The Riverhouse Nestucca is open Wed to Sun and reservations are recommended.  The small place is on the second level of a framed building, where the ground level is just storage.  It is on the bank of the Nustecca river.  The nice-sized tables were in booth settings along the street wall and free standing tables on the river wall with a few small ones in the middle.  Windows make a nice view but the sun can get pretty bright.  At the top of the stairs is the check in area where a pair of lovely hostesses greeted us and ushered us to a river side table.  We liked it enough to book our next 2 nights in Pacific City there on the way out.  This post will group all the things we tried in each section of the menu together rather than as each meal.  The staff are super friendly and efficient with minimal waiting between courses.   The seafood was mostly local as were the vegetables, but the menu did not change over the 3 nights.  They feature wines from the Twist Wine Company that is just down the street.  Desserts are presented as an oral menu and they did change daily.  The plates are generous and tasty and with finer dining options limited in the small town, this is the place to go.  You won’t be sorry.

Set-up

 

Food

Starters

Half-shell oyster shooter was a freshly shucked raw Pacific oyster that was served with house-made cocktail sauce and a champagne vinegar mignonette sauce.  They came with a small bottle of tabasco and lemon and you order them by the piece.  They are a slightly stronger tasting oyster than Gulf or East coast ones, but typical of the west coast.  The cocktail sauce was nicely seasoned with horseradish and made me wish I had some saltines to eat it on.  The oysters were great.

 

Bread service was a soft white bread served with packets of butter.  The bread usually came out warm but there was no crispness to the crust.  However the taste and texture of the bread was good and perfect for mopping up sauces or just snacking.  They would bring more if you wanted.

 

Riverhouse Crabcakes were made with fresh Dungeness crab, fresh herbs and cajun spice then breaded and pan fried crispy.  They were served with a roasted red pepper remoulade.  They were good but had too much breading mixed with the crab.  The sauce was quite tasty with the cakes sitting on top of it.  I enjoyed a spray of the grilled lemon in addition to the scallion bits.  They were not spicy.

 

Baked Mussels were Pacific blue mussels baked in garlic aioli and sweet soy sauce topped with shredded scallion and panko bread crumbs.  They came 8 to an order and the tasty mussel went well with the thick rich sauce.  I topped mine with some of the crisp bread crumbs to add texture and it made a good bite.

 

Oregon coast Steamer clams were served with house bread and butter.  The generous bowl of wonderful clams was easily my favorite starter of our meals.  The broth contained bits of onion and garlic that worked great with the bread and tasty shellfish.  Easily separated from their shell they went down way too easy.

 

Salad

The Cajun Crab Caesar salad was a classic Caesar salad with added spice and Dungeness Crab.  It was also garnished with a halved hard boiled egg topped with cajun spice and a peppered avocado piece.  There was a ton of lettuce in the bowl and it was fairly lightly dressed.  The lovely crab was lost in the mix but fun to pick out separately and eat as well as the other garnishes and croutons.  It was fine but with more dressing or less lettuce it would have been better.

 

Entrés

Pacific Chinook Salmon was line caught and pan-seared then served with creamy parmigiano reggiano and mushroom leek risotto and seasonal vegetables.  The salmon was cooked nicely with a moist interior but the risotto was thicker than I like however the taste was good.  The plate had fiddleheads, tomatoes, mushrooms and brocoli as seasonal vegetables.

 

Miso citrus marinated halibut was served with grilled bok choy, sushi rice, and a sauce of saki, ginger and shallot cream.  The piece of halibut was cooked nicely with the fish remaining moist and tender.  The sauce was delicious and the rice soaked it up nicely.  The bok choy looked much like chard but definitely was bok choy and cooked to tender.  It was a very good plate.

 

Lingcod Fish n’ Chips was made with fresh Northwest Lingcod dipped in English style beer batter served with house made tartar.  It was plated with frites and we upgraded them ($4) to be seasoned with grated parmigiano reggiano and garlic then served with house ancho ketchup.  The potatoes were quite good and if you go I would pass on the upgrade and have them as they come.  We did add an extra piece of fish ($6) so we’d have an easily divided plate.  The batter was crisp and hot with moist fish inside.  The tartar sauce was good but covered the mild fish flavor too much for me, but the grilled lemon was quite good on it.  The orange vegetables on the plate were pickled and quite delicious.

 

Dungeness crab ravioli from the Oregon coast was mixed with parmesan in raviolis served with a mushroom saffron cream sauce and garnished with more Oregon coast Dungeness crab.  The nice pasta was not only stuffed with crab but had it on top too.  It was well shredded inside with the lump bits on top.  The sauce was a rich and creamy one that paired well with the dense pastas.

 

Pan seared jumbo ocean scallops were seared in butter and served over saffron poblano risotto mixed with a lemon chili beurre blanc and sauteed vegetables.  I loved the really tasty rice with this dish, but it was stiff to be called risotto.  The perfectly cooked scallops had a bit of peppery essence to their flavoring that was delightful.   They were plated with a couple stalks of broccoli, cherry tomatoes and onions.  It was a wonderful plate but smaller than some of the others.

 

Desserts

Bread pudding was topped with ice cream and caramel sauce.  The ice cream had a good texture and the pudding had lots of cinnamon but no raisins or nuts.  Dusted with powdered sugar it was an attractive presentation and a huge portion – more than the 2 of us could eat.  Very tasty and rich.

 

Triple layer chocolate cake was topped with powdered sugar and a small slice of chocolate.  The taste was moist but tasted more of cocoa than chocolate.  The ganache between the layer was the same that was on the outside and plentiful enough to have some with each bite of cake.  It was more than we could eat.