Skip to main contentIn the early '80s, Portland's most distinguished restaurant was Le Cuisinier, a downtown hole-in-the-wall owned and run by a very young man who was considered one of America's most promising new chefs. Karl Schaefer gave up restaurant cooking to farm, but he has come out of retirement to mentor the staff at the Highlands Restaurant at the Resort at the Mountain, a large complex just a few miles from Government Camp and Timberline Lodge. While Schaefer's former place, sort of an avatar of Paley's, was solidly French-backed with Northwest ingredients, the Highlands is dedicated to "Scottish European, Pacific Rim influences and Native American wilderness cooking."
I hope Schaefer has a long contract, because the kitchen has a way to go before it can approximate the quality of his erstwhile venture. Some dishes are quite decent, but others need rethinking and more attention. There is an abundance of goodwill and a desire to please, but for the moment the stunning list of single-malt Scotches (try the Orkney Island, "heathery, malty, with a garden bonfire sweetness") and the superb wine list outflank the food.
You enter the large hotel dining room--traditional and somewhat staid--passing a stone fireplace, a coffee table stocked with books with titles like The Celtic Cross and Clans and Tartans, and prints of golfers and famous Scots links. The room is comfortable, with green captain's chairs that overlook the resort's swimming pool. It's the kind of place you might sink into after a day's skiing or hiking around the mountain, but there's nothing rustic or casual about the setting--though diners definitely dress down, creating a somewhat incongruous picture.
The food also has a disparate feel. The kitchen has a tendency to get overly fancy with its somewhat bizarre baked-oyster claymore dish ($9.95), which looks like it might be to be Oysters Rockefeller but goes over the top with Galliano liqueur splashed on the bivalves, which are already crusted with asiago and pine nuts. Oysters and cheese seldom marry well, and I would urge immediate divorce. But a seductively smoky soup of duck meat, lentils and a hint of apple ($4.50 a bowl) put us in a hearty autumnal mood.
You're counseled to avoid the tasteless mess of escargots and shiitakes ($8.95), cupped in a kind of cracker ring and bathed in a bland cream, another example of a poorly conceived stab at elegance. On the other hand, a fairly interesting "Napoleon" layered with crab, corn relish and crisp wontons ($10.95) is reasonably satisfying--the crustacean fresh and the ensemble sparkling with color.
This is a meaty sort of place, and the one fish entree we tried was a disaster: Coho with fennel, red onion and a corn-and-caper relish ($15.95) sounded pleasant, but the salmon was mushy and overcooked, and it tasted like a salt lick. It was inexcusably over the hill, as if the fish were captured in a state of terminal exhaustion and breakdown after spawning--quite simply one of the worst pieces of salmon I've experienced. But the meats are something else. The molasses-glazed pork chop ($16.95), burnished like mahogany, comes with delectable roasted sweet potatoes larded with pungent bacon chunks and perfectly cooked green beans, a very rewarding dish. For game fans, the tender venison chops ($27.95) are nicely marinated in syrah, laced with berries and served with a delicious barley, each grain distinct and crunchy. For those who prefer buffalo steak ($20.95) to beef for its relative gaminess and leanness, the Highlands version is flavorful, and the accompanying onion rings are both crisp and tender, the light batter holding well on the onion strips. Again the vegetables--here sugar snap peas--were done perfectly al dente.
If your heart's in the highlands. you should order the luscious crème brûlée (all desserts are $4.95) made with butterscotch; it's extra-rich, the top sweet and crackly. But that's where the dessert fun ended. The carrot cake your Aunt Minnie brings to her church potluck beats the Highlands' dried-out version, while the honey and spirits in the whiskey cake could not breathe life into the desiccated concoction. Worst of all is a lemon bread pudding with crème anglaise: There is nothing chewy about this oddity--essentially a mound of cooked dough as insipid as Wonder Bread and lacking the warmth, oozy rum and dense cream of a great Southern or New England version.
While there is no haggis or rumbledthumps on the menu, other Scottish traditions are represented and in harmony with Northwest ways of blending berries and meats, of stringing together flavors of sweet fruits, game and woodsy mushrooms. But more than just ingredients and traditions are needed. The intentions at the Resort at the Mountain are admirable, and some dishes are done well. But too much is sloppily executed, and no one seems to be tasting things on the way out to the dining room. Schaefer may be aiming for a Michael Jordan-like return to the game, but, even if his comeback is merely as a consultant, he'll have to be in top shape.
68010 East Fairway, Welches 1-800- 669- 7666 or 503-622- 3101
Open 5-9 pm Monday- Thursday, 5-10 pm Friday- Sunday. Credit cards accepted. Children welcome. Moderate- Expensive.
: Soups, pork loin chop, venison chops, homemade ice creams
WWeek 2015