Monday, August 17, 2009

Portland Happy Hour: Pirate Cookin'

Posted by Katie

Nick and I first heard about Salvador Molly's on one of Nick's favorite shows "Man vs Food." Salvador Molly's is known for its "great balls of fire," which are habanero cheese fritters, but they also have a great happy hour.
Since neither of us (especially Nick) is a fan of super spicy food, we opted out of trying the great balls of fire and instead started with the bbq kalua pork sliders and the kyinga-kyinga chicken chicken strips (both $2 as is everything on the happy hour menu). Nick and I agreed that the pork sliders were the tastier of the two since the chicken didn't have much going on. We especially liked that the pork on the sliders was flavorful all by itself and didn't need to be doused with bbq sauce in order to be palatable.


For our main course, we decided to order off the regular menu. I've been on a bit of a fish taco kick lately so we tried out the baja fish tacos ($8.95) which were really good, probably thanks in part to the tangy Yucatan pickled onions that were piled on the top. I also convinced Nick that we should try the cheesy poofs ($4.25), which were described as crispy fritters of mashed potato, chipotle chile, and cheese. Probably a more accurate description would be oily fritters of mashed potato that are hollow on the inside. Not so appetizing despite their tempting name (or maybe that was just me).

I was still recovering from Kel and my night out (when we end up at Dirty, you know it's been one of those nights...) so I left the drink ordering to Nick. We were both intrigued by the idea of the "mojarita" which, as you might have guessed, is a combination of a mojito and a margarita. Sadly, the mojarita did not live up to our expectations. First, it was blended, which is a big no-no in my book. Second, it was surprisingly flavorless. There was definitely some mint happening but not much else. Even though we had two major strike-outs (cheesy poofs and mojarita), I would still recommend Salvador Molly's if not just for the $2 happy hour menu, tasty sliders, and fish tacos, then for the fun atmosphere that hits you as soon as you step inside. This place is cluttered like none other but the playful dining room setting definitely adds to the "pirate cookin" that's going on in the kitchen.


And one more thing to keep in mind: Salvador Molly's is technically Hillsboro, not Portland...so expect a bit of a drive if you're headed in its direction.