Mini-post: Pix Patisserie

We've covered Pix before. They are a blog favorite. Go there now.

Last night we made another stop there in celebration of a variety of birthdays. My wife's birthday last weekend, my friend Phil's birthday on Monday, and my own yesterday.

As usual, Pix is great. We went to the location on Williams and Failing in North Portland. Compared to the Division location, this one is better for seating and service. At my last visit, the Division location had a sit-down bar and a smattering of small tables, but it was essentially counter-service for dessert; the North Portland location has a large number of tables attended to by wait-staff that bring you menus, take your orders, etc.

I was stuffed with sushi and, as such, really didn't plan on getting anything. I was able to walk by the dessert case without changing that plan.

At the table, though, I looked over the menu (here's one from MenuPix which appears to be not-quite-complete) out of curiosity and was sucked in by the Pix Float. Chocolate stout beer with house-made mocha ice cream.



Awesome. Buy one.

(Oh - wife had the Amelie and was quite satisfied. If you want something solid, not a bad choice, though I'd opt for the Queen of Sheba Truffle Cake).

Encanto Restaurant

I've been looking for good Mexican in town. Not too actively, but I listen to suggestions. My mom asked me, earlier this week, if I wanted to go try a new place by her house. She and her partner, who's a cook, love it. So I figured I'd try it out.

Tonight we met at Encanto Restaurant (5225 N. Lombard) to have some of what I was assured was the best Mexican food in town. My wife and I arrived first, and once we were all seated, we pre-ordered a plate of the chips and guacamole.

In looking around the place, Encanto is a neat location. It's spare and clean inside, almost an industrial look, with the shiny cement floors and plain walls with occasional decoration. It's that sort of trendy hipster attention to atmosphere which often cautions you that the food you get will be style over substance, because the decor is just too nifty for the people involved to actually be focusing on the food. But it's pleasing enough that you're willing to have high hopes.

I'm of the mindset that all Mexican restaurants should serve free chips and salsa. It's a time-honored tradition. So I was disappointed that none were offered, and in fact to get chips you apparently have to order them with guacamole, which means paying $6.

The guacamole is good, by the way. Very good. The chips are home-made and okay. Not particularly crispy, the bite was harder to make through the chip than I like. A bit too thick, I guess. They were well-salted.



The place also has Dos Equis on tap. I ordered it. Having a draft cerveza at a Mexican place is a bonus, so they get points there. It's served with a pre-crushed lime wedge already floating in the liquid, which saves some labor and is also a plus.

The actual menu is pretty spare. One page. One dessert (not counting what may have been on the specials menu, which I didn't look at that closely). There's nothing on the menu that looks good for a toddler. I imagine you could ask for a quesadilla or something but if, like us, you have a kid with you, it's nice to see options readily available.



I ordered the Flank Steak Enchiladas ($14), which I ordered with both the red and green sauce (as this was given as an option). My wife ordered the same, with green sauce only. The order arrived with one plate having only red sauce, and one plate having both. I let my wife have my order and took her's, but was a bit disappointed. That's why waiters often use pads to take orders, and apparently this waiter should have.

The enchiladas themselves were simple. The steak was served on top, and the enchiladas themselves were simply soft corn tortillas folded over some cheese, cooked, and then smothered in sauce. The sauce had a pleasing smokiness to it. The steak pieces were obviously good meat, but were served burnt on the outside, which was probably intended, but which gave a bitter finish that didn't go well with the surrounding food. The rice was blah; under-seasoned and bland and entirely worth skipping. The beans appeared to be seasoned with only cumin and maybe some garlic or onion. They were boring as well.



The service was overall quite good and attentive (aside from the order mix-up). The food arrived quickly and my mom and her friend liked their's a lot. My wife and I were both entirely under-whelmed. My grandma was with us as well, and remained silent on her feelings. I suspected she didn't like it all that much, but perhaps I misread her.

Encanto is not Portland's best Mexican food. Not even close. It's a nice place, but if you aren't in the neighborhood or you're not desirous of a hip joint to have a margarita and chips with guacamole, then you can probably find better for cheaper near where you live.

Pix Patisserie

So, to end what (by far) has been my most prolific day of eating out in a very, very long time, my wife's family and I went out to Pix Patisserie after our tasty dinner. Pix has two locations (one in North Portland, a little north of Emmanuel Hospital, and the other on SE Division at around 34th). Since we were already in NoPo, we headed under I-5, past the hospital, and north on Williams to get our fine dessert.

Pix is extremely impressive. When you walk into the NoPo location, you are greeted by a wide-open space (especially in the summer, when they can roll up the garage-door like windows to create an open-air space) that is fairly minimal in decoration, until you look at the dessert case.



There is where Pix's art lies. In a variety of delectable, irresistable, and entirely too-good-to-be-true dessert choices that defy you to pick one.

I usually get the Queen of Sheba Truffle Cake. Last time I was there, I got the Shazam (which is served in a bag made of chocolate!). This time, I opted for The Royale.



The Royale is described in the following way:

Chocolate mousse blankets a crisp hazelnut praline filling and dacquoise base.
Grab your paper Burger King tiara and indulge yourself!

Indeed. I don't know how to put into words how good this dessert was. It was worth the entire $6.50 it cost, and probably more. Usually, when there with friends late at night, I'll order a beer to go with my dessert. Given the day's indulgences (which, as I type, I'm starting to feel rather acutely), I opted for a glass of water. I was able to down the entire dessert, but I warn you that the treats here are as rich in your gut as they are on your palate. If you plan on hitting Pix after a meal, make sure to leave a little extra room before you go there.

For four people the tab came in at $21.75. Not too bad, given how indulgent we felt in the moment. I really can't advise you in too-strong words that you need to try Pix, at least once. It is one of the guiltiest pleasures Portland has to offer.

Roux

Well, for no particular reason, the wife and I decided to take the family (us, our daughter, and the parentals) out to breakfast today.

There are only three or four places on my list of superb breakfast/brunch places in Portland. The Alameda Cafe, The Tin Shed, and Fat City Cafe are all on that list. But I also have a pretty firm attachment to what has become the old standby, Roux.

Roux is a great place for pseudo-Louisiana cuisine. Not quite Cajun, not quite Creole, but certainly it manages to capture that culture's tastes well in its food (or so my caterer/chef friend says).

Usually while I'm there for breakfast, things are pretty predictable. Beignets for a starter, followed by Pain Perdu (AKA French Toast) for my wife and one of the many delightful Benedicts (often the smoked oyster) for me. Usually somewhere in there are some homefries.

Today I went out on a limb and tried a smoked trout hash that they had on the menu this week (the menu is tweaked on a regular basis). The fish was excellent, the eggs were well-prepared, the horseradish-tinged creme fraiche was tasty, but disappointingly the sum was not the equal of the parts. I don't quite know how the meal missed its target, I just know that it did.

My daughter, who's 18 months-old and thus is very compliant in sharing her food, had a pancake (it's cheap for a side pancake, and it's as big as a plate), and it was well-executed, as always. My mom had a crawfish omellette which came with a side of tasso, which is a big sausage that looks much like a Polish sausage but tastes different. Spicy and smoky, it's a nice idea for a back-yard barbecue but a bit heavy as a side. A couple people ordered the white cheddar grits as a side, and from what I was able to glean when I stole a bite, it was really, really tasty.

I stuck to coffee today, but they have an excellent Bloody Mary (called the Plantation Mary there) with house-pickled veggies which you should try at least once.

Brunch for five and a half people came up to $73, which is pretty reasonable given the quality of the food and the serving sizes. The service is always friendly (if not always speedy) and the place is always kept clean and pleasant. And, if you use the restroom, check out the wall decor, which includes book pages with old Cajun axioms. Pretty fun.

Roux is a fantastic place to take the family on a Sunday morning. They open at 10 and will greet you with warm smiles, great food, and a very enjoyable experience.

Podnah's Pit BBQ

NOTE: Despite our rule that only reviews written within 24 hours of a restaurant visit can go up here, I'm grandfathering in a slightly edited review I wrote yesterday after lunch at Podnah's Pit. If you have a problem with that, well, suck it...

[Yesterdayday I had lunch with JLowe] at Podnah's Pit (previously discussed here by Betsy, and reviewed in depth here by the FoodDude).

Now, to give you context, I claimed that Big Daddy's BBQ was Portland's best in 2006. My love for Big Daddy's ranged back to my initial blogging days, and it sustained me for a long, long time.
Sometime last fall or winter, I decided Big Daddy's was no longer on my list, though. They've slipped substantially since their Hawthorne start-up. And in the last year I've found that if I want consistently good BBQ, I always end up at Cannon's on 33rd and Killingsworth.

I noted FoodDude's review of Podnah's with interest about a month and a half ago, and have been planning to make an excursion there at some point. Scheduling, kids, spouses, finances and life-in-general all schemed against me, but I broke free for a lunch today yesterday.

Now, the lunch menu there is limited. An iceberg wedge salad, pulled pork or brisket sandwich, pork ribs or chicken. Sides of pinto beans, potato salad, cole slaw, or corn bread. At night, the menu is far more robust, and I have a feeling I'll like the place better with a dinner in my belly.

But let me say this: based on just the lunch (I had pork ribs with pinto beans), I'm ready to say that Podnah's is in the Portland pantheon. They're not on part with Cannon's yet in my mind (I currently rate Cannon's the best Portland BBQ to which I'm privy), but I usually use brisket or other beef products to really gauge the winner. As far as I'm concerned, it's hard to find a bad pork rib.

Try Podnah's for dinner (I'm at least a couple of weeks out) and give me your feedback. Or don't, and give me your feedback anyway. Where's the best BBQ in Portland?