Blondies' Bistro: Bakery, Cafe & Bar
226 SW G St., Grants Pass, OR
http://www.blondiesbistro.com/dinner.html
Review date:  September, 2010

It was hard to imagine topping our first night's dinner (Los Mariachis)...so we didn't. But we came close, picking Blondies on impulse. Yelp couldn't offer much in Grants Pass, OR, so we originally were aiming for Circle J, a pizza-and-burger place in the Old Town district. However, when we got there and checked out the posted menu, we couldn't get individual pizzas, just the large/larger/largest starting at 12 which was more than Carlos could eat and I wouldn't have been able to try something else.

Instead, we saw Blondies' sign across the street, and decided to take at look at their menu. It looked much more interesting, despite being in a nondescript strip mall next to a Papa John's pizza parlor.

The menu is large and very eclectic. A little Asian, a little Italian, a little French, in a rambling space unfortunately punctuated by what I later discovered to be universally poor service. This isn't the fault of the waiters, both of whom were young and friendly and enthusiastic. The manager or owner, however, has a real attitude problem, giving off not only vibes of unfriendliness but also demanding the waiters constantly stop what they're doing and help her rearrange tables and move huge potted palms.

If the food had been all at the level of Carlos' kung pao spaghetti, which intrigued him enough to try it, we'd write this off as just another failure. However, I chose two starters for my meal,  both of which were not only large big enough to be entrees but absolutely terrific dishes that we both loved.

One was a crispy polenta with mushroom cream sauce. Two good sized triangles of a coarse-ground yet nicely light polenta were pan-fried to a wonderful crunchiness, stacked atop fresh baby spinach that was allowed to wilt slightly under the polenta. The cream sauce was a lovely bechamel whose only salt came from the finely grated Parmesan thrown in at the last moment so that it melted without getting stringy. The mushrooms were cooked separately from the sauce, pan-fried with onions and small slices of red and green bells. They were piled on top of the polenta and sauce - terrific!

The lamb chops were nicely spiced, mild by Indian standards but with just a bit of finishing heat. They were cooked a perfect medium-rare, and although a little thin, there were not two or three, but four nicely-trimmed loin chops over a pile of paprika-dusted, well-browned baby potato quarters. The price for this dish was mind-boggling to us: a mere $13 that would cost at least $23 or more in the Bay Area! Like the polenta, it was an entree-sized meal. Even better, this was local lamb sweet and meltingly tender. We eat a lot of New Zealand lamb, but American lamb is far superior and when we can get it, we love it.

I also got a small side salad, which was enlivened by an amazing bleu cheese dressing. Oregon is, of course, the home of great bleu cheese, which along with Monterey jack shares the distinction of being the cheese most insulted by overly salted, cheap imitations. This dressing was housemade, a smooth liquid puree of nothing more than bleu cheese and milk. I had asked for it on the side, as I usually do, because most salad dressings aren't worth more than a faint drizzle over the salad greens. But this one was so good, I told Carlos I wished I could take it home with us.

We tried dessert, a rich cream cheesecake with blackberry sauce. It was sweeter than we like, heavy but adequate. Carlos ordered a cappuccino, and was floored by receiving a full 12-oz cupful of very good espresso and silky foam. For a mere $2.25 it was unexpected to receive a triple size espresso drink, so it's a good thing caffeine doesn't stop him from sleeping, LOL.

We liked Blondies a lot, and plan to return for lunch before leaving for Portland. The waiter gave us a break on the price of the salad by adding it to Carlos' spaghetti entree, so it was only $2.50 instead of $5. Two starters, one entree with salad, two beverages, one dessert, with tip was $57.

Lunch at Blondies' Bistro

We returned for lunch before hitting the road again. Sadly, there is definitely a different cook who is not as skillful. The salad was ordinary although the dressing was still good; the special burger of the day tasted more like meatloaf on indifferent rye; and Carlos' crepe was very bland, with no interest beyond very fresh spinach and an unsalted mushroom bechamel.

Ah well, one can't win 'em all. Two small entrees, one beverage, one side salad, with tip came to $28.