"We had the lingcod special on Friday night. It was crummy. Considering it 's a local catch, whoever was in the kitchen mangled it, served it under a flavorless sauce on a plate that was haphazardly adorned with stringy, poorly seared pea pods (the waitress said vegetable medley and some fried potatoes that were on a par with Dairy Queen, but much saltier (we asked the waitress to bring ketchup, and if the lingcod hadn 't been so crummy it might have been Friday night at Mel 's Diner . The dish was poorly created and ridiculously executed. We 've been going to Side Door for over a decade. This was the first crummy meal. It can 't be easy to find someone who can cook, out here on the coast. But you might easily find a cook of this caliber or better in any radiator shop in east Portland. That it was a Labor Day weekend Friday night, the reservations weren 't hard to make less than a week ahead of the event. That might have been a clue. And the place didn 't seem packed. The meal, such as it came, was way overpriced. Hoping that a lackluster cook will carry you through until you find find better will end up costing you customers. It cost you this one."
