Lincoln Restaurant gets lucky

Barney Gumble: 40 dollars!? This better be the best damn beer ever.. [drinks beer] You got lucky. 

I could leave it here, my opinion of Lincoln, a newish restaurant on N Williams.  The food is straight forward–almost to a fault–and excellently prepared from fantastic ingredients.  But damn, that seemed expensive.  

Despite the late hour and immense crowd on a recent Friday night, we waited only about 20 minutes for a table–the bar, which was full, was not full of people waiting on tables, but rather dates getting cozy.  The Host referred to it as a Noah’s Ark night (everyone comes in twos).  The room is appointed in a style I can only describe as ‘quintessential Portland, post Ripe empire,’ with bare cement floors, medium dark woods and just off-white paint.  Noise level was intense at full capacity.

We ordered three starters: The Baked Hen Eggs, the Roasted Carrots in Cider, and the Bruschetta with Pears.  They were all quite good, with the bruschetta scraping up toward greatness, but for $26 (or so) we got 5 teenaged carrots, two eggs (slightly overcooked) four quartered olives, one slice of poulin with a smear of cheese and a quarter of a poached pear.  Everything but the carrots needed salt.

My $24 sturgeon filet was placed askance on a giant white plate, with a few quartered new potatoes, some crushed olives, lemon juice and capers.  The fish was well cooked, but underseasoned, and though it was a good size filet, the preparation and the portion looked miniscule and beige on the giant plate.  My dad’s $20 something pork cheek and belly with cabbage was similarly bland looking, but excellently cooked.  He didn’t reach for the salt, but he’s watching his salt in his old age.

We ordered a bacon apple pie, which we were warned was not the par-baked ones they prefer to sell (they sold out earlier) but an á la minute preparation that they started baking for us before our appetizers to make sure it was ready.  when it arrived, it looked tasty, but some of the bacon was under-crisp.  Whatever, we were warned.  Our server was a little busy, but managed my rather ‘not polite enough for restaurants’ parents well.

The wine list is is good by the bottle, but had some surprisingly mediocre wine by the glass. 

My whole take is this: Lincoln needs more salt, some flashier sauces (maybe) and either larger portions or smaller plates.  Out food was drowning in vast expanses of China.  They certainly know how to cook, but the price point is just not quite there.  I will be back, but I’ll be opting for one of the $15 pasta dishes next time.