Strongly disagree about the chowhound board. It's where I've learned A LOT about places and the advice there is mostly spot-on. :)

There are a few posters there that live in Portland that have given me excellent advice on great places to dine. The posters there are very different than this board. Very focused and helpful. They know their stuff over there when it comes to food! ***kim*** :)

kim, You are either a very good troll, or in need of counseling, or both.

Check out the Alexis restaurant on Burnside. It's a Greek restaurant with great food and a lot of atmosphere. We took a large group there and were seating in a good configuration on the second floor. They had belly dancing that night, and pulled people into it. It was an extremely fun evening. You can call for a fixed price and order in advance, if you'd like. The calamari is to die for.

seated, that is. I make a lot of grammatical errors when I edit and don't reread. Darn! Just like my kids!

I seem to keep adding more to this. The Alexis will serve family style, so people can pick from a variety of items that you have ordered, which is a real plus.

You might ask at any restaurant you choose if you will have this option. Certainly you will find this common in Chinese and Indian restaurants, and probably in most ethnic restaurants, in fact. This way you can have a fixed price and still allow choice.

Hi Orcas, yes this is a great way to order. We just went to East West where I live last night with a party of eight. The meal was served in this fashion and what a feast it was! :)

We were celebrating a birthday and took home LOTS of extra food. It's a very good way to also be able to sample lots of different menu items. ***kim*** ((l))

Hi nonnimouse,

I think you've gotten plenty of "fancy" restaurant suggestions so I thought I'd throw in a couple of other ideas.

Okay, this may not be your cup of tea if you and your group don't like Japanese food, but Todai may be a place to consider. It's not fancy or anything, but good for a group of folks. It's a Japanese buffet (chain restaurant, but pretty good) located in Pioneer Place - they have very large seating capacity and since it's buffet there may be something for everybody. They have a sushi bar, hot food bar, udon noodle/soup bar, dessert bar.

Another place that's not fancy, but we find fun is Rock Bottom Brewery. We've had a group of 16 in there before - although we were seated at a really long table (lots of smaller tables pushed together) - it was a bit crowded, but fun nonetheless. Then made even funner by riding MAX over to the Rose Garden/Coliseum for a Winterhawks game.

You didn't mention what part of Portland you were interested in so if you're still looking for suggestions you may want to indicate what part of Portland - that will help focus the responses.

Happy dining!
Tracey

Tracey, have you dined at Pufferfish in Portland? In your opinion, what would be the best Japanese place for two twenty-ish California Roll lovers? ***kim*** ((*))

Nope, never eaten at Pufferfish, but maybe someday. I'm not "up" on all the best Japanese restaurants in Portland since I don't live in the immediate area anymore. We now live in Corvallis and only get up to Portland about 3 times a month and usually don't go for Japanese....but that's only because we really LOVE the local Japanese restaurant in Corvallis called Aomatsu (in our opinion it competes well with some of the sushi restaurants in Hawaii)...we usually like to try other kinds of food when we go up to Portland since there are so many great restaurants there - we figure we can already get REALLY good sushi at home.

Sorry to hijack the thread for a moment...

Tracey--I love Corvallis! DH and I met while in school there. We usually only get back there for homecoming, but really miss it. Enjoy it for us!

Tracy, I've written the place down, if we're ever in Corvallis I'd love to try it! :D

I see that you LOVE Hawaii, my husband's family all lived there for many years and have since moved back to CA. Our kids grew up spending lots of time visiting on the islands. We hope to get to Maui soon and I know it's a honeymoon destination for my son when he gets married in a few months. ***kim*** 8-)

We love Corvallis too mms! We lived in Lebanon for 7 years, while working in Corvallis, and I can't describe how much I longed to move back to Corvallis (Lebanon is NOT our cup of tea, but at the time had more affordable living than Corvallis). We just built a house in Corvallis and moved in July and it's heaven - 10 minute commute to work - gotta love that! Plus, hubby no longer has to look for parking during the Beaver football games - I just drop him off and pick him up in front of the stadium - doesn't get much better than that! BTW, hubby and I met at OSU too so it'll always have a special place in our hearts!

Yes Kim, I love Hawaii! In fact (I know this is a bit pathetic) my license plate is "GO MAUI" - so any of you Oregonians seeing a "GO MAUI" license plate you'll know who it is ;D. We just returned from Kauai in November and I am longing to go back to the islands...I think I'm sad because I don't have my next trip planned there yet..it always helps when you know for sure when you're going to be able to go back (at least for me). We're going on an Alaskan cruise in July so probably will just be doing local trips until we get back from that. We honeymooned in Maui and I highly recommend it!

Sorry to hijack the thread too nonnimouse!

Cheers,
Tracey :D

I'm thinking of the whale's tail license plate that says "OR COAST" for our new plates. I'll keep my eye out for Go Maui when we hit the OR border! :D ***kim*** ((*))

I want to thank you all for so many great ideas!! You've given me lots of options to think about, and I appreciate your input. Now, how to decide?