So instead of keeping a separate food blog, personal blog, and professional blog I decided to just combine the personal and food blog together. Every so often I will incorporate restaurant reviews and some of my favorite recipes amongst the everyday monotony of my life.
I'll talk about the Orenco Station Grill, a small restaurant in Hillsboro. This dinner choice was a last minute thing, as I had spent a good two hours browsing coupons, freebies, and eventually ended up on www.restaurant.com where we bought a $25 gift certificate to the restaurant for only $17.50. Now, though we still saved some money, be wary on restaurant.com. They have a lot of loops that you'll need to be aware of when buying gift certificates.
We arrived at the restaurant at 9:20 and they closed at 10:00p.m., which instantly made me feel bad. I remembered those days of food service work where I would curse the people who showed up just before closing. However, the waitress was very friendly and professional and didn't show her frustration in the slightest.
The restaurant had a nice classy look and the ending of a live jazz performance which I'm sure would have been pretty good if we had arrived earlier. The booths were comfortable and there were no over the top tacky decorations, which is always a plus in my book.
We started off the meal with their bacon wrapped scallops appetizer, a strawberry lemonade for the minor (me), and a red headed sister for the boyfriend. The scallops came quickly, which I was expecting considering how close to closing we were. They were cooked very nicely, rich in flavor and drizzled with a honey sauce that had a little bit of zest to it. The flavors were complex yet they blended together nicely into a light, refreshing appetizer.
The drinks were great too. There is nothing more disappointing than a too sugary, syrupy
Our main entrees also arrived pretty quickly. I had ordered a spicy chicken sandwich with fries and a side of ranch. Mouse ordered a stuffed salmon with fries and vegetables. My dish was pretty disappointing. Though the chicken had been flattened, breaded, and fried the way I like it, the spice was bland and overpowering. By bland I mean that it was a generic spice, nothing too exciting, that was used waaaaayyy to much. I couldn't taste much else, despite attempting to drown my bites in ranch.
Mouse' dish, however, was absolutely amazing! The salmon was so fresh tasting and the seafood stuffing was rich and creamy. It was topped with a lemon aioli that blended the flavors together perfectly. The dish was small, which was perfectly okay because the flavors were so incredibly rich. It was really a great dish.
The french fries were pretty generic, not bad but nothing to brag about. However, the overall meal (minus the dish I ordered) was very good, especially for the price we paid. I would definitely go back, but if I was in the mood for something real special and different, I would look elsewhere.
Final score: 6.5/10
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