We left Bend and headed to Crater Lake. After witnessing its freakin majestic beauty, we drove a long-ass way to the central Oregon coast, and landed in Bandon. It’s a cute little town with a little marina and old town area with a “boardwalk”. It’s seriously tiny, but adorable. After partaking of some delicious espresso stouts in our hotel room, we jaunted over to the old town area for some grub. We got a recommendation from the innkeeper to go to his favorite place, but alas, that place was closed on tuesdays. So this is how we ended up at the Wheelhouse Restaurant. Or were we in the Crowsnest Lounge? I’m not sure, but it’s the same place. One is upstairs, and one is downstairs.

We were upstairs, so you could get some nice views of the marina. Did I mention how cute this little town was? Seafood was to be had this evening, but first, we got some bread. Let me say this, they serve delicious sourdough bread here.

Both our entrees came with side salads, but J’s was much more fancy, with little shrimp, golden raisins, and sunflower seeds. He ordered a much fancier entree.

Mine was much more standard. No shrimp, golden raisins, or sunflower seeds for me, but instead, a couple of cherry tomatoes and a slice of cucumber. Hmm, I think he won. But, I absolutely loved my dressing. It was kind of like a runny catalina dressing, but with a bit of a spicy kick, as if it had chili powder in it. It’s hard to describe, but I definitely liked it. It was strange, but in a good way.

J got the big old halibut entree. Check out this beautifully grilled hunk of halibut with brown rice and veggies. No need to mess with any kind of sauce or anything on this. It was pure and unadulterated fish. And it was delicious.

I got the fish and chips, which was also made from the halibut. These huge honking hunks of fried goodness were hot, flaky, and delicious. And so were the fries! The service was good and our waitress was very nice and friendly. The food came out quickly, but then again, there weren’t too many people there that night. We both greatly enjoyed our halibut meals!

Wheelhouse Restaurant & Crows Nest Lounge
125 Chicago St
Bandon, OR 97411
(541) 347-9331my

Sometimes, going out to eat is too much. And so is cooking a meal. All I really want to do is some wine, cheese, grapes, and bread. And being in SF and being in the mission, that is all super easy to do. I skipped on over to Bi-Rite and picked up a loaf of acme sweet batard, and some hunks of manchego and brie. They didn’t have any grapes so I had to do some exploring. Everything place on 16th was either closed or just didn’t have grapes. So I ended up having to hoof it through a particularly scary part of mission and finally found some grapes at a sketchy produce store on mission near 18th. They were cheap and delicious. And we topped everything off with one of the several bottles of two buck chuck I picked up at trader joe’s. I love low key evenings like this…

I love being here and having the customer decide where I eat every night. It’s the bane of a food blogger’s existence. Because you blog about food, everyone expects you to decide where to eat. So when I don’t have to do that, it’s a luxury that I enjoy. So this night, we went to the Hotel Trezzo in Via Sala. Inside, there’s a restaurant called La Cantina. It was quite busy there this night. There was nowhere to park and the proper restaurant was full. But we were able to get a seat sort of in the hallway.

In Italy, they give you bread and such, or other little bites to eat with your meal, but you get charged for it. It’s all part of “service” and this includes the bread as well as the service charge. It’s a flat fee per person, so it doesn’t matter how cheap or expensive your meal is, you get the charge regardless. This is another restaurant with quite a small menu. A little pasta, some rice, and lots of meat dishes. Oh, and another thing, I love all the frizzante water here.

S got the lamb dish, which came out in little skewers. Lamb and potatoes, quite palatable for anyone, foreign or native.

I got the chicken dish that was listed in their “specialty” section. It was thinly sliced chicken breast with a sauce made with whiskey, wine, prosecco and porcini mushrooms.  It was served with a “cornmeal porridge”, but it just seemed like polenta to me. In the english menu, it said porridge. But I’m not really sure if it was indeed polenta, because really, if it was, they should have just called it polenta, right? It had little bits of fried bacon on top! Whoo! The dinner was lovely. I can’t stop saying that since I’m working with Scots all day!