Lechon — Restaurant in Portland

Lechon is one of the most popular restaurants in the city. However, overall, I wasn't very satisfied 🥺. We ordered the ribeye, smoked duck breast, and roasted bone marrow.

The cocktail was recommended by the waiter and had a very peculiar flavor that I had never tasted before. It was good, but honestly, I can't describe the taste 🤔. The ribeye steak was excellent and worth its price ($69), with a taste that was truly impressive 🤤. I was also very satisfied with the roasted bone marrow; it was cooked perfectly and seasoned well without being too salty, making it rich and delicious. The sauce complemented it well by enhancing the flavor and cutting through the richness! However, I didn't quite like the bread that came with it. It was thick and sticky, which made me feel overwhelmed. If it had been served with toasted bread slices instead, this dish would have been perfect for me. Lastly, the smoked duck breast was a bit dry; perhaps it's hard to avoid dryness with duck or chicken breast dishes... The seasoning was also too salty. However, the duck skin was fatty, crispy, and fragrant, and the smoking was done well... The accompanying fried rice was pretty good 👍🏼.

Additionally, the service wasn't great. The waiter checked on us shortly after serving the dishes but then left us alone. Empty plates sat on our table for a long time, taking up space without anyone coming to clear them, so we ended up stacking them ourselves. We waited quite a while before someone (not our waiter) finally came to clear them. In such circumstances, there's no way I'd leave a 15% tip ╮(￣▽￣"")╭.

Oh, and the restaurant charges an additional 3% for health and wellness, meaning that costs originally meant for employers to cover employee insurance are passed on to customers. So I deducted this fee from the tip I originally planned to give. Sorry, I'm not...

Went here for a birthday dinner, they gave me a handwritten card. Food was great and service was friendly, timely. They've pulled in some recognizable drinks or food from South American cuisine and fine tuned them for an elevated experience.

Had the foraged mushrooms, tasted like a breakfast sandwich, flavorful. Would definitely order again.

The Gaucho bread was good, came out quickly. I love bread, but I may skip next time. It's salty and slightly smoked and crisp from grill marks, but I guess I've just been eating bread with more base flavor recently.

The octopus was one of the better ones of memory. The small bits of potatoe and chorizo with the applesauce brought good balance to the dish. Little salt and sweet that didn't star, but had reason for being on the plate. Maybe a hint of chewiness in some pieces, but overall well cooked and flavorful dish.

The dessert was a lava cake that looked dry, but did indeed have molten chocolate stream out when cut into and that's what it's all about. It was paired with hazelnut ice cream, which made me wonder why it wasn't a more common pairing to the usual vanilla ice cream. Don't get me wrong, I love a good vanilla bean ice-cream, but the hazelnut with small bits of crunch just seemed the right choice.

I should have been more adventurous on my drink choice and I maybe expected a little more for a birthday dinner, but at least the birthday was acknowledged and the drink was fine.

With restaurants and the pandemic, I hope this one sticks around for my next trip to Portland whenever that may be, as this one...

This reservation for our anniversary dinner was incredible! We were excited to try many of the different tapas dishes to share, and the way you can order and experience everything is incredible! We had hopes to try and share different things, and that is how they present everything and allow you to keep ordering more and more things depending on how full you get, that way you don't order too much right away. ..although, I don't think there could be such a thing as "too much" here, as everything was seriously SO delicious, you'll just want more and more food to keep coming! We ordered Boacitos, two succulent, steamy pork belly buns, to die for. We had to get a 2nd round of those. In between those two orders, we also got the Lomo Saltado, perfectly seared, cooked, and seasoned steak bites amazingly paired with delicious rice cakes, cherry tomatoes, and peppers, ...soooooo excellent! Could've used a 2nd round of that as well. A Last Plane drink started it all off, as well as the Margaritas. We were too full to enjoy dessert there, but you bet we took it to go. Seriously, go here. We made reservations and had to wait a while (before and after) the set time, but it was alllllll worth the wait! Such a wonderful experience all-around. Probably the best meal I've had and will have for quite some time. It probably ruined eating anywhere else, as nothing will ever compare....