"Jake's Grill was very conveniently located across the street from our hotel. The food and drinks were pretty good. In fact, we came here twice during our four day stay in Portland. We mistakenly thought this was Jake's Crawfish, which was one of the restaurants I wanted to try while in town, but I'm glad we stumbled upon this instead. The first time, we came in on a Saturday evening for happy hour. Yes, they have happy hour bar only even on weekends from 4 to 6 PM! This would be unheard of in NYC. They have both drink and food specials. For drinks, I had the Pear Adise Absolut Pear, lime juice, simple syrup, orange juice, sprite . I'm not normally a fan of flavored vodkas but I was in a pear y mood and I'm really glad I ordered this. It was really good, and not overly sweet. I ended up getting two of these! For food, we had: Raw Oyster Shooters this was very meh. Unfortunately, it was drowning in cocktail sauce so that's all I tasted. I couldn't even taste the oyster Dungeness Crab and Lobster Dip this was basically like an artichoke dip with lobster. It was really good but rich and is served with some fresh pita bread American Kobe Beef Carpaccio served with baby arugula, truffle oil, garlic oil, crostini this was my favorite. Everything just went really well together. It was like having a mini raw beef sandwich The second time, we came on a Sunday night because my husband noticed they have a prime rib special on Sunday nights. This time, I tried the 2 Berry Punch cocktail DL Franklin vodka, orange and lemon juice, blackberries, strawberries, simple syrup . I could only have one because it was way too sweet for me. For food, to start off, we ordered half a dozen oysters and some New England clam chowder to share. The chowder was a nice way to start the meal. The oysters on the other hand were just mediocre. Some of them were not shucked correctly. As for the special, for 36, you get two pieces of prime rib, mashed potatoes, carrots green beans, and a soup or salad. This was pretty good but I must say that the star of the show was actually the salad. It wasn't a typical mixed salad, but it also had mandarin orange, candied walnuts, blue cheese, dried cranberries, with a raspberry vinaigrette. I don't even like walnuts but something about it just worked. For my main, I ordered the Northwest Cedar Plank Salmon lemon thyme risotto, seasonal vegetable, harvest squash purée . I usually don't like cooked salmon because it tends to be overcooked but I really wanted to try the salmon up in the Pacific Northwest since it's supposed to be good. Unfortunately, it was in fact overcooked. But I did like the harvest squash puree it was unique. Overall, I think I enjoyed the happy hour experience better than the full dinner experience. I would recommend just coming for the happy hour specials and filling up on that."
