14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
BIGFOOT’S
STEAKHOUSE
Bigfoot’s prices
conjure up myth
of top-tier cuisine
Rating:
2427 S. Roosevelt Drive,
Seaside, Ore. 97138
503-738-7009
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday through Thursday, 11
a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through
Saturday
Price: $$ – top-tier values are
out of whack
Service: Friendly, familiar with
the locals
Vegetarian / Vegan Options:
It’s a steakhouse
Drinks: Full bar
Review and photos by
THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
FACEBOOK.COM/MOUTHOFTHECOLUMBIA
T
he rustic, cabin-like, Wild
West interior of Bigfoot’s
Steakhouse is paired with
myth: a breezy fascination with
the namesake manimal. The
menu is presented as a four-page
newspaper in which dishes are
interspersed with tales of legend.
Included, of course, is the iconic,
blurry photo of a hairy beast
walking upright in the woods.
Regardless of what is or isn’t
tromping around out there, much
of Bigfoot’s fare represents — or
covets — the frontiersman’s diet:
meat and potatoes. Or, rather:
meat, meat, potatoes and potatoes.
Portions are piled up, sized for the
working man and priced to match.
Indeed, the bill at Bigfoot’s
can be as intimidating as the
Sasquatch herself.
And herein lies an impasse
with the Seaside restaurant I just
can’t see my way around: The
prices can be as high as anywhere
in the region, but the food is res-
olutely average, both in its ingre-
dients and execution. Bigfoot’s
top tier is a tough sell.
The flagship steaks come
from the Midwest and boast of
being grain-fed. The prime rib,
depending on size, hovers from
the mid-to-high twenties. A
bacon-wrapped filet mignon tops
out the menu at $31.75.
Of the steaks, a server guid-
ed me to the Big River New
York Strip ($28.25). Ordered
medium-rare, the not-quite-boot-
heel-sized strip arrived closer
to medium. It was plenty juicy,
Happy hour food: twin sip sliders and a pair of snowshoes
Poor
Below average
Worth returning
Very good
Excellent, best in region
Prawns and Halibut Dijon
buttery, plainly seasoned, with a
river of fatty tissue running along
one edge. It was red meat, plain
and simple, not quite overwhelm-
ing and not quite extraordinary.
While serviceable, it came up
short for what I was paying. At
$20, I might feel differently.
The strip came with bread,
choice of potato (baked, mashed,
fries or rice pilaf) and veggies.
All together, the entrées can add
up to a substantial amount of
food, but the accoutrements, by
and large, felt more like after-
thoughts. The salads weren’t
much different than the premixed
type you get in a bag: iceberg let-
tuce with a few carrot shavings,
plus out-of-season tomato, a slice
or two of cucumber and croutons
(aka the vapid, outmoded “chef’s
salad”).
And since we’re using the
word “chef,” let’s talk about
it: Bigfoot’s doesn’t feel like
it’s shepherded by one. There’s
no nuance or developed flavor
to speak of. Rather, it’s design
by committee, purveyors and a
bottom line.
The Prawns & Halibut Dijon
($29.75) tip-toed a similar line.
The fish was flaky and clean but
short of astonishing. The sizable
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Big River New York Strip with steamed broccoli and rice pilaf
slab was covered in a creamy,
tangy, white wine Dijon sauce
and topped with mushrooms, to-
matoes and three prawns. Thanks
mostly to richness of the sauce,
it was more decadent than the
steak.
The mashed potatoes were
regular ol’ mashed potatoes. On a
bed of mushy, overly-sweetened
spaghetti squash the veggies — a
melange of cauliflower, baby
carrots, onions and zucchini —
were an ice cream scoop short
of dessert, way too sugary. The
alternative to the squash medley,
steamed broccoli, was under-sea-
soned, sapped of any flavor.
Bigfoot’s menu unfurls in
anodyne sprawl. There’s fish and
chips, pasta, chowder, sandwich-
es, wings and more. There are
burgers, of course, one of which
is questionably presented. The
weight of the “32oz. Yeti Special
Burger” seems to correspond not
to the (16-ounce) patty but the
whole burger, which stacks ham,
bacon, egg, cheese and veg.
As one patron at the bar men-
tioned, “Everything is so big.”
Alas, it’s often as much filler as
killer.
Searching for portions and
prices that were more manage-
able, I dipped into the happy hour
menu, available everyday from 4
to 6 p.m. in the bar. Here, too, the
value was broken: The two salty,
French dip sliders were puny,
near the size of pocket watches,
but cost $4.50. They should’ve
been half that. The Pair of Snow-
shoes ($4.50) — potato skins
with taco-seasoned ground beef,
cheese, tomatoes, salsa and sour
cream — were less egregious but
hardly a happy hour deal where
you can’t believe your luck. (A
drink purchase is required for
happy hour food.)
Oddly enough, the drinks at
Bigfoot’s are priced reasonably.
As such, the bar area can be
bubbling with locals, sharing
Seaside’s news and gossip or
watching a game.
But considering the oft-lack-
luster ingredients and shallow
preparations, the food prices at
Bigfoot’s — especially on the
big-ticket items — are at odds
with reality. CW