Road Trip through Oregon Day 8 - Arch Cape to Portland

 

We are now on Day 8 of our trip. To see our earlier days, please go to: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7.

This morning we wake up in our beautiful Bed and Breakfast, Arch Cape Inn. Breakfast is included here, and it's made to order.

Breakfast at Arch Cape Inn

This is what the breakfast menu looks like. Pretty impressive for a small B&B if you ask me!

After checking out, we continue our journey towards Portland. First stop, Arch Cape.

Arch Cape

Arch Cape beach area is so peaceful and uncrowded. You can see Castle Rock from here.

Castle Rock

I don't know why but I think big rocks by the ocean is just so beautiful.

Arch Cape

Arch Cape

Next stop, Cannon Beach. Still not crowded but this is much more well known.

Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach

We are now back in Portland and checking into our hotel for the night. We didn't eat lunch because the breakfast was pretty big and I had slept in this morning - finally getting on the Oregon time zone. The hotel tonight is the Duniway Portland Hotel. Part of the Hilton umbrella. It is centrally located, spacious, and has very easy parking. 

Duniway Portland Hotel

The hotel room has a spacious walk in glass shower, and a desk area. There's a nice TV as well, and bathrobes in the closet. This is where I will stay next time if I have a car. The parking is so easy here, which is hard to find for a downtown hotel. Tonight's dinner is at Le Pigeon for a Chef's Tasting Menu. The price is $140 a person - we are saving the best for last.

Front row seat to watch the magic happening

Our front row seat

Course 0: Amuse Bouche 

Course 1: Scallop

Scallop: Beet, Rhubarb, Shiso, Raita

Course 2: Trout Galacage

Trout Galacage: cucumber, peanut, tomato jam

Bread Course

Course 3: Black Cod

Black Cod: avocado, roasted chicken, asparagus

Course 4: Wagyu Zabuton

Wagyu Zabuton: fried dumpling, morel, green garlic, nettle

Course 5: Carrot Ice Cream

Carrot Ice Cream: cardamom cake, chamomile mousse, meyer lemon

Course 6: Foie Gras Profiterole 

Mignardise

This meal cost us a little over $400 total. That's with 2 tasting menu, 1 wine pairing, 1 cocktail, 3% "staff wellness fee", tax & tip. The food was good and visually, this might have been the best of the entire trip yet. But This is about twice the cost of some of the other meals we've had on this trip, and I don't think it's worth the price difference? The main courses didn't wow me. The best courses were the desserts - which isn't a good thing for me personally because I care about appetizer and entrees more than the desserts. Not a bad meal by any stretch of the imagination and watching the kitchen work is awesome.

Just a bit of a side rant. I know I put "staff wellness fee" in quotation marks above, because to me, the "staff wellness" should be baked into their paycheck. Why charge me an extra fee to cover their "wellness"? Are you not paying your staff enough money otherwise? But interestingly, not everyone feels the same about this. Years ago, Le Pigeon tried to get rid of tipping entirely - they pay employee good wages, patrons pay a flat fee. That's the kind of policy I personally like, and they reminded everyone that they are a French restaurant, so it's really not that odd to not require tipping. Apparently lots of patrons were offended by this and refused to visit the restaurant again. So the restaurant is forced to reinstate tipping, and a "staff wellness fee", without lowering prices, since apparently, people like to pay more. So that explains their high pricing, which apparently works for them now, so I guess good for them!

More kitchen magic

This is the end of our day. Tomorrow is our last night in Oregon. All good things must come to an end...