Nel Centro

On a cool evening a few months ago, I sat with friends on the patio at Nel Centro. Three fire pits allowed heat to drift across our table. The flames, reflected in window after window of the hotel, were sometimes three layers deep. Sheltered from the transit mall, it was a little oasis. Vines climbed [...]

Tabla Mediterranean Bistro

Since I first reviewed Tabla in 2006, it has been through quite a few transitions. There have been several chef changes, and for a while, I thought the food was average, at best. Recently, under the watchful eye of executive chef Anthony Cafiero, the food has changed.

Cafiero isn’t exactly a newcomer to the Portland restaurant scene. He spent two years with Cathy Whims at Nostrana, and then another year under

First Impressions: Full Plate

Temporarily closed – 6/15
I’ve been watching Marco Shaw’s new takeout place on NE Fremont and 42nd moving ever so slowly towards completion. It finally opened on the 9th, and since I was in the area, I dropped by to take a look.
If you can’t picture the location, it is right next to Tuk Tuk Thai, [...]

Alba Osteria – a New Look

By Bruce Bauer
Here’s a stellar offer for all of you living in Portland. For the rest of you, should you find yourselves with plans to visit our fair city, pay attention. Here’s the deal: In the next five minutes or so you spend reading this, you can have an extra $3,000 in your pocket! [...]

Vindalho

Vindalho- vin-dah-loo’ – Indian (from Portuguese vinha d’alhos: vin(wine) alho (garlic): fish, vegetables, or meat (most commonly chicken or lamb) prepared in the Goan style, with vinegar, garlic, sometimes potatoes, and tomatoes in a spicy curry.
Vindalho was opened in 2005 by David Machado, owner of Café Lauro a few miles east on Division. David Anderson, [...]

Pasha

I love Pasha.
Specifically, I love Pasha’s lunch buffet.
This is why…
It’s the middle of a hurried weekday. Usually, I graze intermittently to sustain my strength, but today I’ve been working and running around all morning and into the afternoon, and breakfast seems days ago. The noon hour has long passed, and I really need to [...]

Clyde Common

Clyde Common restaurant in Portland Oregon
Many restaurants are emblematic of certain eras in the cities they inhabit. Think of the well known Brasserie Lipp in Paris in the 1920’s, when artists and writers milled about, drinking cheap red wine and eating hearty sausages and stews, while Ernest Hemingway jotted it all down on paper for [...]

Habibi

Until fairly recently, the Long Island Pizzaria (sic) on SW Morrison was a popular if dingy dive for young or otherwise thrifty people hungry for New York style pie heavy on the tomato, cheese and oil. The surprise inside was that the Lebanese couple running the place also offered a short but essential list [...]

Park Kitchen

PFD Restaurant of the Year, 2006
Don’t tell his wife, but Scott Dolich is having an affair with kumquats. Not some blond bimbo from the Pearl, but rather a tart little fruit from Southern California. I, for one, couldn’t be more thrilled.
When I was growing up, my parents had a little kumquat tree on the front [...]

Review: Aladdin’s Café

Updated 7.06
There have been a few rumors floating around about Aladdin Café lately. I decided to make some return visits and update my review from last winter, and I’m glad I did. Happy to say, things have only changed for the better.There have been a few rumors floating around about Aladdin Café lately. I decided [...]

Review: Alba Osteria and Enoteca

Maybe it’s just me, but I get lost every time I go to Alba Osteria. Hidden away in Hillsdale, it is a little bit out of the way – another one of those places that you could drive past a million times and not notice. Even if it weren’t for the food, it would be [...]

Serratto

Note: much has changed at this restaurant since this review was written. It is currently in the process of being updated (3/10)
Located in the Italian restaurant row on NW 21st and Kearney, Serratto is a huge open space with soaring old growth timber beams. The well-designed lighting makes the earth tone room inviting – think [...]

Next Page »