What? BurgerDogBoy at a sushi restaurant? It’s true. It was Mrs. BDB’s birthday, and sushi was the her cuisine of choice for the nightly repast. In charge of the festivities, BDB planned the evening carefully, and dinner was to be at Bamboo Sushi in Portland, coincidentally (cough, cough) I am sure, of Portland Monthly’s #2 pick for the best kobe burger in town. Land sakes, what a coincidence!

Bamboo is the first certified sustainable sushi restaurant in the world. This video explains what that means.

Kristofor Lofgren, Bamboo Sushi from Central on Vimeo.

We headed over about 6p, Bamboo doesn’t take reservations, and we didn’t have to wait for a table, tho we would have had we chosen the pizza place next door, which was hoppin’. The crowd at Bamboo was much more sedate, and even at 6pm, we could have opted for seats at the sushi bar, but instead, Mrs. BDB chose a table in the front window, which was very nice.

I’m not going to describe the sushi in this post, though you can rest assured, it was top-notch. As were the saki flights, I am told.

The burger is described on the menu as: “kobe beef burger with aged Tillamook white cheddar and caramelized onions with a house made brioche bun.” Save for the exception you know I will take with calling it Kobe, it was as good a burger as I have had in Portland. It comes with four tempura onion rings, which were more than nice, and an indistinguishable dipping sauce. I have no idea what the flavor of the sauce was, it was very nondescript. The beef patty was cooked to the medium stage (the waitress did not ask my preference), but the burger was a melt-in-your-mouth experience. The brioche was dandy, it had absorbed juices for the meat, and was the sickly sweet that some brioches are. There were strands of melted Tillamook cheddar, which did not enhance or detract from the burger.

I’d return.

Pictures are from Bamboo’s website. For the 2nd time in a week, I was in a restaurant too dark for adequate photos.

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Part of the McCormick & Schmick chain, which is based here, Jake’s Grill offers a menu similar to other M&S outlets, seafood, beef, and sandwiches.   I opted for the “Kobe” Burger, which is, as Ihave whined about before here, really “Kobe-style”, or even “American raised Kobe”, and not actually Kobe Beef,  not at $13 for (est)  6 oz of burger and accompaniments.   The menu calls for their burger to be served with carmelized onions, bacon, and blue cheese, I asked them to hold the onions, and what you see below is exactly how it was presented from the kitchen, with ‘adequate’ fries (resembling food service offerings), a mini-ramakin of ketchup,  lettuce, tomato, and bread and butter pickle slices.  (Dill, please, on my plate).    No other condiments were offered, though I imagine one could request them.   I wanted to savor the flavor of the meat (and the blue cheese).  (Kinda skimpy with that, fellas).  But the club soda with lime was nice!

I had asked the waitress to tell the chef to prepare it to his recommendation, and it was served medium rare, which was fine.  Trembling with anticipation, I lifted the first bite to my salivating lips, bit down, chewed, noted the smooth texture, and then…………..and then……………..my taste buds recoiled with the understanding that the chef had seasonsed this puck, and not with a simple pinch of salt and pepper like most chefs would……….no dammit, this burger swirled with the taste of onion powder, or possibly minced dehydrated onion.

Bummer.   This may be to your liking, however, to each their own, but it’s not for me.