For some reason all the planets were aligned in a “give Heather a hard time” configuration yesterday. It was ridiculous, I spent about 2 hours on the phone trying to get through to the Tualatin Hills Rec Department to register for a class with absolutely no success. More on that in my other blog. I got a chip in the windshield of the car I’ve only had for a WEEK. I bashed my toes on a headboard I’ve been meaning to put up. There were no movies playing I wanted to see. And my friend was supposed to call me so we could get together, but she didn’t. Plus various other annoying things. So I decided that the only way the day could possibly be redeemed was if I had a spactacularly marvelous dinner.
For various reasons, I decided on clarklewis, a restaurant in SE on Water. Being that it was a Saturday night, I couldn’t get an early reservation, and we ended up settling for a 9:30 slot. I’m glad we waited.
The building itself is pretty industrial, with interesting glass accents and an open kitchen. And by open I don’t mean one wall slightly shorter than the others. I mean it’s actually part of the dining room. You can see everything being prepared, from salads to desserts. My poor husband had to deal with me staring over his shoulder the whole meal as I watched the action.
One of the unique things about the menu is that you have three size options with every item: small (tapas-sized), large (normal entree sized), and family. We elected to get salads as our starter, and Jon had an amazing radicchio salad with pancetta and walnuts. The smoky/saltiness of the pancetta was perfect with the bitter greens and the walnuts were just the right amount of crunch. I had a butter lettuce salad with a citrus dressing and a parmesean-y type of cheese. I was expecting the dressing to be sweet, anything that says citrus usually is, but this wasn’t sweet at all. It was tangy and very citrus-y but not cloying in any way. Really good and refreshing. The only issue I had with the starters was that we had to pay for our bread. In my opinion, four dollars for a loaf of (admittedly good) bread is a little steep. I could understand if they baked it in-house, but according to the menu, it’s from Ken’s. The olive oil to dip it in was really good, fruity and peppery, but next time I’ll save a little cash and forgo the bread portion of the entertainment.
For the main event, I had hen and fontina ravioli (a little pretentious sounding, I thought…I would have just said chicken..) and the only complaint I had was that there weren’t enough of them. In all fairness, the waiter told me that they were labor-intensive to make and I’d only get five in the large-sized order. Next time I’ll order the family size, just for me 
The sauce was a really intense, chicken-y rich pan sauce, like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had condensed down to a slightly syrupy reduction. I used some of my four dollar bread to mop up what was left on my plate. Jon had risotto with chunks of salami and cheese. I’m used to my risottos being a little creamier, but the flavor was excellent. He also got the large size, which ended up being about a cup, maybe a little less, in the middle of a pretty generously-sized plate. Maybe it’s a psychological thing, if they put the large sized entrees on an smaller plate, they might actually seem a little more…well…large. But I don’t do this for a living (baking is totally different) and so maybe I’m wrong.
Desserts were a mixed bag. I had a Dagoba Chocolate Torte with caramelized bananas. It was extremely rich, very chocolatey and not too sweet. Just how I like my desserts. I couldn’t have done it better myself. Jon had a meyer lemon tart. I love lemon tarts. I made him order it just so I could try it. This one though, I could have happily pushed to the side to eat more expensive bread. Lemon tarts are supposed to be puckery, not astringent. It seemed like sugar was completely absent from the ingredient list. Jon said it reminded him of eating lemon-scented dish detergent. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it definately wasn’t to my taste. On a postive note, though, the crust was really good.
All in all, I would definately go back for more; some of the items we didn’t try looked really promising, and I’m hoping the lemon tart was just a fluke. Next time, though I’ll go during the week so we can snag an earlier table.
I ate there and it flat ass sucked