Okay, this by far was one of my favorite dinner places that we went to. We took a chance when we were just walking the streets of Portland on New Year’s Eve and was debating what we wanted to eat. We were afraid that the ones that were open were going to be insanely busy (steak houses) and the other half were going to be closed. We ended up walking by Tasty N Alder a few times before we settled with them, although the wait was insanely long– 1.5-2 hour wait. We didn’t want to the risk of going to another restaurant that late at night (8PM) so we decided to pass some time at their bar.

Their interior is very warm and inviting, mostly with dark warm wood complemented with black and metal, also gave off a very rustic hipster feel. The bar wall was filled and decorated with bottles of alcohol and a open concept kitchen where people can watch the cook make their food fresh. I sipped on rosé while David on a Moscow Mule as we waited for our seats. A little over an hour later, bar sitting by the kitchen opened up and we were seated. We were given free peanut appetizers while we waited for our server to take our order. For our entree I went with middle rare duck breast, David got their medium rare ribeye steak and jalapeño cornbread.

WOW. Their dishes were AMAZING. The duck was SO tender and juicy with the most amazing flavors. It had this lovely gamey(ness) (not the bad connotation of it. I personally LOVE game meat, I prefer it over beef and poultry). What I mean by ‘lovely gamey(ness)’ is that “it tastes all natural and wild like the way it should be”. It was DELICIOUS, especially paired with a few pomegranate seeds that gave it a slight tartness to it. Their ribeye steak was also amazingly tender and grilled to medium rare perfection.

With all the delicious dishes paired with superb and friendly service, we had a really good night there. It was a great end to 2018 and start to 2019!

Rating: ★★★★★
Address:
580 SW 12th Ave
Portland, OR 97205
Hours:
Sunday-Thursday 9:00AM-10:00PM
Friday-Saturday 9:00AM-11:00PM