Portland Restaurant: CHKCHK

What: CHKCHK!!
Where: NW 23rd and Overton
When: 11 am - 10 pm
Honeys Heart: The price! And the decor.

Adam loves fried chicken. Like really loves fried chicken. He also really loves a sandwich, so anytime there is an opportunity to have a fried chicken sandwich he is all over it.

I've recently found that on weeks where we don't get Blue Apron delivered, we've lacked some cooking motivation. On such nights, I struggle between the financially responsible grocery store stop and the convenient Thai Peacock or Laughing Planet options. Tiring of our usual go-to's we decided to hit up CHKCHK, a new casual semi-fast food restaurant on NW 23rd. 

The menu is small but affordable, and the food is made to order, but quick. I would say we had our dinner in about 10-12 minutes and with our two drinks, spent a grand total of about $32. 

Our drinks were one of their four "Boozy Sodas". The Cactus Cooler ($7) is a bottled mix of green melon, tequila, and a little love. They weren't bad, but they were a little too sweet and a bit funky. I think I would try the CHKCHK Libre next time with rum, Blackstrap bitters, and cane soda.

For food, Adam opted for the Spicy ChkChk Sandwich ($7) while I went for the ChkChop Salad ($6) plus ChkChk Bites for an extra $1. 

Not that we needed it, but we complemented our fried chicken dinners with the ChkChk Fries ($2) and an array of dipping sauces. I do love a waffle fry...

The drinks weren't my favorite, but otherwise I would say this is a good stop for a quick, cheap din. Maybe not if you're trying to be healthy though... 

Portland Happy Hour: Rae's Lakeview Lounge

What: Rae's Lakeview Lounge
Where: 1900 NW 27th Avenue
When: Daily happy hour 2 - 6 pm
Honeys Heart: $9 Carafes

It's been a while since Katie and I reviewed a true happy hour, but we recently met up halfway (ish) between our two work establishments for some end-of-week unwinding (aka wine drinking).

Rae's has been around for quite some time (like 50 plus years) and for people who have lived most of our post-college lives in NW, it's maybe a little surprising we didn't make it there before now.

The restaurant has a neighborhood dive feel inside, so we opted to sit outside on the patio where we soon learned that it's assumed you'll share your picnic table if you're a party of two. That's okay by us, but it would have been appreciated if the server could have given us a heads up before he plopped two menus down next to us.

Also, within a few minutes of us being seated, the bros behind us began to surround us in plumes of smoke from their e-cigarettes. I mean, I guess it didn't smell as bad or linger in my hair as long as a regular cigarette, but it for sure affected our patio experience.

To help take the edge off our so-far iffy visit, we decided to order a half-carafe of the house wine ($9)... followed by a second carafe. The second carafe was obviously a different wine than the first, but whatevs. Cheap wine is cheap wine, right?

For snacks, we ordered the Cheddar Mack ($4.50) and Black and Tan Hummus ($6.50). Both would definitely fall into the greasy bar food category and while I wouldn't go to Rae's for the culinary experience, at least the prices were cheap?

Maybe we're just getting old, but I think both of us would willingly pay a bit more for higher quality food and a better ambiance. Those $9 carafes might convince us to come back though...