Imperial

I first ate at Imperial in 2012, shortly after it opened, and I thought it was okay, but not spectacular.  And so, like many other restaurants, I filed it away and moved on.  In the Hotel Lucia, I think it was on the earlier side of new and interesting hotel restaurants.  Now, it seems to be a thing, I keep hearing about more new hotel restaurants downtown.  

Imperial gained a lot of interest in 2015 (along with being named Willamette Week's Restaurant of the Year), when its sous chef Doug Adams was a finalist on season 12 of Top Chef.  He's since left to open his own hotel restaurant at some point soon.  But recently, I thought Imperial might be worth another visit, so we stopped in for a late dinner.  The restaurant was busy, but we were able to find a table.

First up, Portland Poke.  Poke is having a moment and I ususally enjoy it.  This one had tuna with hazelnuts and crispy seaweed, which was a nice texture.  I don't know that the hazelnuts did anything for the tuna, although it did make it "NW".  They were hard to get on my fork.

I ordered black cod with lentils and roasted squash.  It was a nicely put together plate and everything tasted good.

And steelhead with soubise.  Steelhead is always good and hard to find at the fish market, so it's great to find it on a menu.

I was watching everyone around me eating ice cream sundaes, so I was ready for dessert, but then I was too full for a sundae, so I settled for the warm chocolate chip cookie with a scoop of ice cream.  It was fine.  I have to say the cookie was unremarkable and the ice cream was fine.

***Imperial close in 2020***