Beaverton Fine Dining -- Mingo

Yes, Beaverton and "fine dining" is an oxymoron, but Mingo certainly justifies the term. Opened a little more than a year ago, Mingo has become my favorite business dinner place. Mingo is a spin-off from Caffe Mingo located in the Pearl district of Portland. On several top-10 lists, the mother ship Caffe Mingo is sadly not perfect.

I've never had the pleasure of eating at Caffe Mingo, but I've found Mingo to be consistently good. Mingo is off of Hall Street north of the Beaverton/Hillsdale Hwy, in The Round. With a nice bar, interesting glass partitions, hand made paper lamps and one long wall made up of a few glass paned garage doors. My last visit a couple weeks ago, was Last Tuesday, and a beautiful Indian summer evening with the garage doors open to outdoor seating.

They have a great wine list with a number of smaller production wines. We had a very nice 1998 Barbaresco. My favorite appetizer is a great salad with thinly sliced cured beef and agrugula salad. There are lots of good main dishes, the halibut, and penne with a rich Chianti and espresso-braised beef sauce. My last meal was the lamb steak with roasted vegetables--not quite as tender as a chop, but much more flavorful. The daily special ravioli and risottos are good too. I've had the squash ravioli and it was great. The two best deserts (IMO) are the chocolate mouse and the panna cotta, especially the panna cotta . They also have good gelato.

While some have received less than perfect service, that's not been my experience. Amy was our waitperson on my last visit; she was knowledgeable, personable and efficient.