The last in the Oregon Eateries series, we come to the creme de la creme of local Oregon restaurants: Jake’s Famous Crawfish.  During our night in Portland, Mike and I really wanted great, local seafood.  We asked around, did some research, and found Jake’s.  Nestled in downtown Portland, parking is a little difficult--we ended up parking in a parking garage about half a block away--but there is valet parking available too.  We probably would have done that if we had known about it first.

    First things first, the venue.  Jake’s was much bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside.  Plus number one.  I don’t like feeling too crowded in a restaurant.  The decor was all dark woods and stained glass, kind of like an upscale Cheers bar.  There were private booths  and a large bar area, but the majority of the restaurant stretched over two or three rooms.  Mike and I were seated in a booth--score!--and received excellent service.

    The menu at Jake’s is printed twice a day because they receive fresh seafood twice a day.  On the menu, every different kind of seafood is listed with where it’s from and that, my friends, is a long, long list.  I won’t go into all that was there, but there is definitely something for everyone there.  Mike had Alaskan halibut, which he said was very good, and I had the dungeness crab.  It was bathed in butter and delicious!  Here’s the thing, I don’t generally like crab.  Probably because most of my experience with crab is that unnaturally colored “snow crab” crap in Chinese food.  Blech!  I knew that crab from here would be awesome.  I was right.  :-)

    We also had dessert there, and do you know what they had on the dessert menu?  Bread pudding!  I love bread pudding.  Love it, love it, love it!  It was delicious, melt-in-your-mouth proper-warm dessert goodness.  Ahhh, makes me hungry just thinking about it.

    The bill, as can be expected, was somewhere in the neighborhood of $100.  It was well worth it, though, for an appetizer, two entrees, wine, and dessert.  In closing, if you’re ever in the Portland area, you must go to Famous Jake’s.  You will not regret it.