[Portland] Five Fifty Five

[Harters]

“Fine dining” is a phrase I detest. I’m never sure what it’s supposed to mean. And I suspect that if I did know, it would be different from the next person’s definition. And their’s would be different from a third person’s. And so on. So I never really use it. But, if I did, then Five Fifty Five would possibly get the tag.

A sure sign that a place is aspiring to be thought of as “fine dining” is the presentation of an amuse bouche. Here, it came on a spoon (like it often does) and was a single mouthful of braised rabbit, pickled radish and pine nuts. Absolutely delicious.

It’s short menu, offering around half a dozen starters, a similar number of mains (there’s also a tasting menu for folk who like that sort of thing). We like short menus – means the kitchen knows what it’s about and can concentrate on doing things properly. Hopefully!

I started with “pork & grits” – some long cooked pork belly which sat, somewhat unattractively, in a bowl of polenta. It was a good idea, but one which failed to hit the mark. The polenta was overly wet and under-seasoned. Alongside, a little salad of pickled green beans was the best bit to eat.

Meanwhile, my wife was enjoying a green salad. Of course, there’s not really anything to write about here. It was salad. And green. Good dressing.

Things bucked up after the uninspiring start. Thin slices of hanger steak, marinated for three days (although I’m not sure in what), came perfectly medium rare and were excellent. There were soem grilled ramps, organic mushrooms and fried potatoes alongside. Very good accompaniments with not a poncy foam in sight.

Picking up on local produce, lobster mac & cheese was rich, interesting and damn tasty on its own. The “mac” wasn’t “mac” but torchio – an interesting mushroom shaped pasta which held the sauce well. The bowl was topped with shoestring potato and a couple of slices of black truffle. It raised a simple dish to a new level.

For desserts, strawberry and rhubarb cheesecake was good, although there wasn’t much evidence of the expected sharpness of the rhubarb. However, a Mayer lemon curd did provide something of a kick.

Ice cream was made on the premises and was excellent – strawberry, white chocolate & sorrel, rocky road.

There was excellent espresso to finish. Our cravings for sweet hadn’t been fully satisfied by dessert, so we ordered a plate of chocolate chip cookies to go with the coffee. Served warm, they were really good and chocolatey.

Almost needless to say, for a “fine dining” place, service was thoroughly professional. We’d enjoyed dinner a lot!

[maina]

We just went during restaurant week, first time in yrs. Was underwhelmed on our first visit long ago, but after last night's visit we will definitely be back. I started with one of their signature cocktails - a winter cosmo - which was steeply priced at $13, but a very generous serving and delicious!

I had the rutabega soup with ginger meringue to start, hubby had the mussels. Both were outstanding. The soup had a distinct but not overwhelming taste of rutabega, and the ginger meringue was the perfect accompaniment. The mussels were in a wonderful light sauce that begged to be soaked up with the toasted bread provided.

We both had the peppercorn scallops, and altho the peppercorn was a little too thickly applied for our taste, the scallop was perfectly cooked. We just scraped a bit of the peppercorn crust off, and it was perfect. The whipped fennel potatoes were a nice complement.

For dessert one of us had their artisanal cheeses, and the other the dark chocolate cremeux with pecan ice cream. The hard spanish cheese was delicious, served with toast rounds, honey and fruit compote; not impressed with the softer cheese (can't remember name) which too mild to stand up to the compote. The chocolate dessert was luscious.

Service was also very good, attentive without being cloying. Greatly enjoyed our visit. We will put this on our short list (along with Bresca's and Bar Lola's).

[opinionatedchef]

so glad you liked it there. we live in boston but when we're lucky enough to be in portland, we try to eat at 555 as well as Bresca (sorry you missed that one; lovely artisinal food.)