Sweet Willie

Besaw's Café - Portland
From Mom's Meatloaf -- a moist, just-like-you-hoped-for sandwich -- to the dense Devil's Food Chocolate Cake, Besaw's varied menu has a few surprises sprinkled throughout its all-American list of burgers, sandwiches and salads. A recent special, barbecued beef quesadilla, was brightly spiced, cheesy and comforting. The Wednesday night special of braised Tuscan chicken is a heap of slow-cooked, tender-to-the-bone poultry with porcini mushrooms, served over richly textured mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. On the lighter side, try a platter of thinly sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and warm pita surrounding an unctuous serving of hummus spiked with chile sauce.
At breakfast time, Besaw's is as hot as a griddle. You might want to eat a little something beforehand to keep you sustained while in line. Once seated, try the Belgian waffle -- yum.
Whether you're stopping in for breakfast, lunch or dinner, the inviting ambience is kept alive by a chatty staff of folks eager to please. (2301 N.W. Savier St.; 503-228-2619)

Bugatti's Ristorante - West Linn
On the plus side are fresh pastas such as the perfectly cooked ravioli with portobello mushroom filling. The 34 inventive varieties of pizza are loaded with fresh ingredients. Crusty rustic bread is a treat, and the minestrone soup -- thick, full of beans and chunky vegetables, with just a touch of basil -- is a great lunchtime deal. Salads, including an excellent Caesar, are crisp and beautifully presented. Excellent choices fill the wine list.
However, many of the baked pasta dishes, including manicotti and lasagna, need work. The manicotti's only flavor came from overpowering garlic, and the lasagna tasted like it went straight out of a box, into a microwave and onto the plate. Dinner service can be slow, even downright neglectful; lunch service generally is better. A recent takeout order for three had one of the orders wrong.
Still, the restaurant is full of diners even on rainy weekday nights, all hopeful that the wrinkles are being ironed out and that Bugatti's in Oregon City will become as renowned as Bugatti's in West Linn. (Bugatti's Ristorante, 334 Warner Milne Road, Oregon City; 503-722-8222)

Cascade Dining Room at Timberline Lodge - Timberline Lodge , Government Camp
It may take some work to hike up to Timberline Lodge on blustery Mount Hood evenings, but you'll be rewarded with excellent service and a fine menu that draws on seasonal Northwestern ingredients: Wild chanterelles and morels grow on the mountainside and find their way into salads, soups and seafood entrees.
The Cascade Dining Room is romantically rustic, perfectly suited to the 1937 lodge's National Historic Landmark status. The draw is strong, so dinner reservations are advised. (Inside Timberline Lodge, Government Camp; 503-622-0700)

Chameleon Restaurant & Bar - Portland
For six years, this sophisticated little gem has been quietly serving a fusion menu that brings together the best flavors of Europe and Asia.
As jazz plays in the background and candlelight softens reality, you can choose Blueberry Butter Prawns ($24), the crustaceans topped with a spicy blueberry sauce and served with coconut rice. Or go for the gusto with rack of lamb ($24) or boneless beef short ribs ($22), oven-roasted with plum wine and Chinese five-spice powder.
The atmosphere is elegant but not stuffy; servers are knowledgeable. Don't be put off by less-than-stellar crowds early in the week. They just haven't discovered Chameleon yet, and that's a shame. (2000 N.E. 40th Ave.; 503-460-2682)

La Flor de Michoacan - Hillsboro
The low-key family-friendly restaurant -- called simply La Flor by regulars -- dishes up fresh Oaxacan dishes at authentically inexpensive prices. The booths are often packed, both by gringos, who mosey down from offices and the courthouse a few miles away, and Spanish-speakers from the area's fast-growing Latino population.
Spritzed with lime juice and dripping with salsa verde, tacos of simmered pork, chicken, beef or tongue make a meal. Bigger appetites are tested with Enchiladas Suizas, flautas topped with sour cream and avocados or chile verde, moist chunks of pork or beef simmered in "secret" green tomatillo sauce, and dressed with fresh-made tortillas.
Desserts are offered, but don't bother: Stuff another grilled quesadilla in any available stomach space. (1075 S.E. Baseline Road, Hillsboro; 503-693-7782)

Original Pancake House - Portland
No customer leaves disappointed. Order whatever, and rest assured it will appear at your table hot and in Fred Flintstone quantities. The Irish omelet, stuffed with a delicious homemade corned-beef hash, is as oversized as Bono's ego. Is it possible the owners have gotten their hands on some pterodactyl eggs? (503) 246-9007

Porto Terra Tuscan Bar & Grill - Portland
Start with salty carpaccio made from paper-thin filet mignon, topped with pecorino cheese, pepper, aioli, capers and truffle oil. Let the city's most moist porkchop -- roasted in the Florentine style and sitting atop cannellini beans, with sage, olive oil and balsamic fig syrup -- transport you to a warmer clime. Or dip into the squid-ink risotto, which swims with grilled shrimp, calamari and Dungeness crab.
Light eaters could make a meal from the spinach salad, nicely salted with pancetta and Gorgonzola, sweetened by roasted red peppers and silken with warm balsamic vinaigrette.
Dinner entrees run $17 to $35; lunch is more affordable, though still on the high side when compared with much of its noontime competition downtown. Breakfast is available, too. (830 S.W. Sixth Ave.; 503-944-1090)

Tartine - Portland
Lunchtime showcases open-faced hot sandwiches and salad for a measly $5.95. Sandwich ingredients include tuna, chicken and vegetables.
For an inexpensive but elegant weekday dinner, try the $20 prix fixe meal, which comes with salad, choice of entree and dessert. Order the cod bathed in a light sauce of tomatoes, garlic and kalamata olives, and add a glass of the house chardonnay for a well-balanced mix of flavors.
The coffee creme brulee introduces just the right tinge of java to the creamy and crunchy dessert. (1621 S.E. Bybee Blvd.; 503-239-5796)

Tucci – Portland
Diners flock for Tucci's white truffle risotto, rosemary polenta and lamb, scallop and steak dishes. The restaurant has embraced the Slow Food movement, a philosophy that cherishes relaxed meals made from locally grown ingredients. The menu makes it clear the management is proud of the organic foods and the care with which they are prepared for the plate.
"We want people to understand how much we honor food," Matteucci says.
That's abundantly clear sampling dishes by French-trained chef Pascal Chureau. The mixed-greens salad, with artichokes, oranges and walnut vinaigrette ($7), is full of tasty surprises, with the sweetness of the oranges meeting the tang of the artichokes; monkfish ($19), roasted in a wood-burning oven, is as tender and toothsome as Maine lobster. (220 A Ave., Lake Oswego; 503-697-3383)

http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/adv...list=1&loc=582

Ginger K

Thanks so much for posting this, Sweet Willie. I'm in Portland this week and it will be tremendously helpful! Thanks to your urgings in your posts (to visit FT Dining), I thought to start here for my research, and found I didn't need to go anywhere else