Food Reviews & Stories I know the secret Stonecutters society on The Simpsons rigs the Oscars, but who rigs the prices at the area Indian lunch buffets? In the past year, they all seemed to go from $6.95 to $7.95. Swagat's buffet is still one of the best, with plenty of items on offer that go beyond the usual saag paneer/   More

Food Reviews & Stories "Hey, Mom, would it be all right with you if I took those neon signs from the basement and put them in the extra room upstairs? It would be nice, chill lighting for a place to hang out in armchairs and eat pizza with my friends, or just chow down on some barbecue and drink beer! Please, Mom, can I?"   More

Food Reviews & Stories This Montavilla destination is almost always crowded with families reaching over each other's plates of succulent shawarma ($9.95) as they tear off bits of piping-fresh pita to drag through hummus and puckery baba ghanouj. Try both in the veggie mezza ($8.95), which also comes with just-right falafe   More

Food Reviews & Stories The sweet Dolly Parton plaque and Don Knotts in memoriam salad might suggest that winking irony is the main course here, but whoever chose the grapefruit and grilled fennel to honor the late Barney Fife player was clearly motivated by love, not cultural cachet. Same goes for the Lestat sandwich (Bla   More

Food Reviews & Stories Hidden in the hills above Northwest Portland, this old-time diner hasn't gotten the memo yet that some Portland eaters-high on something, surely-are willing to lay down a fiver for a simple grilled-cheese sandwich. The Skyline's grilled cheese? Just $2.95, as it should be. The menu's full of other a   More

DVD & TV Sometimes a film can perfectly capture a moment in time, embody the zeitgeist in such a way that all can look to it and say, "Yes, yes, this is what it means to be alive today." Maybe you saw the worl ...   More

Food Reviews & Stories Cup and Saucer, toast and jam, rank and file. Workaday breakfast basics (the MaryAnn, a bacon-egg-cheddar sandwich, $6) with a few veggie-friendly twists (vegan corncakes, $4-$5) come to roost at this sister location of a Southeast Hawthorne fave, which has a similar menu. (Unfortunately, the C&   More

Books THE SHROUD OF THE THWACKER By Chris Elliott (Miramax Books, 358 pages, $22.95)It's been a while since Chris Elliott entertained lucky late-night TV viewers with such sublime, absurd brilliance as the ...   More

Food Reviews & Stories Have one of those all-the-rage farm dinners without actually mucking out to the farm (though hay bales and manure might be easier to wade through than all the recent construction in this part of the Pearl District). Rainbow-colored salads and other ultra-seasonal specials make up an affordable lunch   More

Food Reviews & Stories As the adamantly local menu explains in detail, most of the elements in any Three Square meal were grown, raised, caught or roasted within an afternoon's drive of Portland, and were probably baked, cured, smoked or brined on site. Diners get the feeling that if they asked for more background on the    More