excellent meal, Restaurant Iorio

Tried a new place for dinner on Saturday night, Restaurant Iorio on SE Hawthorne %26amp; 9th, right across the street from The Lucky Lab Pub. Not a very happening area, but oh, what a wonderful meal we had. There were 4 of us....each one agreed. The homemade bread was served with a pumpkin (or could%26#39;ve been winter squash) puree that tasted like a pumpkin hummus, and a side order of garbanzo beans tossed in a balsamic viniagrete with a fresh veggie salsa. Sure beats the pants off a frozen prewrapped pat of butter....

For appetizers, hubby and myself had the stuffed eggplant - a slice of eggplant that I think was first sauteed in butter til soft, then wrapped around roasted chopped veggies and topped with soft goat cheese and surrounded by a basil aioli - superb. Friend had the calamari which she and her hubby finished off and proclaimed wonderful. Her husband had the mussels, beautifully served in a tomato-y type sauce, surrrounded by garlic toast and topped off with a drizzle of a creamy sauce. They were easily the biggest mussels any of us had ever seen; he needed to eat them with a knife and fork!

For the main course, I had the chicken. I usually order fish (not a red meat eater) but the fact that this was accompanied by a fingerling potato and artichoke cake was intriguing to me. The chicken breast, which appeared to be bone-in with the wing section attached, was served skin on, and was completely boneless, much to my surprise. It was tender and juicy, and the skin was crispy and sweet. The potato artichoke cake was crispy on the outside and tender and creamy on the inside, just delish. Hubby had the pumpkin ravioli; he being a big meat eater shocked the heck outta me, but it looked wonderful and he said it was superb. Other 2 had the goat cheese cooked in a puff pastry and topped with a salad of mixed greens; nothing left on either plate when they were done.

For dessert, all 3 of them had the homemade cannoli; I opted out of this. Coming from the NYC area, its sure hard to beat a canolli from LIttle Italy, but it was good too, and they oohed and aahed with each bite. I had the apple tart topped with crema gelato and drizzled with pomegranite sauce. Opened the top button of the pants with that one.....

Yum. With the bill, they brought us each a good sized celophane bag, tied with rafia, and containing 2 pizzelle style cookies. I brought mine home and had them for dessert the next nite! What a nice touch.

They also had a 4 course tasting menu that looked wonderful - Caesar salad, the pumpkin ravioli, either a meat course or a fish called Skate, and dessert. For $30!!!! With wine pairings, $37.

All in all, it was a wonderful meal, and relatively inexpensive. Full bar too; the cosmos were mmmmmm.......

excellent meal, Restaurant Iorio

Sounds yummy! Thanks for the report! :)

excellent meal, Restaurant Iorio

Sounds like a nice night out:) We have a great dining thread that has been going for quite a while, so you might want to add this to it so that people know its a good place to go. That thread was started by Scarlett, and has 180+ responses. It is just a few threads below this one. I can top it for you if you like.

Okay, Mtngrl, I plead ignorance - what is topping (I of course immediately thought hot fudge, but somehow I think not......)?

Hi!

Topping in this case, LOL, means bringing a thread up to the top.

Topping in my case means anything with Chocolate.

I have read about Iorio, people at a Portland food board have discussed it..Thanks for the report, it all sounds great..!

LOL, hot fudge topping does sound good:)

Topping means to bring a thread up near the top, so it doesn%26#39;t get lost.

The thread I am referring to is titled ';Let%26#39;s Talk About Eating Out--Portland and Beyond';...and I think it is the thread below this one or so. Anyway, you can just do a cut and paste of this review and post it there.

I got my Portland Monthly magazine in the mail yesterday and it is the annual restaurant guide. Always fun to see what the writers think about places around here. Sometimes I agree, sometimes not, but it is always entertaining, lol!