Filed under: Argentinian, Hoity Toity, Northeast Portland | Tags: Argentinian, gluten-free, paleo, pork chop, Portland
2225 NE MLK Blvd., Portland, OR 97212
503-284-3366
A new restaurant that has a lot of meat choices!?!? You can bet we were there as soon as possible!
After watching Anthony Bourdain’s visit to Uruguay episode, we are thinking this will be our next vacay…South America here we come! But in the mean time, we’ll take what we can get in the States. When we found out about how Ox is Argentinian influenced (their giant oven for meat grilling is pretty sweet) and has a lot of meat choices, it was a no brainer.
What we ordered: Green kale salad with feta ranch dressing, fired chickpeas, kalamata olives and strawberries / House Chorizo and Blood Sausage / Mote con habas: heirloom hominy, braised pork belly, fava beans, chiles, olive oil-fried duck egg / Beef Skirt Steak / Maple-brined pork loin chop (comes with chimichurri dipping oil) / and finally for dessert – grilled pineapple with coconut milk sorbet, toasted cashew, rum raisins and fleur de sel. (it was the Meat-O-Meter’s birthday, so we celebrated in good form!)
How we ordered it: Everything was ordered as is. We consider this place Hoity Toity. You may have heard me mention this before, but the more expensive the restaurant, the better quality and the better the food is prepared. To eat Paleo or close to Paleo, Hoity Toity restaurants are the way to go if you can afford it. You can’t get any more organic, locally raised, gluten-free, grass-fed than this!!
What we got:
Green Kale Salad
Blood and Chorizo Sausage
Mote con habas (hominy, pork belly, fried duck egg)
Beef skirt steak
Maple-brined pork loin chop
chimichurri (oil based deliciousness of a dipping sauce)
Grilled pineapple w/ coconut milk sorbet
Cost: Green kale salad – $9, Blood Sausage – $9, Chorizo Sausage – $9, Mote con habas – $8, Beef skirt steak – $19, Maple-brined pork loin chop – $19, Grilled pinapple w/ coconut milk sorbet – $8
Quality: You can just take the skit from Portlandia’s “where does your chicken come from?” and there you have it. The server told us it’s all grass-fed and local. All of it was very well made, tasty in every bite, what you would expect from a nice restaurant.
Quantity: All of this was enough for the two of us and a little extra. I wouldn’t say that the skirt steak was a great amount of meat, but the pork chop was a good size for a hoity toity restaurant. Sausages were super tasty! Blood sausage was my fave. Though both were disappointingly small for $9. The Mote con habas had a disappointingly small amount of pork belly. 3 pieces of meat maybe in the whole dish. Would not get it again, but very tasty.
With the extra side dishes, this meal was incredibly satisfying and we were stuffed. The chimichurri sauce was AMAZING!!! A suggestion from the Meat-O-Meter: ”Sell that shit at New Seasons and I will buy it in bottles!”
Meat-O-Meter says!
Yes this place was good. However, he wasn’t over the moon. It’s all about the price and amount of the meat.
On a side note, the dessert was perplexing. It didn’t blend well together. We felt like we were eating some pineapple, then some sorbet, and then a cashew and a raisin. The dessert wasn’t “composed” well together, I guess you could say it was underwhelming for 8 bucks. Also couldn’t help but think that we could have made it at home with pineapple/Coconut Bliss and some cashews and raisins. On a positive note, it is Paleo.
Overall, pretty good though for a birthday dinner! Ox restaurant is nice. The food is great and there are lots of meat/veggie choices and combinations to choose from.
We give it a thumbs up!
Filed under: American, Hoity Toity, Southeast Portland | Tags: American, hoity toiyt, meat curing facility, southeast portland, wholesale meat
- fish
pork shank
- stuffed peppers, yes w/ cheese
- lamb leg
- pancake thing
Filed under: Hoity Toity, Southwest Portland | Tags: paleo, southwest portland
1014 Southwest Stark Street, Portland, OR 97205-2610
503-228-3333
Going out to nice restaurants kind of makes me giddy. I love good food! At first glance, this restaurant is definitely Hoity Toityt fo’ sho’.
It’s nice to splurge every once in a while. Clyde Commons has huge tables downstairs, so you could possibly be sharing the table with strangers and upstairs there were smaller tables w/ a balcony style upstairs. The environment and feel of it is modern, European style tavern, and pretty shi-shi. They are located across from the Living Room Theatre. This whole side of the street has really improved since I moved here! It’s been a while since I’ve been downtown apparently.
What we ordered: Oh geez, we tried a bunch of stuff…..Appetizers: which I unfortunately did not get pics of, were great too. They had a wide range of meat from rabbit to octopus. Entree: Pork Shank w/ brussel sprouts and carmelized onion w/ tiny pieces of dough (i’d never seen this before. I tried not to eat them…..), Lamb sugo (shoulder) w/ farro (some type of ancient grain…), mint and ricotta salad.
How we ordered it: This place was pretty shi shi and usually restaurants like this don’t take substitutions. So we had to live with it and just order what we could. It did narrow down our choices a bit, but if it was a truly great restaurant, it would already have great Paleo choices.
What we got:
Lamb Shank
Lamb sugo
Cost: Pork Shank – $21. Lamb sugo – $15
Quality: Fantastic! The pork shank was falling off the bone! The lamb was super tasty and moist. It was pretty amazing how good the mint tasted with the lamb. An unlikely pairing, but totally tasty together! The Farro in the lamb was soooo good. I’d never heard of it, but apparently it is a grain:( Oops!
Quantity: For a really nice restaurant, you really don’t get a crap load of meat. There is less meat at really nice restaurants period. But the taste of the meat was FABULOUS!
MEAT-O-METER says!
Clyde Common was definitely a pleasant surprise. I am glad we came here. For the quality of the meat, the prices were really not that bad. The menu is ever changing so it may be difficult to get the same thing we did, but looking at their menu online, it looks like there’s always a good Paleo choice! All the food was really well made. I highly recommend this place when friends or family come in from out of town or when celebrating a special occasion or just for a nice night out. I know I will!!! We may have to do a Happy Hour review of this place too cuz the drinks were pretty amazing too….
Filed under: Hoity Toity, Northeast Portland | Tags: gluten-free, Mediterranean, paleo, vegan, vegetarian
2930 NE Killingsworth St., Portland, Oregon 97211
We had high hopes for this restaurant. On their website, they are described as “one of the country’s few celiac owned and operated fine dining restaurant”. Celiac disease is those who are allergic to gluten. We don’t have Celiac disease, but it bodes well for Paleo-ites! They have an entire gluten-free menu and dessert list. They also cater to vegan, vegetarian and lactose intolerant needs. There is no flour in the kitchen, so there is no possibility of cross contamination.
What we ordered: Filet mignon with grilled vegetables, leg of lamb with vegetables, tomato and gorgonzola soup, gluten-free mushroom quiche
How we ordered it: The chef and owner was our server as we were the only ones there on a Tuesday night. He was extremely accommodating to our requests. The menu was already pretty Paleo friendly. The only sub we made was for the potatoes that were served with the filet mignon. The lamb was as is as was the tomato soup and the quiche.
What we got:
Mushroom quiche
Tomato and gorgonzola cheese soup
Filet mignon with grilled veggies
Leg of lamb with vegetables
Cost: The entrees ranged from $23 to $27. Appetizers were $8-$11.
Quality: They use mostly Oregon grown meat. Not sure where ours came from, but it was cooked perfectly.
Quantity: The size of my filet mignon was tiny. The leg of lamb was a good size portion for one person.
MEAT-O-METER?
OK, there was another couple there…
The food tasted great! We weren’t stuffed, but it was definitely tasty. If you can splurge a bit, this restaurant is not bad. All the possibilities for substitions and the flexibility in the kitchen is great. No flour, that’s pretty sweet. If we just got a little more per serving, it would have been fantastic! Hmm, I think this place definitely fits the description of hoity toity. A big expense for not a lot of tasty food.
(Another great use of a restaurant.com $25 certificate!)
738 E. Burnside St., Portland, Oregon 97214
Walking into a nice restaurant makes me giddy. I love going out to eat at nice restaurants! Though expensive, it’s nice to do every once in a while. This time we had a gift certificate so the damage wasn’t too bad. The reason why we came here was because there was a coupon on http://www.restaurant.com to get a discount. (Refer to the post, “Gift Certificates, Gift Certificates, Gift Certificates..”) Otherwise we never would have tried it!
Le Pigeon is a very small, romantic establishment, with large tables so you’ll most likely be sitting elbow to elbow to another couple. Fun! The menu changes weekly and the items are listed very simply; chicken, pork, beef…Reservations are recommended
What we ordered: Beef Heart Appetizer, Pork Chop, Beef Cheek
How we ordered it: Substitutions are politely declined at Le Pigeon. This was surprisingly not an issue since the meat entrees were all almost perfectly Paleo. The main content of each dish was the meat with some veggies&fruit playing a supportive role. I could eat like this everyday!
What we got:
Beef Heart Appetizer
Beef Cheek with potatoes.
Pork Chop with mashed sweet potatos, maple and apples.
Cost: Expensive; $24 – Pork, $21 – Beef Cheek, $12 – Beef Heart. We had a $25 Restaurant.com coupon so that helped.
Quality: Very fine preparation, wholesome flavors, and you can taste the skill and care that is put into each dish.
Quantity: Just the right amount for a “hoity toity” establishment. You will not walk away stuffed to the gills but you won’t feel like you got jacked either. The time and attention they put into each dish is obvious (you are literally sitting around the oven and prep area where the three chefs do their magic) and there is an artistic quality to each entree.
MEAT-O-METER?
Trying to go for the discreet look…If you want to go on a date or need an intimate setting and you can spend a little more on food, Le Pigeon is the place to go. If you are looking for a cheat dessert, they have a bacon-and-apricot-cornbread- and-maple ice cream that is amazing! Sorry to tempt you if you’re not on a cheat day, but bacon in a dessert? We couldn’t resist!
