Portland trip report

[mrsjoujou]

We had a great time eating in Portland and I still talk about a few places(Ken's, sahagun) on a daily basis. The biggest difference between Southern California and Portland was the great, friendly and professional service we got almost everywhere. Another big difference was the amazing coffee you can get in most places. Here is a brief report of the places we tried:

Ten01- We really liked this place for our first lunch. The power lunch is an amazing deal and I wish we had a place like that in our area. The service was great and profressional and we were shocked that you can still get great service like this in other cities!! We had a great meat ball soup with parmesan broth and we got risotto with fava beans and short ribs mac & cheese for the second course. I really liked the risotto with mint pesto and fava beans. I could eat that every day. The mac & cheese was good, but much heavier and it had a few bits of short ribs. The dessert plate was good. The caramel truffle was a little too sweet for me, but the lemon cookie and gelees were pretty good.

Barista- After our lunch at Ten01 we strolled around Pearl and had coffee at this place. My husband's french press was pretty good, but my macchiato was not hot enough and she had to try two times to get it right.

Bluehour- We went here for happy hour and My husband had their special cocktail and a very tasty burger and I had steak Frites. I am glad I knew about half off bar menu, because the first waitress didn't mention it. At half off ,it was an amazing deal and the place was packed. They cooked my steak perfect med rare, but the fries was Ok.

Cool moon ice cream- This was our last stop on our first day. I choose the two most excotic flavors(Kulfi and Thai pepper peanuts) and they were delicous. We really liked all the condo's and lofts in that square, but where were the people? We hardly saw many people in that area and Pearl in general.

Ken's Artisan Bakery- We tried Pain aux raisins, pain au chocolat, almond croissant and ham and cheese croissant. We really liked the almond and ham and cheese. Pain au chocolat was good, but I have had better ones and pain aux raisins was just OK.

Andina- This was the only place that I felt was overpriced. We were full from ken's and wanted to go to Sahagun after lunch so we just got a few tapas and were shocked how tiny the portions were for eight dollar. Half of avocado with tbs of crab meat or one sea scallop!! Come on !!

Sahagun- Great little chocolate shop. We each had a hot chocolate and bought bunch of truffles . We loved the caramel truffle and wished we bought more and of course the amazing hot chocolate.

Pok Pok- This place was great and we shared three dishes. We had the Boar collar, grilled squid and Kung Op( prawns). We loved the prawns dish and really enjoyed the noodle that came with it. Squid was fine and the Boar collar almost killed me from the heat. With each bite, I had to take a sip of the water. To cool things down we got the mango with sticky rice and I felt this was overpriced for what it was. I couldn't get the Khao Man Sun Tam, because they don't serve that at dinner time. After the forgetable mango with sticky rice, I told my husband we should have skipped the dessert and got KMST to go!!

PSU- We figured we pick up breakfast here and had plans to go to lunch at Bunk, so we wanted something light . We walked around and didn't find any great bakery and didn't want anything heavy so we settled for a couple of buns from the peral bakery. I wished that Ken's bakery was there, but it was not. The farmer's mkt looked good, specially the mushroom guy. Overal, the Santa Monica Farmer's mkt is much bigger.

Bunk- We made a mistake of ordering two heavy sandwiches, considering we were having dinner that night at Se Gris. We got the meat ball and the pork belly ruben. They were great, but heavy. We decided to walk back to the art museum to burn it off and what a walk that was!!

Sel Gris- We have reserved the chef's table and it didn't dissapoint. I could sit there all night and watch the action at the kitchen. I was very surprise that chef Mondok himself did so much work. Since we were the first guest, he was waiting for us to order and seemed little impatient, like order already!! We were not that hungry due to the Bunk's run. My husband ordered wisely. He started with a very light endive salad and for main, Halibut “Mac & Cheese". I made a mistake of ordering two heavy courses. I got Lobster Gnocchi and Pot au Feu. His salad was great and had some almonds and Humboldt Fog. My Lobster Gnocchi was delicous also, but much heavier. I took a little bite of his fish and it was great. My Pot au Feu was very rich and came with pommes Dauphine and foie gras beef jus. After a couple of bites, I was so full and felt like I couldn't eat any more. I don't think , I have ever felt so full. I told my husband to slow down and pretend we were eating, so we can watch the chef more. He knew I was watching him the whole time. As much as we were full, we decided to order dessert and french press, so as you guess by now, we can watch the chef more!! We ordered Chocolate tartlett and The chef served it himself !! I told him we were from CA and were very happy to be there and he said me too. What a night. We took a cab back and walked around The Pearl district and wondered who lives in all this condo's and how come it was so quite on a Sat night.

Bluehour- We had our Easter brunch here and it was pretty good. I spent days trying to find a brunch place and considered many places, but due to the location or slow service or boring menu we ended up here. The service was perfect and I really liked the feel of this place. My french omelet was pretty good, bu thet Oregon truffles didn't have much flavor. I asked for Rosti potatoes as a side and it was great. My husband had a Bluehour hash and it was pretty good. It had pastrami, idaho potatoes and poached eggs.

Ken's bakery- Our last stop was Ken's. Every time, we visit a city with a great bakery, we always return on our last day to buy stuff for the return back home. I got the country brwon, Baguette, multigarian, raisin pecan, pain au chocolat and pear croissant. I asked for two ham and cheese baguettes and they gave me ham and cheese croissant. Good thing we checked outside, we went back inside and got our ham and cheese baguettes. I still have some bread left and I will be crying when the last slice is gone.

Via delizia- Their gelato was too sweet and very generic. We wished we had gone back to Cool moon.

Cocoa- we tried to go there on Sat morning, but they were closed. What a luck.

Stumptown- Coffee was always pretty good, but chai tea was just OK.

Overall, we had a great time eating and will miss many of the places we tried.
Thanks for all the help and for reading.

[smf48]

Awesome post! I am going to be in Portland next week and I just printed this out.
THANK YOU!
Best,
J

[Leonardo]

Thanks for the report. Glad you appreciated our help.

Sorry you didn't have Pine State Biscuits or Tastebud Farms at the farmers' mkt. I think Ken's won't be there until later in the season.

Next time also try coffee from Ristretto & Spella.

There are more mild options at Pok Pok such as the Khao Soi Kai, one of my favorite soups ever.

[nkeane]

sounds like a fun trip! It makes me feel lucky that I can go to any of these places at my whim.

High end coffee from the likes of Barista, stumptown(annex), Spella, Ristretto, CoffehouseNW, etc., is not meant to be drunk piping hot. You dont get all the nuance and complexity from the bean at ultra high temps, in the same manner that you dont get the true taste of beer or ice cream when they are served too cold. I find that the sweet spot of coffee flavors is about 110-130 degrees. Most people would consider that COLD for coffee........What I am trying to say is, Barista may have not been making it "wrong" per se, just that your expectations didnt match what they are doing. Not a knock on either you or Barista, just an observation.

[JillO]

Thanks so much for reporting back. Glad you had a good time!