Coquine

A visit to Coquine is like traveling to a vacationers' town in the center of Portland. High up in the tree-canopied, winding streets of Tabor, the little bistro may as well be up in the French countryside near where chef Katy Millard learned to cook from Michelin-starred chefs.

Get the whole chicken ($40 and enough for two or three to share), which is moist, tender and spiced with Moroccan flavors served on a bed of bulgur and lightly charred trees of broccoli.

Photo: Kayla Sprint Photo: Kayla Sprint

The rest of the dinner menu is both more delicate and more uneven, a tour of light flavors that ranges far from French fare. Entrees include a classic strip steak ($32) punctuated by wasabi, and a tender fillet of black cod ($25) atop airy white beans and sofrito—a dish light enough that the novelty of the ice plant was a distraction I left to the side of the plate.

A heartening number of the appetizers are inexpensive, encouraging sampling. Three slices of fried green tomato ($5) are a burst of tartness beneath corn breading, made rich by an anchovy-dill sauce. And thickly complex bread topped with the characteristic sour tang of house-cultured butter—one of very few in town—is $3, while the pane fritto ($4) is an upscale version of frybread served up in Bugle-sized bits, blanketed with rosemary-spiked lardo and shards of radicchio remarkably free of bitterness.

Photo: Kayla Sprint Photo: Kayla Sprint

Pro tip: Get at least one of the fresh-fruit cocktails. A tequila, black cherry and egg white drink will be one of my favorites this year.

GO: 6839 SE Belmont St., 384-2483, coquinepdx.com. 5-10 pm Wednesday-Sunday;

limited cafe menu 8 am-3 pm daily. $$-$$$.

Willamette Week

Matthew Korfhage

Matthew Korfhage has lived in St. Louis, Chicago, Munich and Bordeaux, but comes from Portland, where he makes guides to the city and writes about food, booze and books. He likes the Oxford comma but can't use it in the newspaper.

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