Dinner in Portland

If you are into food and know anything about Portland Oregon, you KNOW that it is a huge foodie town!  They take all things food very seriously, so I’m not even gonna TRY and cover all that goes on here in one sitting.  I suggest you do your own research and pay Portland a visit and take yourself on an eating tour!

Click here to start your own search

Somewhere around Olympia Washington, Highway 101 meets up with the I-5 and heads South all the way to California.  So a few hours after our lunch break in Sheldon Washington, we crossed the over the Oregon border and found ourselves in Portland.

I had tried to do a little research before our departure so we would at least have a few choices or at least an area to look in for sometime to eat.  I think there is nothing worse on a road trip than when you roll into town, weary from the road and starving and THEN have to try to find somewhere to eat!

It can go either way, sometimes you luck out and find a gem while other times you end up eating the first thing you find which isn’t always good!

I narrowed it down to an area called Burnside.

( click here to check out some of the restaurants ). 

 A friend had suggested a place called “The Screen Door” that is famous for the favorite dish of chicken and waffles.  But then I noticed that there are all kinds of great places all up and down East Burnside Street. 

So after cruising up a down a couple of times, checking them all out visually, judging for atmosphere and crowedness, we ended up choosing a place called “East Burn“.  If you click on the google map and take the inside virtual tour you will see the super groovy hanging basket chairs on a pedestal in the window, that’s were we sat!  I remember some hipster neighbour having some of those when I was a kid.  I loved them then and loved sitting in one at East Burn.  They are surprisingly comfortable and you can swing around and look at the rest of the restaurant while you wait for your food!  It was great!

We weren’t totally starving because we had had our late lunch, so we decided to split a few of the appetizers.

We ordered the Tuscani White Bean Spread that comes with a wonderful peasant bread toast. 

The Potato Pancakes with bourbon apple chutney and scallion sour cream.

The roasted beet with organic chevre, candied pecans and micro greens salad.

These three items were just beautiful but we decided we could fit in a little more.  So we ordered the pasta special and split that too.

It was a very satisfying meal and very comfortable atmosphere but we were tired from our day on the road and wanted to get going.

We didn’t seem to see our waiter anywhere.  And then there seemed to be some sort of commotion in the adjacent “Tap Room” which we didn’t check out but have reason to believe is a bar in the lower level.

Suddenly we saw our waiter run by with a big pipe wrench of some kind and then heard some more commotion.  We saw a number of staff with varying looks of concern seem to disappear downstairs and then there seemed to be some banging noises.

We just sat back and swung in our hanging chairs until our waiter appeared.  He seemed kind of flustered and very apologetic.  Seems someone had accidentally locked themselves in the downstairs bathroom and couldn’t get out!

When we got our bill he had removed our drinks.  I guess to make up for the wait? 

We really had no complaints at all but were very appreciative of the gesture.

And did I mention that there is no sales tax in Oregon?  Even on restaurants!

So it turned out to be not only a delicious experience but also a very reasonable one.

Two for two!

East Burn Restaurant Portland Oregon