If you are looking for a nice date night in The Pearl district in Portland, OR, The Parish might be the place you are looking for. We recently went on date night at The Parish and had a great dining experience.
The Parish offers a New Orleans-style Creole menu with locally sourced products including a Raw Oyster Bar, Cajun~Creole classics, fresh ingredients, farm-direct oysters, and whole hog cooking. The wine selection was a wonderful accompaniment to the dishes offered.
They offer incredibly tasty craft cocktails unlike craft cocktails you’ll find elsewhere. My Morning Sunset Cocktail was soooo good, I could have sucked down 4, but I opted for wine to pair with my main meal.
For an appetizer, we started with pork rinds. I’ve never had pork rinds that didn’t come out of a bag, so I had no idea what I was in for, but they were good. Super light and crispy.
For dinner, the hubby had Rabbit Gumbo (which was so rich!) and I had the Parish Salad—spicy local greens, roasted beets, shaved shallot, pumpkin seed brittle, and lemon herb vinaigrette. So good. The flavor profile was fantastic and the pumpkin seed brittle was unlike anything I’d ever tasted! 
For dessert, I went with the Sweet Potato Flan—while delectable, it’s unfortunately not on their regular dessert menu. It was a special for Portland Dining Month.
The service was a bit slow. Getting drinks and food ordered tool forever (nearly 30 minutes after being seated). But if you can handle the wait, the food and cocktails made up for the lacking service. Overall, it was a good dining experience and we’d definitely go back.
If You Go:
Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. I visited this establishment as part of my Foodie Friday series and paid for my meal all on my own. No compensation was received.
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Sounds really yummy! Fresh pork rinds. So bad yet so good! 🙂
That sweet potato flan looks Ah-MAZING!
Sounds like a fun time!
Sounds like a lovely place. Everything looks so delicious!
I’m totally not an adventurous dessert person. I like chocolate and caramel related things. Not sure how I would feel about sweet potatoes in my dessert. It does look pretty though.
Darn, I was hoping to try that Sweet Potato Flan! I am intrigued! Maybe they’ll bring it back someday 🙂
That cocktail looks delish!