They have a cafe that serves Stumptown Coffee that is quite sunny and cheerful, and has WiFi.

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...

aka the Bosco Milligan Foundation
They offer exhibit galleries displaying items from the largest building artifacts collection in the western U.S., a resource library, hands-on workshops in preservation techniques, lectures and tours.

The Berlin Inn is one of those places that I remember on the way to some place else, and think, I made the wrong decision. It's not terribly close to home, and I don't eat german all that often, so it's just not on my radar. Which is silly, because it's quite good.

This small place, stuffed to the brim with germanica, is popular with many, though it might be a bit much if you're claustrophobic. Stairs, small rooms, and tight turns make this definitely not wheelchair accessible.

The weekend (or should I say, wockenende) frühstück is a relatively small menu. There are several veggie items, including buttermilk and German pancakes, and blintzes, several meaty dishes like pork chops, chicken schnitzel, or leberkäse with eggs, 3 omelettes, and 3 benedicts. Everything but the pancake/blintze/North Sea Toast comes with your choice of bratkartoffeln (think, German home fries) or potato pancakes.

They offer three German beers on tap: today's selection was Allgaüer Hefeweizen, Spaten Premium Bock, and Salvator Paulaner. If you're interested at all in the local beer scene or German beer, be sure to chat with Marty—he's a wealth of knowledge and loves to share.

Prices range from $6-$12.50 a plate, and portions, as you might imagine, are huge. We got the Best of the Wurst omelet, and the leberkäse plate. Each was a gut bomb of food. Our potato pancakes were unlike any I've ever had: throughly, pan-fried until they were like crocquettes, but the omelet and leberkäse were both good. I needed a nap afterwards.

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.

The Blue Monk is a jazz club. Run by a beer fanatic. Okay? There is food, and it's okay, arguably even better during happy hour (5-7 everyday) where a bakers dozen options are all $5. The menu leans heavily on pasta. But really, if you're not a jazz fan, or even if you are, the reason to go there is the beer. 11 taps feature Stella Artois, and 10 not-so-usual American craft brews and European standards (the web site doesn't keep current with what's on now, but it's bound to have several Belgians). They stock an interesting selection of bottled beers, too. They serve food until 1am, and they're open all week long.

We had heard that breakfast at Bob's was good, so we headed out there one Saturday. Their info isn't kidding: it is only about 15 minutes from Portland by car.

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 is rather sparse: 16 items, omelettes ($7-$8), breakfast eggs ($4.75-$7), cereals ($2.50-$4), a fruit bowl ($6) and a kids plate ($3.50). There is also a vegetarian menu of 10 items ($4-$7), most vegan. All the menus are online.

So where are the carby things that you think of when you think of stone-ground whole grain goodness? It seems they are relegated as sides (or on the veg menu). After all, they offer vegan and non-vegan flapjacks made from buttermilk, 10 grain, or buckwheat, as well as buttermilk waffles, and vegan and non-vegan french toast. I would have liked to have a multiple carb breakfast, but building your own plate is expensive, or so it seemed at the time. We ended up having eggs and cheese grits with scratch biscuits. The grits were excellent, and the whole-grain biscuits were yummy, flakey, and a little messy.

The next time I go back, I'm definitely going to try the flapjacks. Maybe with a side of cheese grits...

The downsides are definitely that Milwaukie isn't so close for those of us who live in town, and it doesn't look like you have a lot of public transit options on Saturdays. And Saturday morning probably means a wait in line. The meat products are turkey based. And everyone from Clackamas County is there on Saturday. Including Bob and Charlee Moore whose grandparently visages appear everywhere, and they eat there too!

This is definitely worth the trip, especially during the week, for Bob's Red Mill fans, vegans, and whole grain enthusiasts.

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!

Walking in the door of Edelweiss on a Saturday can be intimidating. You'd be forgiven for not trusting that there is a deli. You have to walk into the place, past the German speaking shopladies, through the tight aisleways, and squeeze past the hoards of people who are in getting their sausages and cold cuts for the weekend. The whole experience can be a bit overwhelming. And it doesn't help if the shop ladies laugh at you. Remember, it's nothing personal, they mean well, it's just German humor.

Make your life easier, and make an immediate right by the magazines. You'll see the fast food tables set up, as well as a cooler of beers and pop. You can grab something there but keep in mind that there are three beers on tap.

Now, head to the back of the shop, to the Northwest corner, and there's where you can buy lunch, and no, you don't need a number.

When we were there, the Russian or Ukrainian woman behind the counter treated us with soviet efficiency. She glared at us for not ordering something to drink, and then she glared when we changed our minds and went back to get some pilsner on tap. And yes, while it seems like a simple thing to put a sausage in a bun, and then put sauerkraut on top, she'll give you a number and someone will bring it out. Ten minutes later.

For $4, you can get a sausage with sauerkraut on a bun. They have three different kinds, but we were only offered mild or spicy, and honestly, I was afraid to ask for the weisswurst that I love. But our spicy sausages were good, with a nice snap.

You can also get sandwiches and 9 different salads, but I can't speak to that.

Supposably they offer the best reuben in town, and I suspect when it's less busy, they're probably happy to practice German with you. My pal Heather has lots of fond memories of going in and practicing Kinderdeutsch. We overheard someone haplessly telling the shoplady that he was from the Zoo (as in, he lived in the Zoo. No reports on if he looked like a monkey), and to their credit, they didn't laugh at him (though we did).

This occurs in the central Eastside. Ummm, that's huge. I mean, geographically. Not exactly walkable.

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

Buy or donate new or used building materials for cheap or a tax break!

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.

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.

Texas-style barbeque is a delight. And this is real texas-style bbq. It's all about the meat, baby! Painted Hills beef brisket, Viande hot-links (sausage), pulled pork, Sudan Farms lamb spareribs, and pork spareribs are your choices. You can have a single meat plate up to a five meat plate, or order by the pound. Some may be disappointed by the limited sides, but it's all about the meat.

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.

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)

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This garish corner in Brooklyn has wonderful neon, but that's about all it has, appearance-wise, going for it.

The Hot Cake House is a 24 hour joint that serves mostly breakfast, though some sandwiches and burgers are also on the menu.

I had read that most people order the hot cakes, so I got them with eggs and chorizo. After seeing the hashbrowns on the grill, I had to have some of those as well, and they conveniently come with a mexican omelette.

And voila, everything was great. Not like exquisitely great, but definitely diner food great. Eggs and chorizo were a huge portion of just that, lots of chorizo, everything nicely combined. If they had fresh corn tortillas, I might eat breakfast nowhere else. The hot cakes were absolutely hot cake-like, doused in some butter-like substance, and then served with something that is heated, but probably not pure maple syrup. Hell, it may contain no maple syrup for all I know (I saw some patrons bring in their own)!

The mexican omelette was stocked full of cheese, chorizo, onions and peppers, and the hashbrowns are thinly shred, but these are bigger thin shreds, nice and brown. If I lived in the neighborhood, I might be there all the time. The coffee looks scary—we didn't go there.

The place is small, a combination of fast food booths and homebuilt stuff, all a very cheerful yellow. The people watching, day or night, is superb.

Other press:

• Hotcake House hits half-century: 24-hour eatery is a timeless testament to carbs and crowds
  Pete Schulberg, The Portland Tribune, Apr 29, 2005


• Late night fine dining
  Betsy at Metroblogging Portland, May 14, 2006


• i am pariah: bloated


• Up All Night: Original Hotcake House is Your Best Friend
  Adam Gnade, The Portland Mercury, Apr 14, 2005

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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.

Maybe we were there on a bad night. Maybe the guys cooking were too high. Maybe the beer lines weren't clean. But usually there's something redeemable about a joint, and this time, there was nothing. We got the philly cheesesteak, hold the onions (which meant there were nice big chunks of onions), and an italian sausage, which had everything, sausage, peppers, onion, in a rough dice. The cheesesteak was nothing to write home about, except for the amazingly small meat to bun ratio. The sausage was tasteless, covered with incipid marinara, poorly cooked peppers and onions, and doughy bread. We had gotten the recommended porter, and a brown. The porter had a nice mocha nose, but tasted like mud. The brown had no nose, and tasted like mud too. We left all of it there, and got dinner at DQ, which was cheap and tasty.

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.

Pho Hung makes one of the best pho broths in town. And their vietnamese food is solid. The 82nd Ave location offers a bit more sophistication than other locations, along with a menu with color photographs and explanations for those who might be new to vietnamese. Some claim the pho here is greasy, and I can't comment about that, as I've only had it at the Fremont St restaurant. If all things are equal, you could do much worse than the pho here, and the bun and com (noodle and rice) dishes are also very good. Salad rolls are not giant, but they are freshly made and delicious. But watch out—spring rolls are tasty, and greasy.

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.

This store, in the former Fou Lee location, supposably has the same owner, but it was renamed to celebrate the extensive remodeling. This primarily Vietnamese grocery has a great looking meat and fish counter, and lots of pan-Asian staples, as well as inexpensive produce.

CLOSED 12/31/2006

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.

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 choices, cooked sushi (for folks who don't care for raw fish), and low prices—especially on Wednesdays, when everything is discounted.

When you are seated, you'll get your tea and hot scented towels. I'm never sure what to do with the towels, but I like the idea.

You have your choice of three menus. The first is the goofy, hand-written laminated menu of appetizers and entrees. There are fried, rice, yakisoba, pot stickers, miso soup, sukiyaki, udon, a number of combo plates and ramen—I admit, however, that I come to the Takahashi for tempura and sushi, and it's those menus that I pay attention to.

As you might expect, the tempura and sushi menus are forms to fill out, on your table. The tempura choices are many: 16 different vegetables (including tofu! who knew? $1-$1.50), 10 types of seafood and fish ($2.50-$3, softshell crab, $8), and chicken ($2), and beef ($3). So if you'd only like to order, say, kabocha (japanese squash), onion ring, nasubi (japanese eggplant), lotus, several types of mushrooms, banana, kisu (japanese whitefish), snapper and chicken, that's what you get—two pieces of each.

The sushi menu is a great primer for Japanese food newbies: everything is spelled out. They offer nigiri (sushi on pillows of rice, $2.50-$5 for 2 pieces), and maki (sushi wrapped in rice, and then rolled in nori, $2.50-$7), and the menu indicates if the fish is raw or not. Nearly half the menu is cooked maki or nigiri.

There are also specials, which generally top out at $3.50.

Purists will be upset, surely, about the use of sweet chili sauce, Sriracha, chicken tempura, mayonnaise, and especially cream cheese. But, hey, you can get natto here.

Vegetarians have a lot of options in the tempura menu and 9 options on the sushi menu (tamago nigiri [egg & sugar omelette], kappa maki [cucumber], avocado nigiri, inari [fried tofu pocket stuffed with sushi rice], natto handroll [aged soybeans], picked daikon radish maki, shea maki [avocado, cream cheese & cucumber], spicy daikon radish sprouts, and su maki [avocado, cream cheese & asparagus].

They offer hot and cold sake, naturally, Japanese and American beers, and wine: plum or white.

The downside to the Takahashi, other than the drive, is the service. It's really erratic, going from great one visit to awful on another. The other night when we visited, it took 45 minutes to get our sushi and tempura, and from the guilty look we got from the waitress, it wasn't the kitchen's fault. It gave us lots of time to try origami (directions and paper are on each table) and learn it wasn't our style.

This is why it's best to sit at the sushi bar. You always have entertainment and your food comes faster.

The prices are great, but it still ends up being expensive unless you show some control. This last visit cost us $50—not the most we've spent here, and not the least.

Sarah writes:

You can smell Tennessee Red's well before you get there ... and the smell isn't steering you wrong. The barbecue is good, the prices reasonable, and the portions huge. Two people can easily get stuffed on one order of ribs .... Red's has five different sauces, including an oregon sauce made from hazelnuts (!). When you pick your side orders, make sure to check out their smoked black beans, potato salad, creamy cole slaw, and corn bread. Prices for mains range from $9 to $12, but you will be eating leftovers for days ...

Unfortunately, her review is from an owner or two before. Have you been there recently? What do you think?

While this was one of the original Vietnamese restaurants embraced by lily-white Portlanders, some may find it greasy now. There is a huge selection of thai and vietnamese food here, all pretty darn tasty. Lunch specials too.

more photos of Toast here
It's exciting that all these new breakfast spots are opening SoHo (south of Holgate. C'mon, it's better than FoPo, you've got to admit), and I've been spoiled by how good they are. So we walked into Toast: a Neighborhood Restaurant with some high expectations.

Reports are very good on the dinner there.

We were in for breakfast. Note one: it's small, and there was a wait. It opened a week ago, and there's a wait! I guess the neighborhood was ready for them.

But soon enough we were seated at the counter. I had my jacket under my butt and my purse hanging from my knee because there were no coat hooks, or stool backs. That's fine, as long as you don't have a coat or a purse. But there are foot rests on both the stools and the counter itself, so it could be much worse.

One thing I noticed right away that I liked. They offer beer, wine and mixed drinks ($5-7) to go with your breakfast... and some of the mixed drinks don't have alcohol ($3). That's brilliant! Why isn't everyone doing that? I mean, that's seriously a great idea.

So we ordered a Zero Gravity (ginger ale, OJ, splash of cranberry and orange zest) and a Conscious (pomegranate, lemon, lime, OJ and soda water). Both came in pint glasses, and both were very good.

Our waitress brought us by a monkey dish of two mini scones to munch as we looked at the food menu. And that's where my trouble began.

The menu has 12 entrees, and nothing really suited me. There were lots of mentions of members of the onion family on the menu, and I know most folks love onions. It's just not my thing. But just about everything that isn't vegetarian has pork: pork belly, griddle ham, cured pork, which seems kinda promising.

So we order a sausage turnover, the Benedict oh ($9), and the Golden Pig ($8.50). We're immediately told that they're out of the sausage turnovers, sadness.

The Benedict oh is soft poached eggs, housemade sausage patties, chard, and housemade english muffins with a bit of bearnaise sauce.

The Golden Pig is pork belly with three basil scrambled eggs & crispy shallots on a slice of toast.

So the food comes, and my first response is, what is this? I'm used to seeing breakfasts including some potatoes or some salad or some fruit. This is just the entree, by itself, seeming dwarfed by the whiteness of the dinner plate. It looks very small and spare. So I order a potato rosti ($2.50).

My benedict is an interesting idea, really. The housemade sausage is something I'd never order again, but I can imagine the benedict with chard and pork belly or cured pork could be really good.

The pig is tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The rosti comes, onion-laden. Oh well.

$26.00 later, and we're out. And I have to wonder, with prices like those, if it will remain a neighborhood restaurant. True, breakfast entrees at Bar Carlo and Arleta Library are similarly priced, but just about everything is excellent at both, and your entrees will fill you up at either. And while I'm really not opposed to the small plates idea applied to breakfast, I want that small plate to be really good. Is that too much to ask?

This place is very popular for breakfast, and for good reason. It's a charming little space, with a comfortable counter, and the food is reasonable and tasty. Fried cornmeal served with butter and heated maple syrup is a delight, as is the blueberry pancakes. Egg plates also appear delectable and overflowing.

Pizza by the slice. Pizza by the pie. Microbrews on tap, and wine. Huge salads. Now expanded, so... there. And obviously, it's good -- in my top three favorite pizza places in town. And reasonable -- a slice for under $3, a salad for about the same, a beer for about the same.

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

Ya Hala is my favorite Lebanese restaurant. There, I've said it. I know you can get whole wheat pita at Karam. I know it's cheaper at Nicolas. But it's hard to beat Ya Hala. Yes, it's in Montavilla, dangerously close to 82nd. They serve lots of interesting home-style food, beautifully presented, in generous portions. Until recently, lots of menu items are ones you rarely see in these parts: beef artichoke hearts, bamyae or makloubeh. Add in the fresh-from-the-oven pita bread, and gosh. Vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores can eat together happily. The atmosphere is one a midwestern parent could love. There is beer, wine, and mixed drinks. Street parking is easy, and you can pick up some spices or other middle-eastern goodies in the attached store. You know you want to!

CLOSED AS OF 10/11/2006

portland.craigslist.org/mlt/off/219395565.html

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October 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yarn Garden is most likely the biggest yarn shop in Portland, and the one that is most likely to be open when you decide you need a new project during the Simpsons. They have a room of patterns and books and magazines, and some comfortable seating in the coffee shop. They stock lots, if not all, of Noro and Brown Sheep (including a healthy selection of Lamb's Pride worsted and bulky, and Burley Spun), needles by Lantern Moon, Addi, Daisy, Clover, and Bryspun, lots of knitting bags, baskets and purses, and tons of sock yarn including the self-patterners, wildfoote, and koigu. And if you just look at the pretty displays, you'll think that everything here is really expensive. If you're looking for acrylic or baby yarn or cheapies, ask.

And there in lies the problem. Yarn Garden can be claustrophobic in the best of circumstances, and the staff seem overextended and somewhat clueless. It's fine if you know w