Rose's is an ice cream parlor that has been in the same family for the last 35 years or so. They used to have a shop on NE Fremont, right about where Fife is now. They make their own ice cream, and what's not to love about that? I knew they had burgers on the menu, and I knew they had applied for an OLCC license, so we headed on down.

They are in where Chan's Palace used to be, and I was surprised to see both neon and a banner for video crack. You walk in and order at the counter. Or in our case, we waited at the counter until an adult came up to operate the cash register.

The menu is simple. Burgers, sandwiches, baskets, with the vast majority comprising of at least one deepfried element. We ordered the bacon cheese burger basket ($6.25 on the menu, we were charged $7.50), a side of mini corn dogs (7 in the order, $2.25, or about 32 cents each), and a fish sandwich basket ($5.75), as well as a chocolate malt ($4.25) and a Mirror Pond (beer and wine prices not posted). The bill was $23.

Now, I think this is as far as I have to go. The food was on par with Dairy Queen, or maybe a little worse. The square fish in the fishwich reminded me of my high school cafeteria.

But ice cream is really what shines here. The malt was great -- not as good as Little Red Bicycle's malted, but really a very good malt, an excellent example of the style.

I won't be going back for dinner any time soon unless I'm really broke. But for ice cream, sure thing. They have about 2 dozen flavors, most made with 6% milkfat, but about a half dozen of them are extra rich, at 14% butterfat.

entree range: $3.50-8.05
median entree cost: $5.75
vegetarian options: grilled cheese basket ($4)

I've got more photos online if you care to look.

NOTE: 10/10/2007: Chef Sean Coryell has left Nutshell. What this means for the food remains to be seen.
(this according to aidensnd at PortlandFood.org)

I just had the most phenomenally delicious dinner. It was delicious and innovative and beautiful and not outrageously expensive.

Nutshell is brandspanking new, in the suddenly happening neighborhood at the east edge of NoPo, on Williams Street. It's casual and sophisticated in the same breath. Concrete floors, painted cinderblock, and beautiful wooden booths. Books for exchange located near interesting beers and wines for retail. And carnivorous plants, gorgeous carnivorous plants.

I've had people I know rave about the food here. My neighbor, who isn't a foodie, told me he wanted to lick the plate. So I was excited to finally get to eat there.

Looking at the menu, I felt a bit of panic. What to order?!? It's a little overwhelming. Salads are $5-$6, a bowl of soup $4, stews $8, veggies & starches $4, featured entrees $9-$11, and pastas and tandoor skewers $8. Even if you decide to order bread ($2) with extra virgin olive oil ($1) and salt (50 cents to $1 each). you have to choose between 5 bread selections, 8 olive oils, 18 basic salts, and 6 premium salts. Thankfully, the staff are helpful, and we ordered the Jamaican Choco Escovitch with a Pearl Bakery assortment, olive oil, and a couple salts to start.

The name, Choco Escovitch, is just so much fun to say, I had to order it. It was one of those salads, like the Singing Pig Greens at Toro Bravo, that really elevates your expectations of what a salad can be. The greens in question included herbs, and were lightly dressed with a creamy dressing made from angostura bitters (but not bitter at all). Thin slices of merlatan squash, with a taste and texture similar to granny smith apples or jimaca, were fanned over the greens, with a tiny edible pansy on top. And on top of that—genius!—what appeared to be tempuraed cucumbers. Yum! The flavors were so bright, flavorful, slightly floral, and dare I say, dynamic.

The next to arrive was our selection of breads with olive oil and salt. This is such a simple thing, and generally so pedestrian. But it was a revelation to try the various breads with the oil, with the oil and salt, with the oil and the other salt. One salt was slightly piquant and showy, the other more subtle and slightly smokey.

The shot of soup is just that—a shot glass full of soup. In our case, it was a chilled creamy french lettuce & chervil soup with lemon, which was so rich and creamy that I was glad to only have a shot -- but again, so flavorful. So yummy.

The Nutshell Jamaican barbeque includes four of the starches (peas & rice, aka the traditional Jamaican red beans and rice; crispy shredded yucca pancakes; Jamaican cornmeal fritters that look just like cheddar puffed cheese balls; and, an orange stuffed with yam, coconut, and mace), house made jerk, fried okra, and grilled eggplant and lilies, as well as a shot of the Marley family drink.

The peas and rice were redolent of coconut, fresh coconut, and the yam had the fruitiness of habanero without the heat. The grilled onions were delicious and sweet, the okra crispy and not at all slimey. The only just okay part of the meal was the eggplant which was grilled, not at all bitter, just not a lot of flavor. But combined with the rest, it was delightful.

My neighbor had raved about Karen's raw living lasagna, and so that's what I ordered.
The lasagna contains no pasta, just a stack of vegetables and sauces. The heirloom tomatoes are easily the best tomatoes I've eaten this year, the sort that need nothing but a shake of salt and pepper (though these wanted for nothing). There were also marinated mushrooms and very thin slices of zucchini, separating the layers of pinon ricotta, pistachio pesto, sun dried tomatoes.

The pesto and tomato sauces along with the creamy pine nut ricotta say lasagna, but everything element of the dish just sang. Beautiful, again, and wonderful balance of flavors. I was really glad they had been so generous with the bread so I could mop up that extra sauce.

Our bill, with two beers, was $33, and walking out, we were both stuffed. I can't wait to go back.

Making food taste good using dairy and meat really isn't that hard. But someone who can do that just with vegan ingredients is a real master. We finally have fine-dining vegan food in Portland, and it's really good. This is vegan food that really anyone could love... and will, I bet.

Update:: The menu has been simplified. But the service in our last couple visits has really gone downhill. We've had servers who seem annoyed that they have to take our orders, servers who expect us to eat soup with our hands, and no sort of concern that we might not be enjoying our meals. We've had naive servers who appeared to have never tried the foods in question. I am hoping these are blips. Sean, Tabla guys, please make the service match the incredible food!

Beginning Saturday, October 6, Podnah's will be serving weekend breakfasts from 8am - 1pm.

I was lucky enough to get a preview and man, this is some mighty fine grub. The menu is short. The copy I have has four entrees plus drinks. But, man, I love the fact that he's narrowing in on what he's good at.

Here's the menu (current last week, your mileage may vary):

Biscuits & Gravy $5.50, with 2 eggs $7
Smoked Trout Hash $7.50, with 2 eggs $9
Ham, Grits & Eggs $8
Kolaches $2 each
Coffee $2
Fresh OJ $3
Mimosa $4.50

Both biscuits & gravy and grits are foods that are often really fantastic at home, and really underwhelming in restaurants. There are really very few restaurants in town that do either well. But if anyone can do these well, I think it would be Podnahs. And they do.

We ordered the Biscuits & Gravy, and Ham, Grits and Eggs, and each of them were excellent. The biscuits and gravy were your classic country gravy, studded with big pieces of breakfast sausage. The gravy was excellently seasoned, and honestly, it's the best gravy I've had outside my own. The biscuits were simultaneously crisp and flaky. As well as golden brown and delicious. Yum.

The Ham, Grits and Eggs, were a big slice of really decent ham, with really wonderfully creamy grits, and eggs any style. I ordered them soft scrambled, and they were quite creamy too. The grits were just plain great -- rich, and humble and wonderful -- one of the better grits I've had in a restaurant.

We sat next to someone who was having the Trout Hash, who said that he just couldn't order anything but the Trout Hash because it was so good. I would have asked to have a bite, but I think that he might have assaulted me.

Anyways, who knows what Rodney will have this weekend, except I expect that biscuits & gravy and grits will play some sort of role.

When you go to Legin for dim sum, you want to be seated in the dim sum dining room, usually Dining Room C. Sit elsewhere at your peril.

You can't complain about the quantity and variety. We were seated and there were lots of carts with lots of steamer baskets of goodies, so we began with shaomai (pork dumplings) and hargau (shrimp dumplings). These were warm, but not hot; the shrimp fresh, the wheat starch wrapper a little gummy.

We tried many things. Tripe (okay, I didn't try that), taro dumpling, cheong fun (rice noodle rolls), a dumpling with shrimp and chinese greens, and chinese broccoli. For the most part, these were okay, though I've had better versions elsewhere in town, in particular at Wong's King and even at Fong Chong.

While enjoyed a great variety of dishes, only one was served hot, the very last plate of shaomai. There were several dumplings that I usually enjoy (like scallop, or shrimp in rice ball, or the fried meat dumplings) that tasted mostly like library paste.

And yet. The humbao was light and fluffy, really much better than what you usually find in Portland.

Consistency is an issue here. From week to week, you may find things better or worse.

Prices appear to be higher here. We were a bit restrained and it cost $13 a head.

So, in the end, do you have to wait in line, or have a hard time finding something to eat? These aren't likely at Legin. You may find better dim sum elsewhere in town, but this, for the most part, isn't bad.

Libbie's subtitle is The Home of Comfort Food. This is certainly true, at least at breakfast, which is served all day long. Actually, breakfast, lunch and dinner are all served all day.

The menu is simple: 10 large omelettes ($7.50-$13), purely starchy things ($1.75-$7), and 11 egg specials ($6.25-$12). Coffee is a buck seventy-five, and it sucks.

The omelettes are all your favorites: farmers, vegetarian, denver, spanish, and they all come with either pancakes, biscuits and gravy, or potatoes and toast. Potato options are home fries and hashbrowns.

For starches, they offer pancakes, french toast, and waffles (though waffles are only available until noon), oat groats, and hot cream of wheat.

The egg specials include the usual cafe breakfast, biscuits & gravy, corned beef hash, chicken fried steak and two other steak & eggs variants.

We ordered two of the egg specials: the number 5, biscuits, gravy & hashbrowns; and the number 11, Rick's special, home fries grilled with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, bellpeppers and ham, topped with cheddar cheese and 2 eggs any style.

These are giant plates of food, far more than anyone should eat at breakfast. The gravy is mild with small chunks of sausage -- it tastes fresh, not floury, but not well seasoned. The biscuits are buried but appear to be tender and fresh. And the hashbrowns are at the top of their game: two crusty, golden brown sides surrounding the soft warm potato inside.

I think the Rick's might have worked better with hashbrowns rather than home fries, for that contrast in text, however it was awfully good with the home fries.

If you're looking for an old-school greasy-spoon breakfast, Libbie's is pretty darn good. Just stay away from the coffee.

Lelo in NoPo wrote about the sweetest little restaurant ever, and how the owners were blogging about it. So like a good reader, I followed the link to the Little Red Bike Cafe Blog, and absolutely fell in love with the owners, Ali and Evan.

So I was thrilled and excited when they did finally open and I could finally make it there.

Basically, this is an adorable, charming Portsmouth coffeeshop with light breakfast food and sandwiches, coffee and espresso, milkshakes and housemade ice cream.

On our visit, we tried a breakfast sandwich (the paperboy, $5), a tuna sandwich ($6), a cup of "regular" coffee, an americano, a pot of french press coffee, and a chocolate malt($5).

First of all, the coffee is excellent! This was the first time I've had Courier Coffee and I am a believer! We are so lucky to have so much good coffee in this town and here they serve it strong. If it's too strong for you, ask for a little water added. Yum.

The milkshakes are made from ice cream from Eugene (not with their housemade), and that malt was easily the best I've had in recent memory. Unlike some other malts I've had recently, this was not super-sweet, and not overly chocolately, but it was a perfect meeting (to me) of chocolate, malt, sugar and fat, and it was like the milk shakes I remember (and covet) from childhood.

The paperboy, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. It's a simple sandwich: fried egg, american or cheddar cheese, on ciabatta. It comes with a cup of coffee or tea. You can add veggie bacon or bacon for a buck. And it is delicious, just simple perfection. Grand Central, you are no longer my favorite breakfast sandwich.

The breakfast menu is simple and inexpensive. Three different egg sandwiches for $5 or $6, a bowl of yogurt, fruit, and granola for $5, and various baked goods and doughnuts from Fleur de Lis, Dovetail and Voodoo Donuts. All the breads come from Fleur de Lis as well, and are excellent.

The Tuna sandwich is albacore tuna salad with cheddar, green onions, and apple slices. It usually comes on ciabatta but this time it came on multigrain bread. Other lunch options include turkey, curried tempeh salad, roast beef, BLT and avocado, 2 different grilled cheeses, and two peanut butter sandwiches, with prices ranging from $4 to $6.50.

If you're not a fan of coffee or milkshakes, they do have old-fashioned sodas like Bubble Up, Coke in glass bottles, Sioux City Cream Soda, Nesbitts Strawberry, some Izzy's, Bulldog Root Beer, Vernors, and Yoohoo.

Housemade ice cream can be had for reasonable as well: 95 cents for a double shot in an espresso cup, through 2 scoops for $4.50. I haven't tried the housemade ice cream, but I'm looking forward to it.

They have a couple outside tables, bike parking, and pretty ample parking nearby. They have a bike up window open after 3pm, and they have an everchanging bike-in incentive. But mostly, Ali and Evan are sweet, their space is comfortable, and their food and drinks are divine. I'm so happy to have a destination, now, in Portsmouth!

Reports are very good on the dinner there.

We were in for breakfast. Note one: it's small, and there was a wait. It opened a week ago, and there's a wait! I guess the neighborhood was ready for them.

But soon enough we were seated at the counter. I had my jacket under my butt and my purse hanging from my knee because there were no coat hooks, or stool backs. That's fine, as long as you don't have a coat or a purse. But there are foot rests on both the stools and the counter itself, so it could be much worse.

One thing I noticed right away that I liked. They offer beer, wine and mixed drinks ($5-7) to go with your breakfast... and some of the mixed drinks don't have alcohol ($3). That's brilliant! Why isn't everyone doing that? I mean, that's seriously a great idea.

So we ordered a Zero Gravity (ginger ale, OJ, splash of cranberry and orange zest) and a Conscious (pomegranate, lemon, lime, OJ and soda water). Both came in pint glasses, and both were very good.

Our waitress brought us by a monkey dish of two mini scones to munch as we looked at the food menu. And that's where my trouble began.

The menu has 12 entrees, and nothing really suited me. There were lots of mentions of members of the onion family on the menu, and I know most folks love onions. It's just not my thing. But just about everything that isn't vegetarian has pork: pork belly, griddle ham, cured pork, which seems kinda promising.

So we order a sausage turnover, the Benedict oh ($9), and the Golden Pig ($8.50). We're immediately told that they're out of the sausage turnovers, sadness.

The Benedict oh is soft poached eggs, housemade sausage patties, chard, and housemade english muffins with a bit of bearnaise sauce.

The Golden Pig is pork belly with three basil scrambled eggs & crispy shallots on a slice of toast.

So the food comes, and my first response is, what is this? I'm used to seeing breakfasts including some potatoes or some salad or some fruit. This is just the entree, by itself, seeming dwarfed by the whiteness of the dinner plate. It looks very small and spare. So I order a potato rosti ($2.50).

My benedict is an interesting idea, really. The housemade sausage is something I'd never order again, but I can imagine the benedict with chard and pork belly or cured pork could be really good.

The pig is tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The rosti comes, onion-laden. Oh well.

$26.00 later, and we're out. And I have to wonder, with prices like those, if it will remain a neighborhood restaurant. True, breakfast entrees at Bar Carlo and Arleta Library are similarly priced, but just about everything is excellent at both, and your entrees will fill you up at either. And while I'm really not opposed to the small plates idea applied to breakfast, I want that small plate to be really good. Is that too much to ask?

Lorn and Dottie's has been one of my favorite places for breakfast for a really long time. Favorite is probably not the right word, as there are better places, and cooler places, and places we end up more frequently, but L&D has consistently good food, and consistently short waits. It's very reasonable, very nice, and the city's best kept secret for weekend breakfast downtown. So what's not to love?

So imagine my surprise that we end up there on Labor Day (because all the places I wanted to try on the west side were closed for the holiday! Sheesh!), and find out that they're not open weekends any more.

Hmm, I think. New owners? New cooks? The menu is the same, the prices are the same, and it appears the family that runs it is the same. But all our favorite waiters and waitresses are gone. And it appears the crowds are too, as the place has plenty of open tables and the entire counter is empty.

We order with some trepidation. At this point, we're taking one for the team. It seemed like they had so much more business on the weekends, why would they be closed for them? It doesn't make any sense.

Remembering the old rule, we stick with the starches. This is where Lorn & Dottie's excels. Hot cakes ($6-8.50), plain or with blueberry or banana pecan, dutch babies, german potato pancakes, and the yeasted waffle... oh, the yeasted waffle ($6) is so light and airy and wonderful. But the dutch babies ($9-10) are too. And the potato pancakes ($6-8.50) are great with applesauce, or ask for sour cream.

They offer Banana-Nut Bread($3) and Jalepeno Cornbread ($3), too, both really good. They also have steel-cut oatmeal ($5) everyday, Cream of Wheat ($5) on Wednesday & Thursday , and Zoom ($5) on Fridays.

Not that the eggs are bad; they're not. Really. But the starches are the thing.

So we order a yeasted waffle with Canadian bacon ($8.50) and 2 eggs with potato pancakes and sausage ($9), along with two coffees. Now, this is Starbucks coffee and not really great Starbucks coffee at that, but they do keep your cup full.

The food comes, and it's as good as ever. Delicious, filling, everything we ask of breakfast. So why are they closed weekends? What gives?

To all our customers

First, I'd like to thank each and everyone for dining with us for 16 long years. But the sad news is, we are being forced to close our business due to the owner of the building. He wants us to vacate the premises by July 31, 2007. We hate to close the doors to you at this location. But you may visit us at 3126 N.E. 82nd Ave. across from Madison High School (503-252-1343). We would appreciate it if you would not dine here in honor of El Burrito Loco. I feel we were robbed of our business and you continuing to dine here would support the building owner if he try's to open here with our same food recipes. Thank You once again. Hope to see you soon!!!

The Original El Burrito Loco owner's

I stopped by this evening to try to pick up a burrito, and saw the place emptied out, with the owners hanging out at the door. It appears, according to the owners, that they've been forced out by their landlord. They're asking folks to please:
1. Do buy food at the Burrito Loco on 82nd, across from Marshall High
and
2. Don't buy food at whatever goes into their new space.

The Mercury has more details.

(there's a thread about Burrito Loco's closing on Portland Food and Drink Discussion Forum)

Vita was the sister cafe to SE Belmont's Paradox Palace Cafe. Now they both have new owners and it will be interesting to see what the future brings.

The Vita is back, and you'd never know they were ever gone. We went in early on Sunday afternoon and the place was packed. Folks were even sitting outside in the sprinkles.

Vita has made its name for being vegan & carnivore friendly. You can get any number of animal-free dishes, or you can get a groovy hamburger. Breakfast can consist of eggs and potatoes, or tofu & rice, or really anything in between. Vegans and vegetarians love it: the food is plentiful and cheap, and you can have it with beer, wine or liquor.

Breakfasts range from $3-$9, and include corn cakes, scrambles, french toast, heuvos rancheros, & biscuits and gravy. 15 of the 24 breakfast items can be made gluten-free.

We ordered a couple old favorites: biscuits & gravy, heuvos rancheros, and NW corn cakes, plus a cup of black bean soup with homemade herb and onion bread.

The black bean soup was excellent and flavorful: a basic rendition, but a very nice one. The bread was a hit, with its slightly sweet crust and herby-oniony filling.

The heuvos rancheros were particularly creative. Fried tortillas curl up on the plate, covered by what tasted like vegan chili, eggs (or tofu), salsa, guac, and a cilantro-y vegan creme. If you were looking for something closer to authentic, well, you'll be disappointed, but the contrasts between the smooth and crunchy, the spicy and the bland, was very nice.

Biscuits with almond gravy has always been a favorite, and they just didn't taste as wonderful as I remembered. Maybe my tastes have changed? If I wasn't working from sentimentality, they probably would be fine, though the biscuit was a little heavy.

But the NW Corn Cakes do stand up to memory. Corn cakes, as big as a pancake, covered with toasted hazelnuts, and served with organic maple syrup. Yum.

Most folks around us were having lunch, and that looked good too. The fishwich, a deep fried square of tofu with lettuce, pickles and vegan tartar sauce, was very popular, as was the free range, hormone-free beef burgers and fries. Mac and cheese, made with vegan cheese, also appeared to be a big hit. Lunch prices top at $8, and dinner at $12 (with most entrees ringing in under $10), and nicely, the full up-to-date menu is online.

They have four beers on tap. And they have a Wednesday special, 5pm-close: $2 well drinks, $2 drafts, $5 cocktails, and $5 food specials on the fishwich, mac & cheese, grilled cheese, tofurky sandwich, or thai pasta. And, from 5-7pm, they have a $1 kids menu.

Definitely recommended for vegetarians and vegans.

In front of the house, there's the pizza by the joint place, where you can get a slice or a sandwich and a beer or soda and sidle up to the counter. In the back, there's a lovely, tiny dining room that looks out on the back parking lot, but in spite of that, manages to be charming. There in the dining room, you can have table service and order off a menu.

Pizza by the slice has at least 4 pies ready for munching. The prices are in the $2-$3 range for slices. They also have 4 salads ($4-$7), 4 panini, 4 heros, and 4 cold sandwiches ($6.50-$8.25), and out of each of those categories, one is vegan, and most offer a lacto-ovo veg option as well. All the sandwiches come with soup (a good vegan minestrone or a soup of the day), the house salad, or a pasta salad. They have 13 different wines by the class ($5-6.50), and 6 different beers on tap ($3-$3.75).

We ordered the Italian Job, a huge cold sandwich made of sopressato, capicola, provolone, roasted peppers, pepperoncini, tomato, red onion, lettuce, oil and vinegar on ciabatta, with the minestrone. Also, the Maspeth: fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil pesto with prosciutto on como, with a side caesar, and a pepperoni slice.

The pepperoni slice was pretty good. Pizza by the slice always tastes worse than a fresh hot pie, and that can't be helped. But the crust was crunchy and crackery, the sauce was not overabundant, but prominent, the pepperoni was good, and the cheese was okay. Still, for pizza by the slice, this was mighty good.

The Italian Job was one of those sandwiches that is so tall, it ought not fit into your mouth. Everything in it tasted zingy, tasty and fresh. The ciabatta roll from Grand Central was the perfect foil: crusty but not too crusty.

The caesar was good. Slightly undressed, which I'd rather, and some restraint with the shredded parmesan and the croutons. The Maspeth was Caprese-esque in ingredients only, though the gooey, stringy mozzarella was a delight, especially with the pesto. The roma tomato was okay, it wasn't as bad as most sandwich tomatoes out of season, though I'd rather just wait til summer. The proscuitto kinda disappeared into the sandwich.

Brunch is served on Saturday and Sundays, with prices from $5.75-$12.50, and with entrees ranging from breakfast pizza, panini, a scramble, some omelets, a tofu scramble, and polenta with buffalo brisket!

The sitdown menu has a pile of yummy-sounding Italian appetizers ($3.50-$9), a handful of pastas ($7-$13.25), and some specialties ($9-$10) like lasagne and ravioli and risotto. Of course, there are also pizzas ($9-$23), including the most decent sounding vegan pizza I've ever heard of: a white bean & roasted red pepper spread topped with tempeh (I'd pass on that) and veggies. They offer red sauce, alfredo, garlic & olive oil and pesto as bases (as well as the white bean/roasted red pepper spread), and they even offer a clam pie.

So, we went back for dinner. This was not as good of an experience.

Now, before I go any further, let me say that I know folks who have had great experiences on the sitdown side of the restaurant. It just sounds like I got unlucky. But lo, this could happen to you!

Right off the bat, we order drinks, and my Fino Fizz comes back to the table with Chambord rather than limoncello. We placed our order, for a large spinach salad, a pasta carbonara, and a house lasagne (not to be confused with the special lasagne). Our salad came quickly, lightly dressed and quite good. The fresh baby spinach leaves were tossed with tiny tiny bits of candied walnuts, cubes of roma tomato, and ricotta salata. Then began our long wait.

It appears, if you order a pizza, it will come out quite quickly. We watched two tables who had ordered well after us get their pizzas and finish them before we got our pastas. I'm estimating a wait of about 40 minutes between ordering, and pasta arriving at the table.

It should be noted that the pizzas looked really good.

As noted on the menu, the carbonara was cream-based, and was fairly garlicky. That's not traditional, but I didn't mind it. The pancetta was well carmelized, and the peas were peas.

The lasagna was made with housemade sausage, which were all the size of really small hail, or smaller. It really didn't taste unlike lasagna you can get at the grocery store.

Both pastas were accompanied by several slices of really stale Grand Central bread—so stale that I could barely bite through it.

Several times during the meal, someone would haul trash or recycling through the dining room. At several points, I could smell cigarette smoke, even though the dining room is non-smoking... maybe coming from the bar?

Service was an issue the entire meal. For the majority of the meal, there were three tables and two servers, which I suppose explains why my water glass was dry for twenty minutes. At one point when the server did come into our orbit, I asked for a glass of beer and she asked if she could take the remainder of my drink (I had maybe a quarter of it left). I had asked for the beer then because it had been about 15 minutes since she had been at the table, and it wasn't unreasonable to believe they'd leave me there with both an empty water and empty drink glass.

I watched as this same server brought tasters of red wine out to a neighboring table and then couldn't remember which was pinot and which was chianti.

This was a big disappointment after our great lunch the day before. Our dinner experiment cost us $55 after tip. So my recommendation to you is, go for pizza or sandwiches. The pizzas are really tasty.

We ordered a couple of gorditas and a chile relleno burrito on a recent visit. Prices here are pretty reasonable as long as you stay away from the soup and meals. Burritos range from $3.75-$4.75, tacos from $1.50-$1.75, tortas in the $4 range (except the Cubana, $7), tostadas, sopes and gorditas from $2.50-$3.

They offer some meats that are a little out of the ordinary for most innercity taquerias: suadero, the tender beef from the lower-part of a rib; buche, pork stomach cooked in lard; and tripas, the tube that connects the two stomachs in beef cattle. They also make their tortillas for tacos by hand, which is always a good sign.

The telenovella was on the TV, so we enjoyed our Jarritos while waiting for the food. And then, out it came, along with some red and green salsas.

The chile relleno burrito was good. It has pinto beans, rice, cheese, lettuce and the chile relleno, and it's a filling meal.

The gorditas were a little disappointing. I like to pick my gorditas up and eat them, which I couldn't do with these, because the structural integrity wasn't there. They were a little crispy, but to my mind, gorditas should be just a little more gorda than these were. I had tinga in one, which is pork or chicken stewed in chipotle in adobado sauce. Chilango's uses chicken in their tinga, and while you usually find it shredded, Chilango's serves chunks of stewed chicken. It was tasty, but if I hadn't ordered tinga, I might just think it was pollo; it wasn't terribly very spicy or flavorful.

I had carne asada in the other gordita, which had very good flavor, but wasn't completely cut up, and was very chewy. Still, I appreciated the slice of fresh avocado in each gordita—a really nice touch.

So. I was less than wowed, but everything was okay really.

Unfortunately, I love banh mi 7 days a week. What's a girl to do?

Well, Best Baguette offers the answer. They appear to be a chain (at least, the place is designed down to the seams) that offers fast food banh mi, sandwiches, vietnamese appetizers, dim sum, gelato, and asian drinks, including bubble and milk teas. But wait, it gets better: they have a drive thru window!

Interestingly, the menu is entirely in english. They offer 15 types of banh mi which include all the typical ones, plus a Saigon Bacon sandwich, a Vegetable sandwich (greens and pickled veg), pork roll and egg (Saigon style), and the one untranslated sandwich, nem nuong (which is a char-broiled pork paste). The prices range from $2.25 to $3.50, and the sandwiches are foot-longs. They also have french sandwiches ($3.75-$5) and croissant sandwiches ($2.50$4.75).

They bake the bread on premises so your sandwich is all warm and freshly made. That said, the ficelles they bake appear to be commercial par-baked ones, like the kind you find that Safeway uses. It makes a very soft bread, and one with no tooth to the crust. Vietnamese baguettes and ficelles do tend to have a softer crust, but usually not this soft. The picked veggies come in a little baggie so you can add as much or as little as you'd like. They were stingy with the jalapeno.

Not realizing they were foot-longs, we ordered a half-dozen, including a parisian ham and cheese (ugh), a pate, a grilled beef, grilled chicken, and bbq pork. As noted, I hated the parisian ham & cheese. It used american cheese— that is so wrong! The pate had an unidentified white lump in it that might have been cheese, so while the pate itself was fine (a little thin, but hey), I shyed away from the white lump. But the grilled meats and bbq pork were fine. They weren't Binh Minh, that's for sure, but in a pinch, it's a banh mi, and it doesn't come wrapped in cellophane.

So, we ordered a half-dozen sandwiches, a couple viet coffees, and the total came to $18. I think they comped us a coffee and threw in an extra baguette.

They have a good selection of gelato, and a huge selection of drinks. Not just the avocado, jackfruit, and durian shakes, but a huge selection of Asian (and not Asian) sodas and the like. Jarritos, for example.

Anyways, this is a great option if you're jonesing for a banh mi after 5pm.

It's hard not to really like Ken's. It's just an unassuming diner with a tiny staff, including Ken Gordon who's behind the stove most the night, but the food is simple, and at the best of times, transcendent. The starters are a great start: the caesar is garlicky and one of the best in town—but only if you like garlic. Other salads are also fine, as was the chile rellano app.

Now a friend of mine claims she's found better chicken in a restaurant, but I still believe Ken's is the best I've had outside of my own kitchen. If the buttermilk fried chicken is on the menu, you've got to have that. But it's hard to go wrong. Their burger is one of the best in town, and giant. But what really stands out for me there, as well as at Cafe Castagna, are the vegetables. I'm not much of a vegetable eater, but I am always certain to order them there -- they are always excellently prepared. Oh. And the pecan pie is to die for.

• Ken's Place
  An Exploration of Portland Food and Drink