That Portland Life

Portland Lifestyle and Real Estate

Contact Us!

portland food

Oma’s Takeaway

by 2 Comments

This week we had the pleasure of trying Oma’s Takeaway! Oma’s started as a pop up when the chef/owner of Gado Gado realized his food wasn’t well situated for the take-out only option of the pandemic. He and his sous chef started putting together a menu based on their childhood memories and grandmother’s cooking. They both called their grandmas Oma, so it was an easy name choice. The two restaurants are now ‘sister’ restaurants with a similar southeast Asian style.

Oma's Takeaway exterior

Oma’s Takeaway now stands where Whiskey Soda Lounge used to be. I was unsure before trying Oma’s if they would be able to fill the shoes of the past owners. I didn’t have a chance to try Oma’s when it was just a pop-up so I had a few doubts. The smell wafting from the restaurant as I approached the door was sweet, spicy, and slightly fishy – all things you want from a southeast Asian restaurant! Oma’s has the options right now of either dining on the patio or taking their food away.

The Food

I really wanted the full experience so I tried almost everything on the menu. The standouts for me were the Cumin Curry-spiced Ribs in Tamarind glaze, the Braised and Fried Chicken, and the Corn Fritters. The corn fritters were fried perfection with a sweet and sticky soy dip. Both the ribs and chicken are part of the Nasi Lemak. Nasi Lemak is the national dish of Malaysia and means rich rice. The rice is served with peanuts, fried anchovies, and house made sambal. For dessert we tried the rice crispy treat. I don’t know about you, but I hadn’t had one in AGES. They add whole marshmallows and fruity pebbles to the recipe to add a bit of flair. It rounded out the meal extremely well and I can’t wait to go back!

Did you have the chance to try the pop-up? Or have you been to the new brick and mortar? Let us know in the comments! If you are looking for something different you can check out the other restaurants we have featured HERE.

Laurelhurst Market

by Leave a Comment

This past week we braved the weather to head out to one of my favorite restaurants in all of Portland. Laurelhurst Market is hands-down one of the best steakhouses in the city, but did you know that they also have a FABULOUS lunch menu? The butcher shop carves up meat and makes them into artisan sandwiches and charcuterie boards, both excellent.

Laurelhurst Market is currently serving both lunch and dinner on their very impressive parking lot patio. Now that the rain is here to stay, they have upgraded from individual umbrellas to a full-sized tent with lights and heaters. The tables are spaced more than 6′ apart and there are multiple barrels with plants to help separate the space even further.

Laurelhurst Market

We tried 2 different types of sandwiches, the Hot Pastrami and the Special of the day which was a cheesesteak-style sandwich. The Pastrami comes with Swiss, Dijon, zucchini pickles, and red onion and is served on An Xuyen roll bread. The steak sandwich came with provolone, caramelized onions, and sautéed mushrooms. Both sandwiches tasted exactly the way you would expect the sandwich to taste and the meat was very tender.

The menu changes frequently depending on what the butcher shop has that is fresh and there is a new special at least every week. You can always check out the lunch menu here if you are curious to see what they have. If you aren’t quite ready for tent dining, they are still offering takeout for both lunch and dinner.

We would love to hear what you think if you have been! If you have somewhere that you would like us to feature, let us know in the comments.

Someday

by Leave a Comment

Ahhh, Someday. An apt name for a bar that was originally conceived of years ago by the owners, who wanted to open their own bar ‘someday’. An even more appropriate refrain for all of us who are wishing and hoping to return to some sense of normalcy in our daily lives ‘someday’. Yet, while we are waiting for indoor dining to be a safe option again, we are always looking for a great spot to grab a drink and a bite outdoors, particularly as the long winter months approach.

Someday is doing the patio scene right. They have big, well-spaced picnic tables, strands of draped lights across the space, and last we checked, were installing heaters to keep you warm and cozy while you drink. The wine selection is well-curated, the cocktails are balanced and delicious, and there is a selection of tasty snacks. If you are looking for a heartier meal, the patio also offers a few food carts to choose from.

Another really fun and unique thing that they are doing is an Oyster BBQ pickup on Sundays! You all know how much we love oysters, so I can’t wait to grab some of these one of these days.

See more about their menu and hours here.

We are really excited for more visits this winter to this cute tucked-away alley bar! Have you visited Someday yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments!

Ecliptic Brewing

by Leave a Comment

This week we are featuring one of our favorite breweries and restaurants. With space themed decor and beer Ecliptic Brewing is just a fun place to visit for the whole family. They are currently only offering patio dining, but they have converted the entire parking lot into space for tables so there is plenty of space (pun intended).

Ecliptic also offers a wide variety of beverages, there is a full bar and some local wines to choose from. The real star, though, is of course, the beer. John Harris has been an important NW brewer since his early days at McMenamins. He then moved to Deschutes and Full Sail before finally opening his own brewery.

He doesn’t play it safe with his beer either, depending on the time of year that you visit, you can get almost every style of beer available. I love a fruity sour, there were multiple choices on the menu so I tried the the Carina Peach Sour. With the hot weather we also wanted to try a crisp and refreshing beer so we opted for the Ecliptic-Ruse Collab Pilsner. Both beers were refreshing, delicious, and exactly what we were expecting of the style.

Ecliptic Beers

Ecliptic has by far the best food menu of all the breweries. They focus on fresh and seasonal ingredients and switch up the menu often. This summer they are offering little gem salad, street corn and seared albacore tuna. You can also order one of their many burgers or sandwiches. They always have a great burger, but they are currently also offering a beet melt with goat cheese and granny smith apples and a salmon burger with avocado and jalapeño aioli. Head over to the website to see the full menu.

If you aren’t quite ready to head out to a restaurant you can order the food to go or have some beer delivered! You can order your beer HERE. Have you tried the beer/food yet? What did you enjoy most?

Want to check out our other hotspots? You can find those HERE

Cooking

by Leave a Comment

We are still stuck inside and with dine-in restaurants being closed for the foreseeable future in Oregon, now is the perfect time to pick up a cooking hobby! I am a total foodie, and while I prefer to have other people cook for me, I can also whip up a pretty tasty meal. Below are some of my favorite recipes for cooking, baking, drinking, or throwing yourself a mini dinner party! You could even have your friends cook the same meal and do a virtual dinner party via Zoom, Skype, or Google!!

Easy Meals

I’m a mom of a toddler, so easy is basically my go to these days. These recipes taste delicious, are quick, and don’t involve too much prep work!

  1. Salmon Bowls
  2. Super simple grilled salmon, tossed with healthy veggies with a Mediterranean flair. Easy and super healthy too!

Recipe

  1. Shrimp Tacos
  2. Grilled shrimp topped with simple fresh ingredients for a great punch.

Recipe

  1. Chicken and Dirty Rice
  2. Super flavorful one-pot meal with chicken thighs and andouille sausage.

Recipe

Slow Roasts

Sometimes you just need to let things simmer. I love my Dutch oven and firmly believe that everything just tastes better after it has cooked for 3 hours. These are my top slow-cooked choices!

  1. Pork Green Chile Verde
  2. Slightly spicy, super meaty, crazy tender pork, just the way a good green chili should be. Pro tip – shred up the pork after its cooked, it’s even more tender that way.

Recipe

  1. BBQ Pot Roast
  2. This pot roast came out so much better than I anticipated. It is amazing on its own or fantastic on sandwiches!

Recipe

  1. Braised Short Ribs
  2. Wolfgang Puck knows how to cook, so you can bet that this will be one of the best meals you have ever had.

Recipe

Dinner Party Ideas

It is almost my birthday, and because we are still social distancing, I plan to have a little dinner party for myself. Here are 3 multi-course meals that I have made before that turned out phenomenally! You could always practice some of these recipes and then have a celebration with friends when we can finally see each other again!

  1. Traditional NW Meal
  2. 4 course meal with pretty simple recipes to help ease you into hosting a full blown party (for yourself or your family)

  1. Mexican Inspired Meal
  2. 4 course meal with some of my favorite Mexican flavors. This is one that is simple to pull off but is sure to impress!
  1. Citrus and Seafood Meal
  2. This one is easily my favorite, but it does require some cooking skills to pull off the protiens. This can be done as the full 7 course meal, or you can take out one salad and one entree to make it 5 courses.

Baking

Maybe cooking isn’t really your thing and you would rather whip up something sweet? Here are some of my favorite things to make when I feel like spoiling myself.

  1. Lemon and Raspberry Macarons
  2. These aren’t exactly easy to make, but they are delicious and I have total faith in your baking skills.

Recipe

  1. Key Lime Cheesecake
  2. Key lime pie, and cheesecake are easily my 2 favorite desserts, so why not mash them up? Also DO NOT use regular lime juice, you will do this dessert a serious disservice.

Recipe

  1. Amaretto Apple Crisp
  2. This is so so so good, I think I have made it 6 times. Pro tip – add some Amaretti cookies to the crisp to really make the amaretto flavor shine!

Recipe

Cocktails

Lastly, if you really don’t actually want to spend a bunch of time cooking in the kitchen, we have you covered with some of our favorite drinks! If you don’t want to go and buy special things to make drinks, we also have you covered. THIS WEBSITE will send you recipes that match what you already have at home…it’s a game changer.

French 75

Literally what your dreams are made of.

  • 1.5 oz gin
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1 oz simple syrup
  • 1/4 C sparkling wine
  • Shake gin, lemon, and simple syrup over ice for 30 seconds, top with sparkling wine.

White Peach Sangria

It’s the perfect no fuss sunny day beverage.

  • 1 bottle pinot gris
  • 1/2 cup Peach Vodka
  • 1/2 cup Peach Schnapps
  • 1 cup soda water
  • 3 sliced peaches
  • 1 cup raspberries
  • combine all ingredients and serve over ice. If you want it to be more boozy, soak the fruit overnight in the peach vodka.

Perfect Margarita

Honestly, this one is hard to beat.

  • 2 oz white tequila
  • 1 oz cointreau
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 1/2 oz agave syrup
  • combine all ingredients and shake with ice. Strain and serve over fresh ice with a lime wedge.

Hopefully this will all keep you busy for at least a week while we put together another list of great things for you to do! If you missed the last couple weeks we did: Netflix Binges, Books to Read, and Running Playlists.

As always please stay safe and healthy and know that if there is anything we can do for you, we are definitely still here to help!

Pizzeria Otto

by Leave a Comment

We headed out to try some pizza this past week, and in a city that has SO much pizza, we really dug this place! Located in the hip Foster-Powell area this Neapolitan pizzeria does things a bit differently. The crust is soft and very thin. We typically think of thin crust pizzas as being slightly crisp, or perhaps chewy, but you can hardly even call the dough of this pizza a crust. They flash-cook the pizza in an incredibly hot wood-fired oven. This results in a crisp bubbly ring around the edges and a slightly gooey center.

Pizzeria Otto, neopolitan Pizza

We wanted to see what else they had to offer so we also tried a beet salad and one of their lunch paninos. The beet salad was fresh with a bright citrus dressing and a creamy goat cheese. It was everything that you have learned to love and expect from a good beet salad. The panino was surprisingly more like a pita made of pizza dough, but so delicious! They stuff the bread with salami, Italian dressings, Lil Mama’s peppers and tons of arugula.

The food wasn’t the only thing that we liked about this cool new location. The dining room is spacious, minimalist, and they have huge windows which let in tons of natural light. I could easily spend all day in this restaurant because it has a great vibe.

Pizzeria Otto Dining Room

We enjoyed everything that we tried and definitely plan on going back to check it out again. We went for lunch and learned that they offer happy hour pricing from 11am to 5pm. So go and get a personal pizza and a glass of wine for cheap for your next lunch date!

In light of the Covid-19 outbreak, Pizzeria Otto is offering takeout pizzas and salads, just call ahead, order, and support your local businesses through these hard times!

Website, menu, and order number can be found here.

Voysey

by Leave a Comment

This week we checked out the elegant speakeasy cocktail bar Voysey! This basement bar can be found by following the red light down the stairway at the back of Loyal Legion. If you don’t have a curious mind, you may not have even known this plush cocktail lounge existed.

Voysey Portland, that portland life

Voysey is run by veteran female bartenders and bar managers serving up their own personal cocktail recipes as well as fun twists on some of the classics. As a result, everything on the menu is very thoughtful. If you are not in the mood for cocktails the menu is simple – 5 beer choices and 5 wine choices with a little something for everyone.

Voysey speakeasy in Portland

There are lots of cozy seating areas and a strong vintage vibe. Pink and red lights add to the ‘old-world’ vibe of the space. The bartender who served us was incredibly friendly, checked in on us just often enough to keep our drinks full, and was super knowledgable about all things cocktail.

We will definitely be going back to check out more of the drinks! If you want to keep current with what they are doing, check them out on Facebook!

Have you been yet? Had you even heard about it? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Blank Slate

by Leave a Comment

Hot Spot of the week is awesome craft cocktail bar Blank Slate. I visited this place on a whim after hearing that they would be projecting the Oscars on the big screen complete with specials on oysters and champagne. Over the course of the evening, it became clear that this is the bar that I have been missing in my life.

Winter’s Cup and Negroni

We started the evening with cocktails, a Negroni for me and the Winter’s Cup (Sloe gin, rosemary, soda, deliciousness) for my friend. Both were absolutely delectable and made me want to try every drink on the menu. I will have to return for that chance, as I needed to take advantage of the bubbles special next. I ended up choosing the Spanish Cava, which was bright and crisp.

After enjoying a round of a half dozen Kumamoto oysters (they were wonderful), we ordered the rest of our meal. While the menu at Blank Slate isn’t extensive, it is well-curated and perfectly executed. We were excited to see that they use Fressen bread, so we ordered the Soppressata sandwich and the Mushroom toast. We LOVED the attention to detail that went into these dishes. Even something as simple as a thin spread of high quality butter on the Fressen pretzel roll elevated that Soppressata sandwich to drool-worthy heights. The trumpet mushrooms on the toast were perfectly roasted and they made use of a phenomenal finishing salt to make it just *that* much more delicious.

The decor is worth mentioning as well. I loved the wallpaper, a black background covered in greenery and white flowers. Hanging plants in the windows and a beautifully designed bar make this place feel simultaneously chic and cozy. Our service was the same, attentive but also warm and friendly. I felt welcomed like I was a regular, which I fully plan on becoming.

Have you checked out Blank Slate? What did you think of this awesome NE bar? Let us know in the comments! If you would like some info about Blank Slate, you can find it here.

Do you know a spot we should feature next? We want to hear about your favorite places in Portland!