2850 SE 82nd Ave #11, Portland, OR 97266
(In the Fubon Shopping Center on SE 82nd)
503.808.9990
Is this the first official Korean restaurant meateats review?!?!?! Weird.
If you haven’t eaten Korean food yet, I highly suggest going to this place right away! You are missing out!
What we ordered: To make the meat on the table grill you have to order at least two different meats. We got the beef brisket and the spicy pork. We also love mackeral. We always order mackeral when we eat at a Korean restarant.
How we ordered: Pretty much as is. Korean food is TOTALLY Paleo except for the rice! LOVE IT!
What we got:
Spicy pork and thin sliced beef brisket
Pike? Mackeral - the cheaper one
Typical spread at a Korean restaurant
The small dishes of marinated vegetables are called “Banchan”. Korean meals always have Banchan with every meal. At any Korean restaurant you will get Banchan with whatever you order. At this restaurant we got abut 6 or 7 different dishes. The amount varies between restaurants and they usually give you free refills!
Meat cooking on the Grill
Cost: Beef brisket – $15, Spicy Pork – $18. Mackeral – $12
Quality: Great! The thin slices of raw meat quickly cook on the grill. They provide a sesame oil and salt dipping sauce for the meat that is sooo good!
Quantity: It doesn’t look like a lot of meat, but it was A LOT of meat! Hands down Korean food is still my favorite!
MEAT-O-METER says!
Korean restaurants are for the most part a win win situation. You get a ton of food with HUGE flavor. It’s hard to mess up the marinated vegetables. It’s the little things that will make the restaurant awesome. This one was pretty good, better than OK on our radar. We went to a 24 hour Korean restaurant in Chicago and it was sooooo good! If you’re in a big city with a large Asian population, the Korean restaurant will mostly like be a solid choice! They can get a bit pricey, but it’s so tastey and good! There are 2 in Beaverton that are OK too, New Seoul Restaurant and Korean Restaurant near Beaverton Hillsdale Highway and I-217. I’ll try to get their review up asap. But in the mean time, just go check one out!
Filed under: American, Southeast Portland | Tags: American, Happy Hour, paleo, Southeast
NO LONGER EXISTS!!! LUCKY STRIKE now resides here.
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Yay! A great new spectacular restaurant! A new coupon popped up on restaurant.com. There was a September sale on the coupons. Since it was restaurant.com’s 9th anniversary, they made all their coupons 90% off for 90 hours starting 9/9/09!!! We bought a bunch of them for $1!!!
Anywho, Arista was a new restaurant and it’s located in the same building as the Hawthorne Theatre on SE 39th and Hawthorne. The inside used to be the Indian restaurant, but now they totally remodeled it and it looks very shi-shi inside. Hence, the dark photos following….
What we ordered: Soups! Their soup du jour was Squash Soup. We also got a menu favorite, Wild Coho Chowder, Sweet potato fries, and for an entree we got the Wild Coho.
How we ordered it: Soups as is, yes chowder does have dairy in it, so not ideal, but not a terrible choice b/c it’s soooo freakin’ good. Sweet potato fries as is. Wild Coho came with a side of red potatoes, so we substituted for whatever their seasonal vegetable was; here it was mashed parsnips.
What we got:
Squash Soup
Wild Coho Chowder
Sweet Potato Fries
Wild Coho
Cost: Soups – $5 each, Sweet potato Fries – $2 (It was happy hour!), Wild Coho – $15
Quality: You could tell that they put in a lot of care into their dishes. The salmon was nice and rare! Tender and tasty.
Quantity: For $5 the soups were a great find! For the quality of the salmon, the amount was perfect. We were definitely stuffed after this meal.
MEAT-O-METER says!
Arista’s happy hour menu is pretty fantabulous as well. $2 sweet potato fries! Geez, we should have gotten 2 of them. And the soups, which weren’t on the Happy hour menu, were $5. Even better!
It’s interesting though, the more hoity toity the restaurant, the easier it is to order Paleo. Most higher end restaurants put quality foods into their dishes, so most of the time you can order As-is. Arista isn’t really super expensive, but you can order As-is for most of their dishes. Awesome! This was a great find!
12000 SE 82nd Ave. #3002 , Happy Valley, OR 97086
www.rachathai.com
I apologize for the lateness of my posts. But boy is this one a doozy!
So you know how we love Thai restaurants and how they are extremely Paleo friendly. We found a www.restaurant.com coupon for Racha Thai and our interest was peaked. Clackamas Town Center is quite a ways away, but for good Thai food it could be worth it. We knew it was a chain so that actually should have given us a huge warning sign right there, but we decided to gamble a bit.
At first appearance it really was quite nice. It’s right by the movie theatre. We were trying to be very open minded. We walk in and everything is in excess; the decoration, our table, the seats. So we were thinking hmmm, maybe even the food is served in excess too.
What we ordered: Pumpkin Curry, Larb, Lemongrass chicken.
How we ordered: No rice, extra vegetables.
What we got: We got free fried shrimp chips for an appetizer, like chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.
Fried shrimp chips
Pumpkin Curry
Larb
Lemongrass Chicken
Side of vegetables
Cost: Pumpkin Curry – $9.95, Larb – $8.95, Lemongrass Chicken – $10.95, Side of vegetables – $5-ish…
Quantity: WE GOT JACKED! (I think the pics speak for themselves)
Quality: good. who knows where they get their meat from, but it was tasty.
MEAT-O-METER SAYS!
I think this is the worst decision we’ve made in a long time. Sorry Katie and Anton for dragging you with us! Should you happen to be in the Clackams Town Center area, DO NOT GO HERE! The most amusing part of this dinner experience is our interaction with the waiter. Since we knew there were Thai people cooking in the kitchen and most of the staff was asian, we figure the chefs would be able to conjure up something authentically Thai. Is that too much to ask? We wanted something not on the menu, something that the waiter would eat at home. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Unbeknownst to us, the waiter or the host had absolutlely NO IDEA why we were asking this question. It was an INCREDIBLE conversation. If you know anything about the Meat-o-meter, he was loving it. Any other true Asian restaurant would fix something fantastic for you and it would be delicious. Unfortunately Racha Thai is neither that authentic or generous with their portions. Poop on them….
Filed under: Barbecue, Southeast Portland | Tags: Barbecue, food cart, late night, paleo
Food cart on the corner of SE 12th St. and Hawthorne
Lookng for late night eats? There’s a small parking lot across from the Shell Gas station and diagonal from Burgerville, near SE 12th and Hawthorne. This parking area is now filled with food carts, it’s like a late night eats food cartfest on the SE side of town. We’ve been complaining how there’s no place to eat in this town after 10 pm except for Ihop, Denny’s or some other carb infested breakfast restaurant. When my co-worker told me about a BBQ food cart being open until 4 am, I really thought he was pulling my leg.
What we ordered: BBQ chicken, Brisket.
How we ordered it: Just the meat please, no bread.
What we got:
BBQ Chicken and Brisket
Cost: BBQ Chicken – $4.75, Brisket – $4.75
Quality: Delicious, nutritious and gosh darn tasty. If you can remember, tell them to hold off on the barbecue sauce. There’s a lot of sugar in the bbq sauce and they are pretty generous with it.
Quantity: For the price, it was a great deal.
MEAT-O-METER Says?
This was a great find! Late night (after 10 pm) the parking lot had about 5 different food carts. As for the Paleo friendly food cart, Q BBQ was the best option. People were steadily coming in and out. I’m sure it’s hopping at 2 am! During the summer this place will be packed! Remember to bring your cash!
Corner of SE 12th and Hawthorne.
Filed under: American, Breakfast, Southeast Portland | Tags: Breakfast, paleo
2411 SE Belmont St., Portland, Oregon 97214
http://www.wildabandonrestaurant.com/about.html
Breakfast places everywhere! So many places to choose from! So many good places, that is.
Wild Abandon, another great surprise.
Using our www.restaurant.com coupon and the PROMO code from www.slickdeals.net, we got 54% off our meal! Even better.
What we ordered: Sunday Morning Scramble: Chicken apple sausage, spinach, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese withchoice of bread. Pulled Pork Hash: Pork shoulder, carmelized onions, spinach, roasted potatoes, with two eggs and choice of bread.
How we ordered it: Sunday Morning Scramble: No cheese, add kalamata olives. No side of bread, sub in side of fruit. Pulled Pork Hash: No potatoes, sub in grilled vegetables, no bread, sub in side of fruit.
What we got:
Sunday Morning Scramble
Pulled Pork Hash
Cost: Sunday Morning Scramble – $8, Pulled Pork Hash – $10,
Quality: Great tasting meal, great tasting meat.
Quantity: Considering all the subbing and elimination of potatoes, the amount was pretty moderate for breakfast.
MEAT-O-METER says?
This place was a very pleasant surprise. Another great reason why www.restaurant.com has made our lives that much more pleasurable.
They were so accomodating! With great gluten-free options and being able to sub the fruit was great! Along with the naked paintings on the wall, this places was just a treat! 
Filed under: Breakfast, Southeast Portland, Swedish | Tags: Breakfast, paleo, Swedish
2508 SE Clinton St., Portland, Oregon 97202
We always drove pass this place and thought we would probably get jacked if we ate there. When we found a $25 gift certificate (gc) on restaurant.com, we figured, “What the heck? Let’s try something new.”. This gc was one where you had to spend $35 to get $25 off your meal. So we spent some time ordering and making sure we ordered $35 worth of food. Call it “too much effort” or “you two are big frugal nerds”, well, we made it happen. (Unfortunately for all you readers, upon usage of the gc, we were told that they are no longer accepting them after today!)
Broder Cafe seemed like a popular place, so we made sure to get there right at 9 am when they open. When we got there, around 8:50 am, there was a line formed already! We luckily got seated right away. Others had to wait about 45 minutes, like most Portland breakfast places.
What we ordered: 3 Scrambles all with choice of side: sauteed greens, roasted acorn squash, or potato pancake. 1) Smoked trout and red onion scramble with a side of sauteed greens 2) Wild mushroom and carmelized onion scramble with a side of potato pancake (we had to try it). 3) Duroc ham and Swedish farmer’s cheese scramble with a side of roasted acorn squash. (yes, we cheated a bit with the cheese too.)
How we ordered it: Since they are European themed, they have a lot of breads, cheeses and pastries. We first asked the host, like we always do when we go someplace new, what dishes would give us the most amount of meat. He recommended the two hash plates. We figured, OK, we can ask our server if we can sub the potatoes for other veggies. When are table server asked us for our order, we asked for the hash with no potatoes and sub some veggies. He plainly said, “You wouldn’t have a hash if you didn’t have the potatoes.” Then there was silence and we all looked at each other for a moment. In our heads, we suddenly had negative thoughts towards him. Negative thoughts, which I’d rather not describe here. So out went the hash options. The only Paleo option left were the Scrambles.
What we got it:
Smoked trout and red onion with side of greens.
Duroc ham with Swedish cheese
Wild mushrooms and carmelized onion with side of acorn squash
And of course we had to get more protein, so we got a side of bacon as well.
Cost: Scrambles – $9 each, side of bacon – $3
Quality: The scrambles were great, actually. The smoked trout was delicious and a very good Paleo perfect meal. Bacon had a good crunch to them. 3 Large pieces, not bad…eh…
Quantity: The plates look small, but it was actually not a bad amount! Plates were easily dividable into segments for easy sharing! However, just like any other breakfast place, the meat wasn’t exactly overflowing.
MEAT-O-METER?
The frown with a sort of thumbs up…
Broder Cafe was packed after we got seated. They filled up right away when they opened and there was still a line outside. Our server was pretty rushed, curt and a bit flustered. However, I can understand, being a server once; problem customers, with excessive questions and complicated orders when you’re really busy. BUT, we were their customer and we are on a mission ourselves; to find a restaurant that will allow us to live our “clean” and healthy lifestyle. Not the best service, but in the end we got what we wanted. They gave us a great Paleo friendly, protein packed meal. Kudos for the roasted acorn squash! This is what may have tipped the MEAT-O-METER scale a bit towards the positive side. If you order anything else you may have difficulty subbing or eliminating as there is a lot of bread served. You’ve been warned!
Filed under: Chinese, Southeast Portland | Tags: Authentic Chinese food, paleo
They have since remodelded and are now called Ocean City Seafood….
3016 SE 82nd Ave., Portland, Oregon 97266
Remember Your Roots!
Authentic Chinese food can be hard to come by in Portland. When we say Authentic, we’re talking about the real deal, no quams about it, the shiznat, straight off the boat, direct from the homeland. It’s hard to find, but it’s out there and we’re determined to find it. In case you may not understand what we’re talking about, here is some insight:
1) Fried Rice is not Authentic Chinese food; neither is General Tso’s Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken, Crab Rangoon, Chop Suey or Chow Mein. Basically, anything that’s on the Anglo menu.
2) The amount of steamed rice Asian people eat in Asia with their dinner is at most 1 cup, that is, after it’s cooked, not before.
1st rule of thumb – When you walk into an Asian restaurant, or if you are fortunate to look in the window before you walk in, pan the room. If there are a lot of Asian people, you are good to go. If you see a lot of non-Asian people…check the address. If you’re at the correct address, get back in the car.
2nd rule of thumb – When going into a restaurant that has the potential of being Authentic, look for a menu that is not in English. Close the Anglo menu! Don’t even think about ordering egg rolls or the orange chicken. If they serve hamburgers, pizza or french fries, get out IMMEDIATELY.
Authentic Chinese food can be incredibly Paleo friendly. Not much breading and opting out of rice is very easy.
What we ordered: Seabass mixed with some type of white green onion, steamed pork belly with oysters in a clay pot and seafood - fish mung soup.
How we ordered it: We first looked briefly at the menu that was posted on the hanging white board by the entrance written all in Chinese and our eyes widened with excitement. We sat down, briefly opened and then closed the menu, told our server that we were in the mood for a fish and pork. He then recommended some dishes; which all sounded good. We decided and then confirmed with him that these items were not on the menu. He affirmed. We knew we were on the right track. Then he asked if we wanted steamed rice and we politely declined. No problem. Easy Peasy, Stressless and Easy.
What we got:
Seafood Fish Mung Soup
Seabass with white green onion
Pork belly and Oyster Clay Pot
Cost: $13.95 for the Pork Belly Clay Pot, $11.95 for the Sea bass, $10 for the Seafood Fish Mung Soup.
Quality: It was like the MEAT-O-METER was back home again. The dishes were flavorful. The pork belly was cooked perfectly, like good bacon should be. The oysters in the clay pot were a good texture. They may have been a little bit fried, which made part of it a little bit carmelized and crunchy. Delicious!
Quantity: We both ate very well, stuffed to the gills.
MEAT-O-METER?
I’ll be frank. This place from the outside looks really shady. There’s some type of sketchy lounge in the back. If you look up reviews of this place on the internet, they get panned for their service. This, however, is very questionable. Who knows? Maybe it was because we were Asian and we never asked for water and was OK with the hot tea they served us. Or maybe the server really liked the MEAT-O-METER’s glasses. But the service to us was fine. Nobody asked us if we were doing OK in the middle of our meal, but that’s really a Western Hemisphere cultural thing. So we weren’t offended when nobody checked up on us. Hmm, is their service really that bad? Keep an open mind – you be the judge…
Filed under: American, Southeast Portland | Tags: American, gluten-free, paleo
9085 SE Sunnyside Rd, Clackamas, Oregon 97015
Raw-hiiiiiiiide! Ahhh, what representation of America is better than the Claim Jumper. Having eaten at Claim Jumper before I was Paleo, I remember the portion of my meal was gi-normous. So we had to revisit and see if it would be the same being Paleo. Amazingly enough, Claim Jumper has a Gluten Free Menu!!! We had to ask for it. It was one page long and the other side had the Vegetarian menu. +1 for Claim Jumper!
What we ordered: Tri-tip dinner from the Gluten Free Menu and Rotisserie Chicken Dinner from the Regular Menu.
Tri-tip dinner included meat, and steamed mixed vegetables and choice of side
Chicken dinner included meat, choice of two sides, and choice of bread.
How we ordered it:
Tri-tip dinner: Medium cooked tri-tip, mixed steamed vegetables and side of fruit.
Rotisserie Chicken Dinner: Chicken, sweet potato and grilled mixed vegetables for our 2 sides, and cornbread…yeah, not paleo, but it was a cheat day)
Pretty easy with the Gluten-Free Menu. The prices were actually the same as the Regular Menu, they just eliminated the bread.
What we got: It looks kind of skimpy…
There was butter on the sweet potato…so that’s that globule on the left side of the plate.
Cost: $16.96 for the Tri-tip, $14.95 for the Chicken. This was the disappointing kicker. For the price, it’s just expensive. We did not finish with a gratifying feeling that we were stuffed and wouldn’t be able to eat for a week. Which is how I had felt when I had eaten there non-Paleo style. Just b/c we don’t eat processed grains, does our appetite have to suffer?
Quantity: OK. I think we got jacked on the veggies. Does that look like a full plate to you?
Quality: Tasty, but refer to Cost:
MEAT-O-METER?
1667 SE Bybee Blvd, Portland, Oregon 97202
Yee-hawww! There’s no getting jacked of food here, for a sushi restaurant.
Largest pieces of sushi I’ve ever seen in a sushi restaurant so far…
What we ordered: 3 orders of Salmon Belly, one roll – Budokhan roll, 1 order of Striped bass, 1 order of Bonito, 1 order of River eel.
How we ordered it: Sushi restaurants are pretty easy. There’s not that much that’s processed here except for the rice. We would get the Sashimi plate, but it’s pretty expensive, but that’s what we would ideally like to order.
What we got: Some huge pieces of fish! Holy cow.
(yeah, forgot to take the pic before we started eating…)
Cost: Not bad for the amount you get. approx. $3.50 for sushi, approx. $6.50 for a roll.
Quantity: Holy shnikees, batman!
Quality: Pretty good.
Why the large mound of rice on the plate? Yes, we are Paleo, so no rice for us!
However, I have heard of people complaining that they serve too much rice. Well, did you look at the size of their sushi? Refer to above Quantity:.
Sushi restaurants in general are notorious for not a lot of quantity. However, it is seafood, the steak of the seas. But Saburos breaks the mold and actually gives you pieces of fish that are reasonable for what you are paying.
According to the Meat-o-meter, we have a winner!!
