If consistency is the hallmark of success for a restaurant, then it’s a wonder the India Grill is still in business. I used to think it was terrible, and refused to go. Lucky for them, there aren’t a ton of Indian options in central Portland so I was forced to try it again. This time, […]
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YA HALLA
I like Nicholas’ Lebanese restaurant on Grand Ave just as much as the next guy, but quite often, it’s crowded and the service suffers. That’s just one of the reasons why I like Ya Halla. It’s on 80th and SE Stark, which is close to my house, yet too far for most snooty hipsters to […]
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My Dinner With Lance
Equinox: A Slightly Pretentious Deconstruction
Equinox N. Shaver at Mississippi 460-3333 For the past year, the buzz around North Portland has been that Mississippi is the new “it” neighborhood. The proof to back this claim seems to be the steady stream at the Fresh Pot and a nightly bustle at Mississippi Pizza. But in the past week, Mississippi’s claim as […]
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Old World Charm
Caldera Speaks Simply
Caldera 6031 SE Stark 238-8242 At the beginning of last century, the acres that skirt Mt. Tabor bristled with apple orchards. It was one of the far outreaches of the city. A streetcar ran from downtown and crested along the hills. In 1910, as downtown started to sprout tall buildings, at the top of Stark […]
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Bad Juju
Daddy Mojo’s Gives Me the Heebee Jeebee’s
by Joe Kelly On the lucrative neighborhood corner of Northeast 15th and Fremont, Daddy Mojo’s restaurant finds itself in a constant state of idle Grand Opening. Started by the former co-owner of Sweetwater’s restaurant and Mojo’s in Vancouver, this latest inception seeks to capitalize on the soul of Portland. The word Mojo has roots in […]
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Eat Late
Food for the Taking
Most notably, downtown’s new restaurant, The Spirit Room, is open late. Until 4 am most days, and until 5 am on Friday and Saturday nights. So, instead of drunk-driving to the Taco Bell on Interstate, ordering a 7-layer burrito, a double layer taco, Nachos Bell Grande, a cheese quesadilla, and a bean burrito (low in […]
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Get On The Horn
Horn of Africa: Organic as Possible
Horn of Africa 3939 NE MLK 331-9844 The yellow-painted Horn of Africa restaurant, set on busy MLK, sort-of looks like another Ethiopian spice-and-phone-card-store, and yet, it offers so much more than spices and cheap phone calls. The restaurant’s name is taken from the region of Africa to the East, the part that looks like a […]
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Tibetan Home Cookin’
Lungta’s Survival Food
Considering the modest décor, small sign, and the tendency for any restaurant to blend in on Sandy Boulevard, I was surprised to find nearly a full house at Lungta on a Thursday night at 8:30 pm. However, then I thought about it for 20 seconds and realized that an authentic Tibetan restaurant in Portland will […]
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Self-Hell
Analysis for People on the Go
Having a Bad Day at Work? Everyone in the world has a bad day at work sometimes. But do they really? Maybe they just think they’re having a bad day, when in fact their day could be better described as “average.” Maybe all those people having “average” days, who think they are having “bad” days, […]
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It’s A Donut Showdown!
Who’s Really The Best?
Remember when it was fashionable to be a skinny waif who ate only salads and the occasional dry tortilla? Well times have changed, and these days it’s far more fashionable to be a fat, donut-chowing glutton. Calories? Fuck ’em! Not only are people not counting them, they’re actually waiting in line for two hours in […]
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The Very Finest
Gushing About Green Papaya
Apparently, upscale Vietnamese cuisine is the latest restaurant trend, much like the return of tapas was the trend (at least in Portland) a couple of years ago. Before that I have no idea what the trend was because I was living in culturally bereft Iowa City and eating day old bread from Big Mike’s Super […]
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Picky Choosy
Food Fight! Discriminates in the Best Way
Recently at Powell’s, I found a vegan feminist cookbook from the ’70s–totally awesome, but totally wonkalicious in its execution, juxtaposed by dainty illustrations of lavender and thyme and ovaries and fallopian tubes. Call me a child of the Millennium and/or Adbusters, but those drawings were a total turn-off. I like things to look design-y or […]