Restaurants in Southeast Portland

Okay, full disclosure: I know the owners socially. I met them after eating at their place several times and being wowed. That said, oh... my... g-d! This place, for me, is like dying and going to heaven! There's Anchor beers on tap, and wines by the bottle or glass—not cheap, but nothing outta line expensive. Bring a couple friends so you can order lots. Begin with a meat or veggie or combo plate. I haven't tried the veggie plate, but man, it looks good. And the meat plate is good. Salami (from Salumi, I believe) to die for. Next, the caesar salad. Garlicky, beautiful, and adorned with anchovy if you wish it. This is one of the three best caesars in town. And the plate is huge, an abundance of riches.

Hope you didn't fill up on appetizers cuz it's time for the 'za. Now, there are lots of arguments about what style pizza this is—is it Italian, is it Connecticut, or New York? I don't know from pizza, I just know that it doesn't get much better than this. Certainly not in Portland, at least. Thin crust that is perfection, crispy and wonderful, baked hot-hot-hot, topped with sparing amounts of exquisite ingredients.

Everytime we go, we order one pie (for two of us—it's good sized) and wish we had ordered a second. Because it tastes so good!

Drawbacks: parking can be a problem. And this place is popular—forget about going during restaurant prime time unless you don't mind waiting in line. The service is sassy and casual (which I appreciate). It's a small place, and it's easy to spend a lot of money because, gosh, you gotta get the caesar, and the meat plate is so good...

More photos of Arleta Library

It's a tiny place, and as the name suggests, it is a bakery, and the baked goods shine. Be sure to grab some cookies or a muffin or coffeecake to take home with you, because you won't have room after their mondo breakfasts.

They serve Stumptown coffee, apparently french-pressed. Be still my heart!

The brunch menu on the weekends is short: just 10 items: a hash, biscuits-n-gravy, a fritatta, three scrambles, pancakes, french toast, quiche, and some roasted veggies. And really, I'd rather see a short menu of stuff that is really good, rather than a long menu with a few (or more) duds.

The menus are available online via PDF, so you can follow along at home. Prices range from $7-$9.50.

Sicilian Hash is their signature dish, and the only thing one of my breakfast companions orders. It's made up of slow-braised high-end beef (Painted Hills) sauteed with peppers, onions, and potatoes and topped with a lovely scrambled egg.

Portland’s Best Biscuits-n-Gravy actually probably is. It's an exercise in excess, to be sure, but both the gravy and the biscuits are consistently good. Sweet potato biscuits (! - it works!) are doused in sausage gravy with pork loin. The pork loin is completely gratuitous and unnecessary, but wonderful. These, like most entrees, come with library fries, wedges of delicious pan-cooked potatoes, crusty and seasoned and actually done.

I haven't tried the The Grand Torino, a salmon fritatta, but boy, it sure looks impressive. Nor have I tried the Florentine (a scramble with spicy greens, basil, ricotta, parmesan, and breadcrumbs) or the Portland (a scramble with wild mushrooms, Tillamook cheddar, and crumbled bacon), the Hawthorne (roasted seasonal veggies sauteed with potatoes and cheddar), Pane Dolce (batter dipped and griddle-fried brioche with seasonal fruit), or the Quiche of the Day, but it's just a matter of time.

But I have had the Tuscan (a scramble with roasted red peppers, Italian sausage, and romano cheese). The flavor was incredible, though it was infested with onions. But my pals who love onions love it too, and I bet I could just ask for it without the onions.

The masterstroke may well be the buttermilk semolina griddlecakes which don't sound so special, do they? But add berries and crumbled bacon (!) to the batter, and you might have one of the best combos of sweet, savory and salty that you can find for under 10 bucks. And even without bacon or berries, these are some great pancakes.

They serve Grand Central bread, and make some of the coolest jams imaginable; recently peach/rosemary was one weekend's option, another roasted nectarine.

The staff here is friendly, and if you come in a couple times, you're greeted as a regular: sweet! They also have a couple tables out front, and on a tiny back patio.

Of the 10 entrees for brunch, four are vegetarian. I haven't tried ordering vegan here.

Of all the places to have breakfast in Portland, two of the best are here in this neglected area of Foster-Powell/Mt Scott. And one of those is definitely Arleta Library.

This is the place to get breakfast. Now. Because soon, everyone will know, and there will be lines. So go now, so you can appreciate it, appreciate the casual, pleasant atmosphere, the best Stumptown coffee outside of a Stumptown cafe, and really, some of the best breakfast food in town.

The menu is short, one page. Weekends are fully devoted to yummy breakfasts involving eggs and cheese, for the most part. Vegans will be hard pressed to find anything here they can eat, but there are about 10 options (out of 16) for vegetarians. The menu is made up of about 5 scrambles, 4 omelets, and a handful of house specials like french toast, sweet and savory crepes, and several breakfast sandwiches ($4-$8).

Weekday menus have an abbreviated list of scrambles, omelets, and brekkie sammies, as well as lunch sandwiches.

Start with a cup of Stumptown Coffee. It's self-service, take your cup up to the bar and refill, and lordy, is it good!

We've had Carlo's Scramble, a nice combo of italian sausage, red pepper relish and mozzarella, which is lovely and really tasty. Surprise, Natalie You're in Peppersville! Sandwich gets the award for the longest name, and quite possibly the best breakfast sandwich in town: eggs, roasted red peppers and jalapenos, onions, cotija cheese and avocado spread. In competition for the best breakfast sandwich is Carlo's King Melt: eggs, bacon, mild peppers, mascarpone and tomato-basil relish, yum. And the Omelette del Sur, a baked omelette full of roasted jalapenos, cotija, salsa fresca and either mushrooms or bacon is also filling and delicious.

Most items are accompanied by fruit (a couple small pieces), Grand Central toast, and roast potatoes that are among the best in town. They are easily on the level of Genies or Simpatica.

Of course, everything is not perfect in paradise. Our most recent visit was punctuated by loudish Nu Shoes (80s disco-pop) on the stereo. The buns used for the sandwiches are soft and don't have a lot of integrity. And, it's on Foster, fer heavens sakes, far from my beaten path.

But, in spite of these things, this is my new favorite breakfast spot. Thanks to Chris from Belmont Station who shared the wealth!

Unfortunately, I love banh mi 7 days a week. What's a girl to do?

Well, Best Baguette offers the answer. They appear to be a chain (at least, the place is designed down to the seams) that offers fast food banh mi, sandwiches, vietnamese appetizers, dim sum, gelato, and asian drinks, including bubble and milk teas. But wait, it gets better: they have a drive thru window!

Interestingly, the menu is entirely in english. They offer 15 types of banh mi which include all the typical ones, plus a Saigon Bacon sandwich, a Vegetable sandwich (greens and pickled veg), pork roll and egg (Saigon style), and the one untranslated sandwich, nem nuong (which is a char-broiled pork paste). The prices range from $2.25 to $3.50, and the sandwiches are foot-longs. They also have french sandwiches ($3.75-$5) and croissant sandwiches ($2.50$4.75).

They bake the bread on premises so your sandwich is all warm and freshly made. That said, the ficelles they bake appear to be commercial par-baked ones, like the kind you find that Safeway uses. It makes a very soft bread, and one with no tooth to the crust. Vietnamese baguettes and ficelles do tend to have a softer crust, but usually not this soft. The picked veggies come in a little baggie so you can add as much or as little as you'd like. They were stingy with the jalapeno.

Not realizing they were foot-longs, we ordered a half-dozen, including a parisian ham and cheese (ugh), a pate, a grilled beef, grilled chicken, and bbq pork. As noted, I hated the parisian ham & cheese. It used american cheese— that is so wrong! The pate had an unidentified white lump in it that might have been cheese, so while the pate itself was fine (a little thin, but hey), I shyed away from the white lump. But the grilled meats and bbq pork were fine. They weren't Binh Minh, that's for sure, but in a pinch, it's a banh mi, and it doesn't come wrapped in cellophane.

So, we ordered a half-dozen sandwiches, a couple viet coffees, and the total came to $18. I think they comped us a coffee and threw in an extra baguette.

They have a good selection of gelato, and a huge selection of drinks. Not just the avocado, jackfruit, and durian shakes, but a huge selection of Asian (and not Asian) sodas and the like. Jarritos, for example.

Anyways, this is a great option if you're jonesing for a banh mi after 5pm.

If you aren't familiar with banh mi, they are sandwiches with some sort of meat on a french roll, like a hoagie. They all contain mayo, pickled carrots, daikon, cilantro, and a couple slices of jalapeno. Meat fillings include cold cuts, pate, BBQ pork, steamed meatball, fried egg, and lemongrass grilled chicken.

The menu board at the SE Binh Minh is more abbreviated than the one in NE, but you can still get all the sandwiches there. Just ask.

On our recent visit, we got 2 BBQ Pork (Banh Mi Xa Xiu) and a Lemongrass Chicken (Banh Mi Ga Nuong), a pate chaud, and an egg roll (cha gio) with a couple of pops (less than $11). The bread at Binh Minh is baked right there, and is excellent: warm, crusty, with the tug of the mildly crunchy crust and the yielding (but not too yielding) bread.

Our BBQ pork was excellent, of course. Just a fine example of Vietnamese BBQ pork. But, even better was the lemongrass chicken, which was moist and really flavorful. The pate chaud was warm, the crust was flakey and got everywhere (as it should), and the combo of the crust with the pate was a rich, lovely treat. And the egg roll, while very small, was a nice representation of a Vietnamese egg roll.

Unlike the NE Binh Minh, the lighting and surroundings are pleasant and not at all cramped; there are plenty of tables to sit down at and enjoy your sandwich(es), though I'm told that they are packed at lunch.

The really bad news about Binh Minh is that they are only open til 5pm everyday. But the good news is that they are open everyday.

More photos of Biwa

Star amongst these is yakimono, or grilled things on sticks, and it is where Biwa really shines. Yakimono ranges from $3-$8, and ranges from miso-grilled scallops, chicken thigh (classic yakitori), lamb genghis kahn, beef hanger steak, to shitake mushrooms, shishito peppers, corn in shoyu and tofu with miso. There is not a loser in the bunch.

Biwa is also the only place in Portland to make their own ramen and udon noodles. Housemade noodles make a big difference, and Biwa has the best ramen and udon in town($7-$16). And of the four different udon variants, you can get all of them vegetarian or vegan. Just short of half the menu can be served vegetarian or vegan.

Rounding out the menu are a number of salads include sunomono (cucumber salad, $7-$9), chijimi, a korean style griddle cake with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce ($7), yakionigiri ($2, grilled rice ball!), and gyoza ($6). Most dumplings around town, whether they are chinese, korean or japanese, are a mixture of meat and cabbage, kind of like a meatball. But Biwa's gyoza are all about the pork, and man, are they ever good.

They serve sake in the traditional way, and they have 8 of the 9 sakes on the menu available by the glass ($6-$19). They also have sake flights, beer, wine, and some nonalcoholic selections.

It's easy, really easy, to run up a big tab here. Dinner for two usually costs about $60, whereas lunch runs $30 and some change for two.

The lunch menu is a bit more limited, same prices but not a lot of yakimono.

Monday is nabe night (hot pot). They set up a hot pot on a burner right on your table. When we were there, it was $20 per person and you got seafood, a huge platter of crablegs and shrimp and salmon and god only knows what else, with vegetables and cellophane noodles. The broth, the meat and the noodles change every week. I can't wait to try that.

I have a crazy affection for Bob's Red Mill. I love their products, and a visit to their Whole Grain Kitchen makes me giddy. On one hand, it's so damn wholesome that it should just bother me, but I have to admit I find geeky earnestness enticing. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the fact that I see Bob of Bob's Red Mill there everytime I go in for breakfast.

You go into the Whole Grain Store, and the counter to order food is back and to the left. Don't be surprised if there's a line and you have to slowly inch by the breads. Sooner or later, you'll get to the front and you can order.

After you order, you take your number and claim a table, either on the first floor, on the patio, on the second floor. Water, coffee, and pop are self-serve, and the stations also include maple syrup, butter and honey. Someone will deliver your food and make sure you have everything you need.

The breakfast menu has 15 items, the vegetarian (vegan, really) brekkie menu has 10. Prices range from $3.95-$8.29, with the median price being $6.29. Breakfast meats include turkey ham, turkey bacon and garden sausage.

We made a visit recently for a cheese omelet and eggs & grits. First of all, the coffee is worse than it used to be, which is to say it sucks. If I had been on the ball, I might have noticed the Republic of Tea packets at the hot beverage station, though the only caffeine-free option was chamomile.

If you don't get there early, the line to order will snake by the baked goods, which is dangerous. All sorts of breads, rolls, cornbreads, etc.

You order at the counter, and they'll ask you then and there if you'll be eating upstairs or on the main floor. It's not a bad idea to send one of your party to suss this out before you get to this point. There's more seating upstairs, and the downstairs does get full at times.

You get scratch biscuits as an option for bread. They are a smidge sweet, crumbly (but not flakey), and tasty enough to eat without having to slather them with butter or jam. The jam is little packets of Freezerves, which, for jam in packets is pretty damn good.

On some dishes, you get your choice of cottage potatoes or hashbrowns. The hashbrowns are standard diner-issue, and really good.

We asked for the eggs scrambled soft, and they were cooked to order. The accompanying grits weren't as good as I remembered them, and if the menu didn't say they contained cheddar cheese, I'd never know that it was there. But still, they were grits, corny, appreciative of butter and salt and pepper. The omelet was a little tough, a little browned, and not terribly cheesy.

I tried the vegan french toast awhile back, and I'd never have known it was vegan. Generally, everything is pretty darn good here -- not gourmet, but wholesome.

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.

ExtraMSG has noted that they serve the food of the ethnic Koreans in China. The thing is, you don't see that much reflected in the menu. I'm told once you're trusted, or once you're persistent enough, you get some pretty damn incredible stuff that isn't on the menu.

This was our first time, so we ordered off the menu. We ordered BBQ pork, a good-sized serving with dipping sauce for $5, and potstickers. The potstickers were crunchy and thoroughly steaming hot when they came to the table—we inhaled them, in spite of the temperature.

The atmosphere is post-fast food. A couple of fridges are in the dining room, and everything is clean, but not showy. Signs in chinese and korean advertise specials, while crabs scuttle around their tank.

I had the seafood & bean curd in clay pot, which was excellent and very mild: a lovely flavorful sauce, fresh seafood perfectly cooked, lots of veg and tofu which had absorbed the sauce. My copilot ordered the seafood noodles with gravy, a new-to-us concoction of broth, egg noodles, more perfectly cooked, perfectly fresh seafood, egg, and of course, a moo goo gai pan-like sauce—very mild, curious, and quite good.

They offer two free refills on sodas as well as beer, wine and sake.

At the end of the meal, I offered that the kim-chi really looked good, and it was like I had said the magic words. Oh! Just ask for it next time, the waitress said, clearly pleased that I had some lick of sense. Next time I will ask about the signs, oh yes...

Clays is a little place, with a couple picnic tables out front, and a number of tables and booths built for people who tend to routinely overeat. It's not fancy, and everything is nicely mismatched and vaguely, humanly, kitschy.

The menu is impressive: smoked BBQ hot wings as a starter ($8), chowder/chili/gumbo ($3.75-$4.75), salads ($3.75-$10.25), sandwiches ($7.75-$9.75), BBQ platters ($10.75-$14.75), and even veggie delights (their words, $7.75-$9.75). BBQ purists will freak: there's catfish and salmon, and that's wrong. But I'm not a purist—I don't care unless someone makes me eat it.

When I was there, they had a bunch of beers on tap:

• Bayern Doppelbock
• Widmer Hefeweizen
• Amnesia IPA
• Anchor Steam
• Bud
• Jamaican Red

I ordered the brisket platter, and my companion the BBQ sparerib platter, and naturally, these are huge portions, piles of meat smothered in a sweet, not terribly hot sauce, with chunks of potatoes in ranch sauce (aka, home fries with garlic sauce), a vinegary slaw, and not-quite Texas toast.

My brisket seemed a bit lean, and the sauce bugged me, but it was nicely cooked. It just blanches before fattier, crustier briskets like Campbells or LOW. The pork ribs, however, were sweet, juicy, and moist, very tasty ribs. The slaw was sharp and complex. The potatoes—eh. Value for the meal, though, was very good.

Our service was incredible. Our server was the sort who was there when you needed him, and if he was there when you didn't, you sure didn't know. It was the sort of effortless seeming service that you should get with a very good meal, and here in Portland, frequently don't. So that was a tremendous pleasure.

I'm curious about the wings, and I've heard great things about the cold smoked seafood platter (like a lox platter, just not), and the turkey in the garden salad.

The highlight for me was the dessert. We got the apple crisp ($4.75), topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, and wow! It was just a modest crisp, nothing fancy, but so very good, a combination of soft and crunchy and creamy. Next time, I'm gonna leave more room for that!

As a bar, I don't think I can say strongly enough that I love this place. They have 18 beers on tap, and many more in bottles. They have a cute little basement bar that will remind you of the rec room you wish you had had when you were a kid, complete with board games, skee ball, and slot cars. They also have a karoake video jukebox, though I don't have the details on when that gets turned on (or if it ever gets turned off).

The upstairs looks like a dining room, though the Bender Brothers claim that the first floor and basement should just flow into each other. Truth is, they don't really. The dining room still feels very formal, with its cloth napkins. But they do have the cutest little make-out room.

But the best part is the patio. It's rooved, so you can sit outside while it's raining buckets and enjoy the ambiance. They have heaters, so you can stay warm. But big deal, lots of places have a roof and heaters. Okay. This place has two things that really set my heart a flutter.

One, they have tables whose seats... are swings. You know, like swingset swings. Dude! And, they have tables with a fire ring in the center.

The food is good though not great, but the portions aren't all that big, and the prices are a smidge high. Apps are $5-$9, salads $7-$12, sandwiches $7-$9, and entrees $11-23. Fries are homemade, and really not bad.

Yesterday, we went there for lunch. An order of calamari (in rice flour batter, very nice), a steak salad, an order of fresh cooked chips, and a hamburger set us back $33 before tip. The calamari was really the star of the meal to my mind, though the salad was nice (would have been better if the meat had been cooked to order, and the salad actually tossed with the dressing). The chips tasted like kettle chips (and indeed, they weren't hot or greasy. So how do I know they haven't come out of a bag). And the burger was good, though it too would have been much better if it was cooked to order. I mean, why have the waitress ask if the cook is going to ignore it?

A week before, we went in and had a bowl of soup and a spinach salad. The bowl of soup was homemade and really filling. The spinach salad came out on an appetizer plate -- for $8, I was expecting a little more food.

There are a few veggie options, and the web site welcomes you to tell your server of special dietary requests.

Just be forewarned. This place is great to hang out in, they have twenty-something different wines by the glass, they even have a late night menu (though since they don't have a closing time, does that really do any good?) but the food doesn't match the rest of the package.

And, it's also a great lunch place. On weekdays, breakfast is served all day (which is to say, until 3pm), and you also have a selection of sandwiches and entrees like meatloaf with mashed potatoes and mac-n-cheese.

I had their excellent, unpretentious, burger. It's substantial, but not too much—maybe a third of a pound, cooked to order. The bun is squishy but not bad squishy, and the burger is dressed with the usual lettuce, tomato, onion, and.... whole-grain mustard aioli. I was a doubter, until I bit in. It's a good burger—one of the best in town.

It comes with fries or salad. I can't speak to the salad, but the fries were thin, double-fried, a slight hint of batter, perfect.

Another argument to come in on the weekdays is the Heuvos Rancheros. It's just an wonderful combination of eggs, tortilla, nicely-seasoned beans, and sauce, the sort of good meal that sticks in the corner of your mind for a long time.

Some people like the cocktails, ranging from $4-$6, including the EmergenC Elixir (orange vodka, EmergenC, muddled lemon, and a splash of cranberry juice). There are coffee and champagne cocktails too. Beer in bottles, and Caldera pale in cans, but no beer on tap.

I first fell in love with the roasted potatoes. Potatoes can be the most lovely food, but so often at breakfast they are lackluster, undercooked, underloved. Not these potatoes, oh no. Little wedgelets, crispy, tender, delightful, I could eat a bowl of these plain.

But no reason to do that with all the wonderful stuff on the menu. There are 19 different egg-variables, from the traditional eggs, potatoes and toast to omelettes to scrambles to benedicts, $5.50-$9.25. The basic ingredients are good, even free-range groovy, stuff, and it's all kept simple enough so there's some semblance of balance.

Take for example, the classic benedict. The hollandaise is lemony and luscious, topping the soft poached egg, the local canadian bacon (yumm!), the crispy english muffin, and begging to be draped over the potatoes.

Another example of being caught off-guard is the white chocolate chip & toasted hazelnut pancakes. One, you could feed several people well with one plate. Two, the white chocolate serves as the secret agent taste that makes the pancakes irresistable. Three, real maple syrup and a bowl of butter bricks wait on your table.

They also have some sandwiches, which I may never try. The menu is amazingly vegetarian friendly, with 14 different options, and you can sub in tofu for eggs for a buck. Oh, and they serve Stumptown coffee. No espresso.

The two dining rooms are a little cramped, with the back one like a basement bar, and the front like a bright and cheerful diner. The rooms have both booths and tables, and there are a couple of outside tables for good weather as well.

Just know, you'll probably be waiting a bit to get in, and you'll be waiting outside. But you can have some coffee while you wait.

After having been there for lunch, I am so bummed that they aren't open for dinner. But I guess that's good for my wallet.

Press:

• BarFly
• Portland Tribune
• Willamette Week

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.

Then I had a fight with my significant other there once, and suddenly, we weren't going to Juniors anymore.

So we went back to check them out after all this time.

Now the great thing about Juniors is that they have vegan and omnivore food. But unlike some other places, you won't feel bent out of shape if you order either, because they're both good. Or were. I delighted in ordering the vegan spuds with cheese and bacon—yum!

The menu feels a lot different, even as they've retained a bunch of the names. They have eggs, scrambles, omellettes, tofu, breakfast sandwiches, french toast, potatoes, and etcetera. Prices range from $4-$8.50, so it's pretty reasonable. They use groovy eggs and other unspecified foods.

Anyways, this last time around, I ordered the migas scramble and my sweetie ordered french toast. The migas came with the eggs browned. We were the only people in the restaurant, and they burned my eggs? The french toast was oddly bitter, so bitter that my companion ate one corner and left the rest (I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him leave food on his plate). It came with one small link of sausage (bland chicken stuff) cut in half.

The potatoes that came with my eggs weren't as greasy as the last time I had been in, but they managed to be completely underwhelming. Now, admittedly, I'm a potatoes snob, I like them just so... but my better half also hated them and refused to eat them.

So, in all, Juniors has gone through some changes over the years, but this time, it's really a change for the worse.

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
  

June 2nd is the last day in the SE Hawthorne location.

Full disclosure: I know these guys.

If you've had Pastrami King's pastrami in the last couple weeks at the Hillsdale Farmers Market, you know it's sublime. Well, they've given up on the market and moved their operation back to Ken Gordon's restaurant, Ken's Place, and it appears to be an unqualified success.

Before a couple weeks ago, I didn't understand why people get so excited about pastrami. I was thinking it was a waste of a good brisket. But now I understand, and now, I crave it.

It's a true brunch menu: pastrami & eggs, corned beef hash, latkes, a big salad, handmade bagels with lox, reubens, pastrami sandwiches, and baked knishes. We sat at the counter watching everything get made, and, wow, everything looked better than the last!

We began with a toasty warm potato knish ($2), which could be a meal in itself. One of my favorite things to do in NYC is go to Yonah Schimmel on Houston, and Nick's knish is even better than I remember having at Yonah Schimmel's.

We ordered a reuben ($10.25) and the pastrami & eggs ($8.75). Watching the reuben being grilled was almost painful, it was so beautiful. And while I would have preferred having eggs with sliced pastrami, the frittata was delicious and quite addictive. The guy next to me ordered the hash, which I would have liked to eat off his plate, and his daughter the bagel and lox. Whoa! Even the big salad looked like a decadent treat. We washed these down with Dr. Brown's cream and cel-ray sodas, the latter tasting like celery without the annoying strings. They also serve Stumptown coffee and eggcreams made with Dagoba chocolate. Yum!

Meals run from $6.75-$11.75, and we brought half of ours home. You can also get pastrami by the half pound, chopped liver, potato salad, cole slaw, and full or half-sour pickles.

The downsides here is that with everything looking and sounding and tasting so good, a nosh plate with little bits of this and that would really help. It's not a cheap endeavor, especially if getting breakfast there also means bringing a half pound home to nosh on later—and you practically have to! And the service, while friendly, is a little uneven at this point. Still, I'll be back.

When you go to Legin for dim sum, you want to be seated in the dim sum dining room, usually Dining Room C. Sit elsewhere at your peril.

You can't complain about the quantity and variety. We were seated and there were lots of carts with lots of steamer baskets of goodies, so we began with shaomai (pork dumplings) and hargau (shrimp dumplings). These were warm, but not hot; the shrimp fresh, the wheat starch wrapper a little gummy.

We tried many things. Tripe (okay, I didn't try that), taro dumpling, cheong fun (rice noodle rolls), a dumpling with shrimp and chinese greens, and chinese broccoli. For the most part, these were okay, though I've had better versions elsewhere in town, in particular at Wong's King and even at Fong Chong.

While enjoyed a great variety of dishes, only one was served hot, the very last plate of shaomai. There were several dumplings that I usually enjoy (like scallop, or shrimp in rice ball, or the fried meat dumplings) that tasted mostly like library paste.

And yet. The humbao was light and fluffy, really much better than what you usually find in Portland.

Consistency is an issue here. From week to week, you may find things better or worse.

Prices appear to be higher here. We were a bit restrained and it cost $13 a head.

So, in the end, do you have to wait in line, or have a hard time finding something to eat? These aren't likely at Legin. You may find better dim sum elsewhere in town, but this, for the most part, isn't bad.

Libbie's subtitle is The Home of Comfort Food. This is certainly true, at least at breakfast, which is served all day long. Actually, breakfast, lunch and dinner are all served all day.

The menu is simple: 10 large omelettes ($7.50-$13), purely starchy things ($1.75-$7), and 11 egg specials ($6.25-$12). Coffee is a buck seventy-five, and it sucks.

The omelettes are all your favorites: farmers, vegetarian, denver, spanish, and they all come with either pancakes, biscuits and gravy, or potatoes and toast. Potato options are home fries and hashbrowns.

For starches, they offer pancakes, french toast, and waffles (though waffles are only available until noon), oat groats, and hot cream of wheat.

The egg specials include the usual cafe breakfast, biscuits & gravy, corned beef hash, chicken fried steak and two other steak & eggs variants.

We ordered two of the egg specials: the number 5, biscuits, gravy & hashbrowns; and the number 11, Rick's special, home fries grilled with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, bellpeppers and ham, topped with cheddar cheese and 2 eggs any style.

These are giant plates of food, far more than anyone should eat at breakfast. The gravy is mild with small chunks of sausage -- it tastes fresh, not floury, but not well seasoned. The biscuits are buried but appear to be tender and fresh. And the hashbrowns are at the top of their game: two crusty, golden brown sides surrounding the soft warm potato inside.

I think the Rick's might have worked better with hashbrowns rather than home fries, for that contrast in text, however it was awfully good with the home fries.

If you're looking for an old-school greasy-spoon breakfast, Libbie's is pretty darn good. Just stay away from the coffee.

CLOSED

There was a collective sigh of relief when Ken Gordon of Ken's Place bought the BBQ and smokers from the LOW guys when LOW (Laid Off Workers) BBQ (serving you with 15 years in the semiconductor industory!) closed in August 2005. Rodney Muirhead and Kyle Connally worked magic with slow-smoked Painted Hills beef brisket and to-die for pork ribs. But they got other jobs, and the BBQ, beloved as it was, had to go.

It was, by all accounts, a great success. But, for a number of reasons, Ken has decided to move on, into the deli-pastrami-brunch business he built with Nick Zukin, Kenny and Zuke's, which will be opening downtown in the Ace Hotel in September.

Luckily for us, Rodney Muirhead couldn't stay away from the BBQ and opened Podnah's.

The specials board rarely if ever exceeds $6. Now this is a special I can get behind! They have a pretty standard breakfast menu, but with a sense of humor. You can get the classic bene, or a country bene (biscuit, sausage, egg, gravy). You can get the veggie omelet, or the hobo (all the meats plus onions), or the combo, which is described as veggie + hobo = smiles. And you have your choice of the best hashbrowns in town, or O'Briens. The most expensive item is that combo omelet/scramble at $8.

The sausage gravy is better than a lot of places (though the winner is still the Overlook for sausagey taste). I wouldn't drink the coffee there. But when you consider that PBR ($1.75), Hamms ($2), and micros (Sierra Nevada Pale, Terminal Gravity IPA, Full Sail Amber, and Widmer Hefeweizen- $3) are on tap, who needs coffee?

This may be the best cheap lunch or dinner in town.

Of course you can buy groceries at New Seasons. But at their deli, you can also get hot food. Yay!!

We've been long time fans of the New Seasons deli, ever since we figured out that eating before shopping means we spend a lot less. But really, the food prices here can't be beat.

For example, tonight we tried the hot wok ($6.95 and up). Yum! You get a metal bowl and fill it as high as you can with goodies: noodles, rice, garlic, ginger, tofu and veggies. You can also add chicken, beef or shrimp, or white or brown rice to your wok bowl for a little extra. Now, choose from the 8 different sauces: most are vegan, a good number are gluten-free, so you have options. You can also get them to ratchet up the heat. Just a few minutes later, you have a huge hot meal on a plate. Grab a drink from the cooler, stop at the cashier, and then make your way to the dining area, stocked with condiments and magazines and lots of tables.

You can get a huge salad for $6.99 from their salad bar. Or if you prefer, they can make a caesar for you ($3.95 and up). They have 2 pastas each day, one veggie, one meat for $4.95 (and up). And two soups a day, one veggie, one meat.

You can get a bagel with lox, or cream cheese, or whitefish spread, or tofu paté (warning, not vegan!), or hummus, and veggies. You can even get your bagel toasted!

And then there are sandwiches. You can build your own from coldcuts, or tuna or chicken salad, or even grilled veggies. They have hamburgers, turkey burgers, veggie burgers, chickenwiches, even groovy hot dogs. And there's some specialty sandwiches as well.

If this isn't enough, there's always rotisserie chicken and chicken quarters, always pizza, always some type of roasted potatoes, and always some other yummy stuff. Chips and sweets are close at hand.

While the chicken and pizza leave me cold, the hot wok, salad bar, and sandwiches are consistently great, as good as you'd get in a restaurant -- but cheaper.

The only drawback is, if you're hungry and you're having them make you a sandwich or some other type of non-instant gratification, waiting may make you crazy. But no crazier than shopping with an empty stomach.

from MeBigGuy:

What...no Nicolas's Resturant? Is there a reason, did I miss it, or what? I love their Lentil Soup.

And from George (4/3/2001):

First, it is Lebanese. Second, they bake their own pita bread. Third, it is very cheap. Four, it is funky, even after the remodeled interior. Reminds me of the village in Greece. Fifth, if you are vegan, your can eat like a king here. Same if you eat meat. Sixth, their Mezza's are a real deal. Usually can split between two people. We often eat as a family of four for under $20 here (drink water). Their Mjadra (lentils and rice) is usually great.

I've heard a rumor that Nicolas is finally accepting credit cards. But here's the deal. I totally understand why folks feel nostalgia for the place, and why they used to flock there. And hell, they still flock there. Any time of the day you end up practically sitting on the lap of the person next to you.

Still, you can find better food (with hot house-baked pita, with vegan options), and alcohol, and credit cards, at Aladdin's Cafe, YaHala, or Karam. At Karam, you can even have whole wheat pita bread. And if you desire funkiness & cheapness, Aladdin's Cafe has it in spades.

Oasis Cafe is definitely westcoast pizza -- by the slice, or delivered, you can get all sorts of crazy pizzas. Were you really meant to have apple or scallops on a pizza? Well, the jury is still out, but it's tasty. As far as eating a slice in, the time it will take varies anywhere from immediately to a half hour. Pizza delivered can take far longer than that. But it is good. The people watching possibilities are immense, both from inside the cafe and out on the picnic tables, and the gelato is well worth the detour if you're in the area.

more photos

Reedies and other Woodstock denizens can happen by during the week, but for the rest of us, an Otto's visit means Saturday. And if nothing else, you can identify Otto's by the crowd of people in front.

You can just stay outside, grab a soda from the tub and buy a sausage, but it's worth it to go in. First of all, they have beer on tap:

• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• Otto's IPA (made by Raccoon Lodge)
• Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown (a seasonal)
• Pilsner Urquel
• New Belgium Skinny Dip (a seasonal)
• Deschutes Obsidian Stout
• Thomas Kemper Root Beer

• Vernors (in glass bottles!)
• Thomas Kemper sodas
• Stewart's
• Red Rock
• Cricket
• Henry Weinhard's
• Green River
• Boylan's
• Crush
• Big Red

The menu will list the sausages on the grill. There's usually wieners, smoked pork sausages, and chicken sausages, with regular, potato or whole wheat buns. For $1.50-$3, you have lunch. Or half a lunch. Whatever. Load up on the limited condiments and take a seat outside if there is one. Cuz there aren't any tables indoors.

I know far more esteemed critics have called Otto's one of the best 10 hot dogs in the U.S., but I don't think it's quite that good. They're tasty dogs but they pale compared to others in SE.

The prices are reasonable, the helpings generous. The Mexican menu is capable, but the Salvadoran dishes are why you go to Sellwood—and can be cheap if you play it right. Pupusas are the highlight, though they have other dishes as well along with that vinegary cole slaw. Has anyone been there recently?

Now, you might be familiar with them already. Up until recently, they were simply Sunset Deli, a shack-like building on MLK across from Sheridan's, and next to Taco Del Mar. I admit, it seemed a little too divey for even me.

But with a new paint job, Pho Green Payaya looks almost respectable. A covered deck on the side would be nice in warm weather, and it would be removed from the hustle and bustle of the tiny, newly painted interior.

The original Sunset Deli menu (teriyaki, salads, sandwiches) is still in place, and for vietnamese lunch, you've got some limited, not terribly cheap, options. We started with vietnamese iced coffee and their salad rolls, which they call fresh spring roll: filled with bbq pork (xa xiu), shrimp, vermicelli noodles, & mint. The presentation on these was gorgeous, and they really were the highlight of the meal. Though definitely not the best salad roll in town.

Next came our entrees, beef pho and lemongrass chicken. Like I said, the viet menu is short: 3 pho variants (beef, chicken or vegetarian, with no choices for meat), udon (huh?), curry, fried rice, papaya or mango salad, and lemongrass chicken or tofu. The presentation on these were also really lovely. And for a $6 small bowl of pho, it ought to be lovely.

The pho was disappointing. It came with a very small salad plate (though the broth was studded with lots of herbs), and the meat and rice noodles clumped to themselves. By the time the pho got to the table, the meat was an unidentifiable grey mass. And the broth was salty and thin, not rich and robust.

And the lemongrass chicken was also underwhelming. The sauce was tasty with that nice lemongrass citrusyness and slightly spicy, but the chicken itself tasted plain. The green beans were nice and crisp though. It seemed overpriced.

So, beautiful presentation, a little expensive for what it is, and okay but not memorable food.

More photos here

We went seeking pho, soup and bun. Pho Saigon is a pleasant restaurant with booths and tables, a large flat-screen TV, and a lot of lobsters on the wall. The menu is Vietnamese and Chinese, with most items given in English, Vietnamese and Chinese. I was a bit surprised at the prices: a small pho was $5.50, and a large was $8. But no matter.

We ordered salad rolls, fried prawns, a pho with meatballs and rare steak, BBQ pork wonton soup, BBQ pork bun, a thai iced tea, and a Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk.

The drinks, of course, came first: small, strong, and not terribly sweet. I prefer doing my own sweetening, so that was right up my alley.

Next, the salad rolls, which were very decent, stuffed with shrimp and BBQ pork. The dipping sauce was very thin, which made for a drip hazard. I decided to get okay with a drip (or three) on my shirt.

The fried shrimp were, well, not the best example of the craft. The shrimp were firm, sweet, and mediumsized, covered with a thick batter, which was still doughy and undercooked. They came with a classic chinese sweet and sour dipping sauce. The person who ordered them didn't end up eating them in the end.

Then came the entrees. The BBQ pork wonton soup was totally full of wontons and chinese BBQ pork—it was the winner of the table. The wontons were filled, it seems with BBQ Pork, so they were at the bottom, covered by an impressive array of BBQ pork slices. The person who ordered that slurped happily, ignoring the glares from the other side of the tabel.

The pho was a small bowl with both meatballs and sliced eye of round. I had ordered it children's style, without onions, but that had been lost in translation: they may well have given me extra onions. There was a salad plate that was small, but with very fresh ingredients with a full salad plate. The beef broth was okay, though definitely mild and a little underspiced, not the rich broth that I relish.

And the bun, or vermicelli bowls (a rice noodle salad with a fish-sauce dressing), was deemed okay, but terribly mild. It came with adorably cut carrots, and pickled daikon. And while it was deemed okay, the eater picked at it.

Now it could be that we just got lucky, and came in on a bad night. In spite of the parking lot being full, there were only a few tables full in the restaurant. Friends, with better palates than mine, certainly, have liked it. Next time through, I'll stick to the chinese noodle dishes.

Soups are $5-$7.50, entries $6.50-$8.50. One of my favs is the cha gio chay, spring rolls with tofu and taro root, with soy-ginger dipping sauce. If you really want to impress someone new to Pho Van, order Banh xeo, an impressive crispy rice flour crepe filled with pure yummyness (shrimp & pork)—as big as a dinner plate and golden brown delicious. Bahn xeo is always impressive, but Pho Van's version is quite possibly the best in town. Okay, I've not had anything I don't absolutely love there. It's so yummy, I try to come up with excuses to go there, across town, several times a week.

One of Pho Van's greatest strengths are their ability to work with groups. This is a place that doesn't get flustered with a crowd. And they take reservations for parties of six or more.

This is also a great place to take your unadventuresome midwestern relatives: the place is so beautifully designed, so clean, so stylish, that how can your Applebee's loving mom not approve?

Pho Van is well-known to Eastside pho enthusiasts. It's hard to go wrong with a good bowl of pho, and Pho Van does some of the best. The prices are good, the service is fast, and, it's a great place to take someone who isn't sure about pho. Unlike most of the other eastside pho parlors, Pho Van is gorgeous and lovely and tremendously aesthetically appealing. With the new menu strict vegetarians won't have to go hungry, though their options are limited. Dinner for 2 including appetizers, beer, and tip came in at $25.

Let me start right up front with my biases. I love Pho Van on 82nd, and would eat there every night of the week if I had the cash and someone to go with me. It's certainly not the only vietnamese restaurant I go to, but I love the combination of good food and serene atmosphere. And, they have a vespa and a bike rickshaw inside!

I had heard some less than steller reports about the new Pho Van on Hawthorne, so I went to check it out. Parking was a hassle. We get inside the doorway at 5:15, and there's already a crowd of people standing there. The space in front of the host/hostess stand is small, cramped, and dominated by a giant palm which is totally in my face while I wait. There's one host, and he's taking a phone order from some indecisive person.

After maybe 5 minutes, we get seated. Not too bad. The menu is the same as Pho Van's lunch menu—so an assortment of pho and other soups, appetizers, hand rolls, rice dishes, and bun. The place is close to full, and loud, with sound bouncing off the concrete floors, reverbing off the walls.

First comes the crispy vegetarian rolls, stuffed with all sorts of goodies including taro. They're greasy. But we're hungry, so we don't say anything, and it's not like anyone is checking up on us other than to come and shake our partially full beer bottles to see if they're empty. Yeah, thanks.

Then the main course come. I ordered one of the handrolls, with shrimp and chicken grilled on sugar cane: it's wonderful, but it's all cold. Is it supposed to be cold? I don't remember.

The bun, however, is supposed to be a constrast of cold crunchy vegetables, warm soothing rice noodles, the brace of fish sauce. It's all cold as well. My meal partner, who has worked at viet restaurants in the past, is very displeased with the bun. The noodles are clumpy, the beef is weird, etc. And so, ten minutes or so after the food is delivered, the waitress comes by to ask if everything is okay and gets an earful. She says, well the noodles are supposed to be cold. Hmmmm. She comps his meal, but it's clear she thinks we're PITA. My meal partner claims it's one of the worst vietnamese meals he's ever eaten, and leaves most of it there.

Maybe it was a bad night. Maybe we just had bad luck. Admittedly, I'm totally charmed by the 82nd Ave Pho Van. And while I'll go back to see if it was just bad luck, I'm not terribly motivated to make that soon.

Big news! The Red & Black is reopening in the old location of (the greatly missed) Anne Hughes Kitchen Table. They have an all-new, all vegan menu. Over opening weekend (1/11/2008-1/13/2008), the hours will be 9am-3pm, but next week they will be 9am-9pm.

You love this place, or hate it. I love it for the charcoal appetizers, and for the vegetarian curries. Approach other items with caution. A couple of people eating family style, only drinking tea, and watching it, can still get out the door under $8 each, but for most of us, that is too much restraint. What's good here?—well, just about everything I've tried. Salad rolls, while pricey, are delight rolled up, and they have a vegetarian as well as shrimp and pork version. Just about anything with gluten or mock chicken is worth going out of your way for. Indeed, the vegetarian Thai menu rarely fails—panang, Peanut curry, and more. There are microbrews, and bottled imports, as well as iced coffees and teas.

And really, that's a good thing. It makes that meal a special event, which is nice given that I, and perhaps you, eat out entirely too much.

So. Simpatica. I've only been for brunch, but it's one of those things that stands out. Not only is it the best breakfast you've had all week, it might be the best meal period.

First of all, all the meats come from Viande, which conveniently enough is their meat shop. Yum.

Every week, the menu changes. Prices range from $8-$10. Some things stay, like belgian waffles, chicken and waffles, and biscuits and gravy. So, with something like chicken and waffles, where the fried chicken is the best in town, and the waffles come with a fruit or berry based syrup (or regular maple syrup if you'd prefer), it's easy to get into a rut, and order it every week. A wonderful, magical rut!

But you are rewarded for trying the new stuff too. There's always a frittata, a hash, and crepes. There's always the breakfast sandwich, the cheeseburger, and the philly cheese steak.

I've had the cheese steak: best in town. The cheeseburger may well be the best too—if only it came with french fries. And, I've tried everything else that was close enough for me to stab, and everything, everything has been superb. Every meal there has been memorable and delicious.

They serve Stumptown Coffee, bloody marys, mimosas, wine, beer and cocktails, to ease your way into the morning.

So what's the drawback, other than it just happening on Sundays? Well, Bon Appetit named Simpatica one of the Top 10 hot new restaurants in the US for 2006 (June 2006), and so the lines waiting for breakfast have just increased. Now everyone knows about it. Gee, thanks!

The room is loud, and in the best of circumstances, you have your choice of a 4-top or a communal table. That said, you may meet some new folks.

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

Micha writes (10/2001),

They seem to want this place to be more of a restaurant and less of a drink-appetizer hangout. Double happy hour seems to be gone. There are more families and kids in there these days than there used to be. I've always enjoyed the noodle dishes myself. Back in August they had a lamb kebab on the menu, which seemed to be straying outside their Southeast Asian boundary. But I tried it and it was excellent. There's also tandoori chicken, massaman curry, and plenty of noodle dishes. They now have a small kids' menu, too.

Tabor Hill gets slagged a quite a bit and I'm not sure why. Yes, it used to have other owners (who have gone on to create the John Street Cafe), and yes, it's just a diner. Yes, it's not at all trendy... you won't spot hipsters or activists or folks showing off their new squeeze. So, what do you want?

What I want, and why I come here is simple. Hash browns. Golden brown goodness accenting any egg dish you could want, most in the four dollar range. The menu indicates home fries, and you'll need to actually specify hash browns when you order.

What they have is standard diner fare, at standard diner prices. It's not pretentious. I haven't been there for lunch or dinner, but my gosh, any place with kielbasa and decent hash browns is okay with me.

There are several things that divide Takahashi lovers, and Takahashi haters. One, they're out way out east. The fish quality isn't phenomenal. And finally, they make some Americanized sushi.

That said, the Takahashi is adorable. It has, of course, the sushi bar, where you can watch Mr. Takahashi and a collection of younger men at work, and that is definitely the best place to sit if there's just a couple of you. There are also tables, of course. A miniature train runs (sometimes) on a track above the dining room, and Japanese gee-gaws are everywhere.

The real high points of the Takahashi are the ala carte tempura choic