11/09/08

"Actual" reviewer finds Five Spice pretty good

by gregwilliams

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

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

07/23/08

Unbelievable!

by jvbjc

The restaurant is BEAUTIFUL! The wait staff seemed informed and quickly brought us our drinks. My husband was a bit un happy by all the flies INSIDE but he knew I wanted to try this place, so we stayed. Our drinks came, we ordered dinner and then the starters arrived....so far so good....but that is where it ended.....there was an insect in the broth of my dish!! Yes, you read that right, a dead insect in my food. We promptly left - we will not return and will continue to share this experience!

• Pros: Beautiful location
• Cons: insects in food