Portland City Grill
111 SW 5th Ave (U.S. Bancorp Tower, 30th floor)
Portland OR 97204
503-450-0030

Disclaimer: All reviews and original content Copyright © Mike Blackwell [remove "nospam." or it won't work] of Oregon Sushi -- All Rights Reserved.

It was a medium-warm spring day, and my friend and I were on a walking tour of downtown Portland. After having lunch at Good Taste Chinese, we wandered through Saturday Market and various stores in Chinatown and elsewhere. Being consummate sushi fanatics, our original plan was to have dinner at Todai Seafood Buffet, one of our favorite haunts. As we passed the Unico US Bank Tower in late afternoon, my friend suggested we go up to the 30th floor and have iced tea at Portland City Grill, a restaurant about which I had read a great deal, all of it positive. He and his wife had been there the previous year, and had been impressed by both the food and the stunning panoramic view of the city skyline and surrounding mountains. It would be my first visit. After a long afternoon of walking, iced tea sounded very good, so I said "yes," and up the elevator we went, popping our eardrums somewhere around floor 25.

I had never seen a bartender in a tuxedo before, and we were suddenly faced with several of them. Happy Hour on Sundays goes from 4:00 to closing, so there was a decent crowd, some jazz on the overhead speakers, and a piano player (heavy on the Billy Joel, appropriately enough). We sat at the bar, ordered our iced teas, and gazed out the windows. My friend helped me identify various local landmarks, and we could even see Todai, our planned dinner destination.

I couldn't help but peruse the Grill's happy hour menu, and noted there was a California Roll for $1.95. It was too great a temptation, so I decided to order one, just in case I didn't get a chance to come back here. I figured that a $2 California roll would be fairly small; after all, the purpose of Happy Hour is to sell drinks, not food. However, to our pleasant surprise, we were served a full-size roll, cut at an artistic angle into six large pieces. The quality did not disappoint, either: the proportion of rice to filling was nicely balanced, and it was as good as any Cali roll I've had elsewhere. The garnish even included black sesame seeds, which I seldom see, since they're more expensive than white ones.

Our plans to eat at Todai were beginning to weaken, and the final straw was seeing the dishes the three gentlemen next to us had ordered: Tombo Tuna, Chicken Satay, Firecracker Prawns, and Crab and Bay Shrimp Bruschetta.

Well, so much for Todai.

We moved our bottomless iced teas to a table by the window and worked our way down the Happy Hour menu. In addition to the California Roll, we ordered the tuna, prawns, and bruschetta so deftly modeled by our neighbors, along with Dungeness Crab Cakes, Tempura Shrimp, Crab Wontons, Pork & Shrimp Shu-Mai Dumplings, and one other whose name escapes me as I type this [it was either the lettuce wraps or the spring rolls]. Portion sizes were appropriate for the price: not huge, but enough for both of us to have a good sample. Any three of these appetizers would make a decent lunch or dinner. The two of us split nine items: go figure. :) Without going into specific details about individual sauces, spices and flavors, everything was excellent. The sauces were good enough that I asked for a spoon so I could slurp up whatever remained. After I asked our server if they had any cocktails that tasted like a mint chocolate espresso, our bartender Andy added chocolate syrup and Creme de Menthe to a Kahlua Mudslide. I liked it so much it's now named after me: ask for a "Muddy Mike."

Perhaps the best surprise of the evening was the bill. Since each item on the Happy Hour menu is at most $3.95 and most of the ones we tried were $2.95 or less, our total bill for nine items and two iced teas (not counting the $6.25 "Muddy Mike") was under $40! The service was excellent, so we left a good tip. We will definitely return and try the remaining items from the Happy Hour menu, including a white cheddar cheeseburger and some seasoned french fries which my friend tells me are excellent.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the extensive sushi menu. After all, if you're reading this, you're probably a sushi buff like me. We were too stuffed from our Happy Hour dining experience to delve past the California roll, but if that roll is any example, we expect great things from sushi chef Michael Okayama. Knowing me, I'll probably go for the deluxe sushi/sashimi combo, which is about $34 if memory serves. It includes two rolls and a decent serving of sashimi and nigiri sushi. Yum! I'll keep you posted.

UPDATED: Sunday, May 4, 2003

Today we went back to try and finish off the Happy Hour menu. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, and we didn't get as far as we'd hoped, but we made a dent in it. We had the steamed mussels, chicken satay, and tenderloin ciabatta. We also repeated some of our order from last time, and had crab cakes, crab wontons and two more California rolls. Again, everything was excellent, although the mussels were a little tough to eat, as a few of the shells hadn't completely opened up and so required a little bit of two-fork surgery, with the concomitant risk of splattering the sauce on one's clothes. We also noted that the service seemed a little slower this time, although they didn't appear to be any busier.

Still remaining are the cheeseburger, seasoned fries, Kung Pao calamari, two types of salad, and either the lettuce wraps or the spring rolls. Oh well, third time's the charm.

UPDATED: July 18, 2004

The cheeseburger rocks. Still haven't had the fries (which are reportedly very filling), but we came back and made another pass through the rest of the Happy Hour menu. We revisited a lot of items we've had before, except the salads. We're dudes, we don't do salads. :) We each had at least four items, plus ice tea; my bill was $15.65.

I *still* haven't tried anything from their full sushi menu. Maybe next time.