Portland Burger Tour - The Canyon Grill

To follow up our not so great experience at our last tier 2 burger joint we had a wonderful experience at The Canyon Grill. Driving by you may not even notice it because it's so small but this place has great food! The menu was full of diner classics. We all ordered different burgers again! We tried the Canyon Burger, the Hawaiian, the Blue Cheese Bacon Burger and the Mushroom Swiss. You got your choice of fries, tater tots and onion rings. We tried the onion rings and fries and just loved both.

I have to give a shout out the to owners who were serving us, they were just wonderful. They even brought us out a taste of the jambalaya soup they were making and it was amazing. We all agreed we needed to go back just for a full bowl of that. Great place, we would definitely all go back!

Our ratings below -

Kendra's Ratings

Burger - 7

Environment - 7.5

Side - 8.5

Chris' Ratings

Burger -8

Environment - 8

Side - 8

Ron's Ratings

Burger - 7.5

Environment - 8

Side - 8.2

Lisa's Ratings

Burger - 8.3

Environment - 8

Side - 8.5

Garage Sale Finds 3/21/2015

I am so excited to be nearly back into my favorite season of the year - GARAGE SALE SEASON! While they are still sparse, they are starting to pop up! We headed out to Happy Valley, West Linn, Tualatin, King City and Sherwood (lots of driving without alot of reward today). You never find expensive things by staying in small towns, you have to go to the rich areas! I have a massive garage saling list this year and found a few things this past weekend that helped jump start me in the right direction.

First off I found some amazing vintage earrings at an estate sale that were half off since we got there in the afternoon on Saturday. I highly recommend checking out garage sales and goodwill for your vintage jewelry because thrift stores always mark them up so high! I got each set for $1 each. These are not cheapo pieces either, they are real metal and pretty heavy.

My kitchen is Bistro themed (sort of...I hate themes). But I couldn't pass up these two Parisian Bistro scenes by ones of my favorites artists, Chiu Tak Hak. I already found the matching coasters at goodwill so I am set! The pictures are 12x18 each and are matted really well on heavy frames. They had $5 each on these but I got both for $7.

Looking forward to more exciting finds coming up soon as the weather gets better!

Portland Burger Tour - Foster Burger

Oh Foster Burger, I don't really know how else to start this post other than saying I think we were successful in finding one of the sleaziest streets in Portland on this tour. Definitely is being rated on our tier 2 scale. The burger joint in crammed between some trashy looking strip clubs and across from an adult video store. Against our better judgement we decided to go for it since it was on a top rated list we had seen. We probably should have just left.

I will say that the food was ok, wasn't bad but wasn't great either. The location was terrible and the place was dirty both the unclean kind of dirty and had things on the walls that I wouldn't want my future kids seeing (dirty show posters and old band memorabilia). We all tried different burgers from the menu -  The Kiwi Burger (natural, hormone free ground lamb, cheddar, pickled beet, egg, mayo, lettuce, house pickles, onion), The Burner ( The Foster Burger with “Sri-Rancha,” roasted jalapenos, fried onion straws, shredded lettuce, American & cheddar) and The Kentucky Blue (The Foster Burger with blue cheese, bacon, bourbon onions, shredded lettuce and pickle, side of Foster Sauce). We also all tried the Black and White Fries which are grilled in parmesan and white truffle oil and served with a side of squid ink aioli. *SPOILER ALERT*, one of us got food poisoning. Anyone want to take a guess at which burger did one of the judges in? It was the Kiwi Burger (thankfully not mine). This tour is not all glamorous, we did the hard work on this one so we can honestly tell people that we don't recommend it.

Ratings below and based on these you can tell who got food poisoning too.

Kendra's Ratings

Burger - 3

Environment - 3

Side - 3

Chris' Ratings

Burger - 4

Environment - 3.5

Side -3

 Ron's Ratings

Burger - 0

Environment - 0

Side -0

Lisa's Ratings

Burger - 3

Environment - 3

Side -3.5

Portland Burger Tour - Dundee Bistro

We got a late start tonight and decided to check out the Dundee Bistro since it was close by. The Dundee Bistro didn't make the Oregonian's top list but it did make a few other top blogger lists. The environment is awesome and during the summer they have lots of great outdoor seating. It was very quiet and relaxing and the service was very good. We all ordered the same burger since there is only one on the menu. The burger came on a brioche bun with white cheddar and pickles. On the side the burger came with truffle fries, which I loved. It was a little bit expensive for being a small burger though. We really enjoyed our time there and would love to go back to try all of the other good looking dinner options.

Our ratings below -

Kendra's Ratings

Burger  - 6.2

Environment - 8

Side - 7.5

Chris' Ratings

Burger  - 7

Environment - 7

Side -8

 Ron's Ratings

Burger  - 7.9

Environment - 9

Side -7.2

Lisa's Ratings

Burger  - 6

Environment - 8.5

Side -6.5

Portland Burger Tour - Killer Burger

Killer Burger was a super fun experience! Luckily there are multiple locations because the first one we went to was jam packed. The environment was really fun and we were happy we were there on a Blazer game night. There were so many burgers to choose from but I just had to try the rumored Peanut Butter Pickle Burger. It was great! You could definitely taste the peanut butter in the sauce they used but it was a really great combination. We love the fries and side options as well. We had a couple of guests with us tonight to celebrate a birthday (Great place for that!).

We are rating Killer Burger in the Tier 2 category of restaurants as they are more a diner or chain style joint. 

Our ratings below -

Kendra's Ratings

Burger - 7.7

Environment - 7

Side - 7

Chris' Ratings

Burger - 8

Environment - 7

Side -7

 Ron's Ratings

Burger - 7.9

Environment - 7

Side -7.8

Lisa's Ratings

Burger - 8

Environment - 7

Side -7.5

Portland Burger Tour - Tilt

Tilt is one of those places that I have heard about from everyone but just had never tried! Tonight we tried four different burgers there and were in heaven. So I had the Woody Royale which was a chuck patty, onion ring, jalepeno slaw, bbq brisket, bacon and sharp cheddar. It was incredible and heavy. Ron got the Island Trucker which was the chuck patty, sweet ham, onion ring, grilled pineapple, teriyaki sauce and swiss cheese (we split half and half so I got half of this one too). Lisa had the Koolakofsky which had pastrami, sauerkraut, swiss and tilt sauce. Chris had the Tilt Burger which has two patties, bacon, fried egg, pickle, tomatoes, lettuce, onions (not for Chris though), tilt sauce and a triple bun. We also had fries! Needless to say we were stuffed.We loved the environment and all of the great menu options.

 Kendra's Ratings

Burger - 8

Environment - 9

Side -9

Chris' Ratings

Burger - 9

Environment - 9

Side -8

 Ron's Ratings

Burger - 8

Environment - 9.5

Side -8

Lisa's Ratings

Burger - 8

Environment - 9.5

Side -8.5