Tag Archives: Beaverton

Bakery, Coffee & More, Desserts/Pastries

La Rosé Pâtisserie in Beaverton

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After coming back from Europe, I started to admire and respect local non-ordinary patisserie places with not-so-long menu of items but that has an elegant attitude towards fresh bakery. La Rose Patisserie in Beaverton, Oregon is one of those French/Asian patisserie spots that just showed up in my Google map when my friend and I were deciding where to go for some good pastries on a late Sunday afternoon.

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La Rose Patisserie in Beaverton, Oregon

Opened recently in 2019, La Rose Patisserie’s owner and baker is a graduate from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. This is a small  shop where you can get freshly baked French baked breads, very uniquely designed custom cakes, macaroons, exquisite pastries, different flavors of bubble teas, and other hot/cold drinks. The sitting arrangements inside may not be ideal for a large group or even more than couple small groups.

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La Rose Patisserie in Beaverton, Oregon

 

We picked up few different single-sized cakes, pastries, and macaroons.  While I personally didn’t try any macaroons, the way my friend’s kids almost finished the whole half a dozen macaroons box in just few minutes, tells me that they have to be very delicious.

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Mango-mango in La Rose Patisserie in Beaverton, Oregon

Some of the pastries we picked and tried were witch’s heart, honey-lavender white chocolate cake, Belgian white chocolate with raspberry cake, rainbow crepe cake, and mango-mango cake. To be very honest, EACH of those pastries that we picked were delightful in their own way. And I am not exaggerating when I say that each of those pastries had perfect textures, flavors, and just the right amount of sweetness. I am not a big fan of too rich or too sugary desserts with too much dairy or flour. The creamy consistency of these cakes were perfect combination of everything which will just melt in your mouths.

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Rainbow crepe layered cake in La Rose Patisserie in Beaverton, Oregon

I am eagerly waiting to take my kids here, I know they would go crazy looking at all the fancy shapes of cakes and delicacies that La Rose has to offer to their customers. Oh, and I can’t wait to order one of their custom made birthday cakes either…they all looked fabulously fantastic.

Brunch, Greek, Gyros, Mediterranean

Antoni’s Restaurant – Beaverton

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I officially have a teenager at home now. I say officially because, all this time she was pretending to be a teenager (pre-teen). This is an exciting phase for me…don’t really know what to expect other than what I experienced myself as a teen and what teenagers from this generation face.

To celebrate her 13th birthday, she wanted to keep it simple (compare to her last few birthdays) and wanted to take her few friends to a restaurant. We had total 17 people with her friends and families. After contacting few places from Italian to Middle-Eastern, we finally settled on Antoni’s (and not the Italian place in Portland, called Antonio’s). I’ve dined here before and I loved their food and atmosphere.

Cheese on flame in Antoni's
Cheese on flame in Antoni’s

Antoni’s is a Greek/Mediterranean place in Beaverton area on Canyon Road. It was love at first sight for me with this restaurant. I loved their food and interior when my friend took me there last year. This is a great place to celebrate an occasion or just go for soul Greek food or just love having breakfast/brunch outside of your house once in a while. Their menu pretty much covers wide variety of breakfast items, appetizers, all types of mouth-watering Greek salads, more than 10 different types of burgers, gyros, souvlaki, mousaka, seafood, kid-friendly menu, and other traditional Greek dishes.

Lamb and chicken skewers at Antoni's
Lamb and chicken skewers at Antoni’s

First time I was at Antoni’s, I had gyro, which I absolutely loved. This time we decided to go for Family Style Dinner for a big crowd. There 2 kinds of dinner platter that you can choose…Greek Dinner and Grilled Family Dinner. We ordered few of both platters. Both are slightly different and included cheese, salad, mousaka, dolmas, spanakopita, rice, mashed potatoes, lamb and chicken skewers, grilled shrimps, and veges. They were all great and all the kids loved the meat items as well as the salad and rice.

While everything on the dinner platter was great, I wouldn’t recommend wasting your money here on desserts. The birthday girl received a free sundae ice-cream which was great. But most of the other kids who got ice-cream or lava-cake or cheesecake…they all complained the desserts weren’t that yummy. But most of all those desserts weren’t really traditional Greek or Mediterranean sweets.

Dolmas, spanakopitas, and mousaka at Antoni's
Dolmas, spanakopitas, and mousaka at Antoni’s

But other than that Antoni’s’ had a perfect customer service and dealt with this big group very professionally and patiently. The kids especially loved when our waitress flamed a block of cheese on fire in front of them and gave the younger kids some birthday goodies.

Antoni’s is in my list of favorite restaurants for Greek food in Portland. Check it out and do let me know if you come across any other good Greek restaurants in town. I like any kind of Mediterranean dishes any days of the week.

 

Asian, Japanese

Sushi Mioga

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It was an unplanned visit to Sushi Mioga with a friend, on a Sunday afternoon. Since another restaurant in the same complex had 45 minutes waiting time, we decided to check out this place instead.

Inside Sushi Mioga in Portland
Inside Sushi Mioga in Portland

I love conveyor-belt-sushi places, but I still had to find a decent restaurant in Portland, where the sushi did not taste too mediocre. Sushi Mioga is located in the new Timberland Town Center with lots of other good quality restaurants, a cafe, grocery, and other cool stores. As soon as you walk into Sushi Mioga, you’ll see that it’s a clean, open, and spacious place to dine in. We only waited few minutes to get a table and servers/attendees are fast and friendly too.

Our sushi plates in Sushi Mioga, Portland
Our sushi plates in Sushi Mioga, Portland

Unlike few other sushi-belt spots in Portland/Hillsboro area that I’ve visited, all the sushi plates we tried here were surprisingly fresh and can be made-to-order. They have all sorts of options from raw fish to rolls to vegetarian to nigiri and also with different sauces and spices. You can tell if a conveyor-belt-sushi place is good by the quality of their wasabi. Wasabi in most of these other places (if not all) are usually very bland and ruins my whole experience of eating sushi. Sushi Mioga’s wasabi had a perfect kick and flavor…you’ll love every piece of your sushi with it.

We tried few spicy sushi and nigiri with tuna, salmon, and crab along with a plate of fried wonton. Honestly speaking, I did enjoy each of those for their freshness, taste of raw fish, and perfect sizes. You can also pick sliced salmons in teriyaki sauce, small drinks, tempuras, desserts, and many more things from the belt. If you don’t find something, you can order from the menu. We just picked whatever looked good and we didn’t regret any of them.

Conveyor-sushi-belt in Sushi Mioga in Portland
Conveyor-sushi-belt in Sushi Mioga in Portland

Sushi Mioga may not serve the best sushi in town but for the price and with tons of options, this is my new favorite conveyor-belt-sushi restaurant for now. This would definitely be my first option whenever I’m in the mood for inexpensive and good sushi.

Indian

Bawarchi Biryanis – PDX

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Since I’m originally from Bangladesh, a small country right beside India, I usually don’t go to Indian restaurants knowing I’ll be spending money on something that I can probably cook at home. But then again Indian cuisine varies from South India to North India and then to vegan, vegetarian, and meat lovers. Every once in a while, I do crave for certain tastes from that country and that’s when I hit my favorite Indian spots in town.

Inside Bawarchi Biryanis - PDX
Inside Bawarchi Biryanis

Today, I was hungry like an elephant when I went out for my lunch break and I could only think about one thing…rice. Not just any Asian style rice, but Indian style basmati rice and daal (lentil) and curry. Buffet…yes, I needed a place where I could just try different things without ordering ten dishes and stay within the budget at the same time.

I was in Beaverton/Hillsboro area, near 185th, and I remembered there was once an Indian restaurant here called “Lentil Garden” here, which I never tried before. But upon arriving, it looked like Bawarchi Biryanis took over Lentil Garden. But oh well, I needed some rice and daal, so the name didn’t matter, but I was praying and hoping that they would have buffet. And they DID.

Bawarchi Biryanis is all over the USA and their Portland location is on 185th. The restaurant itself is nothing fancy nor the interior is anything extraordinary. But it is  homey. While customer service is just average, the place is clean and has good food.

A portion of the lunch buffet in Bawarchi Biryanis

The buffet is only available for lunch until 2:30pm, which costs about $10. If you are lucky, you can get a la carte dishes for lunch too, but not always. They are closed in between lunch and dinner. Make sure to check their hours before going for dinner. I arrived there for a late lunch around 2pm and it was pretty empty. But the buffet items looked fresh, nicely filled up, and didn’t look like they were sitting out for too long. It was my kind of buffet honestly…spicier than average Indian places with couple uncommon items that you usually don’t see in other Indian buffets, like bitter melon bhaji or papaya bhaji. It had at least three different kinds of chicken dishes, freshly made daal, 3 or 4 different kinds of vegetables and of course rice and bread. But only pakoras for appetizer and rice pudding for dessert.

My buffet plate # 1 in Bawarchi Biryanis

I won’t probably come to Bawarchi Biryanis to celebrate an occasion or bring friends to hang out after work. But I will come here whenever I’m up for some Indian comfort food without spending a lot of bucks. And yes, I still need to try their dinner menu.

Asian, Japanese

Nikki Sushi & Steak

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It was one of those nights when I wanted to treat myself to a nice place. I was in Tigard area and Progress Ridge Townsquare is one of my favorite hang out places here. I came to the Ava Roasteria and Al’s Bowling across the street many times but never had a chance to try any other restaurants in this relatively newly developed shopping plaza. Progress Ridge Townsquare is lined with variety of eateries, coffee shop, grocery, and other stores. After driving around the parking lot for couple minutes, I finally picked this Japanese place, called Nikki Sushi & Steak.

Inside Nikki Sushi & Steak in Tigard, OR
Inside Nikki Sushi & Steak in Tigard, OR

The restaurant is a nice medium size place with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. This is a place where I’d bring my close people for different occasions who are looking for a fancy but not too formal place. I felt it’s a relaxing yet a trendy place to dine in. I was there on a Monday night. The crowd was light and the service was fast.

Nikki Sushi & Steak has a wide variety of Japanese dishes, ranging from hibachi, to sushi/nigiri plates, to teriyaki and bento-box. Price is a bit on the high range, in fact slightly higher than regular hibachi where they cook in front of you, but here they don’t cook in front of you. I ordered shrimp hibachi which was about $20 for a nice regular portion. You can get either miso soup or house salad with most of the entrees here. I went with the house salad which they forgot to give me at first and packed it later to take out. I indulged into the perfectly cooked big shrimps and the fried rice, though wasn’t enjoying the sauteed vegetables as much…they were crunchy and perfectly spiced but those zucchini pieces tasted bitter. But overall I’d give this dish and the restaurant a thumbs up.

Shrimp Hibachi in Nikki Sushi & Steak in Tigard, OR
Shrimp Hibachi in Nikki Sushi & Steak in Tigard, OR

I would recommend Nikki Sushi & Steak to anyone living in or visiting Portland, doesn’t matter if they like Japanese food or not, but then again who doesn’t like sushi boats or Japanese steak?