Skip to main contentMilo's City Cafe built its chops--and its following--on breakfast. The queue outside on Sunday mornings is testament to the Northeast sidewalk cafe's enduring popularity. But as Jake Barnes mused in The Sun Also Rises, "It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing." Can Milo's innocuous storefront façade and "who, me?" charm woo a nighttime dining crowd?
In its dinner foray, Milo's has made a few savvy moves. Prices are low for the hearty proteins involved in many of the dishes ($13.95 for a mess of sautéed prawns or a salmon fillet, $14.95 for filet mignon), which tots up for a surprisingly moderate meal. Additionally, the wine list is entirely composed of Northwest selections, from the solid Sokol Blosser pinot ($30) to an eminently affordable Hogue merlot ($16). By-the-glass selections cycle daily from the regular list. The reach and range of Milo's wine list (no bottle costs more than $30 or comes from farther afield than Washington's Columbia Valley) are the metaphor for Milo's City Cafe's approach to an evening meal in P-town--keep it low-key, keep it local. If Milo's is not the splashiest new entrant to Portland's dining-out scene, it's a stalwart veteran that can hold its own--particularly with a neighborhood crowd that's already on board.
The new dinner menu carries through the Northwest vibe, with emphasis on regional ingredients and light-handed preparation. A butternut-squash ravioli appetizer ($4.95) offers a meal-sized mound of smooth, slightly sweet ravioli seasoned with marsala, larded with roasted red-pepper slices, and dusted with shaved parmesan. Though on the oily side, Milo's version of this autumnal heavy-hitter is at least as flavorful as some of its twice-the-price cousins in other, shmoozier restaurants--and the sweet peppers create a layer of interest without adding heaviness. Lighter still is the spinach salad ($4.50 small, $6.95 large), which mixes extraordinarily fresh leaves with feta, walnuts, dried cranberries and currants. The feta is an inspired choice--it's less assertive than the blue or goat cheese usually crumbled onto spinach and harmonizes well with the tangy lemon-shallot vinaigrette.
Smaller stomachs can sample from the array of pasta dishes, like pesto penne primavera ($8.95), which mingles chopped vegetables with the familiar basil paste and parmesan. Cilantro and chili lend the Southwest chicken ravioli's cream sauce its south of the border flair, but the piquant spices are more a regional shout-out than a true attempt at Tex-Mex. Milo's pasta plates vary only slightly in ingredients and preparation (the rosemary chicken linguini, $9.95, swaps in sun-dried tomatoes and snipped herbs) and, while decently prepared, don't come off as much more adventurous than what you could throw together in your own kitchen.
Entrees sally forth a bit more, and celebrate single notes from the Pacific Northwest culinary canon. The apple brandy pork loin ($12.95) sautés pork medallions with sliced Granny Smith apples and is paired with roasted baby red potatoes. The halibut fillet ($14.95) is braised in white wine with a mixed assortment of wild mushrooms. The mushrooms and wine provide a comforting, savory backdrop for the mild fish, and also help keep it moist while cooking. Milo's does best with in-quick, out-quick preparation. More complex dishes like the pesto salmon with potato crust ($13.95) suffer from too many incongruous flavors and dubious cooking strategies. The salmon is slathered with a layer of basil paste, then topped with curls of raw potato. The fish is then placed on the grill and, I assume, turned: Some of the potatoes arrive nearly black, while others are crisp-raw. The pesto congeals atop the salmon, which itself tastes a minute too dry.
In the decor department, Milo's is on the soap-and-water sterile side. The restaurant could be battling the aesthetic limitations of its space--it is too cavernous for twilit, intimate dining, especially since most diners choose the flat-planed, slanted booths that flank the walls (by far the coziest seating). Then there is the spooky, disinfectant-tinged hike to the bathroom down the back corridor, and the view of the soda pistols on the journey back. The dining room's butter-yellow walls and scattering of scrubbed stainless chairs do create a jaunty informality that feels brasserie-friendly, if not bistro-elegant. And the service is pleasant and eager, with servers tag-teaming each other to refill your wine glass or tell you about dessert specials.
Speaking of dessert, the unpretentious Milo's is laudable for its sweets. Although the selections aren't terribly surprising (a chocolate cake, an apple pie), everything is made in-house and made well. The vanilla ice cream that accompanies the pie has a natural golden color and toothsome consistency, and the apples have plenty of texture, tartness and spicy flavor. Milo's might not knock your socks off, but the familiar flavors and modest prices might just loosen your tie.
1325 NE Broadway, 288-6456. Breakfast 6:30-11 am Monday - Friday, 7:30 am-2:30 pm Saturday - Sunday; lunch 11 am-2:30 pm Monday - Friday; dinner 4:30-9:30 pm daily. $$ Moderate.
Butternut - squash ravioli, halibut filet, pie and ice cream.
All - Northwest wine list.
WWeek 2015