Morton's The Steak House

Sunday March 29

Taking advantage of the last of Portland Dining Month we decided to go fancy, a steakhouse downtown. Morton's feels like the place lawyers entertain clients. Personalized liquor cabinets hold bottles behind wooden doors adorned with brass plaques bearing names. I've never seen that before - I don't know anyone who might need their own bottle available at an upscale restaurant.

The restaurant is huge, done in corporate dark grey, and very noisy.

Based on my knowledge of the restaurant, we dressed up nice. I was fashionably attired in linen pants and an oversize cashmere sweater that matched my necklace.  I expected everybody else would be in Sunday best as well - they were not. What has to happen for Portlanders to get out of their baggy jeans, baseball caps and sweatshirts?

We were seated at a two top in a nook at the back of the restaurant near the open kitchen, in front of the wall of fame, that we are not on. The nearest table was eating lobster. We were offered the Lobster special menu but opted for the Dining Month menu - the choices on the menu were my reason for choosing Mortons.

We ordered prosecco, then lobster bisque for me (10 out of 10), onion soup for H - ditto, filet mignon medium, creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. Key lime pie for dessert.

For the first time during our dining adventure, bread and butter was served. A large round loaf sprinkled with onions. Though not up to our bakery standards it was a pleasant addition, and we are enjoying the remnants at home.

Soups were great, sides were too, but the steak, at a steakhouse, was just meh. I asked for A1 sauce to spice it up. Dessert pie was nice but ordinary as well. 

While we were sipping our wine, a young woman came around to ask if we wanted prints of pictures she would take of us. We declined the print and H handed her the camera. See above.

Between courses another woman arrived to scrape the crumbs from the table. All service was exemplary. It was fun to watch the doings in the huge place, the experience was great, the food only good. We are so spoiled.

A good time was had.

H 9 of 10,  T 8 of 10

 NEKO Ramen

Monroe Parkway Lake Oswego

My stomach was delicate and mood to match, so instead of Mediterranean food we opted for ramen. First choice Noa was closed (shocking) so we headed close to home. First impression was poor because we had to order at the front counter. This place looks relatively new, and somewhat unfinished. The walls are a cold blue, industrial equipment is the ceiling decor, metallic panels and unpainted wood benches, raw edge sheet rock and wood bars complete the uninviting look. Not pleasing. One other table was occupied.

All in all, the food was okay - octopus karage was the best. H had seafood ramen. I had chicken miso ramen. Plenty to take home.

Literally, nothing to write home about. 

5 0ut of 10

$70

Nudi Noodle Place

Sunday March 15

Nudi Noodle Place

It was an interesting drive thru the neighborhood surrounding Reed College and beautiful old homes to the Woodstock neighborhood.

The Google directions instructed us to park behind the restaurant - so, into the lot, full, out and around to the other side - a small group of shops including a liquor store with boarded up window and door. A car was preparing to leave the only available spot - but taking its time. A car came up behind us - we had nowhere else to go - and began to honk. Then yell, then a big angry man got out of the car and approached, yelling obscenities. The car we were waiting on was occupied by a student driver who was unable or unwilling to move - the angry man made four visits to our car to inform us he had no fucking time to wait - until we were able to move. After parking and letting him move as well - I saw him skulking out of the liquor store carrying a bottle of something clear. Apparently, he needed that bottle before closing time.  Not the best way to start a date in these scary times.

And we were hungry. Briefly, and that is the issue I have with our experience at Nudi, the food was delicious, and the service was fine, but too fast. I ordered a glass of bubbly wine, then took the time to look at a very interesting menu. 

We ordered the signature salad, Angry Birds, Angry Birds- tempura prawns, crispy rice noodles, organic spring mix, grape tomato, cilantro, red onion, sesame citrus dressing. Fantastic!, and Indian crepe and Pad See Yu. All delicious, but served too fast, one after the other without time to finish one before the next was served.

This is a small, apparently owner run restaurant, the owner visited out table, and also managed to get us to pay while still finishing our meal.  We ate every drop. 

One more thing - after spicy food, dessert would have been a treat, but only one item on the menu, pumpkin flan - I would have loved some coconut ice cream.

So - 8 out of 10. excellent food, nice atmosphere, too fast service - we were done in 40 minutes.

$78

 Apizza Apizza:  Apizza Scholls

"While apizza can be considered a subtype of pizza, ... anyone who has ever had the pleasure of tasting a true apizza knows the combination of contrasting textures, flavorful crust, salty cheese, unique topping combinations, and just a little bit of char contribute to its signature oomph." 

H loves pizza. Friday was meh day, with grey weather and not much to do, a great time to go out, but nothing fancy. Apizza Scholls (which is not on Scholls ferry road as I'd always thought) is consistently on lists of PDX best places so we headed out with intentions of early dinner, which for us is 4 ish - better for digesting things like cheese.

Rush hour traffic, we arrive at around 4:30. There is a sign -The Line forms Here. They open at five. early birds that we are, we could have been first in line, however, when we got back from our walk, there were at least ten people already in line, and kept growing. 

Precisely at five. the doors open and people are directed to tables around the room. Service begins immediately - I barely have time to read the menu, which features two salads, apizza and Calzone on certain days only.  We order Caesar salad and half Paulie Gee (with meat and hot honey,) half Tartufo, white with truffles and mushrooms). Every table received the same fast, to the point and efficient service. 

What we really liked about this place is that it focuses on one thing, and they do it really well. We rated the salad second best of our series, (the beet salad from last week is tough to beat.) A generous plate of utterly crisp romaine, chunks of parmesan, croutons and perfect dressing. We licked the plate. 

And the 18" pizza (apizza) beat our H's favorite - this had a perfect thin crust with a great crisp outer ring. Each of the generous toppings was delicious. And we took half home to enjoy again. Everything about this experience was excellent - I understand why people wait online to get in - it's that good. 

Ten out of ten for food, service and just being good at what they do

$60

Bergerac Bistro OOh La La

 This month marks the return, after a five-year hiatus, of Portland Dining Month, an opportunity to try prix-fixe three course dinners at over 100 PDX restaurants. The website promoting the event lists two menu options, $35 and $55 dinners, and the list of dishes served at each location. After scanning the possibilities, the menu that jumped out at me featured Coq au Vin, beet salad and a creamy dessert - all of which appealed to me, and I thought would please my dinner companion.

I like this idea of having my meal planned ahead of time - like going to a friends' home for a meal and knowing they are good cooks. Bergerac Bistro, a small, cozy and pleasingly quiet space featuring French cuisine, did not disappoint. Pink Martini was singing in French as we entered after taking a moment to look at the list of interesting upcoming specialty dinners and cooking classes listed on the sign board.  I am curious to try the upcoming mushroom dinner.

Our table was in a pleasing location; the server was knowledgeable and friendly, my cocktail, a French 77 hit me in the right spot. Dinner was delicious, clearly excellent ingredients treated with care. We left full, satisfied and pleased with the experience. My leftovers were a treat the next day.

Rating T = 8, H = 7.5  

total $150

Seeking Bento: Ikenohana Sushi Restaurant

Things were a little different this week, for several reasons. First, instead of going out on Sunday this week, our family gathered at our house for a chance to try the new dishes we have been practicing. We drank sake and ate miso glazed black cod, miso soup, rice, pickled vegetables, and mochi for dessert. Other than dessert, we made it all from the recipes we have been practicing.

We have been watching YouTube videos to earn techniques for preparing foods for bento, which H thinks is a great idea for creating a simple and healthy breakfast, and we have an excellent new cookbook from a Japanese publisher, Effortless Bento filled with strategies, ideas and simple recipes that seems to provide all he needs to know to do just that. So, this week, the plan was to go out for a bento lunch, rather than dinner, and learn more about what constitutes a bento box.

H did the research bento and Grok suggested a restaurant in a mall in Beaverton.

Tuesday's cold and gloomy weather matched my mood, but I was hungry and looking forward to seeing the variety of foods that could be combined. My first impression of the restaurant felt like going into an old grandmother's house - dingy, dim and seen better days. We were seated at a table with a view of the storage area, and the work area beside the sushi bar. I was impressed by a sake dispenser visible next to the tea dispenser, but less impressed by the display of earrings on the sushi bar. I read a review from someone who said the place hasn't changed since high school. I found it as depressing as the weather.

There is a full page of bento suggestions on the menu, and H insisted that we ty the two deluxe options to give us the most opportunities to see and taste new things. I wish I had more good things to say, but though the food was plentiful and varied, it was nothing special or new. Lots of tempura, I had salmon and snowshoe crab on mine. (how do you eat sno crab in its shell with chopsticks?)vH had grilled eel, which was the best dish. 

Sorry to say, I rate this place a five - the atmosphere and the ordinary dishes just didn't do it for me.

H gives it a seven, he liked his food.

$64

Delightful dinner at Canard

 Canard Beaverton is a French-inspired bistro housed in a former movie theater. You know you've arrived when you see the name on the old movie marquee. Our reservation was for 4 pm, opening time, and we noted that we were celebrating our anniversary. Several groups arrived at about the same time, and we were all quickly seated. 

We had studied the menu online and I was looking forward to the chicken liver mousse served with honey walnut fig and crostini. (Little garlic toasts). We also noted that Steam Burgers are featured on the menu and signage and were constantly coming out of the kitchen.

Our server, a pretty young man with a garbled voice, was hard to hear in the somewhat noisy space. Soon however, he brought us each a half glass of delicious wine and wished us Happy Anniversary. A good start, and especially lovely with the mousse. I loved the figs - though I am not sure how they were made to taste so good.

Next, we shared a wonderful radicchio salad - this is a vegetable I never eat at home but enjoy it whenever I have it. We shared a burger, basically a slider, because we had to try it, and ordered scallops in smoked oyster chowder, thinking it would be enough to share. Though the dish was delicious and rich, it contained three scallops and cost $39. Most disappointing of all, this buttery, creamy dish cried out for bread, but none was served. I did mention this to our server. 

The absence of bread is something I've noticed about dining out in the post covid era; no bread, no side dishes, everything ala carte. I also noticed the absence of baking in the dessert menu as well. I had panna cotta covered in fresh tropical fruit, H had a black forest sundae, made with soft serve, not ice cream. We've yet to encounter bread or pastry on a menu.

So, Canard gets a 7 out of 10. A little noisy, not enough scallops, no bread and ok dessert - but a fun place, all food was very nice, service pleasant and busy, lots of customers.

$125