Cocotte

Portland is replete with food just like what I'm about to show you: farm to table, seasonal, made to order, small batches, comforting, simple.  Cocotte takes that and just puts a French spin on it all.  Zhu Zhu Hamster and Little Pet, who are becoming quite our favorite duo to hang out with, joined us to try out some delicious French delights.

Roasted Beets pistou, blue cheese, pea shoots, honey mustard vinaigrette

More beets!  This was better than the version at Drago Centro.  Maybe the French do it better than the Italians??  It just tasted fresher, crisper, sweeter?

Chicken Liver Mouse house pickles, whole grain mustard, port plumped cherries, baguette
I love me a big hunk of animal liver.  Classical accoutrements with the mustard, baguette, pickled veggies, and some fruity bits with the cherries.  I could have used some more baguette slices.

Queets River Steelhead potato fennel puree, green apple fennel brussels sprout succotash, blood orange beurre blanc, blood orange segments.
Zhu Zhu Hamster seemed quite pleased with her fish.  It had some interesting sides with the sea beans and fiddlehead ferns.  Thanks to Kat Liebman, owner of Cocotte, for writing to me and correcting the description of this dish.

Roasted Chicken 
Dumpling Man got one of the specials which was roast chicken.  It was tasty, but again, it was just chicken.

Moules Mariniere mediterranean mussels, manila clams, garlic cream bouillon, piment d’espelette, french green lentils, baguette toast, aïoli
I've certainly had better mussels elsewhere.  The mussels themselves were pretty meaty and plump, but I thought the seasoning was kind of bland.  I like my mussels to be really punchy with tomato, wine, garlic, maybe more Italian style.  The broth was on the creamy side and light on flavor, which didn't excite me too much.

Sturgeon and Smoke house-made egg noodles, smoked mussels & clams, bacon lardons, garlic cream sauce with piment d’espelette, spring greens, preserved lemon
Little Pet seemed to like his fish, which also came with shellfish.

Overall Cocotte was fine.  Nothing was offensive, but then nothing was spectacular.  Maybe it was just too normal.  These days I seem to gravitate towards restaurants that do something a little different.  Be it American, Asian, French, Italian, etc, I like it when there is a twist or a blend of influences going on.  Then again, I wouldn't quite consider Cocotte classically French.  Either way, I need more to excite me.

Cocotte
2930 NE. Killingsworth Street
Portland, OR 97211