J was staying in the Mission and he had gotten a lamb burger the night before and wanted to go back for more. The Monk’s Kettle is a fairly new gastropub with a ginormous beer selection. They even have an $80 beer. Eek. See all the taps? They have a bunch on draft, and tons more in bottles. Yes, it was in the middle of the day, but when you’re in a beer place, sometimes you just have to give in. He’d heard about this beer the night before, so on a Friday afternoon, he ordered the Siamese Twin Ale, flavored with lemon grass and cilantro. It was a bit much for me so early, but it did go well with the food. We got an order of the fries. Oh my goodness. They were like mcdonalds fries. And you know how I feel about mcdonalds fries. You know how everyone feels about them. They were served with 3 dipping sauces which were all fantastic. I really liked the slightly spicy ketchupy one. J got the salmon sandwich. The roll it was served on was way too toasted and crunchy, which made it very difficult to eat. He eventually gave up and ended up eating it with knife and fork. And the side salad was doused with vinegar, as if they forgot the “ette” part. It was edible but bordering on ridiculous. He wish he’d gotten the lamb burger again! I wasn’t that hungry, so I decided to go light and got the baby spinach salad. It came with carmelized onions, almonds, and craisins in a light tahini dressing. It was just what the doctor ordered. Service was good, especially when we were first being served by the owner. He was super friendly and helpful. After the surly hipster girl took over, she wasn’t nearly as attentive. It got to be a bit difficult to get her attention, and there weren’t too many people around either. Also, the food took quite awhile to come out. Surprisingly long. This is why we devoured those delicious fries so quickly. But it’s a really cool place, small though, and it’s easy to see why it gets packed. For food fans and beer lovers, this seems to be a great place.

There’s actually quite a number of places to eat in downtown Portland. I met up with T at Kenny & Zuke’s for lunch. It’s a jewish style deli, so you know, they make deli sandwiches with deli meat! The place is fairly new, very open, and bigger than you’d think a deli would be. It’s bright and inviting.
The deli cobb salad, with pastrami (!), chicken, avocado, tomato, egg, and of course lettuce. Seriously folks, this pastrami was so good. So tender and not super salty.To continue with the meat theme, pastrami cheese fries. Oh my word, there’s nothing healthy about this at all. Potatoes, cheese, cured meat, what’s not to like? Service was super friendly. The place was completely packed for lunch. When we asked our server exactly what pastrami was, he actually knew and was happy to tell us. If you like deli meats, this is definitely the place for you.

So the Ants Pants Cafe. Cute as a button. Tiny as a button. So easily missed if you’re not paying attention for it on the street. They even have a button-sized patio out back, but really, it’s muy petite, yo. We got seated inside right quick, in one of these two tops with totally not enough personal space in between tables. And they had all these pillows on the bench side, between the benches, so I felt like a prisoner in some sort of pillowed restaurant cave. I got rid of them and then felt much better. I think the people who run the place are Aussies. There’s Aussie paintings everywhere, and some Aussie inspired items on the menu (like vegemite).

The spinach, bacon, feta salad with grilled chicken. I kind of liked the banged up plate it came on. I was completely uninspired, because yes, sometimes, I can eat straight up boring food. I got the brekkie platter (so boring that it did not warrant a picture), which was 3 eggs, toast, and bacon. Whoo hoo! I got eggs over hard, and they came out lovely. I also got country white toast (yes, again, boring!) and this toast was great. It was a very thick and dense cut of bread. All I really wanted was some plain ol grape jelly, but they had raspberry and apricot preserves., which were awesome. I asked for a little bit of both, and doh, they charged me 85 cents for each of those. Gah! That ticked me off a little bit, but then I got over it.

The service was great. The food took an awful long time to come out though, but I can tell that’s just from each order being made to order and the food being made with love. I didn’t mind it at all. The bespectacled waiter with the bun in his hair was super nice and polite. He can feed me a boring ass egg, toast, and bacon breakfast any day of the week.