Five Loaves

I traveled with a group of friends to Portland for a golfing and shopping trip during the July 4th weekend. On the second day, we golfed at Heron Lakes Golf Club in the afternoon. Heron Lakes Golf Club was rated four stars by Golf Digest. The golf club has two courses, but we golfed on the Great Blue Course. This course is a favorite challenge among low handicap golfers. The 6,902 yard course’s fairways ramble between Scottish-style mounds and pose a collection of excellent risk/reward riddles. It was a beautiful afternoon for a round of golf.

After golfing, we returned to the hotel to shower and rest. My friends were expecting to have dinner with a friend that is attending school in Portland. We met at the hotel not knowing where to have dinner. We gave her the honor of choosing the restaurant because she a local. Jolene decided on a restaurant called Higgins.  She claimed that some of her friends recommended the restaurant, but she had not tried it herself.   We didn’t know exactly where it was, so I used Urbanspoon on the iPhone to get the address of the restaurant.

We arrived at the restaurant and the the front of the house sat us in the lower dinning area.  They informed us there will be a 15% gratitude charge for a group of three or greater.  We had a group of six.  At this point, we did not care because we were starving and tired from golf.  Next, Jolene mentioned that her intention was to have dinner at the Higgins’ bar, but we stayed cause we are already seated. The restaurant had a mahogany wood decor, open kitchen and big windows utilizing the natural sunlight. The waitress brought the menus and informed us about their specials.  We quickly decided and ordered our food.

After ordering, the waitress brought us some bread.  The bread was pretty tough and chewy.  We had the bread with olive oil, but there was no balsamic vinegar. The waitress didn’t bring butter with the bread either, so we were not impressed.

Victor started with the warm asparagus, hazelnut and ale battered Walla Walla onion rings with a tofu rouille. He felt that the dish was below average. The onion rings had a horrible batter and the onions were too sweet.

Ray and Steve started with Totten Inlet mussels steamed in white wine with curry, ginger, red onion and sesame crisps.  The dish had some heat and was flavored nicely.  The mussels, however, did not taste very fresh.  Maybe mussels are not in season?

I started with the black bean with ham hock soup.  Does it not look like Chinese red bean dessert?  That was everyone’s comment at the table.  The soup tasted earthy, homey, and was well seasoned.

John and Ray ordered the braised pork collar served with carrot potato puree and snap peas over fennel glace for their entree.  This dish was one of their specials. The pork tasted savory when lightly dipped in the fennel glace.  The braised pork collar was prepared very well because it was very tender and flaky.

Jolene, Victor and I ordered fusilli pasta with asparagus, hard shell clams, herbs, white wine, and pecorino romano cheese.  We ordered this dish because we saw someone else enjoying this dish on another table.  The dish had an interesting texture.  We thought we were biting into bits and pieces of clams shells, but it turned out to be small toasted crunchy bread crumbs in the dish.  Jolene found a few pieces of broken clam shells in her plate.  The first few bites of the pasta seemed fine, but shortly after, we noticed the pasta was way too salty. We know that the pecorino romano cheese’s characteristic is it’s saltiness because it is aged with course salt; but there is no need to prepare the pasta with so much pecorino romano.  We were disappointed with the pasta.

Steve ordered the “Whole pig plate”.  The dish had sausage, braised belly, ribs, rillons and crepinette with braised greens, chow chow, polenta and mustard glace.  The sausage looked good, but Steve said it was actually bland and dry.  Next, the rillons were tough and chewy and the braised greens lacked seasoning. Steve said that the dish was a disaster!

There were a few last things I should note about Higgins: A group of six is not big and there should not be a 15% gratitude charge! The restaurant staff seemed snotty.  The food was mediocre and the dishes lacked excitement.  We found that Higgins’ bar had an entrance around the corner of the building but I’m not sure if they have the same menu as the restaurant. We are certainly not prepared to go back, so I guess we’ll never know.

Five Loaves Rating:
Value: 6/10
Quality: 5/10
Overall: 5.5/10

Verdict: Higgins’ is a upscaled bistro with poor food and service. This will be my first and last time dining at Higgins.