Restaurant Review: Nuestra Cocina

Ever since we vacationed in Los Angeles earlier this year, we have been head over heels for the culinary scene from the City of Angels. We are also big fans of Mexican food and have had Nuetra Cocina on our to-dine list for awhile. When we heard the owners are from LA and met while working at a restaurant, we put on our warmest coats, gloves and boots, and headed out to try their take on the flavors of Mexico.

We started with a Margarita De Granada (ginger infused silver tequila, pomegranate & lime - $8.50), the best margarita we've ever had, it was seriously delicious and we had to sit on our hands in order not to drink it in one sip! We also had the house special sangria, which was holiday'd up with cranberries and citrus ($6). We were also welcomed with the cutest and yummy house made tortilla and a smokey housemade salsa.

After hearing about the specials we ordered the two appetizer specials: cactus salad ($6) and the rockfish ceviche ($7). Both were terrific. We mixed everything on the cactus salad up and used the housemade chips that came with the ceviche to scoop it up. The rockfish ceviche was perfectly seasoned and the fish was wonderfully raw.

Nuestra Cocina's menu changes weekly and has an extensive starter menu. We had a hard time not ordering one of everything, but decided to add another appetizer - their housemade queso dip with chorizo. Yummy goeyness, especially with the housemade tortillas! ($7)

We decided to share one main entree, and since most of the items on the Platos section of the menu were things we were familiar with, we ordered something not seen on the typical taqueria menus we usually eat at - a Barbequed Lamb Shoulder Braised in a Banana Leaf with spicy green salsa ($18).

Nuestra Cocina is probably the fanciest Mexican Restaurant we've been to, the food is beautiful, yummy and worthy of a celebration. They also have a large banguet room called the Mole Room, but unfortunately it isn't a room full of mole pots cooking as we had hoped. We're already racking our brains for when the next birthday or celebration is so we can suggest Nuestra Cocina!

Nuestra Cocina
2135 SE Division Street
Portland, Oregon
503.232.2135

Tuesday - Saturday 5pm to 10pm

Ba's Benihana Birthday

Last year we surprised my dad with a beach week birthday, but that was a milestone birthday. This year we're back to our typical "Your Choice of Restaurant" birthday celebration. This year Dad wanted dinner and a show, so he suggested a teppanyaki restaurant. After asking around and consulting the internet we were informed the only real teppanyaki restaurant in the Portland area is world wide chain restaurant Benihana. So we used Open Table, earned our 100 points and made reservations for a night of dinner and theater.  

Dinner at Benihana's is fairly pricey, but it came with a lot of extras. Of course we started with a nice carafe of sake served cold in the most amazing little iced sake carafe.

A waitress walked us through the menu and how it all works. It took a minute to go through the menu, we placed our order, had a somewhat salty Japanese onion soup, and our chef arrived at the hot flat grill and the main portion of the meal began.

Our meal came with white rice, but we could substitute fried rice for an extra cost. It was fun to watch the chef whisk around an egg with just his spatula and knife. It was hard to believe that the egg wasn't a hard boiled egg the way we rolled and tossed it around before cracking it on the grill to become the base of our fried rice. Which was really good.

Next came the grilled veggies and shrimp, which the chef sliced and diced and removed the tails efficiently and quickly.

The big draw of Benihana's is their grilled steaks, but Mike & I were going to share so we opted for the Seafood Diablo and their largest steak-the 12.5 oz filet mignon. The Seafood Diablo consisted of grilled udon noodles, vegetables, shrimp, scallops and squid. Man was this dish delicious. We did not take a single piece of this seafood noodle dish home. There were no leftovers. Everything was terrific and the most tender scallop and squid we've had in awhile.

The rest of us opted for steaks and scallops (Land and Sea), all medium-rare. Once these thick cut steaks hit the grill and the smoke started floating in the air, the cameras came out. These steaks were a thing of beauty.

When the chef first cut into the steaks they were perfectly medium-rare, but by the time they hit our plates they were more medium, but we didn't mind too much, the choice meats were still terrific.

Apparently Benihana's is a popular birthday restaurant, we probably heard happy birthday (English and Japanese) about every 10-15 minutes in the 2 hours we were there. We were really happy with the choice, the restaurant is beautiful, the service is great and the food was terrific. Happy Birthday BA, hope it was a great one!



Benihana
9205 SW Cascade Avenue
Beaverton, Oregon
503.643.4016

Miss Delta Anniversary Dinner

Our second wedding anniversary fell on a Tuesday. The week prior was extremely stressful and the day of our anniversary was particularly frustrating. Initially we had hoped for a quiet evening at home with a nice piece of fish for dinner, but that plan was unexpectedly interrupted and we found ourselves unmotivated to cook the nice romantic dinner we had hoped for. Instead we simply wanted a nice quiet evening and not think about everything that was looming in our lives. We couldn't agree on where to go, but knew we wanted some place close and reliable. We decided some down home southern cooking was what we were up for and strolled down to Miss Delta for a comforting meal to kick start our second year of marriage.

We weren't planning on anything extravagant, but when we found out Tuesdays is 1/2 off bottles of wine we decided a nice summery Malbec Rose was exactly what we needed to ease into our second year of marriage.

We started off with two appetizers, the Corn and Black Eyed Pea Fritters with Green Chile and Jack Cheese Dip ($6) and the Wedge Salad ($9). Both light and heavy and delicious.

For our entrees we ordered the Gumbo ($14) and the Skirt Steak Special with sides of Pancetta Green Beans and Tomato/Okra Stew ($13).

The Gumbo totally hit our comfort zone with a little bit of everything over fluffy white rice, we thoroughly enjoyed this dish. The Skirt Steak on the other hand wasn't as good as we had hoped. The green beans were mushy and the stewed tomato/okra was boring and uninteresting.

The restaurant was very quiet when we first arrived and we were able to snag a sunny table up front. As we were finishing up our meal people started to filter in and the place soon became incredibly festival and lively. The service was friendly and it lifted our spirits that a place so close to home could dish up a reliable, homey and economical meal. After the year we've been having some stability and something we could depend on was more than we could hope for. Thanks again Miss Delta.

Miss Delta
3950 N Mississippi
Portland, Oregon
503.287.7629

Brazil Grill

We're a bit back logged on restaurant reviews. Sorry dad, we're just now getting to posting about our Father's Day all meat extravaganza!

Brazil Grill is a Churrasco (Grilled Meats) restaurant, where servers bring various grilled meats on a stick to your table, carve you off a piece and let you sit and enjoy. The menu includes Marinated Prawns, Chili-Lime Pork Loin, Marinated Chicken Legs, Bacon-Wrapped Chicken, Marinate Lamb, Black Forest Ham, Linguicia Sausage, Beef Tri-Tip, Bacon-Wrapped Beef Filet, Mustard Beef Sirloin, Beef Sirloin, and for dessert Roasted Cinnamon Pineapple. That's a long list. For one price you get unlimited amounts of salad, sides of empanadas & garlic polenta and all those meats.

Each table has a big plastic chip that's red on one side and green on the other to tell the servers yes we're ready for more or not now still chewing on this piece of meat. To be honest the novelty is more interesting than the actual food. The salad bar was good and the empanadas with beef and garlic polenta fries were also good. What everyone seems to talk mostly about is the roasted cinnamon pineapple, which was also really good, and probably the best part of the meal. I think Dad liked it and we're glad we were able to try something different for his special day.

Brazil Grill

1201 SW 12th

Portland, Oregon

503.222.0002

Dinner Daily 4:30 - 9:30 PM

Bollywood Theater

Bollywood Theater was cute as can be. Indian Street food served not out of a food cart and at reasonable prices! We ate at the Bollywood Theater during a time when we were we were on doctor's orders to restrict what we eat, so we had to pick and choose what we would allow ourselves. We were avoiding potatoes, which made eating at Bollywood impossible, but we did the best we could. We ordered at the counter, grabbed a seat by an open window and our dishes started arriving shortly after.

Roasted Beets with Coconut and Curry Leaves ($5.50). Nothing too outstanding, fairly standard. We thought the coconut milk would bring out the sweetness of the beets, but it seem to do the exact opposite.

Okra julienned and fried with chile, lime and raita ($5.50). We were looking forward to this dish. Okra - yes! Fried - yes! Chile and Lime - YES! But sadly, nothing outstanding.

Beef Kati Roll ($7.00) - yum! This was delicious! The beef was fork tender and absolutely scrumptious. The doughy roll was a bit much after awhile and I ended up pulling the meat out of the roll, while Mike ate up every last bite, including the doughy bread from my half of the roll. We'd like to go back and try the paneer cheese roll.

Mumbai Sandwich ($6.00) - vegetable sandwich with cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, cheese and beets, grilled and topped with chutneys and sev. This sandwich was an utter disappointment. Nothing noteworthy. We were sad after eating this.

Now it may seem we didn't enjoy the food at Bollywood Theater, it wasn't as fantastic as we had hoped, but the menu is extensive, and we're on the mend, so we'll be up for trying some of their other dishes soon. Everything we ate, other than the Kati Roll, just didn't have the aromatic spice punch Indian food is known for. It is a fun restaurant, check out the bathroom when you're there. The video playing is beautiful. We've embedded a link found off their website below.

Bollywood Theater
2039 NE Alberta
Portland, Oregon
971.200.4711
11AM - 10PM Daily

Bambuza - Vietnamese Bistro

We often lament about how bad the Asian food in Portland is, and although Bambuza didn't knock it out of the ballpark, we really enjoyed our dinner and will most definitely be back to eat our way through their menu, especially since their happy hour is stellar and a little known secret.

At first glance Bambuza's menu looks a lot like another generic Vietnamese restaurant with the typical baguette sandwiches, rice and noodle bowls, soups, salads and fancy cocktails. However, we thought Bambuza's menu had quite a few truly unique Vietnamese dishes we love.On a hot humid summer evening we arrived to a nearly empty restaurant, but we weren't bothered because the happy hour menu was insanely cheap! We ordered two signature cocktails, which were so good we tipped the waitress extra because she not only was our waitress, but the bartender of our delicious hibiscus cooler and cucumber martini.

After hemming and hawing over the happy hour menu, we decided on 3 appetizers.

Bambuza's summer rolls seemed like stripped down salad rolls with only lettuce and bean sprouts, normally a miss in our book, but the summer rolls were filled with shredded coconut, a nice twist. The papaya salad was perfectly lightly dressed with lots of basil, the added touch of fried shallots was another nice touch. And the peppered calamari was savory and light, a great portion for a great price.

After polishing off our appetizers we dove right into our entrees. The drunken chicken was a safe bet, nothing special and no we wouldn't order it again. The chicken was a bit dry, but the option of brown rice was nice.

The true star of the night was the Da Nang Tumeric Noodle Soup or Mi Quang. This dish knocked our socks off. Not only is it a rare dish to find on most menus, Bambuza's was terrific. The selection of minced pork, shrimp, fishcake in a big ol' bowl of sauce (not really a soup) with lettuce, jicama and sesame rice crackers was fantastic. You bet we lifted the bowl and slurped up every last drop of that broth.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Bambuza and once the south waterfront area gets built up and there's access to the river, as well as better access to the area where the restaurant is (getting there from the east side is a whole other story), we'll be back. Again, Bambuza isn't anything super special, but do we wish we had a Bambuza Vietnamese Bistro in our neck of the woods - you betcha!

Bambuza Vietnamese Bistro
3 Locations all on the west side - Tanasbourne, South Waterfront, and Tualatin
www.bambuza.com

Kisaku Omakase - Seattle

We decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary early with a omakase (chef's choice) dinner at Kisaku Japanese Restaurant in Seattle. It was delicious.

First Course: Local Oysters - there really isn't anything better than fresh local Pacific NW Oysters!

Second Course: Tuna Salad - unlike any tuna salad we've ever had; the slices of tuna was draped over a combination of avocado, crab and seaweed salad dressed in a citrus dressing. Insanely good.


Third Course: Kisaku Salad of micro greens, bonito and garnished with daikon & green onions.


Fourth Course: Trio of Whitefish - we requested nigiri (fish over rice) only and no salmon or tuna. What a great decision that was! We were rewarded with these delicate white fishes. From left to right: Flounder, Halibut and Striped Bass.


Fifth Course: Aji (Mackerel) and Kohada (Japanese Gizzard Shad). More pungent than the delicate white fish and completely delicious!


Sixth Course: Alaskan Uni (Sea Urchin) and Toro. The cold uni was creamy and not as sweet as Santa Barbara uni, and in our opinion much better.

Seventh Course: Getting full now, we told the chef we were winding down and of course ended on a sweet note of house made tamago. Mike wasn't quite ready to end his dinner so he added sardine and sweet shrimp (AmaEbi).

Kisaku's desserts were all house made and insanely inexpensive! So we had to try the Black Sesame Cream Cake. It tasted even better than the beautiful presentation. A black sesame panna cotta encased a light sponge cake. A wonderful end to our amazing dinner.

Kisaku is Japanese for easy going and the restaurant certainly lived up to its casual atmosphere. We sat at the sushi bar and listened to regular after regular chat with the head chef, asking him about his vacation (which we spent on the Oregon Coast) and why one regular wasn't finishing her usual meal with a piece of salmon - "next time". We certainly wished we had a Kisaku in our neighborhood, we'd definitely become regulars.

Kisaku
2101 N. 55th Street, #100
Seattle, Washington 98103
206.545.9050
www.kisaku.com