WILLAMETTE WEEK'S RESTAURANT GUIDE 2000-2001 Restaurant Listings A B C E F G H I J K L M O P R S T U V W Y Z   Il Piatto Though not strictly a neighborhood place, unassuming Italian restaurant Il Piatto fits into its shaggy Southeast environs just as Tavern on the Green fits snugly right where it ought to be in Manhattan. Crusty bread and friendly waitresses (there seems to be a strong feminine vibe here, unlike at many of the other Italian joints around town) create a relaxed, free-flowing feel, while the dishes veer toward the more complex. While plain, rustic dishes seem to be more popular these days in our local mangia centers, Il Piatto often goes for the gusto with dishes such as crespelle alla ricotta--crêpes stuffed with wild mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, spinach and ricotta and coated with smoked-pear crème frâiche--and fritelle di formaggio di capra, goat-cheese fritters with caramelized red onions and dried apricots and rolled with hazelnuts. Still, a recent visit offered a wonderful fish stew featuring two plain poached potatoes that seemed the best gift of all as they lay in a saffron broth; Il Piatto proved it can play to both crowds. (CBB) 2348 SE Ankeny St., 236-4997. Lunch Tuesday-Friday, dinner daily. Moderate. India House I try to keep my demands simple. My checklist for leaving an Indian restaurant happy has only three tick-boxes: papadum, saag and chicken tikka masala. Impress me on those and you'll probably be seeing me again. India House goes three for three, with extra credit besides. The crispy, thin wafers of papadum are roasted just enough to bring out the hearty spiced-lentil flavor. The downtown restaurant's spinach dishes are soothing subcontinental comfort food, especially the alu saag (cooked with potatoes and spices) and the saag paneer (with hunks of homemade cheese). And the chicken tikka masala is excellent, bathing pieces of tender, citrusy tandoori chicken and sliced almonds in a creamy and gingery--albeit improbably vermilion--masala sauce. The restaurant gets extra gold stars for tongue-tingling spice of the chicken seekh kebab appetizer and the luscious, tomatoey eggplant savor of bengan bartha. If only someone could save India's dessert-time answer to powdermilk biscuits, gulab jamun, from the customary ritual drowning in rosewater syrup. Hit the $6.95 lunch buffet at noon, while the tandoori is oven-fresh and the pakoras are still sizzling. (IG) 1038 SW Morrison St., 274-1017. Lunch Monday-Saturday, dinner daily. Moderate. Jake's Grill In his latest tooth-cracking crime novel, Andrew Vachss moves his hard-guy hero, Burke, from New York to Portland. The first place he's known to strap on the feed bag in the City of Roses is Jake's Grill. Indeed, it's hard to imagine a more appropriate jawing ground for a hard-boiled hero than this ultimate old-school place. Forget that this revivalist chop room opened in the mid-'90s; sitting in its mob-deep booths or leaning on its classic bar (with the severed heads of slaughtered beasts looking on), you wouldn't guess that this place opened any later than '38. The food stays true to the steelo--you won't find any half-assed pasta-tosses or soy-based pseudo-meats here. Instead, you got your steaks, your fish, your trimmings and your desserts. And while you tuck in, they'll treat you right, with service that's precise, professional and never cloying. The food? The Caesar is no stunner, but they will positively drape that bad boy in anchovies. The massive pork chop is a perfectly turned-out joy to devour. The creatures of the sea receive thoughtful treatment; in particular, halibut stuffed with crab and brie provides the perfect mix of oceanic and hoofed proteins, without going overboard on the fromage. Desserts are no great shakes, but after tucking away one of the ample dinners, that should be of small concern. (ZD) 611 SW 10th Ave., 220-1850. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Moderate to expensive. Jake's Famous Crawfish When a restaurant survives for a hundred-plus years, it must either be a mafia hangout or rule the roost on its own terms. In Jake's case, the latter applies. The staff is attentive without being pushy and is extremely knowledgeable about the old-school clubby restaurant's fresh seafood--to the point that waiters can spell out the taste notes of the 11 varieties of raw oysters. The seafood entrees change daily; what's immutable is Jake's uncomplicated approach to preparing fish. Most offerings are grilled or pan-fried, and there's a notable absence of sauces that don't support the fish. During my visit, I was impressed by a salmon stuffed with crab, shrimp and brie as well as an étouffée spiced so that it didn't overwhelm this classic dish's main attraction: seafood. Dessert is similarly basic: bread pudding, key lime pie and berry cobbler. (PD) 401 SW 12th Ave., 226-1419. Lunch Monday-Friday, dinner daily. Expensive to very expensive. Jo Bar and Rotisserie What's up with all the red at Jo Bar? It's everywhere! On the tomato-colored walls, in the zingy prickly-pear cactus margaritas, topping the Cobb salads and oozing out of the juicy, scarlet Jo burgers. This casually upscale see-and-be-seen hotspot that focuses on gussied-up Americana may like primary colors, but it knows how to expand its pallette--and your palate. Tickle your tongue with a pan-seared sea bass served over lemon-lime risotto and finished with mango habanero coulis or a fork-tender pork loin marinated with soy, garlic and serrano chili. Tamer fare can be found among the starters, such as a delicious platter of bruschetta topped with oven-seared halloumi cheese. This can be a great place to bring a new love, because even though the scene can sometimes resemble an episode of that junk-TV favorite Blind Date, it's warm and cozy and consistent in its preparations. (BB) 701 NW 23rd Ave., 222-0048. Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Sunday. Expensive. Khun Pic's Bahn Thai Let's be blunt: Khun Pic's Bahn Thai serves some of the best Thai food in this city. It has the added advantage of being served on tables set with Wedgewood in a gorgeous 100-year-old Queen Anne cottage with gold painted molding. The husband and wife team (members of a trailblazing Thai family that has also given us some of Portland's more exceptional Thai hot spots) offers a simple menu: a rotating selection of entrees, two appetizers and two soups. That's a good sign. This cozy restaurant is not Thai-by-the-numbers--instead, fresh herbs and spices abound. The fresh spring rolls are packed with mint, which makes this standard fare exotic. The sweet-and-sour soups (with or without coconut) are just as good. But the real standouts are the curries and the pad Thai, both examples of why you fell in love with Thai food in the first place. One small warning, however: Service tends to be slow, so allow two hours for dinner. (PD) 3429 SE Belmont St., 235-1610. Dinner Monday-Saturday. Closed Sundays. Moderate.   Koji Osakaya Koji offers the sushi equivalent of the Gap, the Subaru Legacy, the last several Clapton albums: perfectly safe, decent quality, but a little too reliable to be interesting. It's a perfect introduction for the timid, but serious raw-fish connoisseurs might get bored. If you're one of those, try the specials in favor of anything with its picture on the menu; a recent avocado-and-roe concoction, topped off with a wet, shiny, quivering, bright-orange quail egg, lit up the table like an exotic jewel. For those of you who think of sushi as merely a cute little snack, daily combo meals are an excellent option (try the yakitori-sushi combo). Don't be afraid to veer off the sushi page and into the rest of the menu. The donburi bowls are huge and awesome, especially the salmon teriyaki. Tempura shrimp are light and perfectly crispy, not greasy in the least. An appetizer of green onion wrapped in beef is oddly chewy but super-tasty. And the chicken udon noodle soup could be the long-sought cure for the common cold. (BO) 7007 SW Macadam Ave., 293-1066; 606 SW Broadway, 294-1169; 1502 NE Weidler St., 280-0992. Moderate. La Catalana If this wonderful little Spanish restaurant was in Northwest Portland, or a little closer to Hawthorne or Broadway, or almost any place besides the well-worn corner of Southeast 27th and Stark Street, you'd probably have a hard time getting a table. Use the geography to your advantage. Drop in for a plate of escalivada, humbly described on the menu as "grilled vegetable salad" but really a perfectly composed plate of smoky, creamy eggplant, sweet and slightly charred tomato, roasted red pepper and quartered spheres of tender, grilled onion, all bound with just a touch of sherry vinegar and an ample drizzle of Spanish extra-virgin olive oil. Skewers of grilled prawns come with garlic-y aioli, while razor clams--briny, sweet and a little chewy--are quickly sautéed in butter and topped with bread crumbs. Emerald-bright green beans tossed with a shallot and mint salsa are a revelation, and the cucumber salad dressed with honey, yogurt, mint and red pepper flakes is simultaneously smooth, crunchy, cool and hot. With all these choices, though, it's hard not to want the signature duck confit with seared peaches. The duck is served off the bone, meltingly tender like only confit can be, but crispy-edged from a quick trip to the grill, and the warm, sweet but slightly acidic fruit is the perfect foil for the rich fowl. But don't neglect specials like fideus, Spanish vermicelli browned in a hot oven, then cooked in shrimp stock and tossed with parsley, garlic, fresh tomato and steamed clams. (JD) 2821 SE Stark St., 232-0948. Dinner Wednesday-Sunday. Closed Mondays-Tuesdays. Moderate to expensive. Laslow's Northwest Most would agree that a restaurant is not just about the food but rather is the sum of its parts. At Le Bistro Montage, you have oyster shooters, bellowing waiters and big-city bluster. At Fratelli, you get flickering candles, measured pomp and romance. At Laslow's, you get impeccable cuisine, expert service and some atmospheric inconsistencies. Let's start with the food. How does a soup of fingerling potatoes with saffron and a touch of cream sound? It is almost too delicious to be believed, and perhaps reason enough to quit whatever you're doing at this moment and dash to Laslow's in hopes that it might be on the day's menu. Then there's the pumpkin seed crab cake appetizer, which is surely one of the best uses of crab on the West Coast, where the sublime blue crab of Virginia and Maryland waters is not readily available. For the main course, you can expect risotto, duck, salmon, beef or pork tenderloin, or a vegetarian dish. While tables are beautifully set and menu selections arrive in arty vertical arrangement on pretty china, the ambiance here is a bit off. During a recent visit, diners had to suffer a continuous tape loop of barely audible yet agitating soft pop. And the room layout is odd: You can be painfully aware of your neighbors. (CM) 2327 NW Kearney St., 241-8092. Lunch Tuesday-Friday, dinner Tuesday-Sunday, Sunday brunch. Closed Monday. Expensive. L'Auberge Nestled at the edge of trendy Northwest Portland, where the boutiques of 23rd Avenue give way to the warehouses of the industrial district, sits a local institution that practically pioneered fine dining in this town. With a sophisticated atmosphere, exquisite presentation and a truly outstanding menu, L'Auberge serves the best in French cuisine without a taste of French hauteur. Elegant simplicity is the hallmark of L'Auberge's menu. Check out the grilled salmon, succulent and toothsome, resting on a bed of couscous and exuberant cherry tomatoes. If you like your fish in shells, try the tender razor clams, served with spears of asparagus and shoestring potatoes. But the pièce de resistance has to be the magnificent filet mignon--soft as butter, juicy as a pear, a symphony of steak unencumbered by needless vegetables. No visit to L'Auberge would be complete without dessert, especially the legendary poached lemon cheesecake. Despite recent reports of L'Auberge being a bit off its game, it is still one of Portland's great culinary treasures--to be indulged, savored and longingly remembered for weeks after your last visit. (CL) 2601 NW Vaughn St., 223-3302. Lunch Monday-Friday, dinner daily. Expensive. Le Bouchon Translated literally, le bouchon means the cork, but the French also use this term to indicate a casual bistro. Despite the price of a meal here, that's just what Le Bouchon is. It's exactly the place to go when you crave a quiet, authentic dinner, Francophile or no. The petite tables, perfect lighting and lovely French accents of les trois who own the place create a simple, genteel atmosphere that aptly reflects the cuisine. Ah yes, the food: C'est formidable! The appetizer of shrimp swimming in olive oil and ample amounts of garlic and basil can only be described as succulent. You'll find several variations of this dish at tapas bars and Italian restaurants, but thanks to balanced spicing, this refined example sets the standard. It's a particularly good way to start if you're not gaga for pâté. The list of entrees is short but complete: duck confit, pork tenderloin, sweetbreads, poisson du jour. Investigate the specials, and when halibut is on the chalkboard, don't hesitate. One warm summer night, the inspired preparation of this plain fish resulted in a half-inch-thick fillet with a crispy, almost caramelized exterior. A very welcome change from the dull, lemon-bathed halibut steak normally served at restaurants of all stripes. (CM) 517 NW 14th Ave., 248-2193. Dinner Tuesday-Sunday; lunch Fridays only. Closed Monday. Expensive. Legin Legin states its case as the largest multipurpose restaurant in the city, complete with two vinyl lounges, a devoted takeout center, a banquet hall and--oh yeah, almost forgot, silly me--a dining room. Its motto and mission are clearly defined: Make it big. Make it Chinese. And make it taste good. Even the chopsticks are those big plastic kind that are hard for the untrained to maneuver. Nevertheless, use a fork, use your hands, use whatever you must, but dive headlong into Legin's preposterously enormous menu--nearly 300 entrees long and filled with exotic dishes you've probably never even thought about. Frog and shark's fin, sautéed or in hot soup, are common offerings at Legin. And these are certainly what separate Legin from your average neighborhood dive. But it is the core offerings--Hunan sesame shrimp, say, or crispy tofu with black bean sauce--that will keep you going back. (BF) 8001 SE Division St., 777-2828. Lunch and dinner daily. Moderate. Lemongrass From the kitchen of this Victorian home in a residential neighborhood come the authentic dishes that place Thai cooking among the world's great cuisines. Shelley Siripatrapa and her staff make you feel right at home in the comfortable salon and drawing room that are tastefully decorated with Thai artifacts. The draw here is the personal attention given to each dish, which is cooked to order with the freshest ingredients and most pungent spices. You feel the knowledge, tradition and dedication in every plate, from maing kam (a leaf wrap of toasted peanuts, ginger and onion), which serves as both a salad and an enticement for your palate, to steamed mussels. The soups scintillate, and the green papaya salad served with a covered bamboo container of sticky rice will cool you down from the fire-breathing dragon-heat you've already consumed. Be prudent about ordering any dish more than "medium"--above that calibration, you'll taste the heat and miss the food. Main courses feature chicken, prawns or vegetables; pork and beef never darken the premises. I'm a great fan of the chili paste dishes, as well as the garlic and basil ones. Ms. S. turns out the meanest pad Thai in the city, all the flavors harmonizing beautifully, and never overwhelming the noodles. Curries come in red, yellow or green; I recommend the red, which is unlike more-familiar Indian varieties and laced with fennel, kaffir lime leaf and coriander for an exciting medley of tastes. If Lemongrass has the halibut with chili sauce on the menu, don't hesitate. Lemongrass is gracious and informal at the same time; it's easy to understand why it boasts such a devoted clientele. (RJP) 1705 NE Couch St., 231-5780. Lunch Tuesday-Friday, Dinner Tuesday-Saturday. Closed Sunday-Monday. Moderate. London Grill Located deep in the bowels of the Benson Hotel, the London Grill is the sort of place you would expect your rich auntie to sit down with Bruce Wayne and Scott Thomason and talk about secret mergers before heading off to a Bizet opera. It's also one of the few places in town where you can find out that ostrich actually does taste like chicken--especially when it's paired with wild boar and served with dried fruit and lingonberry sauce. Everything from Chateaubriand to the signature Caesar to a flaming cherry dessert is given the full-on tableside flourish by servers who are experts at their game. Sometimes the offerings are a bit too heavily sauced, but the more straightforward fare, such as the fork-tender filet mignon, play to this restaurant's strengths. (BB) 309 SW Broadway, 295-4110. Breakfast daily, lunch Monday-Saturday, dinner daily. Brunch Sunday. Expensive to very expensive. Lucy's Table Owner Peter Kost has done a good job of transforming what could have become a black hole on Northwest 21st Avenue into a dining destination when he opened this Mediterranean-focused high-end restaurant over two years ago. The room is romantically decorated with blown-glass light fixtures and velvet wall coverings that contrast interestingly with the hordes of street trawlers passing by the big windows. The kitchen staff is a whiz at stitching together dishes from different locales, cross-pollinating influences while keeping an even keel, and the preparations are surprising. As a waitress put it during one recent visit, "I usually don't like trout, but I like this trout." "This" trout was served on a chick-pea pancake that perfectly drew out the earthiness of the fish, and the almond-butter and sherry sauce distilled the smooth flavor from the lake lover. The room fills quickly; before you know it, you are part of one big celebration. Lucy's Table has that way about it, and it's good. (CBB) 704 NW 21st Ave., 226-6126. Dinner Monday-Saturday. Closed Sunday. Expensive. Mallory Like the old-school hotel in which it nestles, the Mallory Hotel's dining room keeps it simple. Thank God. With a thousand and one clever lads and lasses in white toques shooting for their Ph.D.'s in Asian-Arabic fusion cuisine (or whatever), it's nice to see an old standby chug along with the deliberate reliability of an old sternwheeler. The Mal's dinner mix of steaks and seafood, gussied up with Oregon-grown accouterments, isn't going to send any snooty food writers into paroxysms of multi-adjectival glee anytime soon--but shazam! An evening in this joint's faded elegance might just leave you feeling well-fed and happy, rather than like you've been a test subject in someone's culinary experiment. The Mallory's star shines brightest, however, at breakfast time when a huge contingent of loyalists--bluehairs and family pods, for the most part--back the linen-clad tables and consume sprawling German pancakes, piles of sweet crepes and gallons of mediocre coffee. As a hangover chaser or ice-breaker with your maiden aunt, it doesn't get much better. Be sure to drink in the Driftwood Room, too. (ZD) 729 SW 15th Ave., 223-6311. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Moderate. McCormick & Schmick's When it opened its doors more than two decades ago, M&S became the second restaurant to bear the moniker of local legends Bill McCormick and Doug Schmick. Since then, these dining dynamos have kept busy by opening namesake eateries (with the recent addition of the Heathman, they are up to 30) all across the nation. But my favorite is still this downtown seafood stalwart. Fancy without being schmancy, M&S satiates its patrons' palates with a list of fresh oceanic offerings that's more than 40 items long. Alongside such Northwest favorites as Alaskan king salmon, Oregon crawfish and Washington bay shrimp live a few exotic fish choices from Hawaii, Ecuador and Costa Rica. But it's smart to stay with the basics here--dungeness crab and shrimp cakes stand out, as well as, for the non-seafaring, aged beef and succulent lamb dishes. (BB) 235 SW 1st Ave., 224-7522. Lunch Monday-Friday, dinner daily. Moderate to expensive. Merchant of Venice This is a chance to fall in love again, or fall in love for the first time. When Jim Bocci shut down his bedraggled but beloved diner on pre-gentrified Northeast Broadway a few years back, his regular customers mourned. Now they can once again find his classic spaghetti and meatballs, bruschetta and adrenaline-inducing olives, though they'll have to hop a train. Nestled in the unsettling Edward Scissorland experiment known as Orenco Station, the Merchant of Venice has undergone a makeover in decor, but the menu has plenty of old favorites. The smoked chicken penne with caramelized onions, tomatoes and olive tapenade is a big hit, as are the marinated eggplant slices with prosciutto and grilled shrimp. The restaurant seems to have overcome some initial glitches in service, making this one of those few restaurants that can beckon city dwellers to the burbs. (JS) 1341 NE Orenco Station Parkway, Hillsboro, 640-1523. Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday, dinner only Sunday. Moderate to expensive. Metronome Perfectly seared scallops paired with a mouth-quizzing mix of tart cherry polenta and vanilla-saffron butter sauce start a visit to this Broadway cafe off just right. Metronome strikes a stylish balance of cuisine styles. It also scores with its Thai nod, a coconut curry soup that teases the taste buds with lime and lemongrass accents (and delivers with scads of juicy rock shrimp). Meat lovers should try a half-pound beef burger or amp up your carbs with a nicely balanced spinach linguine. Continue your seaside meanderings with a pan-seared Cajun spiced catfish, paired with crawfish mashed potatoes and roasted pepper rouille--a mélange of distinctive and agreeable flavors. The only downbeat of this casual cool eatery is an auditory glitch. The high ceilings and bold walls are inviting, but the spare furnishings allow table blather to bounce around the room like a buzz saw in a tin can, drowning out any mood music. Thank goodness most of the chatter is hearty exclamations of approval from delighted diners. (KC) 1426 NE Broadway, 288-4300. Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Friday, dinner Saturday-Sunday. Moderate. Montage The grimy underside of the Morrison Bridge is not the most appetizing location in the world, but the sight of hungry patrons lined up outside the door should tell you all you need to know: Bistro Montage is not only one of Portland's best restaurants, it's one of the coolest joints this side of the Mississippi Delta. Montage is the sort of place where your waiter sports a necktie and cutoffs, where tattooed ropeheads sit cheek by jowl with well-coiffed accountants and the menu runs the culinary gamut from frog legs to Spam. Atmosphere, energy, great food--Montage has it all, baby, served with a quirky dollop of humor and an attitude a mile wide. Montage is justly famous for its oyster and mussel shooters--tasty bivalves drenched in spicy cocktail sauce and served in a shot glass (just don't jump when your waiter announces your shooter selection with an earsplitting roar--it's standard procedure). Don't miss the tender cajun-seared catfish, or, if you're a confirmed ichthyophobe, try the gator bites--once they've been safely fried and breaded, Florida's terrifying swamp creatures are surprisingly tasty. The jambalaya, a spicy stew of cajun goodies, is also a good bet, as is the blackened New York steak, reclining on a creamy bed of garlic mashed potatoes. Montage also offers well over a hundred wines, a wide range of inventive cocktails, including the Mad Dog Screw-up and the Suffering Bastard, and two beers--Mickey's and Rainier. (CL) 301 SE Morrison St., 234-1324. Lunch Monday-Friday, dinner daily. Moderate. Morton's of Chicago In Douglas Adams' sci-fi romp The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, a cow ambles out to the table, wiggles invitingly while extolling its tastiest cuts to the diners, then toodles happily off to the kitchen to butcher itself. At Morton's of Chicago, the tableside "talking menu" is at least delivered by a white-starched waiter, but its value as an appetizer is equally questionable. Whether brandishing a bloody pound and a half of porterhouse, an as-yet-unbaked Idaho potato or a crustacean New Englander making its first and only visit to Portland, the server unrolls his breathless patter like a roller-coaster operator explaining the rules of the ride for the umpteenth time. And indeed, Morton's has made an empire by giving the fat-walleted the experience of a steakhouse theme park. Bask in the glow of the trademark pewter pig lamps (available for purchase, $75), which light up the burnished wood accents in each restaurant in exactly the same way! Fortunately, the food backs up the show. A succulent appetizer of broiled sea scallops wrapped in bacon is set off by apricot chutney; a spork-tender double filet mignon with béarnaise sauce welcomes a side of sautéed wild mushrooms. The three breaded cutlets of Chicken Christopher with beurre blanc are tasty but too, too much (just as intended); it's lucky the tag-team of waiters checks in every few minutes to make sure your arteries are still flowing. Go ahead and order the Grand Marnier soufflé for after the meal--its bearable lightness will actually make you feel less stuffed. Then gird your expense account and get in line to ride again. (IG) 213 SW Clay St., 248-2100. Dinner daily. Expensive as Hell. Mother's Bistro and Bar See feature story and review. 409 SW 2nd Ave., 464-1122. Moderate. Restaurant Murata I'd eaten at this sushiery several times and was wondering if I was missing something. True, the standards such as unagi and fatty-tuna nigiri were superb, but where were the unusual and surprising dishes I had heard about? Then, one day, someone passed along this secret: Don't order off the menu. So a friend and I went with a mission to let the chef do the deciding. Now, this kind of approach must be taken with the highest level of confidence. You can't be wishy-washy when you're trying to persuade a restaurant to pull out all the stops. So we sat right down, threw the menus pointedly aside and told the waitress to ask the chef to bring us whatever he thought was the best tonight. There was some fumbling and several waitresses then came to try to figure out what it was we were asking of them. I threw a limp wrist toward the sushi bar, clear in my trust of the chef. After a few more meetings with the wait staff, it was confirmed. What delicacies would come our way? Soon a plate of beautifully prepared nigiri arrived. And yes, the unagi and fatty tuna are indeed spectacular at this place. (CBB) 200 SW Market St., 227-0080. Lunch and dinner Monday-Friday, dinner Saturday. Closed Sunday. Moderate. ¡Oba! So far so good for this energetic restaurant and bar that at times seems to hold the Pearl District on its black-clad shoulders. From the village plaza dome to the office-sized booths to the bouquets of flowers, this is the restaurant that became what it wanted to be: big. ¡Oba! stakes a claim on all things Latin and does a good job of blending different influences, no matter how far south of the border they come from. Chef Scott Neuman clearly designed some keepers when the restaurant opened in 1998. Signature dishes include must-have apps such as the crispy coconut prawns, saved from tasting Asian by a jalapeño-citrus marmalade with a kick, and the wonderfully gloppy cheese-n-chorizo dip with tortilla chips, which you'll wish you could serve at your next party. Solid entrees like Chilean sea bass--pan-fried for an outside crunch but completely supple inside--and tender banana leaf-roasted pork rank high. If purity is your game, you're in luck: The restaurant has started a regional series that focuses on the cuisine of one particular place at a time. (CBB) 555 NW 12th Ave., 228-6161. Dinner daily. Expensive. Oritalia Oritalia has gotten a bad rap from some local critics who've scrunched up their noses and claimed a war against fusion as an impurity in their midst. Alas, the main crime Oritalia has committed is flaunting its adventurous spirit. Not to say that its brand of mishmash always works--it doesn't--but some of the holiest restaurants in this town, even the ones who claim pure Northwesterly or French origins, sneak a little bit of this and a pinch or two of that onto their menu and no one blinks. And who causes an uproar when restaurants serve a plain steak under the guise of simplicity and charge major money for the professionally broiled experience? So hail Oritalia for the bravery to claim its focus while all the wussy purists in town wave their wasabi-infused-butter knives in consternation. Now, about the food. Recently Oritalia has made a move that I believe will save its swanky ass from extinction. The new Zen Tapas menu offers small plates at very reasonable prices. Chef Matthew Young and general manager Dean Vacheresse have finally figured out Portland: A little goes a long way. While the richy riches at Zefiro were eating three-course meals, the real scenemakers were the artists and shop-keepers sitting out front and eating the only thing they could afford: the Caesar salad. Zen Tapas treats run an average of $6 each and have proven to be bold, simple and, yes, pure in intent. My favorite was the sweet snap peas with garlic and chili flakes. This new move for the kitchen is only offered for lunch and for a new planned late-night scene, but you never know: It could become the most important thing they do. (CBB) 750 SW Alder St., 295-0680. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Moderate to expensive.