We loved working on this blog, but Portland’s shitty economy forced us to leave the city. We were sad to leave — and miss so many of our favorite restaurants –  but we now live somewhere where rain doesn’t seem to exist! (We don’t miss the rain!)

Cheers and goodbye,

The Lunch Lady

After an incident at a Portland-area drive-thru earlier this week, Burgerville has announced it will allow bicyclists to order and pick up food at all drive-thru lanes. The company will announce a formal bicycle drive-thru program within the next two weeks.

Burgerville is creating the chain-wide bike-friendly policy after Portland cyclist Sarah Gilbert was refused service at one of the restaurant’s drive-thru locations on Wednesday.

The company previously had an ad hoc approach to serving bicyclists at drive-thru windows, leaving the decision up to its individual general managers. Due to the company’s ad hoc approach to serving cyclists, the Burgerville team member staffing the drive-thru window was uninformed about that location’s willingness to serve two-wheeled vehicles. Burgerville has since issued an apology to Gilbert for the inconvenience.

“We’ve been handling bikes in the drive-thrus on an ad hoc basis and Ms. Gilbert’s experience helped accelerate our decision to develop a formal bike-friendly program. Her experience highlighted inconsistencies in our bike policy,” said Jack Graves, Burgerville’s chief cultural officer. “Opening up our drive-thrus to the large cycling community in our area is a natural for us and is very much in line with our overall values. While we are sorry that Ms. Gilbert was inconvenienced, we appreciate the passion she brought to the issue and her commitment to the environment and our food. We are excited about the positive impact we will be able to make through our new bike policy.”

Burgerville expects that all 39 of its locations will be able to accommodate cycle-thru orders within the next two weeks as the company finalizes operational and safety aspects of the program.

We’ll have more pictures tomorrow. We are exhausted after an amazing day at Bite of Oregon! If you haven’t been yet this weekend, be sure to visit on Sunday. Cheers!

After a morning shopping excursion to Jantzen Beach (found some adorable summertime sandals at Target for $10!), we needed to refuel. It was a sunny Saturday, so why not head over state lines and grab some Mexican food at Who-Song and Larry’s? After all, we hadn’t been to The ‘Couv in like FOREVER!

Well, we weren’t the only ones with the same idea. The parking lot was PACKED. (Note: They share a parking lot with Joe’s Crab Shack.) We circled the parking lot three times before snagging a coveted space.

The restaurant was equally packed, and the hostess said the wait for a table would be at least 20 minutes. So we scooted into the seat-yourself cantina section and plopped our shopped-out selves at a comfy table in the corner.

The service was fast! Within a minute or two our server delivered a basket of tortilla chips and some yummy-zummy salsa and we ordered a round of drinks. Me: margarita on the rocks. He: strawberry lemonade.

As we looked over the menu, we noticed how reasonable the prices were and how large all the plates being delivered to the other tables were!

I chose the grilled chicken and steak skewers served dipping sauces. It also came with a grilled shrimp taco on the side as well as yucca fries, rice and their famous sweet corn cake.

My friend ordered the spinach enchiladas, which came with beans, rice and the sweet corn cake. [Read more →]

Rating:

When most Portlanders hear the name Greek Cusina, they’ll likely conjure up images of the cavernous landmark restaurant and nightclub which has served downtown since 1975.

Over a year ago the Greek Cusina team opened a new location, a suburban “express” version of their famous downtown eatery. Tucked away in the quiet corner of a Tualatin shopping center, this Greek Cusina is the same and very different from the original.

The food is just as delicious in Tualatin, but before you visit the suburban version of Greek Cusina, know it’s not the same as the original version.

First of all, the menu is limited compared to the huge menu at the downtown location, but they still have all the favorites. Second, you have to order at the counter and they will bring your food to your self-seating table. This seems to confuse some diners, who I’ve seen standing at the door waiting to be seated. They might need to add a sign or something to clarify this. Third, don’t come expecting any plate-breaking or ouzo-fueled “Oopa!” cheers—those things are still reserved for the original location.

But, on the flip side, the food is very reasonably priced and they offer a daily lunch special for less than $6. The service is very fast. In fact, I’ve walked in to order take-out many times and haven’t had to wait more than a few minutes.

I always, always, always get the Mediterranean dip sampler ($6.50), which comes with three dips (there are eight to choose from, but my faves are the scordalia, the Feta dip and the tzatziki) and tons of pita. It’s practically a meal in itself! My other favorites are the Greek pizzas, the kebab gyros and the Mad Panini. [Read more →]

It’s been a few months since we’ve updated the site—and we apologize. Like so many others in Stumptown, 2009 has been a rough year for The Lunch Lady. Not only are we looking for a “real” job, but a series of electronic equipment catastrophes have whittled our budget and exhausted some of our Stumptown spirit.

First, our beloved laptop crashed suddenly one morning—and by crashed, we pretty much mean committed suicide, taking a lot of precious information/moments/settings with it. As if that wasn’t enough, a few weeks later our digital camera decided to go into hiding (i.e., we accidentally misplaced it).

Since The Lunch Lady’s unemployment checks barely allow for the occasional lunch out (when someone else isn’t paying), we had to take a break from Stumptown Lunch to recoup our expensive losses.

But things are looking up! We have a new netbook (we love Fry’s), and just today we finally broke out the wallet to get a new digital camera (we also love Best Buy). So we are back in the lunch review business—especially the cheap lunch reviews, because we are STILL unemployed!

Thank you to all the readers who have been coming back—even if we didn’t have any exciting new content. (We approved about 20 comments today because we’ve simply been too depressed to check them recently.) We now have a new poll up (thanks to some help from our Burgerville friends), a few reviews in the pipeline and Bite of Oregon is just over a week away!

We’re back! We’re just warning you!!!!

Cheers,
The Lunch Lady

James Beard was the ultimate foodie, and he was a Portland native. Winning a James Beard Foundation Award is one of the highest honors a restaurant or chef can receive.

Tonight, the James Beard Foundation Awards were announced in New York. Sadly, no Portland, Oregon, winners on the list this year, but it’s still an excellent reference for great food around the country.

The Salmon Creek (Vancouver) location of Burgerville will begin serving local beers and wines on Friday, May 1. In a move that is the first of its kind in the Northwest, the high-end fast food chain will offer specially chosen wines and beers to compliment their gourmet seasonal offering menu.

An internationally renowned sommelier has chosen the initial wines to be the Ponzi Tavola Pinot Noir, O’Reilly Pinot Gris and the Eyrie Vineyards Chardonnay. The selected beers include Widmer Hefeweizen, Full Sail Amber and Terminal Gravity ESG. [Read more →]

T.G.I. Friday’s is trying to get diners back through their doors by offering $5 salads and sandwiches all day throughout the month of May. The prices are so discounted that they haven’t been this low since the restaurant opened in 1965!

We wonder if the other casual sit-down chains will be far behind in slashing prices. It’s getting rough out there for restaurants!

As the recession creeps along—especially here in the Portland area—everyone seems to be reigning in their entertainment and dining-out budgets. While the days of dropping hundreds of dollars for a high-end steakhouse lunch with co-workers might be over for most of us, being economical doesn’t have to mean sacrificing a good, quality meal.

The two Blue Sage Café locations (one in West Linn and one in Lake Oswego) are offering a very unique way to enjoy a nice meal: you pick your own price! Dine-in customers pay full-price for their beverage, and then get to decide what they want to pay for their meal.

The Southwestern-style restaurant has been offering the “Your Price is Right” program since March, but you better stop in for a visit soon, as the special offer ends April 30.

Looking for a way to save money without depending on daily dining off a drive-thru Value Menu? As many fast food joints start to skimp on portion size and food quality, our very own Burgerville is making strides in the way fast food should be—healthy, while remaining affordable.

Already known for utilizing many local products, vendors and ingredients, Burgerville has recently expanded their seasonal options to take advantage of what’s fresh and plentiful at the moment. April’s seasonal selections include a Spinach Florentine Breakfast Pastry and a Spring Spinach and Chicken Salad. In May, they will be adding asparagus items to the menu.

If you are ready to get out of the house and enjoy some of the rare Oregon sunshine, I suggest you hit Saturday Market on the weekends. Sure, the crowds can get large and the food stand lines can get long, but there are lots of deals to be found. At Beirut Café I got a huge garlic chicken pita sandwich for less than $7, and then indulged in a gigantic iced coffee for $2. For dessert there was the must-have elephant ear and a honeydew-flavored bubble tea.

Saturday Market has food for everyone in the family, from pizza and burgers to Hawaiian and BBQ. Not to mention all the great fun foods, like ice cream, kettle corn and fudge! Saturday Market is a fantastic place to visit for locals and tourists alike.

Saturday Market is open Saturdays and Sundays until December 24.

What are your favorite recession-friendly lunch spots? Send us a tip!

Wong Kee Dim Sum Restaurant
28 NW 4th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97209
503-229-1888
Map It!
Rating:

Then my friend Matt mentioned how amazing the dim sum is at Wong Kee—in fact, his entire family would occasionally drive all the way from Corvallis just to eat there when he was a kid. So I had to take him up on his offer to try it out.

I’ve had the regular menu at Wong Kee before, so I knew the food would be great, but I was very excited and delighted to try so many delicious dim sum treats all in one sitting. [Read more →]

Sadly, Stumptown Lunch didn’t make this top 50 food blog list from the Times of London, but it’s still a fun read to peruse.

I am sure we were #51….