BJ Willy's Woodfire Grill and Pub

May 25th, 2012

Date #33

Tonight is Chuck’s turn and we head out towards Portland, oops I mean Beaverton… we started talking and Chuck’s car automatically turned towards work, U-turn, now the correct direction. After one more reroute because of too much chatting and we arrive at our destination; BJ Willy’s Woodfired Pizza and Pub, (across the street from Big Al’s, a place of a past date night and many Raider football games). Chuck’s friends opened this restaurant about 6 weeks ago, so we are excited to try it. 











We start out with a caprese salad to share, soft mozzarella, tomato, basil, mixed greens, salt & pepper, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic reduction. An amazing taste sensation, each bite held a different flavor and we cleaned the balsamic reduction off the plate with the last few bites.

I ordered a woodfired mushroom trio pizza with a creamy garlic sauce; I am still on the search for amazing pizza. This wonderful cheesy-garlicy-mushroomy taste sensation is the pizza flavor combination I have been searching for; I was so excited when I took my first bite because I knew my search was over. The woodfired oven took this pizza to a completely new level; the char-grilled crispy flavorful crust completed the taste experience.

Chuck had baked meat stuffed manicotti skillfully combining beef, pork, veal, spinach, ricotta and fontina stuffed pasta shells, dressed in  marinara and creamy béchamel sauce, topped with mozzarella and baked to perfection. Chuck loves manicotti and I don’t make it for him enough, and I definitely know I could never make it taste this good. He said it was so full of meaty-creamy- tomatoy goodness that he didn’t even taste the spinach; now that’s good.

So far we have no leftovers and I still wanted to have some dessert. The just right dessert for me was a woodfired s’more; graham cracker, milk chocolate, and perfectly toasted marshmallow, a wonderful conclusion to a wonderful meal. My Chuck had a brownie rockslide combining a brownie, pecans, caramel and ice cream, sorry I don’t have a picture, it was gone before I could snap one.
BJ Willy’s is a wonderful new restaurant with countless offerings on the menu, and the best part is it’s really close to home; we will be back to taste more…maybe fire roasted veggie sandwich…BJ’s bomb burger…or…YUM!!!

Flying Pie Pizza

May 18th, 2012

Date #32

I have been searching for that Italian restaurant in Portland that you know will always have cheesy yummy pizza and pasta dishes. When Chuck and I were in Annapolis Maryland for his brother’s graduation from the Naval Academy we had slices of plain cheese pizza from a place near the marina. This pizza was the best pizza we have ever tasted, we went back 3 times during this one week trip because it was so good. Thin flavorful crust, tasty tomato sauce, and good quality mozzarella cheese piping hot out of the oven, we still talk about it 10 years later. I’m not sure what the name of the place is but I do remember there was a sign that said authentic New York pizza.

I found a place called Flying Pie Pizza in Lake Oswego on Urbanspoon with plenty of good reviews so I thought this could be our place for great pizza. The other reason I chose it was because they offer extra thin pizza crust that Chuck loves.












The interior is like any pizza joint you would go to for a pizza party to celebrate something, and there was a party going on while we were there. We went to the cash register to order our pizzas I had an extra thin crust vegetarian and Chuck an extra thin supreme, they told us the wait would be about 35 minutes, so we went to a table and waited.

The pizza oven is interesting, it’s circular with layers of shelves turning while the pizza’s cook. About 40 minutes later our pizzas were ready piled high with toppings. The pizza’s were good, but not worth the wait. If you plan a party at the restaurant, or order take-out it would probably be much better. We told a few of our friends that we went here for dinner and they all said the pizza was really good, but they had it as take-out; that would be my suggestion.

Brasserie Montmartre

May 11, 2012

Date #31

Chuck and I love the show Grimm, not only is it a great show, but it’s filmed in Portland. It’s fun to watch the show and see areas of Portland that we know, sometimes we like to searcher for places where they film. Part of the show involves a trailer parked in a storage lot showing one of the great bridges in Portland. One day we traveled around the downtown Portland area looking for the lot…I think we found it. There have also been a few times while watching the show we say, hey we were just there. The restaurant Brasserie Montmartre has been featured on the show a few times so it is the feature of Chuck’s date night tonight.

We started out with Les Frites with black truffle oil and sea salt. The fries were good, not sure if the oil and sea salt made them taste any different but they were tasty. Next, we shared a bowl of French onion soup and wonderful French bread rolls served in white linen napkins secured with a close pin and room-temperature butter. The roll presentation was a nice touch. The soup was very salty and the cheese was burnt. I remember the wonderful French onion soup from a restaurant in my hometown called Mother’s, I worked there for many years, it included a garlic roll and melted provolone cheese, yummyness. The version we had tonight was nothing like what I think French onion soup should be.

Our main courses included Parisienne Gnocchi for me, and Chicken Pot Pie for Chuck. I have tried Gnocchi a few times and have not liked it; but being my only vegetarian option on the menu, I thought maybe a fancy restaurant would make it taste good to me, unfortunately, it was not good. I didn’t eat much of it and didn’t want it to take home; the server didn’t offer to take if off our bill. Chuck’s pot pie was good, but not for the price…I guess that’s what you pay for in a fancy French restaurant.













We didn’t order dessert, we just wanted to get out of there. The night was way too long because the service was really bad. And to top it off the server forgot to take a beer Chuck ordered and they didn’t have off our bill, so we paid even more for our bad meal. I felt really bad for Chuck because he was so excited to try this place out. Maybe on a different night and not being a vegetarian this place would be better.

HaeRim

May 4th, 2012

Date #30

I wanted to stay closer to home tonight and try a new cuisine, so I used Urbanspoon to see what people are talking about in our neck of the woods. I chose one of the restaurants on the top 10 list in Beaverton called HaeRim, the reviewers said this is the best Korean food around. I have never tried Korean food, but Chuck has, he has been to Korea.

As we open the door to this small quaint restaurant, we are greeted by a very friendly man who seats us at our booth. He asks us what we would like to drink and suggests a light beer called Hite; I even enjoyed it. We ordered a seafood Korean pancake for our appetizer; when they brought it to the table they cut it, with scissors, in perfectly even section just like a pizza.  It tasted like a French crepe with pieces of octopus and green onion, and a side of soy ginger sauce for dipping.



  

I ordered vegetable udon and Chuck BBQ spareribs. The meals also came with a bunch of little bowls of different ingredients, they included bean sprouts, sea weed, broccoli, and kim chi. Each of these dishes changed the taste of the main course.
         
The owner of the restaurant was very extremely nice, he enjoyed it when we tried to order our meal with the proper Korean name, as well as tasting their food. This was a very enjoyable evening because of the food and service. I would recommend if  you are looking for a good Korean restaurant.