Great Neighborhood Seafood Place

Cabezon is a great neighborhood seafood restaurant and fish market that opened in Portland's Hollywood district in December 2009. Owners, Chef David Farrell and sommelier Jackie Speck named it after a Pacific predatory coastal fish, but it is a very friendly place. In fact I wish this was in our neighborhood so I could walk to it regularly.

We started off our meal with the very generous house made paté with crostini, pickled pears, cornichons and red onions. The pate was delicious and the pickled pears had a very unique flavor, that was a great compliment. As a follow up, we shared the special smoked trout salad, with a heritage lemon vinaigrette dressing. Again this was an amazing dish, with a lot of flavor.

The menu changes daily, based on what fish is fresh, so you won't get bored eating here. I tried one of the main stay entrees, the Cioppino with white gulf shrimp, Dungeness crab, local fish, calamari, clams and mussels. This dish was a great spicy seafood stew that was plentiful and filling. We also had a pan seared fish that was from the sea bass family, on a bed of jambalaya. It was some of the best jambalaya I have tasted in a long time, and the fish was great too.

I hope you save room for desert, because I could have had one of everything on the menu. The carrot cake with Bellwether Farms crème fraiche lemon mousse was awesome and the Anjou pear crisp with house made vanilla ice cream and caramel was good too. The also have some great cocktails and a reasonably wine list.

Dinner served 5:30-9pm Monday-Thursday, 5:30- 9:30pm Fri-Sat. Outside dining available in warmer months. Happy hour 5-6 PM, Monday-Thursday.

Cabezon
5200 NE Sacramento St.
Portland, OR 97213
(503) 284-6617

Open Table iPhone App

Open Table is one of the most useful apps I have come across this year. It allows you to find restaurants in your area that have open tables and make a reservation. I have used it so far in Houston and Portland and many of our favorite restaurants have been listed; they claim to have over 15,000 restaurants in the database. It's great for last minute reservations, but you can also make long-term plans as well. Don't know what you want to do for dinner, just start up Open Table and you'll have a list of all the restaurants within a few miles that have tables available.

After you eat, Open Table will prompt you to give feedback, which you can share with the restaurant owners. You can also get ratings and read reviews from other customers. It's a great app, that is free to download and easy to use.

New Orleans meets Spain in Portland

Tapalaya is a new Portland restaurant offering small plate versions of traditional Cajun/Creole dishes. As you can see from the name they have combined tapas and jambalaya; unfortunately we didn't get to try the jambalaya special as our waiter forgot to tell us the specials. In fact, lets get the bad stuff out of the way first. The waiter was terrible. He was always close by, but unfortunately he was talking to his friends at the table next to us and ignored us. I could dismiss this as one bad waiter, but the folks who dropped off the food were a little rude too, I felt like they were delivering food to prisoners.


The good news is that the food and drinks were pretty good and because of the portion sizes, you can try a lot of stuff. The first thing we got was the gumbo, which was the best dish on the menu. It had a nice rich base and lots of seafood, very tasty. The Tapalaya Jambalaya with chicken, shrimp and andouille. was good but not overly flavorful. The Crabby Mac, mac and cheese with lump blue crab was OK, kind of like crab au gratin, but it could have been cheesier in my opinion. The Buttermilk Fried Chicken with bourbon pecan syrup was disappointing. I was hoping for a breast, but it was an overcooked leg, that did not have a lot of flavor. If we come back, and that is in doubt at this point, I would like to try the Crawfish Fritters with Cajun aioli and the BBQ shrimp. They also had a good looking Muffaletta as well as several other Po’Boys.


The drinks were a mixed bad. The hurricane I had was delicious, but the sazerac was watery and disappointing. They do have a few New Orleans beers, but only in bottles, none on tap. Overall I would say Tapalaya was a disappointment, I had high hopes and they were not fulfilled.

Open Mon-Thu,Sat 4:30pm-9:30pm; Fri 4:30pm-10:30pm; Sun 4:30pm-9pm

Tapalaya
28 NE 28th Ave
Portland, OR 97232
(503) 232-6652

March Madness

It's back, the most exciting sporting event of the year, The 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament or as it is more affectionately known, March Madness. As always I am posting my picks so you can track how I am doing and make fun of me when 50% of my teams loose in the first round (click on the bracket to expand).

One thing I am a little upset about is this trend among some pundits who are picking Texas to go out in the first round against Oakland. Luckily this doesn't seem to be too wide spread, as several experts on ESPN have them in their final four. I don't see UT getting past Duke, if they get that far, but as always I would gladly trade the $1000+ I would win in the pool to see UT win it all.

Go Horns!

Best breakfast in Portland

Tasty n Sons has been around for a while and I have actually eaten there a couple of times, so why have I taken so long to write this review? I don't know, but all I can say is I am not perfect. Tasty n Sons however, is perfect. At least the food is. If you could somehow walk in at any time and get a table then it would be perfect, but that is not going to happen. On a weekend you should expect to wait at least an hour, and it even fills up during the week if you don't get there as the doors are opening.


Is it worth waiting an hour for breakfast on a Sunday? Probably not, but there doesn't seem to be much choice in Portland on a weekend or holiday. You can drive from place to place and everywhere is at least an hour. Seems like we could do with 20 more good places to eat breakfast in this town.

So if you are going to wait for an hour or more, you should wait for the best.


When you finally get seated, the trick is to have a few people to share with and order a lot of stuff (try not to drink too many Bloody Marys while you wait). The best thing on the menu is Auntie Paula's French Toast, hands down the best you will ever eat. Then you can bounce from sweet to savory with the Griddled Bacon Wrapped Dates, Sautéed Spinach with sunny side up egg, Morocan Chicken Hash and the Chocolate Potato Doughnut to name a few favorites.


Tasty n Sons is also open for lunch and reportedly has a great hamburger, but I can not imagine going there without getting the french toast. It is a big place, and the buzz is great when it is full. the service is quick and friendly and they also have great cocktails if you are a booze-hound who drinks at 10 AM.


Open daily for brunch and dinner: 9 to 10, Fri & Sat till 11 — Happy Hour: 2:30 pm to 5:30pm

Tasty n Sons
3808 N. Williams Avenue
Portland, OR 97227
(503) 621-1400