Thursday, December 29, 2005

High Tides

High Tides, Bend Oregon --

Who knew that High Tides has been here for so many years? Hidden on Bond Street across from the Deschutes Brewery, High Tides Seafood restaurant has had continued success in the ever-changing landscape of Bend, Oregon eateries.

I received a gift card for High Tides from my company, and decided to try it out last week. We tried to make reservations, and had to settle for 5:45, as they were already booked for the night (it was a Tuesday). That's a sign of a good restaurant, so we showed up early and anxious for a new favorite dig.

The three of us (my mother-in-law was in town) were seated about ten minutes after our reservation, and promptly brought bread from the Village Baker, which I've never been a fan of. I'm a DiLusso girl, so I went forth slowly into the bread basket. It was thick, flavorful, and gone quickly. Unfortuately, the server announced that it was the last basket of it, and that the rest of the night they were going to serve Sysco bread. We saved our palates for something better.

I decided on the Sturgeon listed on the menu - a chili-rubbed filet fire-grilled and served with a pesto butter. DH had the Sturgeon on the Specials featured that night - a mushroom/rosemary sauteed filet. And my MIL had the Dungeness Crab Casserole.

My Sturgeon was fantastic! All six bites of it!

DH's Sturgeon was decent. All eight bites of it.

And my mother-in-law's crab casserole was okay. She described it as a glorified mac n' cheese with crab meat.

Hm.

Obviously the portions were a bit on the stingy side. An $18 entree that serves six bites of fish just doesn't cut it in my camp. After asking around the workplace, I found others that felt the same way. I wish we had gone to the Blue Fish Bistro. Hence, we did the next evening, just to make up for the average meal shared on this evening.

I found another short post on High Tides here. I'm surprised that they've been around so long if this is the norm for them.

We'll stick to Blue Fish or Anthony's for now.

High Tides
1045 NW Bond
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 389-5244

Staccato's

Staccato's, Bend Oregon --

Alright.

We went back.

It was just for cocktails and appetizers, though, as I didn't want to "waste" my money again. And guess what? I was pleasantly surprised.

The Staccato's cocktail menu is fancy and unique, so I felt obligated to try the most ridiculous of all of the drinks on the menu: the Framboise Balsamic Martini.

It's made from a raspberry puree and a tablespoon or so of balsamic vinegar, shaken hard with vodka, poured into a traditional martini glass and garnished with basil.

It was strange, but good. I eat all of my salads with balsamic vinegar, so I felt like I could just toss it with a bag of lettuce at lunch and call it dressing. I wonder how the boss would feel about that.

The gals in my party had other varying cocktails, each happy with their decision.

For appetizers, we tried the bruschetta and a mushroom pizza, hand-fired in the traditional brick oven. Both were of good portion size and very tasty.

I had a second cocktail, recommended by our server, the Italian Job. It was Tuaca, Amaretto, Cranberry juice and something else bubbly. Very, very good. Not so good when we left, though, and I tried walking in the freshly fallen snow, though.

So based on this experience, we may go back again for lunch or dinner. Our first experience was a drag, but we'll give it another try in a month or so.