THERE’S SOMETHING a little standoffish about North Portland restaurant Pitxi (pronounced “peachy”). While its $18 entrées, defiantly limited menu, and chilly service would be right at home in Portland’s more popular dining districts (sorry, Pearl District, we just can’t help it), an off-the-track location demands that Pixti rise to the level of “destination restaurant” if it’s going to succeed. It’s got a ways to go.

You can tell a lot about a restaurant by the way it’s designed, and the mixed signals given off by Pitxi’s décor accurately foreshadow deeper issues with both the service and the food. Two high-ceilinged rooms get a warehouse-chic treatment, but gaudy touches compromise the aesthetic: IKEA-esque polka dot placemats, napkins secured with plastic clothespins. There’s a confusion of vision here, a lack of clarity about what kind of restaurant Pitxi wants to be. This confusion is reflected in the service: A waitress drops off an amuse-bouche with a high-end flourish, but sodas are served with a can and a pint glass of ice. These are little things, sure, but a coherent fine dining experience requires more consistency than Pitxi offers: Warehouse chic or IKEA kitschy? Amuse bouche fancy, or soda-in-a-can casual?

Pitxi’s food suffers from similar confusion. Take, for example, their one vegetarian entrée, curry squash dumplings with pumpkin. Obvious attention is paid to the entrée’s presentation, a fall color palette of small orange dumplings surrounding a plop of pumpkin puree, adorned with chicken of the woods mushrooms. But an artistic presentational hand can’t salvage bland dumplings (the promised “curry” flavor did not materialize) and inedible mushrooms. I’ve never had this variety of mushroom before, so it’s possible that at their peak chicken mushrooms resemble white mushrooms left in a bag in the fridge for too long, but it seems more likely that these dry, flavorless ‘shrooms were past their eat-by date.

Meaty entrees fare better: Brussels sprouts, arranged in formation like tiny fighter planes, face off against a fist-sized ramekin of rich lamb stew. Good? Sure. $18 worth of good? Absolutely not. The same goes for the duck medallions, served with an apple-curd stuffed crêpe; the duck is tender and juicy, but the portion is small, and the fruit adorning the plate is artful but otherwise entirely gratuitous.

Perhaps the food’s fussy presentation is partially responsible for the sheer length of time it takes to arrive on the table. On one visit, my vegetarian dinner date cobbled together a main course out of potato wedges and green salad—after my appetizer came and went, a full 30 more minutes elapsed before our main courses arrived, during which time he slowly ate his way through half a loaf of bread, doled out a slice at a time by a server with breadbasket and tongs. The service, meanwhile, split the difference between fine-dining diffidence (unobtrusive, impersonal), and just plain inattentive: water glasses sat empty, and no mention was ever made of the lengthy food times.

Pitxi does have a small plates menu, and at $4, a bland garlic shrimp pancake and greasy eggplant beignet are easier to forgive than the entrées. Overall, though, both pricing and portion sizes are completely out of step with Portland’s dining climate; only a few dollars more per entree gets you in the door at Le Pigeon, for example. It would be great to see fine dining flourish on Lombard, but success in their location is going to require more focus and rigor than Pitxi currently offers.

Pitxi

5225 N Lombard
503-360-3963

Alison Hallett served nobly as the Mercury's arts editor from 2008-2014. Her proud legacy lives on.

14 replies on “Mixed Signals”

  1. While I agree about the inconsistencies on knowing whether the service/environment is casual/fine dining, the squash referenced is a “curry squash” – a squash looking like small rounded pumpkin with a stem and it can be used interchangeably in butternut squash recipes. Both squash have a firm, somewhat nutty and subtly sweet flavored flesh, not curry flavored! Chicken of the woods mushrooms are called exactly that because of their resemblance to cooked chicken, which if you have ever eaten an unseasoned chicken, can taste flavorless…

    I am not sure what happened on the occasions that you dined, but I have found the service to be quite charming and the timing of the service was fine too. I have sometimes experienced a wait for the food, but I find that Americans in general lack the patience for a dining experience when it comes to dining out. Pitxi has an open kitchen, if you watch the amount of technique that the meals take to prepare for the number of people that are in the kitchen you may appreciate the amount of time the food takes and enjoy your experience. Try learning about the foods you are eating and the wines you are drinking. Make it an experience, savor the flavors and record the moments in your memories, let yourself go, relax and have only pleasant anticipation for the food, not angrily waiting for the next course. This is true dining. If you want fast food go to Burgerville. For a few dollars more you may sit down and have a leisurely paced, well executed meal, with ingredients that aren’t often featured in a menu. I also appreciate that the servers are not salesman like you may find in the Pearl, items have never been pushed on me, rather, if I have a question I ask and receive an answer and still make up my own mind about what to eat..which also makes me appreciate the price fixing – all of the items within each course are the same price so I choose what I truly would like rather than worrying about dining on a dime difference. When you think about the prices as a whole, it was explained to me that the menu is set up to be a nicely priced three course meal – where can you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert for only $34 with the level of execution, variation in ingredients and the ability to order any item in each course? For a three course meal the portions are just right and the small bites before and after add the perfect touch.

    Additionally, in response to the location, Pitxi has the right idea. Stop catering to the Pearl and put more restaurants in individualized neighborhoods. Good establishments everywhere in Portland will attract more people to each neighborhood and make all of Portland more stable and a better living environment. Young families and those not in the Pearl income tax bracket who live in NoPo should appreciate the level of quality and service Pitxi is bringing to North Portland in an attempt to expand Portland’s culture outside of the Pearl.

  2. i didnt like the food here either. The food is either good or it isnt. You don’t have to know about how to enjoy life or the finer art of “life appreciation” to know if the food is good. It wasn’t. I had different items than the reviewer but it was the same ho hum flavor described here. Won’t go back.

    And yes I am somebody who does know their way around a menu thanks:-)

  3. “Chicken of the woods mushrooms are called exactly that because of their resemblance to cooked chicken, which if you have ever eaten an unseasoned chicken, can taste flavorless…”

    Mea culpa on the squash, but just to clarify: The mushroom was not just flavorless, it was dry to the point of inedibility.

  4. Tu culpa also on the phone number. The correct phone number is 503-360-3963. Just goes to show how much energy and dedication was put into this review. I can do better than this. We can ALL do better than this 🙂

  6. I’ve been a frequenter of Pitxi since their original location in Sandy. Back then I would have agreed with the reviewer that this was a destination restaurant, but now with Pitxi only 5 min farther from me than the Pearl, I have no qualm with an extra hop.

    In any other city, a restaurant’s design can foreshadow its cuisine, but in Portland unique atmospheres have become an expectation. On a proportional scale, a $3 taco tells my wallet I’m in a fine dining taqueria, but my eyes have yet to find an atmosphere that agrees. Fine dining while looking over the city will cost me a pretty penny, but I’m usually disappointed in the quality of food despite the fancy atmosphere. Ultimately, atmosphere in Portland is a moot point and outside of Red Lobsters, the food rarely = the setting.

    One thing we agree on is the presentation. Pitxi always convinces my eyes that what lies before me is something my tongue will relish and my stomach will revel in slowly consuming. What eventually lands on my taste buds is rarely disappointing.
    For me, a trip to Pitxi is like opening an encyclopedia of food to a random page. They relentlessly bring in unique items unfounded outside of their menu. At the time it is a fun adventure to try and later a bragging right to friends.

    I agree with RespectForFood, that a good meal should never be rushed. Quick service with lots of food does not give people the time to relax, sip some wine, and converse with the comrades around them. Part of a good atmosphere is the ability to stay and enjoy it for hours on end. Going in and getting the job done is what I expect of fast food not fine dining. At Pitxi, having an open kitchen is fun to watch. It is great entertainment in addition to socializing.

  8. I was just there the other night, and have to agree with most of Allison’s criticisms. The atmosphere suffered from not only the aforementioned dissonance between high and low, but also blaring rock music that did nothing to drown out the raucous table of drunks we were seated right next to, despite the fact that the restaurant was otherwise empty.

    The ceremony surrounding the flourished granting of a slice of bread was surreal, considering it was a cold slice of grocery store baguette. The eggplant beignet’s greasiness reminded me of Bisquick cooked too slowly in cheap oil. The underdone eggplant in the middle didn’t help matters any. While my dining companion seemed to enjoy his lamb stew, the dryness of the admixed beans doused my ardor for the chunks of lamb. The accompanying brussels sprouts and sunchokes were fair recompense, though.

    My pork, while nicely prepared, was surrounded by disappointment. A scattering of what seemed like frozen, reheated corn and a cooked, canned pear half? An argument for sticking with fresh and local over slavish devotion to a regional cuisine or preconceived recipe if ever there was one.

    Also, pro tip: heat your dinner plates. A meal that’s meant to be savored will be eaten slowly, and will cool rapidly on a cold plate.

    The cauliflower florets stuffed with trotters were probably the highlight of the meal, but not for what was described on the menu. The somewhat tepid morsels were accompanied by sprigs of some kind of ice plant, the only delightful surprise of the evening.

    To be fair, it was a Wednesday night. Not exactly when restaurants are known to roll out the A team. Still, disappointing enough to discourage me from making a special trip, or even choosing Pitxi the next time I’m in the area.

  11. I don’t understand why Le Pigeon is mentioned in a Pitxi review. These are both very good restaurants but very different restaurants. I also do not understand why the Pearl gets mentioned when writing about North Portland. Soda comes in cans? No way, wow! Anyhow, don’t let the ho-hummers of the world infect you with bitterness. Pitxi is an excellent restaurant for anyone who wants more out of a dining experience than what they could cook at home and North Portland is the perfect setting for such a daring, adventurous and unique place.

  12. I am not a restaurant reviewer (neither is Alison Hallett, who
    covers “books, theater, film, music and cats” for the Mercury with
    apparently no prior food review experience) but I consider myself a
    career foodie and a champion of small business. I’ve worked in
    Portland professionally with over 100 food and wine businesses from
    micro to very large and I have critical tastes. If you scratched
    Pitxi off of your list because of this farce of a review, take another
    look. Pitxi may just steal your heart as you sit at the bar for a
    small plate and glass of wine or during a full evening of food and
    wine with friends or family. This hip new business is a fresh and
    innovative presence in a neighborhood starved for haute cuisine. The
    vision and passion these folks have is contagious.
    If we’re going to judge a book by its cover, Pitxi’s ambiance and
    attention to detail are delightful. The generous space is flooded
    with natural light from a full wall of windows, the bar is cozy and
    intimate, the open-kitchen is bustling, shining and polished with
    focused chefs all wearing professional attire. In my experience, the
    tables are spaced adequately so as to afford some privacy to diners
    and the background music is quiet – a very refreshing atmosphere for
    someone who likes to talk during dinner, rather than shout to be heard
    (a problem common to both fancy restaurants and dive bars these days).
    The table settings are colorful, charming and carefully placed, the
    stemware is top caliber and the servers, while unobtrusive, are highly
    proficient and exceedingly well informed.
    Take a deeper look: discover that the wine list is truly a work of
    art, and the pricing is unbeatable (sorry Pearl and Pigeon, I just
    cant help it), but if you are the kind of diner who wants a bottomless
    diet coke with their pâté, then you would never notice such things.
    Never heard of Corsica? Didn’t know there were Basque wines in France?
    Want to know why this squash doesn’t taste like curry? No problem.
    Pitxi provides the sophisticated waitstaff essential to showcasing
    artisan, heirloom and seasonal creations. There is no shame in not
    recognizing a particular squash or mushroom; your server is there to
    help navigate the menu if something is unfamiliar. It is, however,
    utterly inappropriate for anyone writing a food review to refuse to
    ask questions or look anything up before publishing their ignorance
    and arrogance in front of thousands of readers.
    For those who crave craftsmanship, slow-food, individually prepared
    dishes, local and seasonal menus, and a stylish wine program to match
    the dishes, Pitxi is a destination. The plates are beautiful, the
    combinations are exciting and I have never left hungry. If you are in
    a hurry, unwilling to try anything but potatoes and a salad, hoping to
    eat a loaf of free bread instead of ordering tapas, or simply would
    prefer to shell out a days earnings to a corporate kitchen that cranks
    out hundreds of identical plates every night in the Pearl, then maybe
    you should look elsewhere. But for you cookbook-reading,
    new-flavor-trying locavores who truly love food and wine, visit Pitxi.
    Ask your server for recommendations, try a wine you’ve never seen on
    any other list. Sit back and enjoy something special. These guys have
    rising-star potential and I am excited to see what they do.

  13. We just got back from Pitxi’s Sunday Supper event. And the food was as good as it has been every other time we’ve been there. We are always surprised with the inventiveness of the fine food and juxtaposition of flavors we encounter on each plate. The service was fine and not intrusive, and calmly attentive.

    Pitxi is a place to come to enjoy the finer experience of eating, not anything like the run of the mill, dine and dash off to the next activity, no time for anything eating experience that routinely fuels us through our days. Go, relax, you’ll be taken care of and find a unique dining experience.

    I am so glad that we all have good heads on our shoulders to realize that restaurant (like movie) reviews are a matter of opinion and preference.

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