Thought it was a good nite to take my favorite bride out to dinner, and knew she would be down for a round of raw oysters, so we opted for Corbett Fish House, a place we go on occasion. She likes it for the oysters, I like it because you can get a typical fish dinner from my native Minnesota, Walleye Pike, which isn’t actually a pike, but a member of the perch family, which Corbett also serves.
Corbett has a couple of things going for it, preparing some foods in a typical Midwestern style, and the fact that all breaded items are done with brown rice flour, resulting in a lot of choices not usually available to those who insist on a gluten-free menu.
We met up with our pal and local gardening expert, Sara Pool, a gluten free fanatic.
We started with a round (or two) of deep fried cheese curds, one of my favorite preparations in all of Portland. This is a Wisconsin ‘treatment’, here employing local cheese fave, Tillamook brand. These monsters, I could eat pounds of, and in fact, we did order a second round of them, which through some waiter described “kitchen incident” actually didn’t show up til the end of the meal. No matter, we polished them off anyway.
The ladies had some oyster shooters, Sara went with traditional cod for fish and chips, Mrs. BDB had more oysters, fried this round, along with Wasabi cole slaw, and I had the perch.
Expect to pay a little more for the gluten free menu compared to other ‘fish and chip’ offerings around town. I’m not complaining. 4 appetizers, 3 entrees, 4 beers and a glass of wine set us back $80, which ends up being pretty reasonable.
If you’re on a budget, like most places, Corbett offers a decent happy hour menu which allows you to sample some great things at bargain prices.
The happy hour/dinner time, even on weekdays, gets a good crowd, so be prepared for that. If you don’t feel like a drive west of the river, co-owned Hawthorne Fish House has the same menu.
Wisconsin Style Cheese Curds
