Bar Avignon: Wonderful dinner in this SE Portland neighborhood restaurant

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We live in Southern Oregon but do make it up to Portland fairly frequently.  Biggest question is always whether to eat at some of our old favorites (Cafe Mingo, Toro Bravo, St. Jack’s) or try something new.  Lately, when we have been trying something new it’s been a bit of a disappointment – but this trip we found a fabulous neighborhood restaurant in SE – Bar Avignon (2138 SE Division St).  We arrived when they opened at 5pm on a Sunday because we had to eat an early dinner.  We were the only diners until about 6pm and then the place really began to fill up.  I loved the simple atmosphere of the wooden tables, a few booths and the red bar.

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Their menu includes “Finger Foods”, “Shareables – or not”, “Entrees” and “Artisan Cheeses and Charcuterie” and a small oyster list.  Tough to make some decisions here, but we opted to share everything and ordered the Chicken Liver Mousse with pickled figs, chantrelle mushroom soup, Washington mussels and the roasted chicken with panzanella.

The chicken liver liver mouse was smooth and creamy and the figs, which are pickled in house, were delicious and the right complement to the mousse.  Sadly the only negative thing about this dish was that we wanted more!!

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The chantrelle mushroom soup was wonderful and creamy with croutons on top that provided the perfect crunch.

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The Washington mussels prepared with white wine, cream, tarragon and garlic toasts were delicious and our server knew as soon as we finished the mussels to bring more bread to sop up the yummy sauce left over.  This dish is quite large and definitely shareable as an appetizer.

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For our entree we ordered the roast chicken and panzanella with hazelnuts, blue cheese, beets and bacon.  The chicken was roasted to perfection with crispy skin and moist inside. This is an entire half chicken where the breast has been deboned.  We were glad we had chosen to share it.

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We perused the dessert menu but were feeling a bit too full for anything too big, but noticed that their Mud Pie Sundae included some Salt & Straw salted caramel ice cream so we asked for a scoop to share.  We got a very large scoop which really hit the spot, and the best part was we didn’t have to wait in line at Salt & Straw to get it!!

We had a fabulous dinner here and had great service from our waitress!  We will definitely be back on our next trip to Portland!

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