Christian "TriMetiquette" B.'s Profile

Man, I'm still thinking about the calamari tacos I had at ?Por Que No? for lunch today. So freaking good. Really awesome price, too.

The restaurant outlay reminded me greatly of Laughing Planet over on Belmont; fairly bottleneck'ish ordering line but enough seating just to fit everyone.

The chips and salsa were also delicious. I'm guessing the chips were homemade? If they weren't, then they did a great job of convincing me they were.

All in all, I was super impressed with this place. Great tasting food, nice restaurant, nice price... can't ask for more.

After driving by here on multiple occasions, my wife and I decided to give it a go and were surprised by the great food and friendly service.

We went on a Friday night and it had a decent amount of folks. The interior is a little... lacking. It isn't certainly BAD but the lights seemed a little too bright and the interior was a little bland.

In any case, we had some wontons which were delicious along with a chicken curry-like dish and pineapple fried rice.  We both agreed that all three of the items we shared were really tasty.

The service was incredibly friendly, with several waiters / waitresses asking if we had any questions about the menu and checking upon us during dinner.  Really liked the attention they paid to us and made sure we were satisfied with everything.

Have to give the menu a specific mention: the menu comes with pictures of EACH DISH.  This is awesome, seeing as how you can see exactly what your dish is going to look like. Personally, this is a great thing, seeing as how I only buy cook books with pictures of the food.

All in all, we were very impressed. I want to go back to have some of the drinks other reviewers have mentioned as well as some different dishes.

I grew up in Camas, WA.  Went to all Camas schools: Lacamas, JDZ, Skyridge and Camas High School.

That being said, "back in my day" all we had was Top Burger.  And it was awesome.

Flash-forward to today: I'm a "young professional" (kind of hate that label... no idea why I'm using it?), married, older and fatter than I was in school (even college).  My brother and I (he's my twin, so we also experienced all Camas schools) were driving into Camas last night when we both had (since, you know, we're twins) the urge for some food.

The decision was made: a visit to Top Burger was in order.

It had been 10 years since I had been back and, really, not a whole lot had changed in that span: you still have that "old diner" kind of atmosphere, the menu is still a little daunting and, most importantly, the fries are still freakin' awesome.

Rule 1 when going to Top Burger: you get the seasoned fries.

The fries were as glorious as they were 10 years ago, which a whole lotta seasoning and a good quantity in the medium I ordered.  You can't miss the fries.

Rule 2 when going to Top Burger: if ordering a burger, do not go any simpler than the Top Burger.

Any option of a "simpler" burger than the Top Burger might give you the wrong vibe; if you're ordering a burger, you need to go Top Burger or bigger.  The burgers that do not feature the Top Burger spread (such as the secret sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickles and additional cheese and onion choices) come off as being a little plain and not very impressive.

Rule 3 when going to Top Burger: get a milkshake.

Even if you're stuffed, get a milkshake.  Top Burger has some awesome milkshakes.

I'd echo a previous reviewer's comment on taking your order to go and enjoying it in Crown Park.

I can only think that, when busy, it could take some time to get your food (it was 10 years ago)... so that might be a drawback for some folks.  But trust me - it's worth the wait (or weight, depending on how you look at it)...

I've been to Stone Cliff Inn twice with my wife and we've enjoyed both of our meals there.  While we haven't blown out of the water by anything we've had, each meal was certainly fantastic and the lodge-setting can't be beat.

First, contrary to some reviews, we've never experienced any service issues.  However, both of the times we have been to the Stone Cliff Inn it was during "off-times" (8pm on a week day and a late lunch during the weekend).  Both times we've had attentive waiters and received our wine / food in a timely manner.

One of the more memorable traits of this place are the serving sizes for the food.  My wife and I ordered side salads for our meals and, both times, they were huge.  Like, almost "I don't even need anything else!" huge. That being said, it's quality; not just nasty greens thrown together.

The roasted mojito chicken is absolutely delicious. The meat was juicy and moist and the potato wedges were plentiful and very much rosemary-flavored.

My wife really enjoyed her grilled salmon. They put some salsa on top that has a little bit of zing that goes really well with the salmon and rice pilaf.

I definitely recommend Stone Cliff Inn: the ambiance is nice and romantic and the food is delicious.  What else do you need!

I like video games.  I like to talk video games.  There isn't another Gamestop location I like more than the top-level GameStop in Pioneer Place.

First and foremost, the staff at a GameStop location can really make or break the store.  I live near a GameStop (*cough* the Gateway location one *cough*) that is actually much more convenient for me to visit.  However, the workers at that location are like drones; they don't engage in any insightful chatter and push preorders on me constantly.  The staff at the Pioneer Place GameStop are very friendly, like to chat about video games, are don't push preorders unless there's a direct link from a game you might be purchasing.  I get it: you need to push preorders. But be rationale about it like the Pioneer Place staff!

The location is pretty nice; just a hop, skip and two escalator rides up and there you have it. Inside the store is typical GameStop fare.

The main reason why I'm giving this GameStop location five stars is the staff. The staff can really dictate how much you like a particular GameStop location. And when it comes to locations in and around Portland, you can't beat this one.

See, before going to South Park Seafood Grill & Wine Bar before attending a concert with my wife, I did some research.  Essentially, the reviews on this place go somewhat like this:

1) Really liked it - usually made a mention of the butternut squash ravioli

2) Didn't like it much - usually didn't make a mention of the butternut squash ravioli

That being said, my wife LOVES butternut squash ravioli.  So I was expecting a lot out of SPSG&WB.  And it really delivered.

First, we loved the restaurant.  Really classy, very nice.

We had the starter calimari (love calimari) and a salad.  Very big portions!  Very tasty!

They have a fairly big list of wines; we opted for some pinot noir which was fairly expensive and incredibly good.

My wife had the butternut squash ravioli and she loved it!  The masala that the ravioli comes in was incredibly tasty.  I had the lamb dish that came with couscous and that was delightful.

The final bill was a little high but I was OK with that; the food was excellent, our waitress was very nice and we felt like the bill reflected the quality of the food.

Very much recommend this place.  And it's only a hop away from teh Newmark Theater.

I was thinking about how many stars I should give East Bank Saloon.  Fortunately, the three star description here on Yelp perfectly described my experience: "A-OK."

See, I'm not going to say the East Bank Saloon was a bad place.  Because it wasn't.  But I'm not going to say it was truly excellent either.

The East Bank Saloon is a place.  To get food.

To go into further detail, there was some good and some bad.  But, back again at what I was originally going after, neither the good or bad was particularly good or bad.

Maybe I'm just indecisive.

In any case, the food was OK.  I got a BLT; a very safe choice for a new place.  It was alright.  I will say it was nice to have a fine deal of bacon on there.

I went with some people to watch the soccer game that was playing.  The TV was nice and fairly big.  That was cool.

The guy that served us was helpful.  Nice.

We did have to wait a fairly long time to get our food because there was "a large order placed right before ours."  Ah well, so it goes.

So there it is!  I really thought East Bank Saloon was A-OK.  Wasn't awesome, wasn't bad, just A-OK.

Absolutely loved our dinner at The Country Cat.  My wife and I biked here for a late dinner (around 8pm) last night and we both were very much satisfied with our meals.

First of all, we loved the atmosphere of the place.  It was very nice looking.  Plus hey, I love the cat logo!  I'm a cat person, OK?!

I got the burger, which consisted of some really tasty garlic ketchup, cheese and meat.  What was surprising about that particular menu item was the GIGANTIC MOUND of little thinly-sliced, small onion ring-type fries that came with it; they were easily one some of the tastiest rings and fries my wife and I have ever had.  Put them with some garlic ketchup and you have a recipe for deliciousness.

My wife got crepes that consisted of pesto, squash and goat cheese.  She said that she has never experienced such a flavor.  She was mildly disappointed when the dish came with another kind of cheese (not sure, need to ask her what she said it was but she loves goat cheese and it wasn't goat cheese) but she really enjoyed her dish nonetheless.

As you've probably seen in all of the other reviews, this place ain't cheap.  I paid $11 for my burger + onion ring fries, which was actually one of the least expensive options on the menu.  Not much was over $20, if anything, if I recall correctly.

We'll be back for sure!!

Fantastic space, great customer service, really great experience with tune-ups here.

First, a story:

My wife and I were (keyword) fans of REI.  We liked their used gear sale and purchased things from them in the past.  Eventually, when it was time for us to both get new bikes, we went there.  We were promised that, when purchasing our multi-hundred dollar bikes, if we signed up for an REI membership we would get a nice percentage back on the two bikes we were purchasing.  Lo and behold we get our "rebate" statement at the end of the year and our two bike purchases were "not eligible" for rebates back.

So that was that for REI.  And we needed to look for another place that we could get our bikes service along with any biking gear we may need.

We're happy to have Performance Bicycle right nearby our place.  This location is in "once-bustling" Mall 205.  They have a nice space along with a good deal of inventory.  They have some stuff on clearance for nice prices as well.

We were most impressed with their tune-up shop though.  REI charges a flat-fee for bike tune-ups.  We went to Performance Bicycle, they gave our bikes a look-see, determined they didn't need the an actual tune-up, they only needed some adjustments on the drive-train and some other odds-and-ends, and came back with a price-point lower than what we had budgeted for their tune-up price.  It's very nice in this day and age for a shop to come back and say hey, you don't need to pay x dollars but only y (which is about half the price).

In any case, we're very happy with this location of Performance Bicycle.  The tune-up shop is great.

My wife and I were looking for a nice place to eat in Troutdale.  We happened to walk by Ristorante Di Pompeyo, took a look at the menu, saw several lunch specials with pesto and had to give it a shot.

The restaurant itself doesn't have too much of an atmosphere.  Fairly sparse inside, dirty tables, a door that said "Push in case of fire" which wasn't actually a door but really some material (cardboard?) that that WAS the door... the air conditioning was nice though.

So we sat down and was greeted by a man with a nice thick Italian accent.  Seemed nice enough... might have been the owner.  Who knows.  In any case, we ordered our food (which was weird in and of itself; he asked if we were ready to order, he grabbed our menus, and then asked what we wanted.  We were both like, "Umm, I think it was called the... pesto di.... uhhh...").

We got some free appetizer which resembled caprese.  My wife and I love caprese... but this wasn't the best.  You could tell it was just cut up bread slices that were slightly grilled.

We then both got a small salad.  It was pretty good!  Well, it was pretty good.. until I found a large dead fly in it.

Incredibly turned off (and not very hungry afterward), we both got our entrees. Again, it seemed... cheap.  More bread, which was again just cut-up pre-sliced store-bought bread.  The pesto sauce tasted like something I recently purchased from the store and the fettuccine was hard and stale.

My wife and I both agreed that, really, we had paid $15+ for food we could have easily made at home.

So, to sum it up:

1)  Blah atmosphere (even down to the plates being used; for an appetizer plate, it was literally just a little plate that you use to put your coffee cup in, even down to having the actual imprint on there).

2)  Dead fly in the salad.  Yeah.

3)  Very ordinary and food you could literally just make at home.

We were incredibly disappointed... and, I really do hate to write such a poor review.  But it was not enjoyable for us whatsoever.