UPDATE: 5:06pm: I’ve decided to go ahead and name the restaurant in question, after news editor Amy Ruiz told me it “looks wussy” not to. It’s Acadia on NE Fremont. And nobody calls me a wuss.

Food Dude adds that the comments of a character named “Foieman” appear to be from the chef’s IP address too, and that they take a big knock at Paley’s place:

“Posted by: foieman:
There is no reason to dine at Paleys these days. Everytime I’ve been it’s mediocre. Boring food, plastic menus with plain paper, terrible service (like ten minutes for a glass of water), overpriced wine, and paley bars on the cheese plate. I guess if you put James Beard on the front of your menu, you can do whatever you want and people will love it !?”

“Posted by: foieman:
Jelaous, Dan de lion? Sure everyone wants national recognition like a beard award, but I think it’s more about wasting time and money. Do you think I dined at Paleys wanting the food and service to suck? Of course not, and I even went back five times wanting it to live up to it’s reputation. You were right about wasting time, but it was wasted dining at paleys, (on my one nite off every two weeks) not at my job.”

ORIGINAL “WUSSY” POST, 4:03pm: Last week the usually restrained blogger “Food Dude” at Portland Food and Drink reviewed a certain Creole restaurant in less than glowing terms:

There were so many things wrong with this dish; it is hard to know where to begin. First of all, the chop arrived completely burnt, the bone charred through. It looked like it had been put through an incinerator. When the waitress set it down, a companion wrinkled his nose and said, “Wow, the meat is so scorched I can smell it from here!” The glaze was like heavy sugar syrup, slowly running off the chop and soaking the corn pudding below, turning it into more of a dessert than an accompaniment. A few bright little pea pods around the outside were so overwhelmed they tasted like odd little candy. The whole thing was drowning in salt. I think this is one of the worst entrées I have ever been served, and it amazes me it made it out of the kitchen.

Food Dude names names, but I’m restraining myself from doing so here because we might want to sell them some advertising, at some point. And I don’t want to get sued. But here’s a photo of the alleged “burnt chop”:COAL-CHOP: Satisfies pregnancy cravings…

Food Dude went back four times and the review is comprehensive. But since it was published, the chef has offered to refund the cost of the meal, and somebody called “James Dean” responded with the following comment:

Wow, I am stunned by this review! I have had nothing but wonderful meals at —————. I have dined there probably 50 times and the experience has always been consistent. In fact, I was just there last week and everyone at the table had a fantastic meal. Two in our party ordered the pork chop and it was perfectly cooked. Based on this review, I hope others won’t be afraid to visit such a great restaurant. I was very impressed with the owners response and I will be dining at ————— again very soon.

50 times?! That’s a lot of visits to a restaurant, even for a die-hard fan, right? Then again, it seems possible James Dean was actually the chef at the restaurant in question. IP addresses are a marvelous invention! Food Dude comments:

Oh, and another thing. I don’t expect any restaurant I review to try to repay me if I don’t like their food. However, when one specifically leaves a comment saying

“I have donated back to you money in the amount I think you may have spent.”,

and makes everyone go, oh… what a nice guy, he should follow through. For the record, no donations have been made to this site for the last week. If Chef ————would like me to go back and edit the donation part out of his comment, I’d be happy to do so.

Also, this chef may want to keep a more careful eye on his computer, as multiple people seem to be using it to post positive experiences about —————. At last count, comments on PFD have been made by seven different names from the same IP address of Chef ————’s PC.

Just saying

BURN! BURN! BURN! JUST LIKE YOUR PORK CHOP!!! There’s no response in the comments, as yet…but what a saga.