Disappointing Dinner - Le Pigeon Portland - Reserveringen te koop
Getting a Reservering at Le Pigeon Portland for Today or Tomorrow is Easy!
Buy a verified reservering at Le Pigeon Portland from someone who doesn't need theirs anymore.
If there is nothing that fits your schedule, you can bid on your preferred time.
We only list verified Reserverings!
All listed Reserverings are reviewed by our team before appearing in the calendar or being allowed to answer a bid you place. That's why AppointmentTrader comes with a included Money Back Guarantee for each transaction.
Portland's Best Restaurants that are most frequently booked by customers of Le Pigeon Portland
🤢 2/5 - Disappointing Dinner
By 👻 @Matthew G, 11/23/2020 3:00 am
|
For a recent trip to Portland, I spent a lot of time researching restaurants in the area and wanted to try some of the best food that Portland has to offer. Time and time again as I conducted my research, Le Pigeon came up as one of the best restaurants in the city, and an absolute must-do for people who appreciate great food. It sounded right up our alley, and I was grateful to be able to get one of their limited indoor dining reservations on a Saturday night. I didn’t love that the restaurant required full prepayment for the required chef’s tasting menu (which I believe was optional prior to the pandemic). However, we were excited about the dinner and I was very much looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, this meal just fell flat for us. I feel bad writing a negative review while restaurants have been struggling during the pandemic. However, I think it’s just the style of Le Pigeon’s food that wasn’t to our liking, so I think it’s still helpful to share, so others can determine if it’s the right restaurant for them. Service was extremely attentive throughout the meal, but the food itself was just not to our taste. My wife and I really love a good tasting menu with wine pairings, so the concept that was being offered at Le Pigeon was definitely something we like, but the execution ultimately didn’t work for us.
The restaurant is very tiny and casual, with an eclectic décor. For a dinner that is $115 per person, plus $50 if you want to add basic wine pairings, the overall ambiance and experience weren’t quite up to the price level. Most comparably priced restaurants we’ve been to are simply a bit nicer. This wasn’t the problem for us, but I could see others wanting the restaurant itself to feel a little higher end for the cost.
I called a few days ahead to let the restaurant know of a mushroom allergy that my wife has, as well as to ask if she could have the first course off of the vegetarian menu (glazed pineapple), rather than the first course on the regular menu (venison tartare), since she prefers not to eat raw red meat. The staff was happy to accommodate this request, and when we arrived for dinner, they also let us know that they would be modifying the main course for her too (grilled pigeon), since it included mushrooms. I appreciated the willingness to accommodate dietary restrictions and preferences so easily.
As the meal got going, one thing I noticed from the very beginning was just how overly complex each course was, but not in a good way. As the servers brought each course out, the description of each one went on and on with ingredients that the servers listed. I was impressed that they had memorized such long descriptions, but I essentially had no idea what I was eating, since it was impossible to remember it all. There were just so many competing flavors that I found myself unable to really appreciate anything. There were often just too many spices and textures. Everything was plated and served very nicely, but the style was just not to our liking.
In addition, some of the courses just ended up being a miss when they sounded great from the description. For example, the chicken chestnut tortellini with truffle alfredo sounded interesting and crowd-pleasing based on its listing on the menu. However, it turned out to be a miss, with the stuffing of the pasta being a way too heavy and tasteless chicken liver mousse that I wasn’t expecting, which didn’t go well with the heavy cream-based sauce and fresh truffles shaved on top. All I wanted was an enjoyable, well-executed pasta course, but it felt like it was made much more complex than it had to be without actually tasting that great. Similarly, the tamarind glazed salmon course actually featured very tasty, well prepared salmon, but I couldn’t appreciate it because of the mess of oysters, salmon meatballs, and bok choy that were also on the plate. The chefs here definitely employ a kitchen sink mentality when preparing the courses, while I much prefer simpler preparations of food that showcase the ingredients and thoughtful pairing of flavors.
When it came to the main course that the server specified would be modified for my wife’s allergy, we were disappointed to find that instead of just making the grilled pigeon for her without mushrooms, they gave her one of the earlier courses from the vegetarian menu with an odd modification. They brought out the beet and blue cheese galette from the vegetarian menu, which looked good, but they then added more of the chicken liver mousse from the pasta course onto the plate, which just didn’t go well at all with the galette, and was especially not welcome after we hadn’t enjoyed the chicken liver in the pasta. I appreciated that the staff was willing to accommodate the allergy and prepare an alternate course, but we definitely would have preferred to be consulted on what that course would be before it was brought out.
I also didn’t love the wine pairings. They weren’t bad, but not a single one was memorable or felt like it went that well with the food. For example, they paired a red with the salmon, which is not a typical pairing, but can work. However, in reality they should have just stuck with a white wine with the fish because it wasn’t a particularly good match. With so many competing flavors in each course, I think it would be very difficult to find great wine pairings anyway, since each bite just had so much going on. I’d recommend skipping the pairings and just ordering wine separately.
By the end of the meal, we were tired and full, but not happy with what we had eaten. It was an exhausting array of courses, that it seems many people love, but we just didn’t like. The final sweet potato custard for dessert was actually very good (it was honestly the course I enjoyed the most), and was simple, yet interesting enough to be what I expected on a tasting menu like this. The signature foie gras profiterole that also came with dessert seemed like it would be weird, but I actually thought it tasted very good, and was exactly the type of creative, interesting dish that I thought would be the entirety of our experience here.
All in all, it was very clear to me that Le Pigeon is just not for us, which is a shame, because I was hoping to love it. Service was very attentive and friendly and up to the standard of what we were expecting from this restaurant, so I have no complaints about the staff or the experience they were trying to create. My problem is simply that we didn’t like the food. With so many overly complex courses with competing flavors, my taste buds definitely are not looking to have any more of this type of food in the future. However, if that doesn’t deter you, definitely feel free to try this restaurant see if it will work for you. Most people seem to love it, although there are reviews here and there that an experience similar to ours, so I know we’re not the only ones who feel this way about Le Pigeon.
0 Replys
0 Comments |
Be the first to Reply |