The food and beer are reliable, nothing exceptional, but solid. (Except, of course, when it's not.) Fish and chips are one of the better options.

CLOSED 9/6/2007
for more information, see this OregonLive Breaking News story

Remember Jellyfish? It's gone, and now Alberta Street Oyster Bar and Grill is in its place. Not that anyone would confuse the two.

I know nada from oysters, so I brought someone who does. She was impressed with the oyster selection, and the fact that you could order a half dozen and get one of each type. She started her meal with the Bloody Mary Oyster Shooter with fresh grated horseradish, which was well received.

ASOBG has a good selection of wines and drinks, and they have beer on tap as well. Out of a halfdozen or so taps, I recall Laurelwood's Motherlode Golden, Alameda's Porter, and Rogue Dead Guy. There is also a bar happy hour menu which I've been assured kicks ass. The atmosphere is lovely and darkish, and the service some of the best in the city.

First and second courses looked much more intriguing than entrees, so she decided to get the steamed mussels, pan-fried veal sweetbreads, and fries. These were all very good. The mussels came in a tomato-saffron-chorizo broth. The sweetbreads came in a raisin sauce with chestnuts. I had never had sweetbreads before, but they were tasty, I have to admit. And the fries were quite good.

I ordered the Dungeness Crab Napoleon with Spicy Black Bean Puree, Avocado and Blood Orange Reduction. It was the highlight of the evening for me: huge chunks of crab, avocado, and the intriguing blood orange sauce—sublime! I can't wait to make an excuse to have that again. That was followed with a burger on ciabatta with bleu cheese and bacon, which should have been great, but wasn't. It was cooked to order, and all the components were good, but together, it didn't gel. There was too much ciabatta, the cheese and bacon were lost in the taste of the hamburger, and I lost interest quickly.

Dessert failed to stand up to the first course either. The apple upsidedown cake was good, but its spotlight was stolen by the ginger ice cream, redolent of Ting Ting Jahe. I almost didn't order the donut holes with coffee pot de creme and vanilla froth because of the word froth—am I the only foodie who irritated by turning food into foam?? The donut holes were really disappointing, with the coffee pot de creme the best part.

It would be easy—really easy—to drop a lot of money here. Our total, with a shooter and a beer, was $59.

The Alibi must be noted primarily for its incredible Tiki bar atmosphere, complete with waterfall! and Tuesday night barbershop quartet(?!), and not generally for food. Looking for karoake on the weekends? Umbrella drinks? Amazing neon you can read by? This is the joint. The kitchen, a bit less than inspired. But karoake, atmosphere and the Saturday midnight buffet they have in spades. And, this is one of the few non-dance bars that seems truly mixed, age-wise, sexual-preference, hipsters vs normal folk, and racially -- oh, and karoake talent, natch.

When it comes to taking visitors out to dinner, there are just a couple places I consider. Cafe Castagna, Ken's Place, and Bastas. These are my special occasion places, places where the atmosphere is good, the service is good, and the food, of course, is good.

Bastas is my favorite Italian. In a former Tasty-Freez. Yeah!

Though once you step foot inside, you might never know it. You enter into the sophisticated bar, and unless you're doing their excellent happy hour, you eat in either the garden room or the other room (I'm sure it has a name). They offer, of course, lots of wine, including by the glass, and a couple beers on tap.

Our downfall is the appetizers. There are quite a few, and they all appear to be yummy. The carpaccio is a full plate of raw thin-sliced beef dressed in olive oil and parmesan, with lemon on the side. The caesar is not as garlicky as I generally like but is still one of the best in town.

Entrees. Yum. The pasta is a little less spectacular than other dishes sometimes, however, it's good. But there is so much to love amongst the entrees. The $19 steak is the best $19 steak in town, cooked to order, nested with the most decadent mashed potatoes around. The crispy fried chicken (is that Italian?) is also so very good, crispy and moist and delicious. Their version of cioppin is a delight, with lots of broth to soak up. And the lamb chops cause my partner to go into fits of pleasure.

Desserts also are good, though a little bit of a let down for me after the whirlwind beauty of the appetizers and entrees. But the fact that you can park in their lot, right there around the restaurant, is pretty darn good.

Downsides: it's a former Tasty-Freez, so when it gets full, it's like a bus station. The chairs are fine if you don't spend too much time in them, but they're torture in a long formal dinner. And, I tend to spend too much money there.

Ah, Biddy's. In spite of owner changes and venue changes, they've never forgot what makes them tick. It's a modest place, wood and smoke, covered with political posters and beer geegaws, but mostly political posters, some in Gaelic, most in English.

But probably what you're interested in is the beer, irish whiskey, and a smidge of food. We ate, it was nothing really to write home about, everything between $3-$8. They do offer cheese fries, served with steak fries with not quite enough cheese. But the fries were good.

They offer music every night of the week, a quite a bit of it free. Given that this is a reasonably small place, you'll probably actually want to like the music, but they keep the events calendar on the web site up to date.

Now beer, that's something. They serve imperial pints of
-Stella Artois
-Pyramid Hefeweizen
-Harp
-Pilsner Urquell
-Macs
-Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
-Deschutes Black Butte Porter
-PBR
-New Belgium Fat Tire
-Bass
-Smithwicks
-Full Sail Amber
-Bridgeport IPA

with

-Beamish
-Guinness
-Boddingtons

on a beer engine.

The beer we had was good, and as we were there early, it wasn't too smoky. With a Irish jam session happening in the middle of the room, it was tremendously pleasant.

• BarFly

Micha writes (10/2001),

"Limited ale selection although they pour Fat Tire Amber Ale which sits well with me. Their Indian chicken tandoori pizza is really tasty, although they use some weird pre-packaged crust. Also good salad with "African herb" dressing - that's what the waitperson called it. No idea what's in it. Lemon and then a lot of things which are not lemon."

Mirfy adds: "Andrea does a great job of having a good red wine available by the glass!"

For many of my friends, the allure of the place is the garage door. Binks is about as big as a gas station, but it's certainly an enjoyable hangout spot, with good salads, and pizza made to order. And, they have one of the best jukeboxes in Portland!

Cafe Castagna is one of my favorite special occasion places, and I love to invent special occasions so we can go there. The triangular room can get a bit loud, but the service is attentive and good, and the food is just reliably great.

In nice weather, you can sit outside looking at the side street and the giant flowering artichokes. Wonderful!

The menu is made up of a dozen or so starters, priced from $5-$13, including salads (their caesar is one of the best in town), and everyone's favorite aranchini (fried risotto balls that are filled with melty fontina cheese).

The cocktail list is short (though you can get most anything that isn't blended) and fun, with inventive drinks with great names. The Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba, get it?) is made with thyme-infused vodka, and is one of the most interesting things I've tasted in months (in a good way). A tart cherry fizz is about what you'd expect, and what a good idea! There is an extensive wine list, including ten by the glass, but no beer on tap. They do have about 15 beers to choose from, however.

There are always a couple pizzas, plate-sized, crispy-crusted and quite good (not Apizza Scholls good, but good all the same), around $11. Again, inventiveness is the order of the day: when we were in, they had a flammekuechen pizza—and our resident deutschophile enjoyed it alot.

Entrees range from comfort food to comfort food, $11-$21. I had their hamburger and fries with cheddar and bacon. Everything about the hamburger and fries is just great. They have a good bun from Pearl Bakery, a good-sized but not huge hamburger patty seasoned and cooked to order, it's a good balance of bread to meat (to cheese to bacon, if you choose), accompanied with tomatoes that taste like tomatoes and homemade zucchini pickles. And then there are the great french fries. Other standards on the menu include the baked penned with cheese, which is a huge serving and one of the better mac-n-cheeses I've had in a restaurant, and the flat-iron steak with fries.

There are always new things amongst the entrees and they're also really good. The hungarian goulash was delicious, perfectly cooked, though it came with a really bland polenta (which perked right up with the goulash sauce). Lamb with white beans was a casseroley dish, with lovely lamb (and I'm not a lamb fan), and the most luscious beans. As a testament to how good that was, that plate went back to the kitchen clean—all excess bean liquor was sopped up with the Pearl baguette slices on the table.

Drawbacks: hmmm. It's loud at times, it's popular, and some of the plates (especially in the starters) are smaller than others. Your server can be very helpful with this, letting you know what is tiny and what is generous—if you ask.

All in all, this isn't a cheap dinner -- for two, it generally runs us $50 before tip, but it's one of my favorites.

Almost a year after they opened, we thought it was time to revisit Cafe Wonder, in the daylight basement of the Wonder Ballroom. I'm happy to say that while there have been some shifts in the menu, it's still good, and still reasonable.

On the bar side (and realistically, the entire place is in sight of the bar) they have 4 beers on tap (Lagunitas IPA, Pyramid Hefeweizen, Fat TIre Amber, and Miller High Life). Luckily, they also have good selection of bottled beers, wine, and cocktails, including an afterschool special for welldrinks, $2, 5-6:30 pm, which packs the place.

The menu is short and simple: the east side's cheapest steakfrites (steak and fries, $14.50), mac-n-cheese, fish-n-chips, fried chicken, veggie risotto, caesar salad, a chicken sandwich and a hamburger, with a range of prices starting at $7.

We ordered the caesar, which was tasty and huge. It's not the city's best caesar, but it's quite edible all the same. We also ordered the fried chicken. According to the menu, it's a quarter chicken, so we were a little surprised to have it come as a breast and a leg. Still, I suppose those are probably the favorite parts of chicken. The chicken was fine, but the real standout was the tiny serving of greens, which may well be the best in town. Rich with pork, complex and slightly bitter, these are what greens are supposed to be.

Servings are generous and there is none of this well-intentioned but badly executed fusion cuisine one sees in other parts of Albina. And, the fries are great.

We also had great service: a waitress who seemed to have a degree in mindreading, always at the ready to get us more alcohol or more napkins. The room is quite lovely as well. Oh, smoke-free and free wifi, too. Now, if only it was also child-free...

Just saw this on extramsg.com:

Happy Hour or France on the Cheap
If a Paris café seems too far to travel for your evening repast, Carafe offers food and drink specials during happy hour —Monday through Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pair a Slow-roasted Pork Sandwich ($3) or Goat Cheese Spread on walnut crostini ($3) with a French Martini with vodka, crème de Framboise and pineapple juice or a Jupa Gin with gin, fresh squeezed lime juice, sugar syrup and tonic. Carafe's Happy Hour menu also offers beer, wine and aperitifs...and of course, pommes frites ($3).

Main (non-happy hour) review is in Food, downtown

Think of a Parisian sidewalk cafe. It might be just like Carafe. There are drinks, and beer (I believe), but the emphasis is on wine by the carafe. This place is not cheap, but it's pretty reasonable, all things considered. The lunch menu is quite a bit cheaper than dinner, with most of the same entrees. I have yet to have something that didn't thrill me to my toes here—mussels, charcuterie, confit, salad, sandwiches, entrees, dessert—yum!

I was there most recently on a romantic lunch, so I didn't get a chance to take notes on prices (though the two of us ate to bursting, sans alcool, for $26). It's got great ambience, and good service, and lunch entree prices top out around $13 (for the bifsteak/frites), with dinner entrees are a bit more (like $20ish for the bifsteak/frites). I keep coming back for the hamburger and the steak, both with great fries. And no one will hold your bad high school French against you.

The downside here is that it's small, so if you really want to get in, make reservations. When it's full, it's noisy. And, like so many French bistros in France, the bathrooms are an adventure. Ask for the key at the hostess stand, and you'll find the washrooms in the parking structure. Hey, but if you've been in a Turkish toilet, you know you've got nothing to complain about.

See also:

• Happy Hour

Do you like fish? Or are you celiac (gluten-allergic to you, bud)? Or pining for the northern midwest? Need to feel that Green Bay Packers spirit? Get thee to Corbett Fish House. If you don't like fish, you could have chicken, a gardenburger or a salad. But if you like fish, well, you could sure do a lot worse than here.

The menu online isn't up to date, sadly. Appetizers include a number of seafood you'd expect, plus sweet potato fries, packer fries and deep fried cheese curd. Now, the latter is just plain wrong, which explains why it disappeared off our table as soon as it arrived. Packer Fries are their great french fries covered in melted cheddar and pickled jalapeno. The jalapeno is easy to pick off, for those who chose to. Prices range from $2.50-$12.

They offer soups, salads, sandwiches, which I'm sure are great ($3.75-$13). But the fish and chips are the thing ($10-$18). For those of you who care, they follow the Monterey Bay Aquarium guidelines. They have:

• prawns
• oysters
• yellow perch
• walleye
• halibut
• chile-fried catfish

They also have fish tacos, three different types made with halibut and chile-fried catfish, which are yummy, huge and filling.

Everything that is gluten-free is clearly marked, and that is most of the menu, so celiacs have lots of choices here. It's also wheelchair accessible (though there is a lip at the front door).

Of course, fish and chips requires beer, and Corbett offers a full bar. When we were there, they had on tap:

• Mirror Pond
• Alaskan Amber
• Fish Mudshark Porter
• Widmer Hefeweizen
• Terminal Gravity ESG
• Walking Man IPA
• PBR
• Michelob Light
• Pilsner Urquell
• Guinness

Happy hour is 3-5 daily; no drink specials, but they do offer 8 items for $3.95:

• deep fried cheese curds
• fried oysters or chicken strips & fries
• a catfish sandwich
• calamari
• a caesar
• bay shrimp cocktail,
• oyster shooters.

Breakfast all day. Same day service. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, beer and bar. I'm trying to get excited about this, honest. We went in for dinner, and the best part was the fresh draught beer. We ordered a couple burgers, one with a side of chili, the other with a side salad, and an order of cheese fries. The burgers were nothing to write home about. Chili, thick and unspectacular. Side salad, almost inedible. Cheese fries were pricy, soggy, unseasoned and thoroughly underwhelming.

A lot of people love C&S for breakfast.

So we went back after maybe a year and a half away. Dear g-d! First of all, new owners. What was the restaurant side is now the bar side. You walk in, into the bar (because the restaurant door is locked), and the louvered doors to the restaurant are shut. Hmmm, looks like you can't eat in the restaurant, right? No, you can, if you don't mind being in an oddly unfinished room with no heat.

That said, I would have prefered that to sitting in the bar. Three TVs, with three different channels, compete with neon and the video crack addicts for your attention. And, it's smokey. Really smokey.

They of course have a full bar, a wall of wine, and maybe 6 taps of unexceptional stuff. Maybe half of those are micros you can get anywhere (Widmer, Redhook, New Belgium). The wonderful Widmer KGB imperial stout is no longer there.

Breakfast was reasonable and okay, which is to say, nowhere as decent as it used to be, and not recommended. The "sausage and pepper bacon" gravy tasted of neither (but there was a lot of it). The ragin' cajun omelette was completely overdone, with icky so-called andouille, lackluster overdone home fries, and not really toasted english muffin. Coffee—Denny's stylee. Service was friendly, however.

Essence of China is one of those restaurants tucked inside a building—except for the sandwich board, and the stencil on the door glass, you'd never know it was there. When I hear combination plate, I think dive. And I love combination plates. But this place is quite pleasant and clean and definitely undivey, though they do have a full bar. Lunch there recently was pleasant and good—not the best Chinese food, but reasonable and fast.

I learned a few things while there. Fried wonton are what are more commonly known as Crab Rangoon. Shanghai wonton, however, are wonton, filled with shrimp and pork with a gingery dipping sauce, very tasty and quite a few of them. And, stay away from the combo plates! I got Plate B, aka egg foo yong, pork fried rice, and fried shrimp. The fried shrimp were great, but the pork fried rice neither tasted nor appeared to contain any pork. The egg foo yong was deep-fried and covered with a yellow gravy.

Everyone else at the table must have gotten the memo, because they all ordered off the Specials menu and did fine. An order of Tofu and Vegetables came to the table as Shrimp and Vegetables, but was otherwise fine: shrimp cooked appropriately with an interesting array of fresh veg in a white sauce. General Tso's Chicken was rated an 8.5 of 10, sweet and spicey as expected. The Sesame Chicken was lovely but not really very sesamey or similar to other dishes of the name. And Kung Pao Chicken was solid, filling and good, everything diced into cubes.

I wouldn't go out of my way for this, but 5 of us ate lunch for about $30, which is nothing to scoff at.

This restaurant is closed as of 4/29/2006

Helser's appears to be about to implode due to its popularity. But it's popular for a good reason: a good breakfast at a fairly reasonable price. Cheap eaters will want to get there before 9 (probably, quite a bit before nine, as it seems to fill fairly early), and order off their early bird menu. The scotch eggs are insanely good, as are the occasionally offered potato pancake sandwiches. And while I'm still waiting to find a place that does french toast as good as my own, this is the best I've found in a while. Decent coffee, and the opportunity to start the day with alcohol are other bonuses. On nice days, there are tables outside as well.

When I heard about Henry's the first time, I thought, right, 100 beers on tap—how likely is that? I had all sorts of expectations that it would be suburban and sportsy and not serious. And you know, I was totally & completely wrong.

The bar has several different levels, including a lovely outdoor patio. You can watch sports on the huge flatscreen tvs, or, you can sit so you don't even know that there are giant flatscreen tvs. The volume is on mute, anways. It's a classy place, and hooligans are asked to leave immediately. Really. I saw some guys come in who were obviously already inebriated, they treated a waitress badly, and several managers went over and helped them out.

You can sit well away from the bar, but if you're serious about beer, you want to sit at the bar. They have a cool ice ring to set your beer on, and their bartenders know the beers well and serve them in appropriate glassware. (The wait staff haven't a clue).

Be sure to ask if the beer is old, and if you can have a taste. Somethings don't move so fast at Henry's.

For your friends who don't get beer: there's mixed drinks. Though I wouldn't know anything about that.

I wouldn't expect a lot from the food (this is a Pacific Coast restaurant, so solid but unexceptional chain fare), but if you order during happy hour, at least it's cheap.

Sometimes, you just want a comfortable place to eat a decent meal. Some comfort food with a glass of red or a good drink. Something really tasty. You could really do a lot worse than Holden's. Drinks are strong and tasty, and the menu is studded with yummy treats that will bring you back, like fish tacos, the stuffed chicken breast, pepper steak, the burger, or the crispy fried chicken. Desserts are good too. Most entrees are in the $10-$20 range, mixed drinks in the $7 range. And on a nice evening, you can sit outside, or inside with the garage door open.

If you look at the microbrew movement in Portland, Horse Brass is right there at the beginning. According to their website:

Established in 1976, many of Oregon's own craft brewers have been regulars here, enjoying the likes of Guinness and Fullers ESB well before the craft beer movement.

The food menu is stocked with sausage plates, scotch eggs, ploughman's lunches, fish & chips, and pasties, all of them good.

Terran writes,

I think the Horse Brass deserves a listing in food as well under beer - their Bangers & Chips is one of my favorite low-budget lunches in town. Two tasty sausages dipped in sweet hot mustard with greasy potato chips, and a pint of hard cider on the side...mmm.

The breakfasts, particularly the english breakfasts, are a groaning board of food. They do offer American breakfast as well as everything ala carte, but if your cardiologist will allow, do try the full traditional english breakfast with its fried eggs, Irish back bacon, baked ham, English banger sausage, Heinz beans straight from the can, tomatoes, fried potatoes and fried bread.

They pull out the big screen to show English Premier League Soccer live.

If you're a craft beer lover, you've got to go to Horse Brass. Unless, of course, you can't stand smoke.

Huber's is known for two things. Spanish coffees, flamboyantly made, and turkey. You're forgiven if you had no idea of the latter. Most people do come for the delicious, potent Spanish coffees and the scenery: the fireworks involved in making a Spanish coffee at the table by a hunky waiter, the incredible old bar done all clubby with the arched stained-glass skylight, the terrazo floor, and lots of stained wood—solid Philippine mahogany paneling, and the see and be seen crowd, most notably, the Blazers. It's Portland's oldest restaurant. The restaurant portion looks out on 3rd Avenue, while the bar is tucked inside, accessible from 3rd or Stark.

We went there with a bunch of scooterists to try out the lunch menu. Here's what I heard and tasted. Almond-encrusted turkey on a bed of spinach (I think) was simple and good. The hot turkey sandwich is the last of its kind in Portland: served on white bread with your choice of yummy dressing or powdered mashed potatoes, it hits the nostalgia button but good. The buffalo burger with fries was good, but overdone. Cobb salad is hard to do wrong, and Huber's certainly does fine. Pan-fried oysters were good, but the breading was distracting. And finally, turkey noodle soup—fine, about what you might expect. Everything, save specials and seafood, comes in under $10.

In the end, Huber's is solid, a little pricey, and unexceptional for lunch. Spanish coffees, now that's something else altogether.

Karam has always been a foodie's wet dream, but I've never been convinced. Sure, it's a nice atmosphere and they have alcohol, they make pita to order (and whole wheat if you ask nicely), and they have a huge, unusual menu. Maybe it's just because I've been such a fan of Ya Hala. Who knows?

We went for lunch, and I was pleased to see a big breakfast menu (15 items from $3.50-$7) also available at lunch. Then I ignored it. Did I mention the lunch menu? With 17 ala carte main courses ($7.50-$19.95), 11 sandwiches ($5-$6.50), 10 pizza/calzoney things ($6-$8.95), 8 salads ($4.50-$9), and 4 stews ($8-$9.95), it might take a while to decide. We ordered the meat mezze, which has one of everything, a falafel sandwich with baba ghanouj, Fatte with lamb, and the lamb shank. The hummus and baba ghanouj are excellent. The Fatte, a layered dish with pita, roasted eggplant, garbanzo beans, pine nuts and yogurt was beautiful and yummy. The lamb shank came in a broth with vegetables, also gorgeous. Portions were huge, and everything was very tasty—we were all moaning over our food. We were groaning, but still ordered dessert (6 from $2.25-$4.50) (katayef bil-ashta and katayef bil-jos) which were also really good.

While there are lots of vegetarian choices and ways to eat cheap, the menu is kinda pricey. And the service—leisurely. Our lunch took over an hour and a half, making all of us late, and for three folks going a bit overboard, cost us $20 each. It's certainly easy to eat under $10 if you show some self-control, but you might as plan for it taking a while. It's worth it.

more photos

Breakfast is served from 10-3 on the weekends. The menu is pretty straightforward: a handful of omelettes like the Super Protein (stuffed with bacon, ham, sausage and cheese), the Ham and Cheese (which is big chunks of ham in a cheese omelette) and the Green Eggs and Ham (a pesto version of the Ham and Cheese); a handful of scrambles; a breakfast burrito; egg, meat and carb combos; and a couple kid's options (leggo my Eggo!).

We've been there several times now, and it's a good honest, tasty breakfast. Two omelettes and a coffee rang in at $16. While the roasted potatoes aren't quite as good as Genie's, they're still pretty darn good, topped with raw garlic, parsley and parmesan. If you're familiar with Laurelwood's garlic fries, it's not quite that garlicky, but if you don't like (raw) garlicky potatoes, you probably won't like these.

Toast products come with little commercial jam tubs, but it's actually good.

It's a good, satisfying breakfast with the option of letting your children run free, or having a bit of the hair of the dog. Of course, if you're allergic to children, sit in the bar—or go somewhere else.

If you don't like kids, don't bother with this. Beer, some organic, a bar, and plenty of space and toys and other kids to distract your little ones while you suck down a cold one.

Dude, I just got the best festivus present ever! The New Old Lompoc project on N Failing, aka Failing Williams, aka 5Q, is open! They have all the Old Lompoc Brewery beers on tap, natch, including an insane five (5!) winter seasonals, as well as hard liquor. Two nitro thingees. They have this sophisticated space, not as self-consciously cool as Pix next door, but lovely in an astere, calm sort of way. They have—wait for it!—a garage door (thankfully not open this time of year). They have these crazy huge long booths which practically demand interaction, and appear to be built for beer lovers. And real adult food. The macaroni & cheese of the day yesterday was a rib-eye in a red wine-cream sauce over penne—a lovely stroganoff of sorts. The steak was delicious and a steal at $14, presented over the rich, creamy and thoroughly homemade mashed potatoes, and perfectly done veggies. Meatloaf, well damn, I loved that, too. They have a healthy list of appetizers, salads and sandwiches too, and the fries look great. No wi-fi yet. They'll start brewing in the spring, and distilling in the summer. Damn!

Regular house pints are $3.50. There's a happy hour, too.

Other Press:

• Like a breath of fresh air, the Fifth Quadrant beckons
  Liz Colie Gadberry, the Portland Tribune

I know some folks love LHH, so I tried to give it another chance. No luck. I tried a friend's margarita and it was great. I ordered one and it was awful. (Is it just me?). I then had a caeasar salad with calamari. The calamari was pedestrian, fried calamari, and the salad was difficult to eat, with a bad dressing. My comrades had similar experiences. Snapper on spaetzle looked great on the menu, but was kinda greasy, and there wasn't any difference in texture between the two. Stove devil beef was too sweet, not cooked to order, and it didn't have any flavor, served with sticky rice that was just a clumpy and flavorless. The one success was the grand marnier creme brulee, topped with hazelnuts.

Fancy this: it's Saturday afternoon. You go into MacTarnahan's Taproom, and while there are only a couple tables occupied, there is a Wait to be Seated sign. The beautiful porch overlooking industrial NW Portland appears closed in spite of it being a nice spring day. We are seated and given menus, listing all sorts of pretentious sounding food. We order some beer (an imperial pint is $3.50) and some fries ($4). They do have all their beers on tap, and the room is both airy and Germanic with wood and beer signs, and the taps at the bar are beautiful. The fries are very good.

• about the brewery and beer
• happy hour

The Mississippi is as comfortable as they come with its painted floors, mix-matched furniture, and post-collegiate feel. They have a couple taps, too, salads, and much improved, store-made pizza (which they'll deliver if you live in the neighborhood and they have a spare person). We had good salads and slices. Not the best pizza in town, but a comfortable place with good ambiance, decent pizza, good beer, and quite frequently live music.

Watching England vs. Paraguay at 7 AM, by Audrey Eschright

Like a real British Isles public house, the M&S is really visually interesting. Or overwhelming. I prefer to think the former. Beer signs elbow photos elbowing bookcases and chalkboards and beer towels.

They have wine, and obviously the full bar (specialty drinks are $4.75-$6), but this place is about the beer on tap. Though the last time I was there, there was a large group of guys drinking Kokanee ($2) from bottles.

There are 20 taps, served generally in imperial pints. These are listed on a chalkboard behind the bar with name and alcohol by volume. Here's what they had when we were there.

• two Belgians (Lindeman's Framboise and a rotator, $5.50 a glass)
• 2 casks (North Coast's Red Seal and a rotator, $4.50)
• imports ($4.50)
  • Smithwicks
  • Bass
  • Newcastle Brown
  • Stella Artois
  • Strongbow Cider
  • Boddingtons
  • Guinness
• and of course micros ($4)
• Terminal Gravity IPA
• Deschutes Inversion IPA
• Boont Amber
• Mirror Pond Pale Ale
• Anchor Steam
• Elysian ESB
• Amnesia Porter
• Pelican Cream Ale

They also have bottled beer, sorted by style, ranging from $2-$12.50, including 22 classic belgian and farmhouse ales, and 6 trappist ales.

They do have food here, but it's british pub food, and not gastropub food by any means. Things like the fish and chips (these being not-quite steak fries) and sausage rolls are reliable and tasty. Snacks are under $5, cold sandwiches under $7, entrees under $9.

Just got back from dinner at Nostrana. If you've been in the previous occupants (Sue Bee's, Kienow's), you won't recognize it: it's all chic and gorgeous and hard wooden surfaces and a giant wall rack of wine. It's beee-autiful. And the menu is full of all sorts of Italian words that weren't at all recognizeable.

One way to get great service, or better service: take pictures of the place before going in. They'll think you're a reporter (and they'll ask, too).

We had a selection of things from various parts of the menu: a charcuterie plate from Salumi, the Nostrana salad, a pizza with sausage and sweet peppers, a steak, and some semifreddo. The meat plate was delicious, but very spare, 4 different styles of meats from Mario Batali's dad, served with big slices of crusty Italian breads, and a cranberry jam. The Nostrana salad is a caesar made with radicchio, and the serving is large and impressive. We liked it: it has an impressive crunch and the dressing was oily rather than creamy. Radicchio, I'm told, is usually bitter, which I didn't know at the time, but I scarfed my portion of the salad.

The pizza was a 12" version, which comes to the table uncut. I have to agree with the foodies who complain that it should come cut. It just should. The pizza was fine—a crackery crust, a tiny layer of sauce and cheese, sausage and peppers, all in balance. Nice. It's not going to give Apizza Scholls a run for their money, but I wasn't expecting it would.

The steak was our big ticket item ($22). It was small and came with maybe six or seven little wedges of potato and several leaves of kale, dwarfed on a huge plate and it was dressed in a tomato-pancetta sauce. The sauce seemed unnecessary as the steak was tender and rich, perfectly cooked, with just a smidge of fat or gristle.

In the end, it was a nice experience but one that didn't seem worth $66 to me. I can't fault the food—it was good. I'm sure part of it is my inner cheapskate that wants to feel very full after $66. That cheapskate also doesn't want to rely on guessing or having to ask the meaning of non-English words, and wonders why a main entree is served as this spare, slight thing (what, how expensive are potatoes or kale these days?). Part of it certainly was the service, which was competent but not the level I'd expect for that sort of cash. It just wasn't the epiphany with angels singing that I expect for $66. (though I could occasionally hear opera above the dull roar of the diners)

First, let me say: this is a family restaurant. So don't get your hopes up about gourmet or really good. But this greek diner/lounge has a pile going for it. Among other things, if you live in the neighborhood, you'll see your neighbors there. The non-smoking restaurant side is busy, bright, and very diner-like, with an assortment of booths, tables and counter seating. Go at breakfast or dinner, and you'll find kids—not a lot, but some. The lounge side is dark, soothing, busy, and smokey, with its own counter, what seems like thousands of TVs playing sports, and two fireplaces(!). You don't have to drink on the lounge side (just be tolerant of smoke)—and at breakfast time, is about half full, though there's not a lot of folks in for their hair-of-the-dog.

What the Overlook does exquisitely is the diner breakfast. Lots of options, always some cheap less-than-$5 specials, and the food is reliably solid. Get the grits if they have them—you can doctor them up into something fantabulous. The two of us went a bit nuts and still got out for less than $15, not including tip, for breakfast.

This bar can be quite cosy. Ten taps, three with a beer engine, and the largest selection of spirits in the state of Oregon. Just recently had the worst lunch in recent memory there, with abysmal service to boot. They have a new chef, and supposably will have another one in a month.

I was drawn to Rose & Thistle by the patio. They have a lovely patio out back, just round patio tables with umbrellas and plastic chairs. There's lots of greenery around though—it's quite pleasant.

As Portland's only Scots pub, Rose & Thistle is quite a bit like you might except, and you would be right. There's draft beer, single malt scotch, darts, and scottish food, most frighteningly the Authentic Scots Egg (hard boiled egg wrapped in pork sausage, then deep-fried). You can hear your arteries slamming shut when you bite into one of those babies, but they are yummy.

Know this: when the Scottish gentlemen come into RaT, they don't order food.

They serve their draft beer in 20 oz imperial pints. Last night they had:
-Guinness
-Boddingtons
-Stella Artois
-Blackthorn Cider
-Mirror Pond IPA
-Amnesia Porter
-Widmer Hefeweizen
-Drop top Amber
-Lagunitas IPA
-PBR
-Miller Lite
and they have two rotators, which last night were
-New Belgium Skinny Dip
-Widmer Broken Halo IPA

Service is quite friendly but can be glacial. In addition to the scotch egg, they also have sausage rolls and haggis on the starter menu. The sausage rolls aren't the best in town, but they are a decent snack. Most mealy things are in the $8-$13 range, but I've had nothing worth writing home about.

People speak fondly of the burger here, and it is beautiful. However, if you like it cooked to order, don't bother ordering it here.

The HVAC system keeps the smoke away from the non smokers fairly well. There is also a video crack closet.

Slow Bar is a sophisticated small room, with some tall womblike booths, a comfie seating area, a couple tables, and of course, a lovely long bar which dominates the room. It can be smoky, but early on in the evening, it's not too bad for those of us who have given up the cancer sticks.

Originally, the focus at Slow Bar was hard alcohol, and I think it's fair to say that it's still important, but us beer drinkers have been recognized as well. Taps now include:

• Widmer
• Droptop Amber
• Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown
• Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
• Deschutes Inversion IPA
• Lagunitas Censored
• PBR
• Murphy's Irish Stout
• Pilsner Urquel
• Stella Artois
• Widmer Hefeweizen

In honor of the bar's heritage, I got a strawberry margarita, made with house infused tequila. Yum. The drink menu had prices from $5-$7.50.

The food menu is short, irreverent, and fairly inventive. I have to love a place that offers fries with "melted stinky cheese". They have appetizers ($3.50-$7), and other stuff like ceviche, pizzetta, pasta, and sandwiches ($5-9.50). A handful of the options are vegetarian, and another couple involve fish.

But the best part, really, is happy hour. 3-6pm. $2.50 off well drinks, $1 off beer.

Happy hour also has a short food menu, with prices ranging from $2.50-$5.50. That includes olives, spicy mixed nuts, hand cut fries (with or without stinky cheese), green salad, ceviche, asparagus tempura, southern fry, and 3 pizzettas.

We ordered a couple of southern fries (hushpuppies, buttermilk fried chicken, a spicy honey butter, and a dijon dipping sauce), a ceviche, and a plate of fries.

The southern fry ($7.50, or $5.50 happy hour) is not a huge plate, but there's enough artery-clogging food here to at least slow you down. The chicken is all white meat, and in tenders-like chunks, then batter-dipped and deep fried, and honestly, I felt like I was eating fancy chicken fingers. Which isn't a bad thing. The hushpuppies were a little leaden, but they were nicely made inhalable with the spicy honey butter.

The ceviche ($7.50, or $5 happy hour) was a success as well—nothing that would compare, say, with D.F. or Taqueria Neuve or Andina or Autentica, but tasty and generous. And the hand-cut fries ($4.50, or $2.50 happy hour) are just that. They're obviously hand-cut into small planks and single-fried, so they aren't crisp, but in spite that, they're really tasty.

And because everything on the happy hour menu seemed so cheap, we just kept ordering, and that is how we came to spend $35 on a happy hour meal. We had a great experience, however, and we'll be back.

The one weird thing is the music situation. They have a great punk rock jukebox, and they'd be playing something cool off it, and then suddenly some other "music" would cut in. WTF?

Other Press:
• Bar Fly
• Isaac Laquedem
• Portland Picks
• Willamette Week

If you are here from anywhere else, you might just think of the Spaghetti Factory as a chain, which is true. This is an excellent place if you want salad, pasta and dessert on a budget if you stay away from the alcohol. You'll see lots of families there, just for that reason. That, and the menu is very kid friendly. However, let's just be serious: the pasta sucks. But the prices are inexpensive, the drinks strong, and the view of the river downright intoxicating.

Time is running out on the tiny Driftwood Room. Admittedly, time left it somewhere behind in the early sixties, but February 1, the Mallory Hotel closes and is transformed, into what, who knows? The Driftwood Room—did I mention it was tiny?—is claustrophobicly small. With 9 tables, and only one a 4-top, and only a couple big enough to eat at, this place is small. When somebody starts smoking, it's like you're smoking. With a couple tables full, it's loud.

When I was younger, I would have loved sitting there, soaking up the smoke and the muzak versions of Sara Smile and Dollar Brand, though my cranky old self was less than enthralled. There are three taps, with Mac's, Mirror Pond, and Hefeweizen, and wine by the glass, but this is all about hard alcohol. Wait service was erratic, and I sat with an empty beer glass for a while. And during Happy Hour (which is an amazing 6 hours long, 3-9pm, Sunday-Thursday) there's no discount on drinks, but there's a hardcore food discount. Nothing's over $4. And while nothing was worth writing home about, hello!, I am okay with a half-pound burger for $4.

Carrie writes (7/2001),

It's one of my all time favorite restaurants! Its friendly, intimate and a treat to all in the pdx community, both queer and straight. They seve cocktails and have a brief yet quality wine menu, and offer vegetarian options. Favorite dishes include polenta with portabella mushrooms, seafood pasta and even the filet mignon!

Everyone I know loves this place. Yet the one time I went there, my meal was inedible. I keep meaning to give them another chance, but the thought of spending the money just isn't appealing.

I think all reviews of Wong's King are obligated to begin thusly:

There are other Wong's King, owned by the same family, but the only one you have to take seriously is Wong's King Seafood on SE Division in the new Chinatown. The ones in Sellwood, Sandy and Estacada? You'll get a decent American Chinese meal. But if you are looking for serious high-end Cantonese, get thee to WKS.

Dim sum, a competitive sport.

Word to the wise: have your whole party there when you're seated: if you hold seats for your flakey friends who don't show, you'll be personas non grata in the dining room. I know this sadly from experience. You can get away with this stuff at Fong Chong, but not here.

Within 10 minutes of being seated, every table in the large banquet hall is full. And the carts have already begun. I would have loved to have one of those picture menus so I could accurately name what we had. But everything we had was really good.

Some of the things we had:
-shumai
-shrimp dumplings
-chicken paws (feet)
-congee
-BBQ duck
-sesame balls
-han sui gok (pork in sweet sticky rice then deepfried)
-sticky rice in banana leaves
-spareribs
-ginger chicken
-humbow
-wu gok (mashed taro in sweet sticky rice then deepfried)
-shrimp dumplings with chives
-BBQ pork pastry
-shrimp paste on sugar cane
-deepfried shrimp balls
-shrimp in rice noodle
I admit being too greedy with the eating to take notes.

Whenever we needed something, be it a fork, 10 glasses of water, a glass of 7up, more shrimp in rice noodle, soy sauce and chili oil, we just asked one of the cart ladies, or one of the staffers gliding around the room, and our wish appeared in a matter of moments.

So we ate to a Mr Cresote level, all of it delectable, and for ten people, it was $86. So it was $10 plus change per person.

Eating off the dinner menu is a little more intimidating.

A great start to a meal is ordering a BBQ plate (we've had the duck, pork and duchess chicken and they were all good) and some soup. Even old standbys like wonton and hot and sour soups are really something altogether better.

We ordered several seafood dishes, one a suggestion and another a memory of another meal at WKS, and they were both very good—not what we had expected, but something better entirely.

Most entries ring in within a couple bucks of $10 and portions are generous. For $50 including tip and a beer, two of us ate to bursting, and brought some food home.

Other Press:

• Hidden in Plain Sight: Wong's King Seafood
• Portland Food and Drink
• Royal Dumplings: A new Southeast Portland outpost of Chinese cuisine does dim sum right
  Nancy Rommelmann, Willamette Week, 1/26/2005

I like this place a lot. Comfortable chairs, pleasant space. Four taps, many bottles, lots of liquor. The downstairs is non-smoking, the upstairs, smoking, and downstairs, you'd never even know that there's a smoking section. Upstairs also has a tiny pool table. The wide-open downstairs affords lots of people watching. I'm told it gets loud when it's full, but I have yet to see it full.

The food is very good, though some of the flavorings are not conventionally Levantine. My one complaint was this evening's shorba, my favorite, a red lentil soup redolent of cumin and lemon, was also newly redolent of onions. Sigh. Our hummus was heavily tahini-ed, and for those spoiled by Karam and YaHala and Nicolas, the pita is not fresh and pillowy and full of hot air. That didn't stop us from inhaling it, natch. But the entrees are pure pleasure, with all the sandwiches coming on a Bosnian roll called lepina. Baba's burger is a painted hills patty with feta and my new favorite thing, lemon aioli—the combination of beef, garlic, salty feta and lemon is so nice. Chicken jemila is a chicken breast marinated in sumac, encrusted in zaatar, and nestled in the lepina—yum. Timman u Marag, a chickpea stew, with a side of laban (youghurt and cucumber)—yum. It's clear that they are taking care on some of the details: the tomatoes served were romas, gorgeous, and with some tomatoey flavor. All in all, good food and a tremendous value in or out of happy hour.