@ Zell's Cafe

 A great way to start the day is to take some time and enjoy a good breakfast with friends. During our trip to Portland, we found this little cafe where we sat comfortably for couple of hours. The service was really good here, the servers kept refilling the coffee and water. My friend really liked the coffee too. The Oregon chai I had was a bit too sweet for my taste, but I really love the corn scones and raspberry jam they serve complimentary here. I had their German pancake with rhubarb, which was really good, while my friends enjoyed the salmon benedict.

Summer Night

Food-carts on Hawthorne, Portland.

Not to be confuse with night market, this small corner place is a place to hangout where you can sit comfortably and have some good food. This place open late (till 3am) and is super romantic on a summer night. The fries with pulled-pork and the wood-fired pizza, basil lime "hand made soda", and the fish taco we tried were super yummy.

@ Le Gavroche

Lobster Carpacio

Another evening spent with friends and catching up on the latest gossip. This time we went for a fancy fine dining at Le Gavroche. Unfortunately, Le Gavroche was a big disappointment.

The food: the entrees were disappointing. Do not get the fish here, it is tasteless. I had the braised chicken, which was cold by the time it got the table (we had a big party of people). It was covered in a sauce, but nothing specially tasty. I also had a taste of my friends' dishes such as the braised beef tenderloin. For the price we were paying, I expected something better.

The appetizers we had such as the lobster carpacio, beef tartar, and artisan salad were overall ok. I enjoyed the french onion soup (I'm a fan of onion soups!).

The service: our server was friendly at the start, but that changed after we said we wanted to share some dishes and appetizers. We got treated way differently (waitress's face turned 190 degree and seem like didn't want to serve us anymore) and even said "we are not making money." because we are sharing. Well, all I know is that you are charging way too much for food that isn't good!

The ambiance and the setting was great and we even had a room to ourselves. But, I am not coming back for sure!

Minnekhada

Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Hike. Eat. Deep Cove.

Quarry Rock Trail, B.C.

@ Japanese Kitchen

Eggplant with sweet miso

5.30.11.

I was surprised to learn on that night that we were the last customer of Japanese Kitchen because of new ownership.

We enjoyed the hot dishes we ordered such as the eggplant glazed with sweet miso, Renku Manju floating in a flavourful soup, interesting crispy avocado with spicy ketchup sauce. I also had the grill mackerel, which was served in a pretty good soy sauce. The staff was really nice to offer us their homemade cheesecake as the last customers.

So, these were probably the last dishes cooked by the kitchen staff of Japanese Kitchen (whether the staffs or the chef will remain the same, I don't know). The staff told us that a  new Japanese chef/owner will be taking over and the restaurant name will probably remain the same.

Renku Manju

Crispy Avocado