delivered Dish it is SOOOO much more expensive!  Probably because you feel like you need to tip the driver.  India Grill is an ok place to eat, the ambiance is horrible (you are upstairs in a victorian house, and it’s smelly and dirty.)  I like the tikka masala, saag paneer, and chicken cheera, but everything else I’ve ever tried was not that great.  And the waiters are never very friendly. I always feel like I’m doing them a disservice by being there.  They do a LOT of take out business… maybe because the waiters make you feel like you need to leave??  Honestly, I like their spices better than Bombay Cricket Club and their prices are better, too, but if you are going for a sit down meal, stick to the Bombay Cricket Club, the ambiance is much better.  India Grill located at 2924 E Burnside, open daily 11am-2pm for lunch and 5pm to 10pm for dinner, M-Th till 10:30pm F-Su.

So I’m really sad when I think a place has so much potential, and just isn’t living up to it.  Take Cooper’s Coffee for instance.  Let me recount the things that have happened to me there….. 

1. The first time I was there, they were a little busy, like 2 people ahead of me in line.  It was about 11:30 in the morning.  Both people in front of me had ordered sandwiches, and all I had was a coffee.  Instead of making the coffee first (which would have been the quickest, also since I was headed back out the door, and the people with sandwiches were eating in) they made the sandwiches first.  Which is fine, the sandwich people came first.  But they made the sandwiches separately.  Not together.  Doubling the time it took.  Ouch.  It was a FULL 15 minutes before I got my coffee to go.
2. The next time, my husband ordered a bagel sandwich, and I had a pastry.  Caleb’s sandwich had a orange juice lid in it.  THE WHOLE LID!  And they didn’t even apologize.
3. Then there were a few ok times, where the coffee was nothing to write home about, but they didn’t screw anything up either.
4. But, yesterday when I went with some friends, 2 out of 3 coffees were made wrong and had to be re-made, and none of the coffees were mixed the second time around, so all the syrup and espresso was at the bottom, with the milk on top.  At first I just thought my coffee was gross, and then when I got to the bottom realized what had happened.
5. And today, when giving them their last chance (obviously I am a big believer in many chances) they fed me the most disgusting mushroom gouda quiche I’ve ever tasted.  And this is just a matter of taste, some people may think it’s wonderful.  But it’s full of nutmeg and cloves - NOT a combination that goes well with gouda and mushrooms.  Who the heck is thinking these things up?  

So, obviously some of these things are matters of personal taste, and some are just plain laziness.  But overall, just not happy with Cooper’s Coffee.  And so sad about it, too, because I think it’s a neat little place with cute artwork every month and nice to sit at with your laptop, but unless they get their act together, they are not going to have a lasting clientele.  (Unless there is a big population out there that like nutmeg clove mushroom gouda quiche!)  I haven’t come across the employees being overly friendly, but not really rude either.  Just sort of blah.  So if you have a good experience, let me know, because for some strange reason I really WANT to like this place!  Located at 6049 SE Stark, on Mt. Tabor.  Open daily 6am to 9ish pm.