Our fave, and one of my favorite places in town, is Nicholas Restaurant on SE Grand. Fantastic, and quite affordable too. Funny aside: When our kids were little, they had a hard time saying "Lebanese restaurant" so one of them accidentally called it the "Lesbian restaurant." So now when we want to go there, we always say, "Let's go for lesbian food."
That's a funny story. You get a lot of food for your money here, and it's good. My roommate and I used to go and eat there because we'd have so much food leftover, we'd have a second meal later. It can get crowded if you hit at the typical busy times, so you may have to wait to sit.
When my oldest was 3, she loved to go to Fuddruckers. One time we asked her where she wanted to go to dinner, and she said "Fuckers!" We still call it Fuddrucker's.
Their oven-baked pancake is da bomb. Nobody goes there anymore, though; the last time I went on a Sunday at 10am, I was just a few old folks eating breakfast. They're a good "backup" restaurant for when waiting in line at Jam or Country Cat is too much.
Evoe is great. Funky seating though. I'm a big dude with a bad back. Not the most comfortable arrangement. Think kitchen cutting block type tables with odd, tall stools. Small, and no reservations, so you may wait quite some time to eat. But the food is certainly Portland-esqe and amazing. Generally, they're fairly small dishes, but it does give you the opportunity to try a lot of items on the menu. Everything on the menu pretty much changes daily. If you get the window seat, it's super-rad to watch the random people of Hawthorne walk by. Depending where you're sitting, you may be sharing your table/space with strangers, which can be good/fun and bad. But again, the food is amazing. I've tried many things, even things that I wouldn't usually like given the ingredients, and it's amazing.
Not the Egyptian Club on Division? NM. Just googled it to see the latest on it. It closed a couple years ago, and re-opened as Weird Bar. Never been since the change.
Nope, Eastoff, it really was a good Lebanese restaurant, called Mezes. I had pita with spreads, lamb kabobs, pilaf, vegetables, baklava. Interestingly they serve alcohol, although I drank tea. I know the owners are Muslim, so either they are non-observant, or they figure "business is business" (drinks are a big portion of profits for restaurants).
