Tigard, OR
After a day of shopping at the Woodburn Company Outlets, it was time to think of a place to have dinner. Since we were a bit away from downtown Portland, venturing up north for dinner was out of the question so we decided to stay close and head back to Washington Square to try out Portland Seafood Company.
As the name indicates, they specialize in seafood, Pacific Northwest style. The restaurant inside was spacious and the interior looked like a dockside warehouse!
Arnold Palmer ($2.89) - half iced tea, half lemonade
This concoction of half iced tea and half lemonade was named after the American golfer Arnold Palmer because he liked to drink this beverage at home. One time at a bar while he ordered this drink, someone overheard him and told the bartender that they would also like "that Palmer drink" and that's how this beverage came to be! Anyway, the "half n' half" here was a bit lacking in lemonade....the iced tea flavour was more pronounced so it didn't seem like exactly half of each...
Oven Roasted Crab Dip ($10.99) - served with warm tortilla chips
The first appetizer to arrive was the crab dip. The bowl was filled with lumps of crab meat on top of the creamy, gooey cheese while the chips on the side were warm and crunchy. This was so good! Definitely bad for the waistline though LOL...
Calamari ($8.59) - with signature lemon caper tartar
Our second appetizer was the calamari. The squid was sliced very thinly so a lot of times, it felt like I was just eating crunchy deep fried batter. I would have liked it more if the squid meat was thicker.
1 lb. Clam Bucket ($16.99) - bucket filled with Andouille sausage, baby red potatoes and corn on the cob, flavour of your choice
Arriving in a tin (aluminum?) bucket lined with wax paper, 1 lb. of clams appeared very little. Luckily, the clams were all plump and juicy. We chose a lemon-garlic-y broth for the bucket which we dipped with the complimentary bread afterwards. Aside from the broth being kind of oily, everything in the bucket was pretty good but I found the sausages too spicy for my liking.
Bronzed Wild Alaskan Salmon ($16.99) - Shrimp-basil-caper sauce, Parmesan mashed potatoes, fresh green beans
We also chose 2 fish entrees to share, one being the Alaskan salmon. It was pan seared to a golden colour exhibiting a crispy exterior. Some places overcook salmon to the state of being rough and leathery. The one here at PSC was not too dry so that was good! I found the sauce a bit salty but the shrimp was cooked just to the right doneness. And although the beans were vibrantly green and crunchy, they were so sour! I think they were tossed in a lemon-lime sauce... I love crunchy green beans but I just couldn't handle the extreme tartness...
Grilled Steelhead with Roasted Crab & Shrimp Cakes ($18.99) - lime basmati rice, whole grain mustard sauce, garlic green beans
I liked the second entrée more which was the grilled steelhead trout. This fish was done simply, with a savoury mustard sauce brushed on top. The meat was not too dry either after grilling. Again, I thought the crab cakes were a bit on the salty side. There were ample crab and shrimp in the cakes so I guess there wasn't a lot of filler but it made them very soft and fluffy, breaking apart very easily. And although the description said garlic green beans, they were the uber-sour lemon-lime beans again!! Such a waste of fresh crunchy green beans!
Sourdough Bread Bowl ($7.99) - filled with soup of your choice
Manhattan fish chowder - rich tomato sauce with braised seafood
The last to arrive at the table was the sourdough bread bowl. My mom and I love Manhattan clam chowder so we opted for this soup thinking it would be similar. To our dismay, we found the soup too much like a watery marinara sauce. I thought it lacked the qualities of a Manhattan-style chowder. There were lots of fish and fresh veggies in the soupy sauce though. Even though I thought the soup failed as a soup, as a sauce it was still pretty tasty.
If you're unwilling to wait over an hour for a table at the Cheesecake Factory inside Washington Square, the next best alternative for a nice, relaxed meal inside the mall would probably be Portland Seafood Company!
