The Windseeker Restaurant

I just began my usual follow-up research for a post and landed on The Windseeker's website. In big bold blue letters in the middle of the page lies the claim that The Windseeker is the only restaurant on the river in The Dalles. Surely this couldn't be right, could it? A decent sized city in Oregon built there solely because of its proximity to the river has only one restaurant actually on the river? Yes, it's true. I would guess that the reason for this lies on the importance of the Columbia River in The Dalles formation. Even this restaurant is nestled in the heart of an industrial area. It seems to be the exception to the rule for waterfront property in The Dalles. Certainly this is somewhat sad, but it really just shows that The Dalles is still a lot about what it started as - a port.

Back to the restaurant experience. Does that make it sound like something special? It shouldn't. It was fine, I guess, but it was yet another case of a restaurant trying to be something it's not. The place is a pub and family dining style restaurant. We all know that 9 times out of 10, when you have this type of combination, the focus is usually on the bar side. The money comes from the alcohol and the lottery, especially in Oregon. The food is often an afterthought. Sometimes it is clear that this is the way the business was formed, with the food being an afterthought. In this case, it seems more like the care for the food waned over the years. The names of the dishes on the menu sound like 4 star entrees, but looking around you, you know they aren't. The food is fine, but remember that you're going to get something that tastes like what the place looks like, not what it sounds like on the menu. A place like this should be focusing on a few good dishes, not a recipe book's worth of options. When the options are too many, you know the skill in preparing the dish is low. I just got a cheeseburger and fries, which should be something a place like this would be good at, but it was nothing special.

The fact that this place is in the middle of an industrial area is well hidden. When you get to the parking lot, you are taken to another place. There's a fountain out front, a small garden and a decent looking restaurant amongst the trees. It gets away from the starkness of the surroundings. Once inside, you're taken back a couple decades in the decor (because of a lack of updating, not intentionally) and the view of the river is pleasant. The service is just fine, especially considering the fact that there was a railroad employee dinner being hosted in the main dining room that took well over half of the space available. There should have been more than two waiters on a night that this was going on, however. It was obvious this was planned ahead of time since there was a buffet line out just for these people.

Overall the restaurant is just fine, but it lacks anything that makes me want to go back. I know there are other interesting restaurants in the area for the next time I'm taking the I-84 drive to or from Idaho. Of course, you end up where you are when you're hungry. I don't know that The Dalles offers anything much better, but I'm sure there's something just waiting to be discovered.

Here are the specifics:

Price: Covered above. $$$ (out of 5)
Cuisine: Family Dining/Pub
Reservations: Probably if you asked, but not required
Pets: No

Parking: Parking lot

Address: 1535 Bargeway Road, The Dalles, Oregon 97058
Nearest town: The Dalles, Oregon (in town, but a couple miles from the core)

Nearest 10,000+ city: The Dalles, Oregon

County: Wasco, Oregon

My rating (out of 6): 4 for service, 2 for food, 2 for decor, 5 for view - average 3

More Information: Windseeker Restaurant

My Current Location: Home, Portland, Oregon

The Melting Pot

I haven't posted in over a month. Does this mean I haven't been anywhere in over a month? Actually, pretty much yes. I finally got out of town, in a matter of speaking, last week but will start with my review of the Melting Pot instead. I'll get there.

The Melting Pot sticks in my mind as one of my favorite places to eat in Portland (Oregon, of course! If you want my favorite in Portland, Maine, I'll have to tell you all about the Portland Lobster Company, but it is the only place I've eaten there). This time, we went here for a friend that was moving away. My opinion changed a bit compared to what I remember. This may be due to Tim being there (he has a way of making me question my thoughts on everything, being more critical of my memories). We spent $211.08 before tip. The tip was added at 18% automatically since there were more than 8 of us. My complaints about this practice abound, but I realize it's an industry-wide thing so there isn't much I can say about any one place in particular. I will say, however, that it means the waitstaff gets an 18% tip. I usually tip 20-25%, so they're really just hurting themselves. I never go over the presumptuous 18% and I will complain if the service doesn't deserve it. The staff here, however, has never not deserved it. They are well trained and what you expect from a fine dining establishment. I will also add that we had drinks galore and paid for part of our friend's dinner and the card/balloons (more on this later).

So, two complaints. First, the price. The food really is very good, but it's overpriced. You're buying the experience, but you can get the food at other places for less money. There aren't many fondue restaurants in Portland though. It's something that you don't do often. To give a more realistic view of the price, the decent dinner including dessert is around $100 for two people. If I may make a recommendation, I would suggest that you skip the salad and don't go with the around $100 "Big Night Out". Just get the rest ala carte. If you're going to be eating cheese fondue with bread and vegetables then cooking lobster and several other tasty meats in a well flavored broth (don't get the oil) and then finishing it off with chocolate fondue, why bother with a salad? This isn't what the Melting Pot does, they do fondue. If it doesn't come with something that gets heated in that bowl in the middle of your table, don't do it. This complaint wasn't much of one, was it?

Second complaint. This one will truly be a complaint. My grandfather went here and asked for the card and flowers that they'll have ready for you on the table beforehand for my grandmother. Of course you get charged for this. He wasn't very happy when the card said "from the Melting Pot". When you pay for a greeting card from Hallmark, it doesn't say "from Hallmark" does it? I hope not. My father wanted to do the same for my mom on her birthday, but he was aware of this and asked what the card would say. He was told that this should not have happened to my grandfather and it wouldn't happen to him. Of course since they were called out on it, it didn't happen to him. Go figure, it happened to our friend. Her going away balloons had a card that was signed "from the Melting Pot". This couldn't be more wrong.

Overall, a very good night. I was very happy, but that may have been the 5 or 6 drinks I had. Some places just make them too easy to drink! I'll go back, but it won't be until I want to sacrifice a car payment for one meal.

Here are the specifics:

Price: Covered above. $$$$$ (out of 5)
Cuisine: Fondue/Fine Dining
Reservations: Absolutely required unless you want to eat at 10:45pm
Pets: No

Parking: Street parking or validation for 1/2 of parking garage

Address: SW 6th & Main - Portland, OR 97204 (I can't find an actual address)
Nearest town: Portland, Oregon (Downtown)

Nearest 10,000+ city: Portland, Oregon

County: Multnomah, Oregon

My rating (out of 6): 5 for service, 5 for food, 5 for decor, 0 for view - average 4.5

More Information: Melting Pot

My Current Location: Home, Portland, Oregon

High Tide Cafe

Since our camping trip was on the Oregon Coast, we had to go to seafood right? I had originally picked out a highly rated restaurant online before we left, but it was in downtown Coos Bay and did not have a water view. I thought it would be more fun (and hopefully better tasting) to go somewhere in the little fishing port of Charleston. This may have been true if we hadn't have gone with the "High Tide Cafe". Of the restaurants that we saw in Charleston (several looked old, dingy or stuffy, but one of them was actually part Thai food, part donuts), this one looked like it would be the best. It claimed to have a bay view. Seafood just always seems better when you have a view of the water.

When we first drove up to the restaurant, there was a board set out front proclaiming that there was "live music" inside. When you go to certain restaurants or are in a certain mood, this may be an invitation to come in. In reality, this was the first warning. It was a bar. We knew this once we saw this sign, but thought they could still have good food. We were seated at an old table in a building that looked as if it had been thrown together by 12 different people that never talked to each other. Well, this was true except for the restroom that had been beautifully remodeled. This actually shows that the owners care, they just don't know where to start on a larger project. Restrooms are small and easy to remodel.

We actually were seated by one of the best views in the restaurant and really all we could see was a large yard and a distant view of a little bit of water. This is not a "bay view" of a high quality. There was outdoor seating, but it appeared that it would feel like being at a family reunion picnic if you sat out there. Cheap plastic tables and an old deck that just screamed bad potato salad.

Okay, so the ambiance isn't great. Maybe the food will make up for that, right? Wrong. The menu was so long that you just knew you should avoid half of it. One kitchen staff in rural Oregon is unlikely to know how to cook this many things right. Even simple "fish and chips" had several options. Three of us had the deep fried fish and chips, one of us had the pan fried fish option. I didn't try the pan fried (although was told it wasn't bad), but the deep fried fish and chips were exactly what you would expect from a poor quality establishment. The quantity was too big (not a big complaint, except what it's making up for), the fish was soggy, more breading than fish and a little burnt. The fish needed a gallon of tartar sauce and we were only provided with a very small cup.

I could go on about the place. Even though it was cold and foggy outside, it was way too hot inside. The "live music" was honestly laughable. The paintings on the walls were disturbing. I don't see any reason to go on.

If you like okay food and a small town tavern atmosphere (minus the darkness), you may like this place. If you don't want to feel sick the next day (which a couple of us did), you may want to try somewhere else.

Here are the specifics:

Price: Overpriced. Dinner for four (one of us had a drink) was $93.
Cuisine: Unfocused. Everything from Asian and Mexican to American and Seafood. Let's file this one under "Tavern Food" and "Seafood" though.
Reservations: I highly doubt it. No.
Pets: Possibly outside, but no.

Parking: A very small parking lot and some awkward street parking.

Address: 91124 Cape Arago Hwy - Charleston, Oregon
Nearest town: Charleston, Oregon (center of town)

Nearest 10,000+ city: Coos Bay, Oregon (5.2 miles)

County: Coos, Oregon

My rating (out of 6): 3 for service, 2 for food, 2 for decor, 2 for view - average 2.5

More Information: High Tide Cafe

My Current Location: Home, Portland, Oregon

Let's Go Local

Well, local to me at least . . .

This is a travel blog, but I feel that even something across the street is travel. If not to me, it probably is to you. Either way, travel is really about taking something in. It's about the culture and people, the man-made and natural sights and just about experiencing what the world has to offer.

Look at me, I'm justifying posting something to my own blog. It's mine. I'm posting it. Get over it. There, that's better.

Le Happy has become, without a doubt, my favorite restaurant within 2 blocks of my house. That doesn't sound like much of a rave, but living in the Pearl District of Portland there are 9 restaurants within two blocks. I'd also go so far as to call Le Happy one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. Since my favorite restaurants are in Portland, I suppose that makes it one of my favorites in the world. Okay, enough of the rambling.

Le Happy bills itself as a crêperie restaurant and bar. I don't have any experience with the place as a bar in terms of "whoo hoo, it's 1am and I'm at the bar," but I do have experience with the bar as a place that provides me with alcoholic beverages. They're tasty. Well, the prickly pear margarita is tasty. This is my favorite drink and it's hard to find anywhere else, so that's all I have when I go there. The people I've been there with seem to like the other drinks though. Good enough for me.

The menu is simple. What do you want in your crêpe? Sure, they come up with fancy (or not so fancy - e.g. "Le Trash Blanc") names for some of their favorite options, but these are really just suggestions. The options are, while statistically calculable, immeasurable. If your crêpe doesn't taste good, it's your fault. After all, they make it right, it must be that you ordered the wrong combination. The food is consistently good.

Crêpes may be technically French, but this place is all Portland. It's liberal, it's quirky, it's unique, it's just plain . . . bizarre. Maybe it's the disco ball in the middle of the room. The waitstaff is quintessentially Portland as well. Unfortunately, this isn't necessarily a good thing. Portlanders are in their own world. The trend here has not been buc`ked. Be prepared to wait a bit. Be prepared to not be quite sure if you're not exactly welcome. After a number of visits to Le Happy, all I can tell you is that you are welcome there. It's how everyone is treated. The service will usually be slow, but you'll get the food. It does almost seem like the place knows it has good food and no matter how the service is, you'll still come back. They're right. Luckily the service isn't deporable. It's just tolerable, and I can handle that.

Oh, I almost forgot! This is the only place that I consistenly order dessert. Do it. You know you want to. Do I really have to say why? It's crêpes. It's not too rich, it's not too sweet. It is, as Goldilocks would say, just right.

Here are the specifics:

Price: Reasonably priced. As little as $4 for an entree, up to $13.
Cuisine: Crêpes
Reservations: Generally, no. The place is small so be there at an off time or be prepared to wait.
Pets: With the outside seating, I would assume so.

Parking: Street only

Address: 1011 NW 16th Ave - Portland, Oregon
Nearest town: Portland, Oregon (Located in Pearl District of Portland)

Nearest 10,000+ city: Portland, Oregon

County: Multnomah, Oregon

My rating (out of 6): 3 for service, 5.5 for food, 5.5 for decor, 4 for view - average 5

More Information: Le Happy

My Current Location: Home, Portland, Oregon

From Le Happy's website. I could go for the two block walk to take my own picture, but I'm feeling lazy.

3 Crabs Restaurant

In researching for our visit to the Olympic Peninsula, I stumbled across someone's note that stated something along the lines of 3 Crabs being the place to eat in the area. For some reason this stuck in my head and we went there. Who knows, this could have been something planted somewhere on the internet by the owners of the restaurant itself, but I'm always up for trying something new. That hasn't always been true, but I've been taught that when you're in a new town, you try the local fare (thanks, Victoria!). I've enjoyed this new way of travel . . . a lot.

When entering the restaurant, I questioned whether or not it would be too fancy for us based on the settings on the table. Trying to be a fancy restaurant for the older crowd is not what I would expect from a restaurant in a tiny town on what is essentially the beach. I was a little worried at this point and then we were asked if we had reservations. This question always bothers me since if you have reservations, you would mention it. If you don't, you just feel like an idiot for trying to get into a restaurant that (as I found out later) recommends that you have reservations. It isn't an appropriate question for a place that isn't even 25% full. I felt a bit out of place there as it was just the two of us dining with several families, but it wasn't too bad.

When we were seated, we were ignored for a bit (a little longer than I think is acceptable). When we were helped (by a woman in a t-shirt and jeans - not fitting to the decor), she noticed a bug on our table, took it, excused herself and came back. She explained that this had never happened before, which is probably true. She was friendly enough, but left our drinks sitting on the counter until she realized we didn't have anything to drink when our food came out. The service was certainly fast enough.

The food was pretty good. Tim had the halibut sandwich with coleslaw and seemed to like it a lot. I had the crab cake sandwich and potato salad. Be warned that the potato salad has olives in it (I know, I know, most people would probably love that but some of us don't . . . right Charlotte?). The crab cake sandwich didn't have the best sauce on it, but the crab cake itself was quite good.

The thing to note about this restaurant is that it is situated on a piece of property right on Dungeness Bay. The view from the window seats in the restaurant? The parking lot. Sure, you can see the lighthouse out on the spit (next time we won't bring the dog and we'll walk out to it). Sure, you can see the bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. You're just overlooking a gravel parking lot and cars to see it. Not much that can be done about it now, but who decided to build the building back so far? We weren't even in a window seat (even though the host told us we would be), so it didn't matter much. We took some time when we were done with lunch to let the dog out of the car to play around on the beach a bit. That's another thing this place should have, though, clearly marked beach access at least for customers. Certainly the appeal of a restaurant like this lies in two things - its fresh seafood (I'm not exactly an expert on food, so who knows if it was or not) and its location. When most of the division between the . . . parking lot (I can barely say it) . . . and the beach is marked "Stay off the rocks and flower beds", it certainly isn't inviting to take a walk on the beach when you're done with your meal. Maybe the reasoning for this is to keep people that haven't been to the restaurant off of their beach. Maybe the reasoning is that they don't even want those that have been to the restaurant on their beach. Who knows, but it should be a welcoming dessert. I know the desserts on the menu weren't. They seemed to consist of just over-fluffed pies that were $32 each. Sure, $4 a slice sounds reasonable, but when you aren't able to buy a whole pie for a lower price, it just sounds ridiculous.

Here are the specifics:

Price: Ranging from about $10 for a sandwich to $20 for a steak or seafood meal.
Cuisine: Seafood
Reservations: "Recommended"
Pets: No outside seating, so no pets.

Parking: Abundant and abundant with gravel

Address: 113 Crabs Rd - Sequim, WA (in the community of Dungeness)
Nearest town: Dungeness, Sequim, Washington (0-5.2 miles)

Nearest 10,000+ city: Port Angeles, Washington (19 miles)

County: Clallam, Washington

My rating (out of 6): 3 for service, 4 for food, 2 for decor, 4 for view - average 3

More Information: 3 Crabs

My Current Location: Home, Portland, Oregon

View from beach in front of 3 Crabs Restaurant (looking out over Dungeness Bay toward spit and lighthouse)