Ichi Sushi

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 4
Price:  $74
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Yakisoba, fried rice, rainbow, philadelphia, california, spicy tuna, oregon, lobster (free) rolls, hotate, tamago, tobiko nigiri, wakame salad
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

It's our last day in Newberg and I wanted to check out Ichi Sushi, a Japanese restaurant located in the old home town Italian restaurant's building.  I once bought a Honda CRX from them for $100.  What a car...

Anyway, now there is a Japanese restaurant run by some nice Chinese Americans.  The menu includes mainly sushi, but there are some noodle based dishes and fried rice and such.  There must be steak on there too, but I didn't notice.  They have a generous happy hour menu from 12 to 4pm and we ordered several things off of that menu.  Also, there was a special where if you spend at least $20 you got a lobster roll free, nice!

As this was my grandmother's first time in a long while to eat Japanese food we got her some yakisoba as she had heard of that before.  My son got some tobiko and tamago nigiri, along with a fried rice.  My wife and I ate wakame salad, along with philadelphia, california, spicy tuna, oregon and the lobster rolls.  Also I got some hotate nigiri to see what that would be like.

Over all, we enjoyed the philly, cali, and spicy tuna rolls the best.  The oregon roll was a bit of an abomination, lacking any rice and smothered in sauce...oh and deep fried.  The rainbow roll was just a fancy california roll with more fish on it, and the lobster roll was also a bit fancier than we prefer (but it was free!).  I didn't much care for the hotate as they put shiso leaf with it, and the rice by itself (not sauce covered) wasn't that great.

Still, for what it is, it was very good, so that's what I'm giving it.  Remember, this is a sushi restaurant in a small American town and shouldn't be compared with the places back home, or fancier places in bigger cities.

Yakisoba

Fried rice

Oregon roll

Lobster roll

Bert's Chuckwagon

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 3
Price:  $28
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Half pound of pulled pork, brisket sandwich, mac'n'cheese
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Newberg has a new BBQ spot since we lived here called Bert's Chuckwagon.  We'd heard it was pretty good, so we stopped in for a bite.  They were out of a few things (common in a BBQ place I've come to find), but I just wanted meat, and their menu has options for just getting hunk of meat, so I ordered some pulled pork.  My wife went for the brisket sandwich while my son, of course, had the mac and cheese.

Brisket sandwich

We all loved our food, and my wife liked hers too, despite handing over the fatty bits to me (yum!).   Great spot and good prices.

Mac'n'cheese

Half a pound of pulled pork

Jimmy John's

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: $14
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Two turkey avocado "unwiches" (lettuce wraps)
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

My wife and I needed a quick bite and I was trying to stay low carb, so I stopped in this sandwich shop in a strip mall and asked what they could do for me.  The lettuce wrap (unwich) was suggested with the turkey, avocado, tomato cucumber topping combination.  I ordered two, and we ate them, not expecting much.   We were pleasantly surprised with the results, and they did the trick. 

The Coffee Cottage

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: $12
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Breakfast burrito, decaf sour mocha
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

The Coffee Cottage is an old college hangout in Newberg that serves really good coffee.  I was walking back to our airbnb the other night and decided to stop in and order my favorite coffee (decaf...because night), a sour mocha (aka bitter mocha, aka mocha using chocolate powder light on the sugar).  I saw they had some food options and I was hungry so I ordered a breakfast burrito, which they then kind of grilled and brought to eat.

It was...not very good.  I only ate half and tossed the rest.  Still, I think the food there is better than that generally, so I gave it an Ok.  Plus, the coffee was really good. 

Black Bear Diner

Rating: Very good
Meal: Breakfast for 5
Price:  $57.00
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Various breakfasty dishes (see below)
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

My sister-in-law and her husband wanted to take us out to breakfast in Newberg and recommended the Black Bear Diner.  It's a sort of all-american rustic woodsey type place that's new since we lived here.  The menu is expansive and the portions are truly stunning.  Luckily, we saw this ahead of time and ordered smaller portions on purpose.

The results were delicious and quite cheap for the portion sizes.  Definitely a Very Good.

Panaderia y Taqueria Gonzalez

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 3
Price:  $25.23
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  3 tacos lengua, 1 chicken burrito, 1 bean and cheese burrito, 1 horchata
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

We finally reached my hometown in the US (Newberg, OR) and for dinner we stopped by the Panaderia y Taqueria Gonzalez, my favorite Mexican restaurant in town.  There are other places that do certain things better (i.e. the "wet" sauce of Marthas Tacos in Lafayette, if it is still open, is better), but for your basic burrito supreme, this place is hard to beat.  However, since we weren't that hungry and I am trying to watch the carbs, I ordered 3 tacos with lengua, thinking it would be smaller.   Ha!  I could only eat two, and am having the 3rd for breakfast!  My wife ate about 2/3 of her chicken burrito, and even my son gave up after a heroic effort to eat his bean and cheese (Mexican white cheese, natch) burrito.

Putting the "bakery" in "Panaderia"

Of course, because this is a Panaderia in addition to being a Taqueria, I had to take a picture of the baked goods section, of which many a customer partook as we awaited our food.  A pity I don't care too much for Mexican baked goods.

3 enormous tacos lengua

Oh, my son begged for some horchata, which is a favorite, and we capitulated.  It's still delicious, though still stupidly sweet.  There must be a way to make a healthier version...

The burrito, possibly the least photogenic food in existence.

Ditto...