Showing posts with label Restaurant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restaurant. Show all posts

Sunday, June 19, 2011

How Yelp.com Portland helps us + Thai Flombe in Hillsboro, Or

First Day of Summer is coming!
If we are going to eat in a restaurant in downtown Portland, we check with Yelp.com to see what other people think.  Words like "dirty" or "terrible service" make us take pause, especially if there are several agreeing opinions.  But out here in the west part of the metro area things are different. We are overrun with franchises and drive through in Hillsboro, so we are more apt to try a family owned restaurant no matter what the reviews.  If we are planning a special evening out we will check with Yelp but we know that the reviews may be submitted by people that are not locals.  That is very important.

So yesterday when I had a very good meal at a local main street restaurant, I knew I had to tell you about it. My husband and I were shopping for a screen door knob at the antique stores in downtown Hillsboro when hunger hit us both right between the eyes!  Main street is turning into a trendy place for busy working people meet for lunch.  Local government workers along with Intel employees fill restaurants during the lunch hour. We went to the Thai Flombe Restaurant. I ordered the Red Curry with chicken.  Yum yum yum!  This dish was so creamy, spicy with a touch of sweetness.  I have never tasted Thai food locally that was this good.

When I got home I looked at Yelp.com to see what other's thought of the restaurant and to add my review.  I was not surprised to see that 85% of the reviews were favorable.  I thought that the reviewer, Spawna, said it the best:
I love this little jewel of affordable deliciousness [Thai Flombe] in the heart of downtown Hillsboro. The restaurant is owned and run by an extremely friendly Thai couple who provide excellent and quick service. This is one of the few restaurants in the Hillsboro area that is not a corporate chain, and the difference is dramatic. 
After reading this comment I suddenly realized that, when we talk about the best ever restaurants, we really are talking about the choices in a specific community.  It is all relative and relatively speaking, Thai Flombe is very good...especially for here in Hillsboro, Oregon.

A special thanks to Yelp.com for providing reviews for the best eating places around.  It really is a great help.

b

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Metro Portland Restaurant Scene...McMenamins at it's best & Worst!

St. Helens, OregonImage by Always at Home via Flickr Artwork at St. Helen's location.
Want to know what I LOVE to do more than anything else?  I love to eat at a beautiful restaurant in the evening.  I want to get dressed up and be treated as though I really matter to the waiter.  He (always a he in my dreams) needs to look deeply into my eyes and ask we how I want my martini.  I dream about it a lot.

Alas, in reality, we eat at brewpubs!!! On the plus side, Portland has a gajillion of these pubs so finding a nice location is not that hard.  We ate at the Cornelius Rd. McMenamins (former blogs)  this last week with family.  This is so ideal because on a warm day the children can play on the grass while adults visit at long tables.  On this particular evening it was chilly and raining so we were seated upstairs by an understanding host...we came in last and were seated first!  There was lots of room for a busy two year old to mess around.  People in Oregon are generally not bothered by children scurrying here and there. 
Gas Light!  Historically McMenamins!
These people are so creative and their restaurants reflect the owners hippy heritage.  The upstairs seating features a small nook right next to the stairs that overlooks the kitchen.  I stepped over to take a picture of the way they had hung the lights.  This is where a gas flame burns 24/7.  The flame is a nod to their Rock Creek Tavern location that burned several years ago.  That old pub was still lit with gas light and had moss growing a foot thick on the roof.  Flowers grew out of the rain gutters.  They did rebuild the location but it will truly never be the same...great but not the same.  Anyway,  the gas flame just speaks to those of us from the area.  The pipes that held the conduit for the lights were decorated with every kind of pipe fitting I have ever seen.  Those as the small details that just keep me looking around everytime we go in. 

The Kitchen...look at that floor!
As for the kitchen...well I made the mistake of looking down.  You need to understand that I am by nature clean...not tidy (much to my husband chagrin)...but clean.  I just don't know how you can look in a restaurant kitchen and still want to eat the food!  I am just closing my eyes.  The food tastes great and it has never made me sick!  Good enough for me.

We ate out at Syun's Izakaya Restaurant again last night.  This sushi izakaya restaurant is the best in the area.  We had a meal with our family (adults) that was fit to feed an emperor.  Fitting it seems!

Oh by the way...Happy 4th of July...we love America's Birthday!

b
Enhanced by Zemanta

Sunday, June 20, 2010

MIX Portland's Magazine of Food and Drink...Must have!!!

Pok Pok Thai restaurant in Portland, Oregon. T...A description of Pok Pok Thai Restaurant was in the last MIX magazine recognized as having a great patio.  The Oregonian voted it the restaurant of year in 2007  Image via Wikipedia
THEOREGONIAN NEWSPAPER
    The Oregonian, Oregon's newspaper, is surviving as it always has.  It is delivered to doors in communities throughout the state.  I lived in Eastern Oregon from 1941 to 1959 and the paper came to our door even then.  We used to have two Oregon newspapers...one Democrat and one Republican.  If you went to visit a home and saw the newspaper on the couch you would know where their political sentiment were.   The Oregonian was the Democratic publication and The Journal the Republican.  The Oregonian's owner bought The Journal newspaper in 1961 much to the disgust of it's loyal readers.  After publishing both papers for several years, the Journal fell out of favor and the state was left with one major newspaper.  
     In a time when newspapers are closing their doors completely, the Oregonian has morphed into a new entity...while the print edition is still delivered to our door, an online version called OregonLive.com allows us to stay abreast of news all day.  There is no charge for OregonLive.com so they must depend on advertisers to stay up an running.
MIX MAGAZINE
    For the last year or so they have been printing a magazine called MIX Portland's Magazine of Food+Drink. The promotion that the Oregonian has done for the magazine has been, I think, nothing short of genius.  In our trendy neighborhood, the magazine was delivered at our door by some mysterious person at no cost.  I don't know who else got it but our local grocery carried the magazine on it's racks.  Then it came in the mail for several months.  This last month it actually was included in our newspaper.  This magazine is not one big advertising puddle of nothing like so many city magazine are.  I keep each issue and will subscribe to the magazine now because I simply cannot do without it!
     The last issue had a list of places to eat and drink with outdoor patio seating...isn't that what we are all looking for in the summer.  We keep it close at hand for reference.    It also included recipes for salads that made you want to lick the pages.  One recipe went like this:
The Smokery stall at the Saturday Portland Farmers Market sells an insanely delicious smoked salmon that's good all by itself on crackers, or in a salad with whatever produce looks best that week -- including fennel, cucumber, or in this case, green beans and cherry tomatoes.


  • 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
  • 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
  • 6 ounces smoked salmon, broken into bite-size pieces
  • 1 teaspoon garlic, mashed to a paste with the side of a chef's knife
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook until they turn bright green and are crisp-tender, about 1 minute. Drain the beans and immediately put them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the green beans, cannellini beans, olives, tomatoes, chives and salmon in a large serving bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the garlic and red wine vinegar together. Slowly whisk in the oil. Add the vinaigrette to the salad, season with salt and pepper and toss gently with your hands. Serve at room temperature.
-- Ivy Manning
     I could only think that even if I didn't want to make the salad, which I do, I would want to make a trip to the Portland Saturday Farmer Market to buy that smoked salmon.  MIX has made the little city feel very intimate.  
      If you are from out of town you can go to the OregonLive.com website for the magazine and get a lot of great ideas for recipes or even a future a future visit.
      I  need to go now...the Sunday paper is calling...I love big paper day.  I will read all that cool Sunday stuff that we all enjoy so much.  I hope you find the information helpful or just interesting.

b

Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Frugal Food Eater...Restaurant.com and mall food. Aloha Oregon

    You and I know that mall food is vastly underrated.  Because it is so close and easy to use, we seem to think that the food value ($$$) + food quality (****) can not be good.  How wrong we can be!
     We were out shopping yesterday and decided to use a Restaurant.com certificate that was about to expire to get some Mexican food.  The certificate was for the Mazatlan Mexican at 20413 SW Tualatin Valley Hwy in Aloha, OR (urban spoon info).  The exterior was nothing to shout about but when you stepped inside, you could see the effort that had gone into making this eatery look and feel authentic.
     The Mazatlan Mexican restaurants are a franchise but the service and food does not give you a franchise feel.  It is many time better than our "big box" restaurant in a mall close to us.
     We ate the fajitas yesterday...they were the best we have eaten in a long time.  I think we just loved fact that the flavor was a little different than the standard American Mexican fare.
     Our restaurant.com certificate required we buy $20 worth of food so we could use the $10 off.  The food portion of our bill came in at a little over $20 so we saved the $10 on the bill.  We left a 15% tip of $3 so we walked away with $7.00 in our pocket.
     FRUGAL???  Maybe so...but I will NOT eat bad food to save money!  We have health issues that have to be dealt with so we are careful.
    Give this neighborhood mall restaurant a try.  I think you will like it.

b
Reblog this post  [with Zemanta]

Featured Post

Rain...

rain yesterday it rained...or was it this morning? now lace leaves drop small tears shed another day back when I felt the stab. yet they did...