FiveSpice

12/17/09

Wonderful restaurant

by LesleyMae at Citysearch

We eat here about twice a month, and I think it is excellent. We have the crab cakes often as an appetizer. I have had nearly ever item on the menu and have never been disappointed. If you order, for example, the chicken you don't just get the chicken - you get some chicken, some lovely raviolis, and an excellent broccoli and bacon dish. Every menu item is like this - a set of dishes that compliment each other, which makes for a really great dining experience.

And the bar is great!

• Pros: Best crab cakes in town, excellent food
• Cons: Fairly small menu

11/09/08

"Actual" reviewer finds Five Spice pretty good

by gregwilliams at Citysearch

I've lived in Lake Oswego for 35 years and while Portland has tons of options to choose from for knowledgable diners, we have had very few here. I had been to Five Spice a couple times before, but not since the latest change in management and menu. Frankly, I think the Pan Asian theme was better than the current more mainstream approach.

I took my wife and mother there last night (a Saturday). We were greeted downstairs at the door as I dropped my passengers off by the hostess. The restaurant is still beautiful inside, and the bar has been given increased importance, although the multitude of large format wine bottles setting around seemed an overt attempt to impress. The place is well-staffed in numbers, though we seemed to get the junior waitperson, who was pretty tenuous. He managed to break off the cork on the bottle of '96 Rhone wine I had brought from my cellar. Still, service was pretty attentive.

The wine list is fairly extensive, with a $35 - 2,000 range, though not value-laden.

Getting to the food, we started with a cheese plate to accompany our wine which had a selection of three aromatic cheeses, along with apple slices, Marconi almonds, grapes & white wine gelee. The accompanying sliced baguette was of good quality. Following were fine but normal mixed green salads. For entrees, I had lamb chops, which were accompanied by some rissotto-stuffed piquillo peppers and what was referred to as a crepinette (various lamb bits, etc., cooked in a patty form). The flavor and preparation of all was great. The others had the sea scallops with quinoa, also very well prepared and cooked perfectly.

In summary, this establishment is not in my top tier of Portland-area restaurants, but I'm glad to have it as a LO option. Our experience would have been much bettter with of the other two waitpersons, I believe, but we were given a free desert for the cork incident. Their website, BTW, seems up to date as far as the menu and wine list.

• Pros: Location, ambience, parking
• Cons: Wait staff overall good, but inconsistent

08/31/08

Excellent Cheese Flight, Huge Salad, Good Wine List

by jesskatz67 at Citysearch

I went here with a colleague a few weeks ago for lunch. We ordered a cheese flight that was a very pretty display. Excellent Almonds. The best part was the server actually knew what the cheeses were and a bit of interesting information about them! Most places just plop the cheese in front of you and walk away. We each had a salad - mine had tuna cooked perfectly! Again a very pretty presentation. Great wine list and I was happy to see that there were a few roses on there vs just one. It was a warm day, but I wasn't in the mood for a white. All in all a good experience, a little pricey for lunch - but definitely great food, wine and service.

• Pros: Server's Cheese knowledge, wine list, food
• Cons: a bit pricey