25 for $25, again

[Schielke]

I have found portion sizes to be more than adequate and have always left these dinners nicely stuffed...although I sometimes wish the portions were not so big.

[Blue Heron]

I was at Earth and Ocean for the $12.50 lunch on Monday (the lunch menu is almost identical to the dinner menu, by the way). I thought the venison stew, though not spectacular, was quite tasty with tender chunks of meat - I also really liked the bacon and dark bread garnish. And I loved the light and creamy carrot soup. I can't remember what the contrasting cream topping it was, but it worked well. I've written about my issues with the E&O desserts in the past (too sweet, overly garnished), but the little fig pastry things were good. Service was prompt and accomodating.

Hubby and I were also at Earth & Ocean on Monday for lunch and had the good fortune to run into nightscotsman and another eGer, who joined us at the next table over (tables are close there so it was almost like we were 1 party).

We started our lunch with the poached leek salad, and we both though the dressing was a little too tart/sour for our taste and overpowered the salad, which was otherwise very tasty.

My seabass wrapped in bacon was similar in flavor to that described by Hal in an earlier post, which was lacking in flavor. The best part was the fish was that which had come in direct contact with the bacon. I would have to say though that a fish as high in fat as seabass shouldn't really need the addition of bacon, although bacon does improve the flavor of just about anything. As seabass goes, I think the dish was a bit of a disappointment overall, as seabass is one of the more forgiving fish and is hard to screw up (or perhaps I'm predispositioned to enjoying seabass in some type of asian marinade and then barbequed or grilled). Hal, my lentils were on the crunchy side, too.

Hubby liked his venison stew. I had 1 bite, and true to form, I didn't really care for it (I'm not a venison fan... it always tastes a bit dry to me).

Both desserts were great. Mine was a chocolate mousse thingy and his was a delicious flaky pastry thingy with fig paste inside.

The portions for this lunch were just right, as was my portion (lunch) at 727. Dinner portion at Flying Fish was very generous and I took some home.

[Ye-Ye Girl]

Agree, halland, that the portions at Zoe were generous. I took home the hanger steak I couldn't finish.

Wish I could've taken home some of their ice cream. It was fabu.

[Really Nice!]

Went to Earth and Ocean last night for my birthday.  Of the three restaurants I've tried (also Brasa, Zoe) Earth and Ocean was the worst.

I was in a group of eight that went to Earth and Ocean Tuesday night.

The place has potential, I liked how he plated everything, and the flavors were good. But there were many things wrong.

The service was lacking in attention to a fundamental detail. Mr. Toast swayed from the $25 menu and went with the $49 menu. They offered a three wine flight for an additional $20. For some reason, they had the regular wine prices alongside each of the wines. When the bill came, the waiter charged the regular price instead of the $20 for a flight of wines. It took about 15 minutes for him to present us with a bill that had the right price. Was my friend the first one in 25 days to order the flight?

The same person who ordered the $49 menu had a dish of potatoes and baby octopus. The first time it came, there was no octopus. The second time it came, there was octopus, but it was diced into 1/4-inch cubes. I've never seen baby octopus presented this way.

One couple chooses not to have pork (for religious reasons) and they ordered the fish without bacon. When it arrived there was a distinct bacon flavor in the fish. Obviously, the skillet used to cook other fish dishes was used to cook this dish.

The venison dish had been in the oven way too long.

The menu on the Web site was no where near what we had presented to us.

[Blue Heron]

I finished the last day of the promotion Thursday with a fantastic lunch at The Georgian. Very high quality and a great bargain. I started off with a couple of slices of kalamata olive bread and butter, followed by my apppetizer... the Four Eleven Sushi roll, which turned out to be a 'huge' sushi roll featuring fresh dungeness crab! In addition to crab, it also contained salmon, avocado, julienned carrot and pea shoots. It was cut into 6 generous pieces artfully arranged and then topped with 4 additional large pieces of crab leg meat. It was good! It was served with wasabi, soy and a thousand island type dressing on the side. Under normal conditions, this large appetizer would suffice for my lunch, it was that big.

For my main course, I selected Beer Battered Halibut Cheeks. This consisted of 2 very huge pieces of juicy and delicious halibut cheek covered in a tasty crispy coating. Sort of an English style fish n chip I guess. It's rare to see fried halibut so nice and juicy. It was served with roasted purple potato wedges and an ample heirloom tomato & peashoot panzanella salad. It was a full size meal, and also on the regular menu priced at $14 I believe, making this 3 course lunch for $12.50 an incredible bargain. I was so full from the appetizer and wanting to save room for dessert, that I actually took half of my lunch entree home to finish later on.

I selected the Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnuts with Cappuccino ice cream for dessert. I loved this, too. I enjoyed the ice cream and one of the donuts and took one home for later. I was stuffed at this point (even having forgone breakfast to save up for lunch).

Service started out a little slow, but once I told her I was in a little bit of a hurry, things went very smoothly from then on.

All in all a very enjoyable lunch in a beautiful setting. The hotel itself is under some renovation construction inside and out (but not in the restaurant).

[tighe]

In a newsletter I just received from gayot.com, it says that our beloved 25 for $25 promotion will be running again in November. It's also mentioned on Ray's web site, but I haven't seen any general announcement.

[tsquare]

Also noted in Zoe's email.

[mtdew]

Looks like there is 25 for $25 in Portland right now.

[ExtraMSG]

Here's the link for Portland: '25' for $25

Anyone have a better link? There are actually 42 restaurants involved this time. Woohoo!

[tsquare]

Here's the link for Portland: '25' for $25

Anyone have a better link?  There are actually 42 restaurants involved this time.  Woohoo!

http://www.restaurant.com/25for25/

[ExtraMSG]

http://www.dinearoundpdx.com/

They're calling it "Dine Around Portland" and it's running the month of May Sunday through Thursday. It's not 25 for $25 because there aren't 25 restaurants, but there are some good ones.

Alba Osteria & Enoteca

Assaggio

Caprial's Bistro

Carafe

Castagna

Fife

Hudson's Bar Grill

Lucy's Table

Navarre

Oba!

Paley's Place

Red Star Tavern and Roast House

Restaurant Fratelli

750 ML

SouthPark Seafood Grill

Tabla

Taqueria Nueve

Tuscany Grill

Wildwood

Edited May 7, 2004 by ExtraMSG (log)