Janken — Restaurant in Portland

Would be 5 stars if it was priced a little more reasonably. I can't begrudge them too much as the service is absolutely outstanding and they've created a great atmosphere. However, the food still feels a tad overpriced for what it is. Also, there are several dishes where they try to get a little too fancy and it doesn't improve the dish (though it makes for good presentation).

Service - 5 stars: My wife and I came here for dinner on a Friday night with a reservation. We were seated right away and actually arrived with about 15 minutes left for happy hour. Our server came to us quickly to see if we wanted to sneak in any orders on the happy hour menu which was very nice and definitely stood out. They were amazing at checking in on us for drinks, refills, clearing plates, and seeing if they could get us anything. I know some might not appreciate this, but I thought it was great and we never had to flag anyone down. Our server was also very familiar with the full menu and made some great recommendations.

Food - 4-5 stars (depending on the dish): We started off with the Salmon Tacos which were fantastic. Probably one of my favorite dishes we had all night. Great balance of flavors. They were fresh and bright with a great mix of textures.

We followed up the tacos with a half dozen oysters. We both love oysters and these were great quality. I forget what they were but the stand out part of the oysters was the wasabi cocktail sauce and green apple mignonette.

We got a selection of Nigiri which was some of the best quality fish we've found in Portland (and we've been looking for the best fish here for over 2 years). The only down side of the Nigiri was how many toppings they added. They didn't really add much and would have enjoyed just the fish undressed. They use real fresh wasabi which always adds to the flavor. ABURI SAKE NIGIRI (torched salmon belly w/ truffle): Amazing cut of Salmon but the truffle didn't add much. It wasn't bad with it, but for the price I would have preferred just the salmon. WAGU NIGIRI: Not the best Wagyu I've had but they did a good job on the sear. The fold leaf on top didn't add anything aside from make for a cool picture. SAKE NIGIRI: We enjoyed the salmon so much we wanted to try it undressed. They still insisted on putting a dab of some sauce on top. I don't recall what it was, but would have liked it better without it.

We also ordered the CRISPY BRUSSELS SPROUTS (kimchi vinaigrette). We really like the gochujang brussels sprouts from South Park and thought this might be similar. While definitely a little different flavor, the cook on these was excellent and the flavor was less overpowering than the gochujang ones from South Park. Very enjoyable and I would recommend them.

For our main course we shared the King Crab Fried Rice (I think it was a special). Overall it was quite good, however I don't think the king crab actually added a lot to it. The dish as a whole had a lot of flavor and the king crab just felt like an afterthought instead of being incorporated in with the balance of everything else. We still enjoyed it but wouldn't order it again.

For dessert they gave us their SUSHI ICE CREAM as it was our anniversary. It was pretty good but nothing all that amazing. It was basically a rice crispy treat wrapped ice cream. It was good, but I wouldn't choose it. We also ordered the DARK CHOCOLATE MELTDOWN CAKE. It was very rich and great if you love chocolate. I could have used a tiny bit more ice cream with it, but that's just personal preference.

Drinks - 4-5 stars: Another case of pricing vs quality. I started off with the WHAT’S THE MATCHA. Great drink and very refreshing. A little overpriced normally but I got it off the happy hour menu so I felt it was worth it. It was like a very elevated gin and tonic. After that we mainly drank Sake. We are big fans of Dassai sake (23, 39, or 45). This was the first time we'd seen a Dassai Nigori so we got a bottle after tasting a glass. If you ever want to bring a bottle be prepared for a ~$50...

The quality of meat was wonderful for both seafood and wagyu. Seared sushi was SUPER over seared. I definitely don't want the fish to be cooked through when ordering seared nigiri. That defeats the purpose. It seemed like the portions of nigiri were much smaller than the sashimi I saw being delivered around the room. If the fish had been thicker this wouldn't have been an issue. Over twenty dollars for two pieces of salmon nigiri is actually fine...if it's done well and the portions are appropriate.

Tartare was good, melts in your mouth. I opted to spritz some lemon that had been served to us for water and that woke up the flavors for me, but it didn't really need that. I'm just a flavor adventurer and enjoy seeing how things play together. It was good either way.

Wagyu dumplings were awesome. Could've eaten three plates of just those. Only commentary there is they should be served with a spoon to pour over some of the sauce so it's not wasted and/or to keep from double dipping in the bowl.

The strawberry shaved ice was the best thing we tried. It was heavenly. Rich, while still being light and refreshing. Truly wonderfully balanced flavors. I also enjoyed the chocolate cake, but it wasn't really as noteworthy in comparisom to the dreamboat forementioned. Chocolate cake could use something...idk salt? I did enjoy the slight saltiness to the vanilla ice cream it was served with which was not boxed up to take home. You probably don't have teeny I've cream to-gos but I was saving it to take home and wouldn't have allowed it all to be thrown away had I known that.

I'll skip the shishito peppers, which I typically love. Some were over cooked and some were practically raw. The sauce doesn't really stick to them either so that was strange. I've noticed wet sauces on shishitos lately, when all they really need is oil and course salt. So I guess I'll just keep enjoying those in my home.

Will pass on the kimchi fried rice in the future as well. My dad ordered that. It's not something I typically order in a restaurant (again because I can make it at home), but I was still hopeful and found it rather lackluster.

The Brussels sprouts were really good also. Slightly over dressed. Great mixed in the kimchi fried rice. The acid from whatever vinegar dressing was on the Brussels gave the fried rice at least some kind of flavor complexity.

Most of the drinks were good. Pineapple express being the best, then Rose city, then Night owl. Would've expected the espresso martini to be sweeter. You're probably going for it to not be that sweet, even so with frangelico and Irish cream in a drink you're not really expecting flat-bitter. Also the espresso beans on top should be toasted so you can munch them (or just leave them out). They were not edible.

My commentary makes it seem like I didn't enjoy myself, when in reality, it was overall a great experience. I will be returning to try more menu items when I come back with more adventurous eaters like myself instead of just my parents. Usually wouldn't leave such a long review but I know you want your restaurant to be top notch, so hopefully you find it helpful instead of overly critical.

The ambiance is so wonderful, and I know you'll work the kinks out. For only being open two weeks, you're absolutely stunning. Keep up the good work. NW Portland had needed this young, revamping of the Pearl (obvious by the huge restaurant being completely packed and becoming more and more difficult to get seats!) and I hope to see more success in...

Let me first start off by saying how disappointed I am with my second time here! I came here 2 years ago and remember this being a lot better than it is. I’m truly disappointed in how mediocre everything is for a pretty expensive restaurant. I booked this for my boyfriend’s birthday and he was really excited to try it out. First the only person to acknowledge my guys birthday was the host, who wished him a happy birthday but did not mention it to the server. The server who was pleasant did not bring us menus and expected us to use the QR code. This small flimsy paper menu in a dim light with a font that isn’t easy to read for someone who has better than perfect vision (20/15). Ambiance was nice. Food was just OK. We got the salmon tacos, yuzu hamachi, hamachi crispy rice, steak tar tar, A5 wagyu temaki and A5 wagyu hot stone. Most these items were on the sweet and creamy side. It was either I think the yuzu hamachi or the hamachi crispy rice had a salad dressing like taste. Nothing was really citrusy tasting or as I’d expect some of these items to be. Steak tar tar was good, the bread was very buttery and good and perfectly toasted, but how can something soaked in butter not be? The highlight was the A5 wagyu hot stone, nothing spectacular compared to other places I’ve been in the world but really delicious but not because of the restaurant but because it’s A5 Wagyu. It was very good! We really enjoyed this. The salts, fresh wasabi and sides were all good.. No one is Portland is really doing anything like this but that doesn’t mean they should have this kind of price tag. My boyfriend had 3 different sakes he said were good and I had tea which only had 2 options, black and green, not even an herbal selection. Drinks the servers were bringing to people looked cool with smoke and all. Hardly any non alcoholic drinks. No fun mocktails on the menu. Dessert was sushi ice cream, also good but basically ice cream covered in rice crispy treats cut to look like a sushi roll with chocolate dipping sauce. There are no toilet seat covers in the bathroom, and someone had left pee on the toilet seat. We saw someone do a birthday presentation towards the end of dinner to someone sitting close to us. Again only acknowledged a birthday by the host who said happy birthday. Food was good but not amazing. Staff was pleasant and kind but not amazing. We’ll probably never be back, not for the level of service and “unique” food experience I expect for this price tag. Timing of the food was also good. Btw I had been in the service industry for many years in my life. The items on the menu are high priced items that are supposed to be high priced but overly expensive for what it is IMO I heard the table next to us complain there was bones in their cod. The menu didn’t say boneless but I expect to find bones in fish, someone at the restaurant mentioned it’s not up to their standards. I dunno, definitely not as good as I remembered and definitely not worth...