We won a school auction of a Acadia gift certificate, so it was time for a splurge.

We were last at Acadia maybe 5 years ago. It was expensive and underwhelming. But, they had donated this gift certificate to a friend's elementary school, and it was time to give them another chance. After all, it's for the kids!

We ordered a decent bottle of wine which didn't seem exorbitantly marked up off the short but sweet wine list, and settled in to try a number of things. We started with the Barbeque Shrimp ($10.95).

Barbeque Shrimp is four large Louisana Gulf head-on shrimp in a butter, worcestershire, garlic, white wine, lemon and pepper sauce. It was terrific, and the sauce was decadent and lovely sopped up with Pearl bakery baguette.

Next was salads. I had the Bleu Note ($8.95), with fourme d'ambert (bleu) cheese, toasted pecans, and pears aside salad greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. My companion had the House Salad ($6.50), salad greens tossed in a creole mustard vinaigrette topped with crumbled egg. They both were gorgeously presented, perfectly dressed, and really really good.

My companion chose to do the 3-course $25 dinner. You get your choice of the house salad or a caesar, one of the starred entrees (which is everything but the barbecue shrimp, filet mignon, pork chop, or the taste of new orleans [crawfish etouffee and soft-shell crab]) and dessert. What a deal! It's available all night on Tuesday through Thursday, and before 6 and after 9 on Friday and Saturday.

So he had the Shrimp Acadian ($18.50), which was jumbo shrimp with shrimp and crawfish stuffing atop slices of crispy luscious eggplant. Oh, and there was a tomato beurre blanc sauce. Really really good.

I went for broke and had the Royal Street Filet Mignon ($29.95) atop grits. The grits were wedges of crispy-fried goodness, crunchy on the outside, smooth and creamy on the inside. The filet: well, that was incredible.

We finished with a slice of the gooey lemon cake which was really one of the most lovely desserts I've had in a dogs year. Wow.

Now, this wasn't inexpensive. Our bill was $119 for two, including a bottle of wine and a bottle of Abita Turbodog. Was it worth it? I think so. It was a really great meal, and for a special occasion, yum.

Now, if you want a cheaper experience, stay away from the sauce, go for the 3 for $25 deal, or better yet, go on Mondays when they offer 8 entrees for $10 each (as well as the regular menu).

CLOSED 9/6/2007
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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.

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.

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...

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

more photos of Echo

Let's start with the restaurant itself: with brick walls and an insanely high ceiling, a beautiful wood bar, and some nice wood accents. Wood booths line the floor to ceiling windows. The atmosphere is cozy. The outside eating area is in a space between two buildings, with bamboo at the end that faces MLK, heaters, and homemade lanterns and a fountain. It manages to be shady and breezy and thoroughly pleasant.

When we went for brunch, there were two folks working the front of the house: the bartender, and a waiter. This was fine initially, but as the patrons started streaming in, they were in the weeds.

The menu is varied and inexpensive: biscuits and gravy, french toast, pancakes, eggs & meat, frittata, as well as small plates, salads and sandwiches, most in the $5.50-$8 range. Some of these things seemed to be different just to be different, like the french toast, made from zucchini-carrot bread in an orange juice-rum batter. We ordered a cup of coffee (a bad idea: stick with espresso or alcohol), the dos heuvos (2 eggs, bacon, potatoes or grits and biscuit or bagel) with grits and biscuit, and the frittata with salad.

While we waited for food, the staff kept our coffee and water glasses full. The water carafes have slices of cucumber floating in the water—nice.

About a half hour later, out came the food. The frittata was overdone, browned, on the outside, and too thin. The crab filling tasted fishy, and the hollandaise that topped it was gelatinous and had a muddy flavor. The accompanying salad was almost dry, with very little sign of a dressing, nonetheless balsalmic vinagrette.

The dos heuvos were good, cooked to order, though the biscuit was drier than dry and didn't really taste like anything. I opted for grits, which were made with a white sharp cheddar and thyme: my dining partner thought they tasted weird, but for me, they were the highlight of the meal, and some of the best grits I've had in Portland.

In the end, I think the recommendation that I've heard for dinner at Echo also applies to brunch: keep it simple and you're likely to be happy.

This restaurant is closed as of 4/29/2006

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.

It's hard not to really like Ken's. It's just an unassuming diner with a tiny staff, including Ken Gordon who's behind the stove most the night, but the food is simple, and at the best of times, transcendent. The starters are a great start: the caesar is garlicky and one of the best in town—but only if you like garlic. Other salads are also fine, as was the chile rellano app.

Now a friend of mine claims she's found better chicken in a restaurant, but I still believe Ken's is the best I've had outside of my own kitchen. If the buttermilk fried chicken is on the menu, you've got to have that. But it's hard to go wrong. Their burger is one of the best in town, and giant. But what really stands out for me there, as well as at Cafe Castagna, are the vegetables. I'm not much of a vegetable eater, but I am always certain to order them there -- they are always excellently prepared. Oh. And the pecan pie is to die for.

• Ken's Place
  An Exploration of Portland Food and Drink
  

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.

Okay, so I didn't eat in the dining room. I had a catered lunch at a meeting.

When I think of catered meals, even from nice places, I think of premade sandwiches wrapped in saranwrap and steamtable fare. My expectations are lowered. I'm happy if anything tastes at all like the original foodstuff.

But I was much impressed with the Red Star. I'm writing this from the standpoint of if I had eaten in the dining room: those were my expectations. And they were met, ably.

Much to my surprise, we were offered a smaller version of the lunch menu. Appetizers range from $6-13, and we tried a clam chowder, crab-salmon cakes, a beet soup, grilled asparagus salad, a caesar, and a roasted beet salad. The presentation was gorgeous, and everything I tried was excellent and nuanced.

For the entree, there were a range of choices: salmon, cheeseburger, fish and chips, quesadilla, chicken breast sandwich, prime rib french dip, new york steak, and mac-n-cheese ($10.50-$24)—we tried all but the first two. Again, beautiful. The mac-n-cheese was as good as a homemade version, with a nice crust. The steaks were thick and grilled to order, and so flavorful. Everyone else raved about their food, and everything looked so good, enough to make you think, maybe I should have ordered that.

We also had dessert—also lovely and tasty.

My lunch, if I had paid for it, would have been $30. Was it worth it? Yeah, I think so. The atmosphere of the place is definitely business lunch, but the food was good. And was beautiful. I don't know that I'd be going there every month, but once every year or so? Why not?

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

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.