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The little jellyfish inside the tank behind the bar at Lechon are not the real jellyfish.
The real jellyfish will arrive later, says the server, when the black lights are working and an exposed area under the tank is covered so that the morning sun doesn't warm the water. The new jellyfish will be bigger, and they will eat the little jellyfish that are in the tank now.
It feels like a metaphor for the Argentine-slash-Chilean restaurant, which opened in the middle of August on Southwest Naito Parkway: It's got big tanks, but they're still getting filled.
Lechon is located in the 1872-vintage Smith Block building in a neighborhood where kids ride by on BMX bikes blaring dubstep and you may encounter a woman reading aloud from the Bible on the sidewalk patio. The space has weathered-pink, exposed-brick walls with blue and yellow tile accents, plus two big saltwater tanks. Lechon is the sort of place that brands its logo onto burger buns and stays open from 7 am to 10 pm most days, with separate menus for each meal.
There's a lot going on—too much, perhaps, for a new spot.
Breakfast
After three visits, one for each meal, breakfast was the best experience. The menu is simple and not especially faithful to the concept, with burritos, tacos, French toast and croque monsieur sitting next to one actual South American breakfast dish, a cazuela.
In addition to espresso drinks (the Americano was $2.50 and well-made), we had the croc mon chon ($8), a solid breakfast sandwich with rinded cheddar and a pile of salty country ham between butter-grilled bread slices. A pair of breakfast tacos ($5) were wonderful, with meaty chanterelles and slight, earthy enoki over a bed of grilled onions and pan-fried potato chunks.
Lunch
Lechon's lunch menu is mostly sandwiches, some of which overlap with dinner. The bacon cheeseburger with provolone and a generous slathering of aioli was notable only for the on-bun branding. The steak sandwich was essentially a cheesesteak with chimichurri—pleasantly greasy with melty cheddar on a stiff baguette. A chorizo sandwich ($9) needed more pickled red onions and chimichurri to counterbalance the oily sausage.
And about that chimichurri: On one visit, it was tasty, but on another the sauce that came as a dip with the gaucho bread ($5) had far too much oil and far too little parsley and seasonings. The gaucho bread itself is tasty—doughy soft and a little gummy in the middle in a way that really works—but I found myself digging deep into the little metal cup trying to fish out the seasoning, and just striking a gusher of oil.
Dinner
Lechon's dinner menu is large and complex, ranging from glazed pork cheeks to bacon-wrapped duck breast and paella. It's matched by a cocktail list that includes a lot of cachaca, pisco and fruit juice.
We had the best luck with simpler offerings. A Mediterraneo (essentially a pisco sour with cardamon and a zingy limeade flavor) was excellent, as was a plate of caramelized figs with a baseball-size lump of creamy, smoky burrata. The figs themselves had a paper-thin layer of sugar over their supple flesh, which was nearly invisible until you took a fork to them, cracking the coat like an old factory window. They got a splash of bitter grape must reduction and a few Marcona almonds. As at lunch, we were pleased by a simple grilled flank steak coated in green chimichurri and sliced into hearty chunks.
Meanwhile, purple potatoes ($9) was an ill-fated experiment with modernist cooking. A pile of cold, mushy purple potatoes were drowned in a foam that tasted like frothy skim milk and served with a few discordant pops of salty roe. A panzanella salad was more like a basic radicchio salad with croutons, and grilled tuna that was ultra-fishy, very cool in the center and without much char on the skin.
As far as fish go, there's some work to do. Lechon is young—I mean, it doesn't even have full-size jellyfish yet.
EAT: Lechon, 113 SW Naito Parkway, 219-9000, lechonpdx.com. 7 am-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 7 am-10 pm Friday, 5-10 pm Saturday, 5-9 pm Sunday.
Willamette Week