andina

Andina didn't disappoint. The food was as good as ever, and although it's one of the anchors of the slightly pretentious Pearl District of Portland it wasn't as snotty as one might expect. They have original dishes (Andean appetizers that I've never seen before, done extremely well) and they do a great job with traditional things like cebiches and lomo saltado. But what did it for me this time was the service: we arrived at about 6:30, with two small children who were already an hour and a half past their bedtimes and on the verge of crashing. This is a fancy little place that wants you to linger and order many courses, so this looked bad. But we ordered appetizers and entrees and mentioned that we wanted both simultaneously b/c the children were on East Coast time, and the wait staff had everything out in ten minutes. It was unbelievable, and made the dinner a success. (My wife was VERY skeptical about my idea to go out for dinner the night we arrived.) So bravo, Andina.

Unfortunately, we didn't have entirely good restaurant experiences. My wife got food poisoning at the new Hawthorne branch of what used to be (15 years ago...) one of my favorite Portland places, the Bridgeport Brew Pub.