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 [...]

Hot Pot City

[Updated 10/10/09 - Hot Pot City continues to give the same level of quality and service as we discussed in the original review we did here in 2007. However, the restaurant seems to have been "discovered". There are often long waits, especially for counter seating and during prime lunch hours (12-1:30pm). Weekends often fare a bit better. Service can be brisk or completely overwhelmed.]

Beaker & Flask

When is a bar not a bar? That thought wandered across my mind as w and I were sitting in Beaker & Flask a couple of nights ago in the midst of what was turning into one of the most satisfying dinners we’d had in a long time. The reason for that musing was when B&F was getting started, the buzz around town was that bartending savant Kevin Ludwig was finally fulfilling his dream of opening his own place,and won’t it be a cool place to grab

El Gaucho

To many, El Gaucho epitomizes what a steakhouse should be. It feels sophisticated. The atmosphere is formal, the lighting dim and romantic, and lots of dark wood provides a backdrop to tinkling stemware and white linens. Live jazz wafts from the background as tuxedo-clad waiters scurry by with carts for tableside Caesar salads, the darkness punctuated by an occasional burst of flame from a bananas Foster in the making. To many people, this type of ambience is it, as fancy as they will ever dine, a place

East India Company

Downtown Portland is dotted with Indian restaurants and food carts. It has gotten to the point where, when making plans with friends, you have to make sure you all are talking about the same restaurant; otherwise some of your party will invariably end up at the wrong place. That is what happened to me the first time I went to East India Company.

H5O bistro & bar – First Impression

H5O (and that’s h-five-oh, in case you were wondering) bistro & bar is a part of Portland’s newest boutique hotel compound: Hotel Fifty. The bistro is under the helm of Texas transplant, Nicholas A. Yanes, a chef with a resume of high-brow dining rooms around Dallas, along with a degree from the Western Culinary Institute.

This affects the menu in interesting ways-it’s certainly not stuck on localvore

Karam Lebanese

I first took a look at Karam back in early 2005. I think it is time for a much longer review and update.

Lebanon is a small country on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean. The name is from Lubnan, the word for white, to describe the snow covered peaks of the Mount Lebanon Range. Working from Egyptian hieroglyphs, early settlers in the area made a contribution to history by developing the basis of the alphabet used today throughout the Western world.

Koji Osakaya

[Koji's now has over 6 locations in the Portland area and an outpost in Seattle. This review only refers to the downtown Portland location on SW Broadway, and the NE 15th and Weidler location near Lloyd Center]
Although Koji’s was never what I’d call grade ‘A’ Japanese food, for many years it was one of my [...]

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! [...]

Bijou Cafe

New/Classy/Veggie
You can be healthy/progressive and be a “real” restaurant!
The best way to sum up the Bijou Cafe’s standing in Portland’s breakfast scene is this: Out of 36 restaurants listed in Frommer’s Portland guide, only three serve breakfast: the Heathman, Peanut Butter & Ellies (which made it as a kiddie/novelty place), and the Bijou.
And the best [...]

Review: Fat City Cafe

Here’s how you do a Breakfast with the Fellas. You meet too damn early on a weekday, ’cause fellas have to work. You can’t meet on a weekend, because fellas have to sleep, or they have to get up and do stuff that isn’t a breakfast with the fellas.
You show up on time so you [...]

Review: Baker and Spice

Baker and Spice is nowhere near my house, yet I seem to have developed quite a knack for inventing errands that take me to or near its Hillsdale location. “Ummmm… I need to go to Fred Meyer. Yes, the six other Fred Meyer stores closer to home were plumb out of tulip bulbs, so I [...]

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