Chow - Bend Oregon
CHOW
My stomach was empty and I was ready to chow down on some serious grub at the new CHOW restaurant located on Newport Avenue. Before going I had not heard from anyone if the place was any good, what type of food they serve or anything. So when I drove by and saw the massive metal CHOW sign and the big metal OPEN signs, I really thought I was going to dine on some serious grub like a West Side Jake's. Much to my surprise our waitress placed a tiny sandwich and small stack of fries before me. This isn't CHOW, it's more like SNACK or BITE.The food was delicious, just tiny. For a big sucker like me, I need quantity and quality, not just quality. Seems that more and more restaurants in Bend are serving much smaller portions but their prices are increasing rapidly.
Currently CHOW is only offering breakfast and lunch from 7am - 2pm and appears to be geared more towards the healthy crowd than they are to a meat and potatoes guy like me. There are meat dishes like the roasted pork sandwich I had on my visit.
The sweet potatoe fries were ok, some were hella crispy and others were super soft...it was sort of weird. They didn't need or warrant any dipping sauces as the flavor was like a dessert of potaoes instead of french fries. The roasted pork was great...all 6 bites. $8
The wife selected from the breakfast menu and opted for the pumpkin waffle and a sausage patty. Waffle - $7, sausage - $3. Both were great and the sausage was pretty thick, but after $10, you'd think you'd be full. Let me get another waffle at least. Something.
The menu states that they will be offering dinners sometime in the future. I'll try to get back to try that menu, but for now, there are plenty of other options for breakfast and / or a quick, filling lunch on the West side. I know CHOW has just opened so maybe things will change as they get some more services under their belt. The service was awesome and our food came in a timely manner which is great for a restaurant just starting out....but those portions are just too small for the money in my opinion.
CHOW
1110 NW Newport Ave
Bend, OR 97701
541.728.0256
http://www.chowbend.com/
Labels: chow, chow bend oregon
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Oh my god, that's the smallest waffle I've ever seen! It looks like an Eggo!
thanks so much for this website. i saw "chow" while driving down newport to pick up some food at devores and have been wanting to try it ever since. i had no idea what to expect so was thrilled to find this review on your site!
As always a reviewer doesn't know how to review. "I'm a meat and potato's guy" or "the restaurant is geared towards the healthy type" who cares about your likes or eating habits- please talk about the food. How's the food quality or was it worth the money or how much food should I really eat? These are questions a reviewer could be asking him or herself. Eat the food, tell us about the service, did they know more then you or could you school them? Read someone who really reviews restaurants, please look to SF or East. Cheers
Great, another commentor that doesnt know how to comment. How about you read the entire post before you start quoting me. I did talk about the food and the service.
If you ever read my blog, you'll now that I never said I'm a restaurant reviewer. I just show what I ate and tell you my thoughts on it. If you don't like it, shut the hell up and go to "SF or East" whatever the hell that means.
"did they know more then you or could you school them?" What does this mean? I'm not trying to school anyone. And what more do I need to know? I bet you're a fun customer to wait on.
Cheers
I have been to Chow four times and I cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. The ambiance is chic yet cozy. The food is fresh, beautifully presented, and has flavors that mold together beautifully. I did not find the portion sizes to be that small, I have left every time full. Furthermore, for the quality of food and the ambiance, I thought the prices were quite good, better than some of our other popular breakfast places. I'm sorry to see it get such a poor review on your blog.
I'm sorely disappointed... I had great expectations for everything I had heard. I stopped in and tried the huevos rancheros. The atmosphere is very nice and the service was excellent. The food was very well presented and the scrambled eggs were perfectly done BUT that's where the good things ended. The black beans were still crunchy and lacked any flavor, the ancho chile sauce also lacked any type of personality. Similarly the salsa didn't have any spice to liven up the dish. The accompanying toast had a nice flavor but was more of a crouton consistency than actual toast.
I'm disappointed to say that Chow is added to my list of 'high-end' restaurants in town where the food sounds great on the menu and may look beautiful, but they just can't seem to nail the flavors.
I've been to Chow once and I was thoroughly impressed. You can tell a lot of care, skill, and quality ingredients go into the menu and food.
In terms of breakfast, I think Chow can hold its own against McKay's or Victorian Cafe.
Portion sizes are not a problem, IMO. Perhaps if more restaurants focused on the quality–not the quantity–of portions Americans wouldn't be so darn obese.
Just read your review and then tried Chow tonight (for the first time) hoping that they had increased their portion size since you reviewed them.
Nope! Tiny portions! But I guess I can't complain because once I got there and saw the menu and the style of the place it was clear that it was going to be one of those European style restaurants with tiny portions. Too bad because THE FOOD WAS AWESOME!
I had the venison with a sweet potato hash that had bacon and a raspberry vinegerette on it. It was delicious.
But I'm a nursing mother so I had to make myself a small dinner of pasta and meat when I got home. That is disappointing after a $27 plate.
Here's a comment from a friend of mine via email:
My wife and I went to Chow yesterday for lunch, at her insistence. I have to admit that I was a bit biased before my visit as that I haven�t really heard much positive about the place. Anyways, we showed up at 11:45, early for the lunch �rush�, and were promptly seated in a nice little table by a window. We had the room to ourselves as that the place was only � full, the other customers were mostly elderly women in full chat mode. So far so good, I guess.
I decided on the fish tacos that came with a cold black bean salad, my wife had a warm multi grain salad with wilted spinach and feta and the crab cakes � total 28$ It took an estimated 15 minutes to place an order, and another 15 for delivery. When the food did arrive, I must admit, it looked fantastic, nice colors, placement, textures, all that fancy crap. The portion size however was appalling, seriously in Bend for 10 bucks you should be able to get a good lunch large enough to last you till dinner. The beverage order of hot cider was first delivered cold, then forgotten about, then finally brought hot, and eventually gratis.
Tacos: two small corn tortillas stuffed with onion, tomato, and lettuce, oh and a piece of fish literally the size of my thumb. The vegetables tasted like�.. um, I dunno but it wasn�t vegetables, maybe tofu meets cardboard with food coloring. The beans in the salad were crunchy, the onions were both plentiful and hot, and it was full of citrus peel. Now I like beans, onion, and citrus peel, but this particular combination made for hot bitter crunchy compost.
Multi grain salad: again a beautiful dish, contrasting wilted spinach with crumbled feta and yellow grains and beans � fairly rich for grains and beans. And it was reasonably large to boot. Strong flavors of toasted sesame oil and lemon were nice, but not something that you would really want to eat very much of. My wife didn�t want to eat any of it.
Crab cakes: I was only allowed a few bites of this as that my wife ordered it, pretty tasty, greasy, and even a bit crabby. I suppose for crab cakes the size wasn�t too microscopic, but�.. come on this is supposed to be a lunch plate.
By the time I left I had defiantly decided not to return. With tip I�m 32$ down, still hungry, and have now used a full hour of my busy day up. I suppose the elderly ladies were probably more satisfied, the portion sizes were probably more to their liking, and judging by their designer clothes and jewelry they probably didn�t care about the prices.
Thank dog for the Taco Stand!
yeah, I've had pretty mixed experiences at Chow. Sometimes they are great - other times horrible. Today, I spent $50 for two people (we each had a beer, a sandwich, and shared a piece of cheesecake).
The sandwiches were tiny (about half what you'd expect) on very stale bread, the sweet potato fries were very cold and barely cooked, and the cheesecake has both TINY and had a very strange after taste that, even with the two of us, we didn't bother finishing...
Luckily the waitress was extremely fun and friendly as usual (yes, we tipped well) and the laid back porch atmosphere was great.
Like I said, I've had good and bad there. Unfortunately, today I was a little embarrassed to take an out of town friend.
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