Dining report, 2/18-2/20

[caraely]

Just returned from a two-night trip to Portland (from Seattle).

Friday:
Arrived early evening. Wanted to sit at the counter at Le Pigeon so did not make reservations (counter is for walk-ins). Arrived around 8pm and was told it would be a 90-minute wait, though people were likely to bail out so it could be faster. They took our cell # and we walked to Beaker and Flask for a drink. There was a wait for the bar so we camped out by the door with everyone else. A little awkward but they did serve us cocktails; I had an Aperol spritzer which was nice. Got seats at the bar after about 30 minutes. This place was not at all what I expected. It has a cold, rather corporate feeling; I was expecting something a bit warmer and not so new-looking. My husband had a margarita and it was fine, but not stellar. The bartender seemed a little put off that he didn't order a cocktail off the menu. We shared a seasonal vegetable plate (cauliflower and potatoes in a creamy herb sauce) which was delicious. I want to note that the hostess was fantastic. Friendly but firm -- she had lots of walk-ins to deal with.
Le Pigeon: loved it here. We were seated about 9:20pm. Shared a radicchio salad with feta and grapefruit. I had the beef bourguignon and my husband had the lamb chops. Both were delicious. The beef cheeks were so tender and the lamb was perfectly cooked. We shared a bottle of Morgon Cotes du Py -- the wine list is large, varied, and covers a wide range of price points. We finished with the creme brulee, which is served with an espresso pot du creme -- two desserts in one! The brulee was too loose for my taste but the pot du creme was firm, creamy, and strongly flavored. We wanted a nightcap so they directed us to Little Bird. They also recommended we try Roost for breakfast.

Saturday:
Roost for breakfast it was! As promised, there was no line out the door, so we were seated right away. The space is a bit Amish -- very plain, but bright. I ordered the shallot-gruyere omelet and my husband ordered stewed tomatoes with poached eggs and spinach. Stumptown coffee (which I love). We also got a side of bacon to share. The omelet was overcooked, and I could not for the life of me detect any gruyere. I was expecting something a bit creamier, I think, but it was heavy on the spinach. It is not a dish I would order again. My husband's breakfast was a hit, however. Delicious tomato sauce (I stole some to help with my omelet's dryness), nicely poached eggs, everything melded together well. The bacon was thick and well-cooked, probably the best restaurant bacon I've ever eaten. Really delicious. Overall I thought Roost was fine, but the menu is a little too small and I feel like they still have a few kinks to work out. Glad we went though.

Saturday afternoon we drove around and ended up on Mississippi. After walking and shopping, we settled in at Por Que No for a very late lunch of tacos and margaritas. I just love this place and seem to find my way here every time I'm in Portland, whether I'm planning on it or not. I had carne asada and carnitas and the carne asada tacos were my favorite. I heard someone mention that the calamari tacos are the best on the menu -- I'll make a note for next time. The margaritas are strong and led to me doing some tipsy shopping after lunch, which is never a good idea. I didn't do much damage. We capped off lunch with a scoop of caramel/salted chocolate ice cream at the place up the street (don't remember the name, blame the margaritas).

After more walking, it was back to the hotel for a short nap, then we roused ourselves for dinner. I was not hungry at this point and worried that another meal might be out of the question, but luckily our reservation was not until 8pm. This was at Nostrana. I walked in and had a similar reaction here as I did to Beaker and Flask -- not at all what I expected, much more corporate-feeling. I thought it was going to be a smaller, more "lived in" space, but it felt almost like a chain restaurant. We were left alone a bit too long, but once we ordered the service settled into a more regular pattern. We started with aperitifs to help wake things up, then shared an insalata mista. Skipped the bread altogether. We shared a margherita pizza and the flatiron steak with arugula. The pizza was nice; not as good as Via Tribunali in our area (Seattle), but fresh and chewy. The steak was a little puzzling. It was lightly seasoned and cooked to order, but it arrived just sort of plopped down on a bed of arugula, which had no sort of dressing or seasoning. It felt like it should have something -- a drizzle of olive oil and/or lemon, a few shavings of parmesan? There was no presentation to this dish whatsoever. We had a bottle of Aglianico with dinner which was lovely. We finished with the butterscotch budino for me and the apple crisp for him. The budino was the hit of the night, primarily because it comes with a layer of salted caramel sauce on top. It does completely overpower any butterscotch flavor in the pudding, which is too bad if you like butterscotch (I do!), but since I'm a salted caramel fan I wasn't too broken up about it. However I did wonder if they should just make it a salted caramel budino, because that flavor is so dominant. The apple crisp was lovely, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Nothing unexpected but a good simple crisp. We had intended to try Central (bar) on Saturday night, but got sidetracked. Next trip...

Sunday:
We checked out and drove to Navarre for brunch. We had planned to go to Urban Farmer but wanted something less hotel-based and we've been to Navarre for dinner and liked it. Arrived and there were several open tables at the window, but the server put us at a two-top in the middle of the room, which was a little odd. We figured she was keeping the others open for four-tops so we didn't make a bit deal of it. She was the only server and this would prove to be a problem, though we were there to hang out, eat, and read, so we weren't antsy.
We had the ham Benedict and scrambled eggs, with sides of bacon, toast, butter & jam. The eggs were very tender, clearly cooked low and slow -- delicious. I wanted more, actually. I didn't try the Benedict but my husband was happy. Neither of us cared for the bacon, which had a very strong sweet/smoky aftertaste. It's the kind of bacon that you are still tasting hours later. The bread was griddle-toasted Grand Central, and the jam was homemade (plum) and delicious. We did have to wait awhile for our order to be taken, they ran out of coffee cups and then coffee, and our waitress twice sent one of the kitchen staff to Whole Foods to buy more food (they ran out of bread, and something else I didn't hear). So it did feel a bit disorganized; lots of people waiting to pay, or be seated, or get orders. There were too many tables there for just one server. Like I said, though, we were not in a rush so we weren't too bothered by any of that. We had a nice meal and it was a great send-off; we left Navarre and got on the road for home.

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Nostrana
1401 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR 97214

Le Pigeon
738 E Burnside St, Portland, OR 97214

Stumptown
4525 SE Division St, Portland, OR 97206

Por Que No
3524 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR 97227

Urban Farmer
525 SW Morrison St., Portland, OR 97204

Beaker and Flask
727 SE Washington St, Portland, OR 97216

[JillO]

Thanks for the report!

Your ice cream on N. Mississippi came from Ruby Jewel, btw...good stuff.

[Leonardo]

Ruby Jewel started by selling ice cream sandwiches at farmers markets, then through local stores, and now happily they have a shop.
I share your physical impressions of Beaker and Nostrana.
No surprise about Nostrana's service. The attitude of too many there has been an ongoing issue since their opening.
Sorry to hear about the apparently ragged nature of your Navarre experience. I've always been treated well there.

[caraely]

Leonardo, I would definitely go back to Navarre for brunch, it wasn't a deal-breaker. I'd also love to do another dinner there.

I recently read a review of Navarre that noted it hasn't been "discovered" for brunch yet, so you can always get a table; perhaps it was unusually busy for them on Sunday. (It surprises me that more people don't go for brunch, since it's such a popular dinner spot. Location?)