After arriving in Depoe Bay, we drove north a little bit more to do more roaming. We couldn’t help but stop at Lincoln City, which is truly a big coastal town. There’s even a big ugly casino. Trusting the yelp app again, we stopped for dinner at Blackfish Cafe. This is truly a fine dining establishment, without any of the snoot. J had been yammering on the whole trip about wanting to order calamari, so he finally did. It was cornmeal crusted and served with a horseradish aioli. I wasn’t particularly impressed, especially because I’m not a big fan of horseradish, so J ate pretty much all of it. And he loved it. There were some edible flower looking things on here, but neither of us dared to eat it. What is this, does anyone know?

I had a cup of the clam chowder, which they boasted on their menu as being the best clam chowder in the oregon coast. You know what? They were right. As far as among the three chowders I had that week, it was definitely the best one. And it might be one of the best chowders I’ve ever had. J’s entree came with a caesar salad.

So J wasn’t sure what to get as an entree. We asked our very nice server for recommendations and she gushed about the Cioppino. So he went with it. Damn, this thing was amazing. Chock full of pacific northwest seafood, it included scallops, salmon, prawns, clams, mussels, dungeness crab, and other fin and shellfish, and was braised in a red wine, tomato, and herb broth. It was served with grilled crostini. Oh this was a thing of beauty. It was absolutely delicious and stuffed with fresh seafood. And there was plenty left over for J to enjoy the next day, even though the server did not include any of the broth in the to-go box, which bugged him to no end. This really was worth every penny, and then some!

I should have gotten a bucket of that chowder, but since I wanted something small and not hearty, I went with the seafood pizza, which came with shrimp, crab, and capicola ham. This was thin on the crust, and heavy on the cheeses and the seafood. It was nice and light and did just the trick. There were those flower things on the pizza too. Again, I avoided them.

Service was excellent. The staff definitely knows what they’re doing, and obviously, so does the kitchen. There was also tons of art hanging on the walls, which was also cool. It was the entire private collection of a local and it was quite unique. The proprietors are also super nice and friendly and came by to check on us and to thank us for stopping in. It’s a great place!

After hosting a little breakfast for customers, we headed back down to chicago, proper, to grab some lunch. T decided to take us to Flat Top Grill, which happens to be smack dab across the street from Harpo Studios. I was sold! Flat Top Grill is a chain that is basically a create-your-own-stir-fry kind of joint (mongolian grill-like), only with tons more choices and options. Here’s what I ended up with at the  end.

So you grab a bowl and fill it up with whatever you want. There’s rice and various noodles. There’s veggies up the wazoo. Then you sauce it up. They recommend you to put in 5 ladles of sauces. Not only are there asian sauces (teriyaki, sesame garlic, pad thai, etc.) there are indian sauces as well so you can really create whatever type of crazy stir-fry you want. Just make it up! Then you take a little bowl and put in your meat of choice. They have beef, chicken, etc, and even calamari.

Here’s where it starts getting interesting. Next, you start sticking these colored wands into your bowl of what you want. If you want your bowl made into a soup, stick that stick in. If you want lettuce wraps, then use the green stick. If you want mu-shu, which is basically an asian burrito, then the stick is clear. Adding tofu requires a stick. So does a shrimp skewer, which costs extra. Start sticking!

I went with rice noodles, a bunch of veggies, calamari, random sauces, and added sticks for eggs and roti prata bread. By the way, the roti prata bread is like beyond awesome. More on how awesome later.

Then they’ll throw your bowls on the grill, stir-fry it up for you, and then deliver your bowl to your table. Whee!

They also have some random other items on the menu that do not involve you creating your own edible masterpiece. We got this shrimp spring roll appetizer. It was pretty good, but you could tell it was made awhile back, as the rice wrapper had gotten hard. Hard and crunchy rice wrapper on a spring roll is not pleasant! But the innards were quite fine.

J was still sick, so he decided to get his creation made into a soup. Look how great that looks! It’s a great big noodley soup bowl. Yum!

So if you want, you can get a piece of the roti bread with your food. It’s really freakin good. So good that I asked them if they could make me a roti grilled cheese, and they totally did! Two pieces of this delicious roti with ooey gooey cheese in between. I was lovin it! My arteries probably were not, but who cares! This was a fun lunch. It’s great for those people who are extremely picky and want complete control of what is in their food.

Also, after the lunch, we walked across the street to see if we could sneak into Harpo Studios. Well, we ended up being in the audience for the Nate Berkus show! No sneaking was necessary! I mean, that wouldn’t have been possible anyway. The place is like fort knox. Oprah wasn’t at the studio that day, but heck, I was still in the very studio where she tapes! It was glorious!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or unless you were smart enough not to get sucked into the lost netherworld, you know that Lost recently ended its six season run. Say what you will about the finale, it was still a good reason to get together and eat. I will miss these little island themed shindigs. Look at these adorable little mini tomato, basil, and mozzarella with balsamic stackers. So damn cute!

A fruit mix with the most incredible strawberries I’ve had in a long time. Wherever these strawberries came from, I want to go to there!

It wouldn’t be a Lost party without shrimp cocktail and chips and guac/salsa! The salsa was decidedly spicier than expected.

The entree of the evening was chicken fajitas. Here are their fixins.

And here are the chicken fajita innards… chicken, onions, and peppers in fajita seasoning. Also, here’s some spanish rice from a packet. And lastly, some fish, for those who felt inclined not to have chicken fajitas. Everything turned out great! Goodbye Lost!