Little Bird Bistro - Portland

During my recent trip to Portland, I knew of a couple places where I wanted to try, but the first night I did not have anything planned since I didn't know the exact time I would be getting into to town.

After getting to the hotel and being extremely exhausted after having taken a day trip to explore the Hood Mountain area, I just wanted something close.  Taking a quick look on Yelp! and Trip Advisor showed that Little Bird Bistro got fantastic reviews on each.  Not expecting for good French food in Portland, we decided to give it a try.  It was an easy walk from the hotel.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the restaurant was that the table were extremely close together.  The restaurant was full, which was a good sign, and hopefully meant good food as well.

In looking at the menu, the first thing that struck me was that this was a French restaurant in disguise.  Instead of doing classic French food, there was a little twist on each dish, something that I hoped would turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Field Greens Salad

The Field Greens, Banyuls Vinaigrette and Le Chevrot salad was composed of different types of greens, but was overly dressed and super sour.  There wasn't enough oil to balance out the acidity of the vinegar.

Mushroom Bisque

The Mushroom Bisque was silky smooth and rich.  It has an earthy taste because of the mushrooms, but the mouth feel of a lot of cream.  A pretty nice way to start the meal.

French Onion Gratin

The Gratin of French Onion, Gruyere, Breadcrumbs and Sherried Chicken Sausage is a take on the classic French Onion Soup, expect that there is no soup.  In a way, it is a concentrated version of the dish, but by reducing or eliminating the stock, the dish was rather salty.  Instead of having a nice hearty piece of bread to counteract the saltiness of the dish, the meager amount breadcrumbs was not able to accomplish this.  The chicken sausage just seemed out of place in this dish.

Bone Marrow

The Roasted Bone Marrow came with calamari, and instead of toast came with a squid ink tortilla like bread.  The bone marrow was rich and luscious, but did not work well with the calamari or the squid ink bread.

Macaroni Gratin

The Macaroni Gratin is their version on Mac and Cheese.  Although loaded with cheese and a slightly crunchy topping it was good, but was not outstanding.

Steak Frites

The Hanger Steak Frites, Chermoula, Watercress and Harissa Creme Fraiche is another take on the classic Steak Frites.  The dish has a Tunisian twist with the chermoula and harissa.  The steak was cooked well and tender, but was lacking some salt.  Rather than tasting like Harissa the sauce had a Southwestern feel too it.  It did have a nice little spicy kick to it though.

Cassoulet

The Cassoulet was the most classic presentation, but again had a little twist to the dish as it contains pork belly.  This hearty peasant dish, fills you up and makes you warm inside.  This is a solid dish, and worth ordering again in the future.

I think Little Bird Bistro would be better served sticking to the classic recipes of each dish, but based on the crowds waiting to get in, my opinion is in the definite minority.