Restaurant Review Archives - Page 3 of 8

Dave June 1, 2011

Crave Bake Shop Retail Store Visit

We mentioned not too long ago that Crave Bake Shop, the makers of the best gluten-free cupcakes and desserts ever, finally opened a retail store. The bad news is that they’re all the way down in Lake Oswego. The good news is that you can go get the best gluten-free cupcakes ever. Here are photos from our visit.

We were actually delighted to find that there was a small line and that there were also people waiting for their orders to be completed. The person behind the counter was extremely friendly.

Delicious gluten-free currant scones. These taste exactly like the real thing.

I snagged a quick shot behind the counter. They had a few items on hand, and were busy making other items while we were there. We got the distinct impression that it might be a good idea to call or email ahead if you want to order specific items. Kyra notified us that Wednesday is Angel Roll Day and Friday is Doughnut Day (with baked doughnuts!)

We got a scone, two snickerdoodle “shot” sized cupcakes, and two hot chocolate (something something we forget but they were AWESOME too) regular sized cupcakes. Here is part of their blurb about what they make:

Crave Bake Shop specializes in gourmet gluten-free and made-from-scratch desserts and pastries that are prepared with the premium ingredients such as sweet cream butter, pure vanilla bean extract, Callebaut French dark chocolate, passion fruit puree—and much more.
Those looking to satiate their sweet tooth can choose from a full menu of Crave Bake Shop’s popular signature desserts—like Tart Raspberry Angel Rolls, buttery Orange Currant Scones, addictive gooey Cinnamon Rolls, decadent Peanut Butter Truffle Fudge Brownies, and many other delectable treats such as Chocolate Caramel Ecstasy cupcakes—all gluten-free.

www.cravebakeshop.com
460 Fifth Street
Lake Oswego, Oregon 97034 / 503.212.2979
cravebakeshop@gmail.com
Tuesday – Friday 10-5 Saturday 10-4
CLOSED SUNDAY AND MONDAY

Dave May 27, 2011

Restaurant Review: Gustav’s and The Rheinlander

We were a little confused about Gustav’s and the Rheinlander German restaurants. They are listed differently and have different names and websites. So to clear things up: It’s basically the same place with the same menu. Gustav’s is more of a pub atmosphere, whereas The Rheinlander is restaurant atmosphere. Both serve up cocktails and German food. As far as the pub atmosphere goes, it’s barely like a bar or a pub, really. More like a restaurant with a huge bar on one side. We decided to do the pub thing and ate at Gustav’s.

While we’re talking about atmosphere, it would be criminal for us to not mention that there are staff in lederhosen, and that the decor is full-on what you imagine when you think of Oktoberfest. At least that’s the feeling I got. Everyone we talked to at the restaurant were very helpful, particularly our server, whose name was Sara. She was knowledgeable and just: awesome. Gustav’s has a separate gluten-free menu, which they get points for. They also serve gluten-free beer: St Peter’s Sorgham Beer. For the vegetarian readers, I have to say that although they have a separate vegetarian menu, scanning it makes me think that if you’re gluten free AND vegetarian, you should probably steer clear.

We decided to get some drinks, and that was definitely a good idea. Sienna got the Love for Sale, which is vodka, passion fruit liqueur, pineapple juice and orange juice. This tastes exactly like Hawaiian Punch, but with alcohol in it. I got something called a Sea of Cortez: “Arbol chile infused Herradura blanco tequila, fresh grapefruit and lime juices, triple sec, served on the rocks with an Arbol chile, salt and sugar dusted rim.” This drink is awesome! Spicy, bitter, and sour with some hot chile burn. This photo reminds me to mention that Gustav’s has only one gluten-free mustard, the spicy kind.

We have to say that our eating experience at Gustav’s ended up being a little lackluster. The Caesar Salad was definitely of the Americanized, mayonnaisey sort. The lettuce was fresh, but the flavors ended up being too monochromatic for us. We were wishing for some more lemon and some bite to the cheese.

The gluten-free fondue ends up being a little bit challenging. Unlike another place we could name, they don’t serve the fondue with vegetables. Instead, they serve it with two bratwurst sausages. The cheese flavor was good, although we both thought it was too salty. But dipping sausages into melted cheese was a little too hardcore carnivore artery hardening for me. I was really wishing for some veggies or some gluten-free bread pieces. The bratwurst was good, at least as far as we could tell. We’re not really experts in the sausage/wurst area, so your mileage may vary.

Here is where I explain what a schnitzel is. They take a piece of meat like a chicken breast, pound it flat, bread it, and then fry it. In the case of the Gustav’s gluten-free schnitzel, this simply means that they pound it flat and then grill it. This is the chicken schnitzel with portabella mushrooms and mashed potatoes. The mushrooms were the best part, even though they seemed to have been steamed. The mashed potatoes were OK. The chicken was flavorless and kind of overdone.

It seems like you can’t throw a rock in Portland without hitting a slice of gluten-free flourless chocolate cake, and I certainly cannot complain about that! Besides the crazy cocktail, the dessert was the best part of our meal. It was creamy, rich, and had this salty thing going on, which I really liked. Gustav’s serves Illy coffee, which we really love and went perfectly with the flourless chocolate cake.

It was at this point that we decided, based on our first experience at Gustav’s, that they are kind of like the Applebees of German cuisine, except with Lederhosen and wandering accordion players. Depending on your tastes, that might be a good thing or a bad thing. We thought that the food, although it was all edible, lacked a spark. If you scroll back up and look at the presentation on all of the dishes, you’ll see the same thing. It’s all really sort of functional. We do, once again, have to comment about how great the staff was, though.

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-Free friendly but Ask Questions!
Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Gustav’s & The Rheinlander
gustavs.net & rheinlander.com
5035 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland OR 97213 / 503.288.5503

Dave May 6, 2011

Andina Gluten Free – A Tale of Two Nights

While I consider myself enough of a foodie to run a blog that reviews restaurants, I’m aware that I have a few blind spots. For example, Korean food. I wouldn’t know good Korean food if it bit me on the leg. I feel the same way about Tapas, and it isn’t for lack of trying. I’ve actually had plenty of Tapas, and have eaten them in several places (in San Francisco and Seattle) where I was assured that theirs was of great quality. Maybe I should say that I don’t feel a great affinity for Tapas. At the same time, I do feel like I’ve eaten enough great food that I know it when I eat it. And I think Sienna’s experience is similar.

Does it sound like I’m winding up to deliver a negative review? It does, doesn’t it? Well, not so fast. This is a tale of two nights, and I think that it’s going to be a little long-winded, so you might want to get a cup of coffee.

We’ve wanted to cover Andina on Gluten Free Portland for quite a long time. It’s a fancy Peruvian restaurant in the Pearl at NW 13th and Glisan. Not only do they have the reputation of being a great restaurant, they are also very seriously gluten-free friendly. Andina has a separate gluten-free menu, and their staff is very knowledgeable and friendly about the topic. I have to give them 5 out of 5 possible stars on the gluten-free experience. This fits, considering that one of the features of truly good quality restaurants is a high level of service. Andina is simply not messing around when it comes to service. The other two things that Andina has down pat is cocktails and desserts. You cannot go wrong with either.

The first night we went to Andina also happened to be Sienna’s birthday. We had heard a lot about the place, and had been there once before but just for drinks. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they have an extensive gluten-free menu, which is basically the same as the main menu with the few gluten-containing dishes removed. The menu is extensive and adventurous. On the left-hand side of the menu are Tapas–small plates for sharing. On the right-hand side are entrees.

On this night we decided to go for several small plates. Our server recommended 4-6 small plates to feed two people. We ordered the Pimiento Piquillo Relleno, which is peppers stuffed with cheese, quinoa, and ham, the Musciame de Atun, which is cured tuna with a garlic oil and what amounts to guacamole, and the Palta Rellena de Cangrejo y Langostinos, avocado stuffed with crab and prawns. We also ordered a “Causa.” These are like mashed potato cakes with fillings. We got the Morada Causa, which is a purple potato cake with shredded chicken breast. Last, we ordered a cheese assortment with quince jam, called the Quesos Artesanos con Membrillo.

Some quick notes: The cosmopolitan at Andina is top-notch. I had a greyhound, which was awesome. After you order, they bring bread, or in the case of gluten-free diners, fried yucca plant. This is a bit like eating french fries but more kind of doughy and fibrous. I loved the fried yucca plant! I’m used to having to watch everyone else at the table eat bread, and so it was a real treat to get my own “bread.”

Of these dishes, the only one I felt a little hesitation about ordering was the cured tuna. I’m not really a cured fish kind of guy. As it turned out, neither of us was really into this dish, and we both felt that the avocado was under-ripe. Sadly, that also carried over into the prawn and crab-stuffed avocado. This dish ended up being the most disappointing to us. While it was close to being properly ripe, we thought that the avocado just wasn’t quite ready to go. The dish says you’re getting “prawns,” but for the small plate that means you’re getting a single half of a prawn, which we thought was tasteless. The crab was a “crab salad” concoction, which tasted like crab salad one might get in a grocery store deli.

Check out the presentation here. They do an awesome job on presentation at Andina. We were also really disappointed by this dish. It came out cold, which we weren’t expecting. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be served, but we felt that it might be better a bit warm. It was also, on the whole, flavorless. It tasted mostly of potatoes and mayonnaise. I was really shocked and amazed at how dull this dish was.

On the good news side, the Pimiento Piquillo Rellenos were amazing. This was the dish that made us scratch our heads over the other ones. These are flavorful and complex, and are like something I’ve never quite tasted before. They must be popular, too, because we saw the waiters carrying a lot of them that night. Look at the presentation! What a great dish. We also really enjoyed the cheese assortment. It comes with toasted corn, which is unique and makes the dish fun to eat.

I mentioned earlier that the desserts at Andina are amazing. They have a brownie that is gluten-free and is made with quinoa flour. It’s called the Chocolate Andino. Wow it’s amazing. Also amazing is the Mousse de Valle y Selva, which the menu describes as “a tiered semi-freddo of velvety lucuma and espresso mousses, chocolate ganache, and crushed cocoa nib meringue, served with espresso shortbread.” Unfortunately, the shortbread is not gluten-free, but they are happy to put it on the side if your friend wants to eat it. This mousse is easily on par with the best of all the desserts I had during our trip to Italy, which is really saying something. You really should try it.

The brownie came out with Happy Birthday on it, which was unfortunate because it was for the wrong person. The brownie was mine, but it was Sienna’s birthday. Doh! We decided not to make a big deal out of it, considering the service up until that point had been amazing.

What we did next is not for the weak of heart. After discussing the meal between ourselves over the next couple of days, and finding that we agreed on the weak points and the strong points, we decided to call Andina and tell them that we had been disappointed with our meal. We were confused. Andina has an adventurous menu, great service, some really promising dishes, some amazing desserts, and people rave about it. We were confused about how they could have served us something that tasted like mayonnaisey crab salad on an under-ripe avocado. Sienna did the calling. She ended up speaking to the manager, and spent some time with him. One of our questions was, “Did we get dishes that aren’t very flavorful?” Maybe we picked the wrong dishes? Maybe we should have tried the entrees instead?

I’ve found that complaining at restaurants can be a harrowing affair. Besides having the feeling that you might be asking for some spit in your replacement dish, I’ve had one or two really awful experiences. For example, I once had a chef come out into the dining area, walk over to our table, and ask if I could tell him what I didn’t like about the dish. He stood there, awkwardly, looking at the floor with hunched shoulders, while I told him that I thought the dish was over-cooked and tasteless (he asked–and I wanted to be honest). Then he apologized and walked back into the kitchen. The restaurant comped the dish, and we never went back.

I should mention here that we did not tell Andina that we were Gluten Free Portland. We never tell restaurants. They might have known who we were by Sienna’s name–there aren’t a lot of Siennas running around–but I doubt it. The manager at Andina asked us to come back and try them again. He sent us a gift card and a letter in the mail. He asked us to make sure he was a aware when we would be coming back, and he told us that he would make sure we had a better experience.

So we went back, and we told him that we were coming. This was a little bit at odds with our usual policy of showing up at restaurants anonymously, but we decided that it was the right thing to do. We also went with a plan: we decided to get some entrees instead of small plates. For the entrees, we got the Dorato al Rocoto y Kion, which is the fish of the day over a shiitake mushroom, with bacon in a broth, and served with asparagus-quinoa fried rice. I got the Arroz con Pato–Duck with rice. For an appetizer, we ordered the Anticucho de Pulpo–grilled octopus kebob.

The Pisco Sour at Andina is awesome! You should get one.

While ordering, we mentioned our situation to our server. It turned out that he had already been alerted to our presence. We consulted with him about our dishes with an eye towards making sure that the dishes we chose would be flavorful, and that seemed to work. We really liked the octopus kebob dish. It was garlicky and interesting. It comes with a chimichurri–which is kind of a chunky green sauce. This was the kind of dish we had been looking for the first night!

The roasted fish in broth. The menu states that this dish comes with mahi mahi, but on the night we visited it was made with sea bass. Again, this dish was great. The fish was perfectly prepared. The broth was excellent. The dish has sesame oil in it, which makes for a very interesting flavor combination with the fish and shiitake mushroom.

The duck with rice, which was exceptional. They cook the duck breast how you like it, which is really key with a duck dish like this. You can see it’s a little rare here, which was excellent. The duck breast comes with a duck confit, and a sauce that is a little bit like a sweet and sour. I was very happy with my dish. The rice for the fish and the duck has quinoa seeds and slices of asparagus in it. Also during the meal, we were brought a little gluten-free fish cake treat. The cake was made with quinoa and sea bass.

During dessert they brought by a taste of guava and prickly pear sorbet. For dessert, I had no choice but to order the mousse, which was just as fantastic as it had been the other night. Sienna got the crème brûlée run, which is three different flavors of crème brûlée in separate pots. On that night the flavors were lemon verbena, caramel, and dark chocolate. All three of these were great. Did we mention that the coffee is excellent? It is.

We ended up happy, stuffed, and content. We were also relieved. The both of us were really worried that our second night at Andina would prove to be as disappointing as the first. We were delighted that we were able to tell everyone who asked that all of our dishes were delicious. We’ll doubtlessly be back for special occasions, although we hope to be able to go with a much smaller profile the next time, and we will consult with our waiter to make sure that we’re choosing flavorful dishes.

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-Free friendly but Ask Questions!
Times we have visited: 2 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Andina
www.andinarestaurant.com
1314 NW Glisan St., Portland OR 97209 / 503.228.9535

Dave March 16, 2011

Gluten Free Crepes on Alberta – Suzette Creperie

We’ve been to a couple of creperies in Portland, both in the food cart form, and also in the more traditional restaurant form. Suzette Creperie is almost a cross between the two. In back is an airstream trailer where you give your order and also where the crepes are prepared. The dining room is in the front, and is warm and homey with a nice atmosphere.

To get to the airstream, you start on Alberta and walk down this sort of alleyway to order. Suzette got points for volunteering up front that they share cooking surfaces between the gluten-free and the regular. That was very cool. But yes, sadly, the crepes here are not for the very sensitive – like basically all the other crepe places we’ve reviewed here. I’m sensitive enough that I “get glutened” now and then, but I had no trouble with the food at Suzette. At the same time, we can’t recommend Suzette to the very sensitive.

On the good news side, Suzette shows films on Friday nights. They’ve been doing Hitchcock movies lately. We caught North by Northwest the first time we went, and Vertigo on our second visit. During both visits, everyone was extremely friendly and the staff was attentive. Our food came out in a reasonable amount of time and was the right temperature. We liked the Suzette crepes a little better than crepes at the other places we’ve reviewed for two reasons. A) They have adventurous flavors, and B) They’re a little thinner and more tender.

Sorry for the bad photo. It was kind of dark in there. Suzette makes 3 kinds of crepes. First there is the standard buckwheat crepe, which has gluten. Second, there is the vegan crepe (which also contains gluten). Third, there is the gluten-free crepe, which we need to find out the vegan status on. The gluten-free crepe costs a buck more. Did we mention that Suzette has plenty of vegan options? It would be pretty easy to get a vegan meal there.

Suzette has some pre-made crepe flavor combinations, but also gives you the ability to create your own crepe by choosing between a number of ingredients. On the savory side, we tried the Smoked Salmon (which has salmon, goat cheese, spinach, and capers) and also created our own with Gruyere, marsala soaked figs, and prosciutto on one night and goat cheese, marsala soaked figs, and prosciutto on the other night. I preferred the goat cheese over the Gruyere, but then I’m a sucker for goat cheese.

As with other crepe places, it may be a good idea to share your crepes. If you get a savory crepe AND a dessert crepe, it’s going to be too much for one person to eat, really. We got our own savory crepes and then split the dessert crepes. For dessert, we tried the chocolate peanut butter crepe on night one, and the Normandie on the second night. The Normandie has lemon butter, topped with cider-poached pears, creme fraiche ice cream, and cider caramel sauce. We both agreed that the Normandie was significantly better than the chocolate peanut butter crepe, which we found to be way too peanut-buttery and not enough chocolaty.

We also got decaf coffee with our dessert crepes and were very happy with the coffee at Suzette. So yeah, good coffee, good crepes, and a laid back, friendly atmosphere. The thing we liked best about the Suzette was that we felt transported. That is to say that it gave us the feeling as if we were traveling somewhere, and had found a fun place to eat. The combination of the atmosphere, the adventurous crepe flavors, and the friendly people (not just the staff, but we had nice interactions with patrons) made for a great experience on both nights we visited. We’ll probably be back for more.

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-Free friendly but Ask Questions! Shared cooking surfaces.
Times we have visited: 2 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Add $1 for the gluten free.

Suzette Creperie
www.suzettepdx.com
2921 NE Alberta St., Portland OR 97211 / 503.473.8657

Dave February 2, 2011

Gluten Free Pizza – Garlic Jims and Eat Pizza

I almost called this post “The Gluten-Free Pizza Smack-Down!” Maybe I should have. We have two separate pizza places in Portland that offer gluten-free pizza. Garlic Jim’s has had it for quite a while. Eat Pizza! has just joined the pack. Did I mention that we have a list of places in town that serve gluten-free pizza?

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: When you walk in to most pizza places, you will see that everybody who works there is covered with flour. It’s usually pretty safe to assume that the work surfaces and ovens are also covered with flour (although Garlic Jim’s is accredited gluten-free and so it should be OK – see more on that below). While I didn’t have any problems with the Garlic Jim’s pizza, I did end up having a little trouble after the eating the Eat Pizza.

Garlic Jim’s

Garlic Jim’s is a chain with locations in Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, and Colorado. Strangely enough, their website doesn’t list all the locations in the Portland area, so you’ll get more accurate results with Google Maps. There are two in Vancouver WA, one in Clackamas, and two in Beaverton. We went to the Clackamas Garlic Jim’s, which is located in a strip mall on SE Sunnyside, across the street from the Sunnyside Kaiser Permanente hospital.

Garlic Jim’s is definitely a carry-out or delivery pizza place. There is some seating, but the ambiance is strictly strip mall. If you’re looking for a cozy neighborhood pizza joint with a pinball machine and booths, this is not it. The staff there was friendly and helpful when we went. The people who work there all looked like clean cut college kids. The transaction was smooth. The pizza was boxed and ready to go when we arrived.

We got a pepperoni with half mushrooms and half olives. We really liked the pizza. In fact, this is now Sienna’s favorite gluten-free pizza in Portland (I still like Sellwood Pizza Kitchen best, but think this is a close second). They have a thin crust going on. Unlike most of the rest of the gluten-free pizza in Portland, the crust here is thin and crunchy, so if that’s the way you like your pizza, you should probably try Garlic Jim’s. True to their name, the pizza is garlicky. Since the crust is thin, you don’t get the phenomena with some other pizzas where they end up being like chewing on a flavorless sponge. We’ve had it twice now and the second time wasn’t as good as the first, so there may be some problems with consistency, but we still liked it.

Garlic Jim’s also has an impressive gluten-free FAQ page, where they talk about how they prevent cross-contamination and how they have a Gluten Free Food Service Accreditation from the Gluten Intolerance Group. That’s pretty awesome! Also, the gluten-free crust happens to be vegan.

Garlic Jim’s
www.garlicjims.com
Multiple Locations

Eat Pizza

Like Garlic Jim’s, Eat Pizza isn’t exactly a cozy restaurant, but there is seating. If we had to choose a place to sit down between the two, based only on ambiance and people-watching, we would definitely pick Eat Pizza. It’s a small place with character on Burnside at 21st that does mostly delivery and carry-out. The staff was very friendly and resemble the Garlic Jim’s staff except with tattoos and piercings. The pizza was hot and ready to go when we arrived. We did this with a Groupon, so we also ordered a Mediterranean salad.

Eat Pizza! is unique in the gluten-free pizza market for having three sizes of pizza available: Mini, In-Between, and Giant. They are also vegan-friendly and have vegan cheese available.

We got a pepperoni pizza with half mushrooms and half olives. Despite the rave reviews we were hearing from our readers, we weren’t as enamored with the pizza at Eat Pizza. The pizza wasn’t as flavorful. There wasn’t enough sauce (or maybe the sauce wasn’t flavorful enough). We thought that the crust was kind of spongy and too dense. I see pizza as being one of those really subjective things. Some people really like thick crust pizza, and if that’s your thing, then maybe you would like them better than we did. I probably would have liked the pizza better if we had ordered it with extra garlic. We’re also scratching our heads a little, because we’ve always thought that New York Style pizza is thin. Maybe their regular pizza is thin?

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Avoid if you’re really sensitive.
Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: 1 to 3 dollars more, depending on the size.

Eat Pizza!
www.eatpizzaportland.com
2037 SW Morrison St. Portland, OR / 503.243.FOOD

Summary

When it comes to pizza, being gluten-free is especially painful. It’s this thing we all love to eat. Part of me feels ungrateful for writing a lukewarm review for a pizza joint that has gone out of its way to offer something I can eat. At the same, there are places in town to get excellent gluten-free pizza. Our favorites are Sellwood Pizza Kitchen (our review here), the Oasis Cafe on Hawthorne (see our review), and now we can add Garlic Jim’s to the list. We have another winner!

We want to know: What kind of pizza do you like best? Got a favorite pizza place in Portland that I didn’t mention in the review? Let us know in the comments!

Dave December 28, 2010

Restaurant Review: Dinner at Your Door

It seems strange to call Dinner at Your Door a restaurant, when in fact it is a dinner delivery service. Like many people out there, we participate in Groupon deals when they’re interesting. We heard about the Groupon for Dinner at Your Door from someone we know and went for it because they offer some gluten-free options.

Before I get into this review, I just have to say that when we go places and try things, we take notes when we do. While I’m always rooting for the home team, we have to count things as they fall.

Here is how Dinner at Your Door works. As it sounds, it is a company that delivers a meal to your door. They only deliver meals to each area of Portland once a week. The meals have to be purchased in multiples of two and you must buy meals for two weeks at a time. So really, you’re buying at least four meals. Got it? It’s really quite simple, and I think their site probably does a better job of explaining it, here. The price for a meal for two is currently $28/week. So since you have to get two weeks worth, that’s $56. For this you get two meals that will feed two people each on two consecutive weeks. (whew)

I do have to say that their website is set up really well, and while you’re ordering your meals, things get explained very clearly so that you know what is going on. When I ordered, they had three main entrees to choose from. Two were gluten-free and one of these was also vegetarian. Along with the website, they also have a system of sending emails to notify you about when a meal is coming, and also when to leave the dishes on your porch for them to pick up. I was really impressed with the automation that they have set up, and think that whoever designed and built their website deserves a bonus.

Having been impressed with the website, you can imagine my disappointment when our food didn’t show up the morning that our first delivery was scheduled. I happened to have the day off from work, and when the food didn’t show up by 10:00 AM, I called them. Someone answered the phone immediately, and they were apologetic, but they told me that they had already delivered all the food that morning and couldn’t get us anything. This is going to sound kind of goofy, maybe, but Sienna and I had planned out a whole multi-day meal schedule based on the assumption that we were going to have dinner delivered that night, so it really threw a wrench into our plans. About a half hour later, they called me back and said that they had some meals available, but they weren’t from the two choices we had picked off of the menu. The good news was that they were gluten-free. So I agreed.

Somewhere in all this, she mentioned that they were really busy because of the Groupon.

Here’s what we got. A bag with three containers of food, some dressing in a small plastic container, and two pre-packaged cookies. The meal was Mushroom and Wild Rice Pilaf, Broccoli with Garlic, and a mixed-greens salad with a vinaigrette. The meals come in glass containers, so Dinner at Your Door gets green points for not using disposable containers.

Twenty minutes later, we had a hot meal:

Neither of us were particularly impressed with the dinner. The salad struck us as being a lot like the kind they sell in bags at Trader Joes with some bell peppers mixed in. The salad dressing was a rather uninspired and generic Italian dressing. The pilaf was mostly tasteless and one-dimensional. It could have used some garlic and seasoning. We liked the broccoli. The broccoli didn’t come with instructions, so we just threw it in the oven with the pilaf and hoped for the best. Luckily, it turned out great and was tasty.

As mentioned above, the meal came with cookies, which are made by Le Cookie Monkey. Unfortunately, there were no ingredients listed on the cookie package, and no markings for whether or not it was gluten-free. So I called up Dinner at Your Door to find out if it was OK to eat. It was after hours by then, so I wasn’t too surprised when nobody answered. I left a message and nobody got back to me that night. The next day was a Friday and they didn’t call me that day either. I ended up being kind of busy, so I didn’t call them. The weekend passed, and on Monday I finally got tired of looking at the cookie, so I called them again and got the same person. She informed me that while she had got my message, she hadn’t had a chance to call me yet. I got my answer: the cookies are not gluten-free. So it’s a good thing I didn’t eat mine.

Thursday rolled around again, so it was time for another delivery. On Wednesday, we had got an email confirmation that our meal would be delivered the next day, so I was waiting for them, figuring that they would get there soon and I could put the meal in the fridge. The email said that the delivery would happen between 6:00 AM and 9:00 AM. By 9:15 AM I was imagining that they were going to miss us like last time. At 9:30 AM, I called again. Someone answered the phone. She was helpful and said she would check the status on our meal and call me back. She called back almost immediately, and told me that my meal was being delivered that morning, but wouldn’t be there until much later. She offered to leave extra ice packs, and reassured me that the weather was cold enough that nothing would spoil. Again, she mentioned that they had been really busy because of the Groupon.

This time we got the Layered Mexican Chicken Casserole, which came with the same broccoli and salad as last time. We enjoyed the casserole a lot more than the pilaf, and we substituted our own dressing for the lackluster Italian.

After the second meal, Dinner at Your Door sends an email where you can arrange to continue to get meals, or cancel. They also send instructions on when to leave the dirty containers out for them to pick up. We opted to cancel. For one thing, we felt that the service was unreliable. While I can relate to being over-worked because of something like a Groupon (we keep hearing restaurant Groupon horror stories), I don’t think it’s a good thing to pass the suffering on to your customers. Maybe a few months from now Dinner at Your Door will have recovered from the Groupon problems. But we still feel kind of burned by it. Last, we tend to feel that when things go awry at restaurants, they will usually make an effort to make things better. We didn’t get that experience with Dinner at Your Door.

I’m betting that our delivery and service problems were not the norm. At the same time, we were left with the feeling that this is a lot of money and trouble for something that we didn’t think was that great. We can think of any number of places to eat in Portland where better fare can be had more cheaply. If we go out to eat, we don’t have to mess with a website, no matter how well it’s put together, and we don’t have to fire up the oven for 20 minutes. We don’t have to dirty our own dishes. We like going out. So for us, it just doesn’t make sense. I could see Dinner at Your Door being a great service if you really hate going out but want to have someone else cook for you one day a week. If that describes you, then Dinner at Your Door is probably a good choice, and I would say give it a try.

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-free Friendly but Ask Questions!
Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same.

Dinner at Your Door
www.dinneratyourdoor.com
Portland, OR / 503.701.4531

We want to know: Do you have any opinions about Dinner at Your Door? Do you have a restaurant Groupon horror story? Let us know in the comments!

Dave November 17, 2010

Restaurant Review: Dick’s Kitchen

When we heard about Dick’s Kitchen we knew that we would need to check it out. They’re another place in town using the excellent Jensen’s Better Buns to serve gluten-free burgers. The Dick in Dick’s Kitchen is the owner of Laughing Planet. Dick’s Kitchen is something of a diner-style burger joint with a twist, the twist being that they serve “paleo” food.

The idea behind paleo food is that you shouldn’t eat food that our ancestors didn’t. So there is an emphasis on avoiding processed foods, dairy, cereal grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, salty foods, soft drinks, and refined sugars. During a conversation we had with him, the owner mentioned that this diet also aligns pretty well with the kind of anti-inflammatory diet that a person with rheumatoid arthritis might want to be on. The restaurant doesn’t completely cut out all the items in the above list, but it does make it easy to avoid them.

The place itself is half New York subway (although it reminds me more of the San Francisco Muni subway) and half diner. It has a kind of stark black and white aesthetic going on. Both times we went, the place was packed. The first time we visited, we were able to sit down immediately. The second time we had a considerable wait. The staff is very friendly and were able to answer our questions about what on the menu was gluten free. On the plus side, they do their best to keep everything very clean and do care about cross-contamination. On the minus side, they use the same toaster and cooking surfaces, so like most restaurants, the very sensitive should probably steer clear of Dick’s Kitchen. As for the fries though, they’re not actually fried, so there isn’t any cross-contamination from the deep fryer.

Dick’s Kitchen has a relationship with a cattle rancher in Eastern Oregon where they get grass-fed, grass-finished beef for their burgers. They also don’t salt things. Instead of serving fries, they serve “not fries.” These are fingerling potatoes that have been air baked instead of having been fried in oil. Besides burgers, they serve various kinds of sausage and hot dogs, a few different salads, some burgers made with other kinds of meat and fish, some alternate sandwiches, some extremely expensive shakes, and some vegetarian and vegan options. All of their sides are vegan. There are two flavors of vegan sausage, and also vegan buns. And vegan milkshakes!

Dick’s Kitchen also makes their own condiments. They have: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, tomato chutney special sauce, horseradish sauce, Cambodian garlic sauce BBQ, wasabi aioli, and chipotle aioli persillade. Along with not adding salt to their food, they don’t automatically add any of the condiments, so you have to ask for them. They are all pretty good. A friend of ours (hi Dr. B!) told us that she opts to bring her own ketchup because they just don’t give you enough.

Did we mention that they have vegan milkshakes? We tried the vegan chocolate shake. It’s made with Coconut Bliss ice cream and oat milk and is awesome. Obviously, people who should stay away from oats should probably get the regular shake. I always just risk oats because they don’t seem to ever make me sick. We also tried the papaya drink, which is advertised as a “healthful aid to digestion.” I wasn’t particularly hot about it, but Sienna liked it.

gluten-free dinner at Dick's Kitchen

We both got the burgers. This is a burger, coleslaw, gluten-free bun, the trimmings, and a side of yam “not-fries.” The burgers are great. The coleslaw is good. The gluten-free buns are, as mentioned, made by Jensen’s and so they are awesome. We also really liked the “not-fries.” I got a chance to sample the regular “not-fries” and definitely enjoyed the yam variety better. Sienna preferred the regular ones, which I have to admit are a little bit more crispy.

Vegan Gluten-Free Dessert

The second time we visited, the owner stopped by, and after talking to us about food and gluten, encouraged us to try one of the desserts. He called it a cobbler, but I seem to recall that it was called something else on the dessert menu. It’s basically nuts over cooked fruit, and it’s really delicious.

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-free Friendly but Ask Questions!
Times we have visited: 3 (So we feel pretty good about this rating.)
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same.

Dick’s Kitchen
www.dkportland.com
3312 SE Belmont St / 503.235.0146

We want to know: Do you have an opinion about Paleo food? Have you been to Dick’s Kitchen? Let us know in the comments!

Dave November 1, 2010

Restaurant Review: Pastini Pastaria Redux

We reviewed Pastini about two years ago when I first started this blog, and it was kind of a disaster. I was just now writing an email to someone where I told them about how I hate giving bad reviews. I just naturally want everyone to do well. At the same time, when we have a bad experience at a restaurant, we have to be honest, and I try to make sure that I am specific about what went wrong with the hope that the owner will be able to fix it. Although I doubt that I can claim credit for the improvements at Pastini since we last visited, they definitely took care of my two main complaints.

When you get a plate of gluten-free pasta at Pastini Pastaria, they bring it out with a little flag to mark that it’s gluten-free. That’s awesome! That way everyone knows that it’s gluten free and you won’t end up with food getting mixed up, or bread being added to the dish. Our other main complaint with the restaurant in our last review was that the pasta had been overcooked. They definitely solved that problem as well. Another score.

In case you’ve missed Pastini, they are an Italian restaurant chain based in Portland. They have four locations in Portland, and a location in each of: Beaverton, Tigard, Bend, and Corvallis. We went to the Pastini on NE Broadway near 14th. Check here for a map of locations. Here is their gluten-free “menu,” which is more like a page that talks about their gluten free pasta and Tiramisu.

The restaurant is popular. We went there with our friends, who go there a lot. Pastini has a lot going for it. It’s a little family, a little upscale, and a little casual. They have a full bar. It’s got a happy energy. It’s a popular place so there’s usually a little wait before you get seated.

Sienna got the Capellini Primavera, which is a simple dish with zucchini, mushrooms, sweet peas, roasted peppers, broccolini, fresh basil and garlic. She got it with gluten-free Ziti pasta and had them add chicken.

I decided to get the gluten-free Spaghetti with Marinara, which is my all-around favorite way to eat pasta. Our friends got the Ziti Vegetariano, which is pasta with zucchini, tomatoes and yellow squash tossed with olive oil, garlic, tomato pesto, fresh herbs, and Kalamata olives. All of our dishes were delicious. The pasta was cooked just right, and the sauces were rich and flavorful.

Our waiter was very helpful and knowledgeable. As we mentioned in our past review, Pastini takes basic steps to prevent cross-contamination, like boiling the gluten-free pasta in different water. Our dishes came out in a reasonable amount of time and everything was the right temperature. Now I just need to talk them into making the meatballs gluten-free!

We didn’t sample the gluten-free Tiramisu, but our waiter told us that it’s a very popular item. I, for one, love and miss Tiramisu, so it’s only a matter of time before we give it a try. But we had other dessert plans that night. For the vegetarians and vegans out there, you’ll be happy to know that there are a lot of vegetarian options, and the menu is also rather vegan-friendly.

We’ll have to go back sometime soon to solidify our feelings about Pastini, but this visit left us with a much more positive feeling about the place.

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-free Friendly but Ask Questions!
Times we have visited: 2 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same.

Pastini Pastaria
www.pastini.com
Multiple Locations

We want to know: Do you have a favorite gluten-free Italian restaurant in town? Have you been to Pastini Pastaria? Let us know in the comments!

Dave October 20, 2010

Restaurant Review: Around the Table

Reader Chris got our attention by posting a rave review of Around the Table on one of our restaurant comment pages that is linked from our Restaurant List. Around the Table is in Camas, Washington. We liked the look of the menu and also the place itself has an interesting look, being in an older building with unfinished brick walls and high ceilings.

The first hint that we were about to have an unsatisfactory evening came not in the form of food, but in temperature. The place was freezing. I’m kind of a big guy, and I’m the sort of person who is always too warm, so if I think a place is cold, it’s like a walk-in refrigerator. We both had the feeling that we were sitting under an air conditioner. When we complained to our waitress, she said that they would turn the heat up, but added the disclaimer that it would take a little while to come on because it was an old building. To be honest, we never felt any heat. If anything, it got colder. It must have been 50 in there.

Despite the temperature, we decided to press on. I ordered a cocktail, which wasn’t very good. The menu is in “small plate” format. So you can pick a bunch of different items. The menu is almost all gluten-free. They also have gluten-free bread so that you can eat their sandwiches. Appetizers are referred to as “really small plates” and give you a couple bites. We were told by our waitress that we could probably get a “really small plate” and then three or four “small plates” and that would be sufficient to feed two people.

Here’s what we sampled: Chorizo Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates, Curried Butternut Squash & Chickpeas, Pear & Gorgonzola Salad, Roasted Broccoli, and Our Famous Smoked Turkey Sandwich. For dessert we had to try the gluten-free Pear Tart.

The Chorizo Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates were good, but the Roasted Broccoli was a disaster. By disaster, I mean that someone had taken broccoli, burned it, refrigerated it, microwaved it until it was almost mush, and then left it to get room temperature before serving it. The Curried Butternut Squash & Chickpeas were also basically lukewarm and had also obviously been microwaved recently. The flavor was OK, but the texture was pretty weird. The yogurt on the squash was watery and strange.

The one thing going for the salad was that the greens were fresh. Otherwise, the dressing was uninspired, the pear slices came from a pear that wasn’t ripe and so they were rubbery and tasteless, and the roasted pecans were stale. Stale like stale popcorn.

I don’t know about anybody else, but when I go to a fancy restaurant and order a turkey sandwich, I don’t expect it to come with sliced processed turkey. There was bacon and a slice of apple in the sandwich, so you would expect it to be flavorful, but frankly, the sandwich was dull. The gluten-free bread was good.

At this point, we were expecting Gordon Ramsay to show up and pitch a fit. Since the dessert was unusually gluten-free, we decided to give it a try, even though by this time we were a bit worried about how it would be. What we got was a freezing cold, plated slice of what might have been an OK pear tart, although it would have been fairer to call it a cheese cake with pear slices.

Ignoring the cold, the atmosphere was kind of strange because they had music playing and something about the acoustics of the place made it sound like we were on top of a disco. Our waitress was kind of inattentive, and was either put off by our complaining about the temperature, or was just naturally frosty to match the temperature of the venue and the food, we couldn’t figure out which. On the plus side, she was helpful when talking to us about what was gluten-free on the menu.

Our experience at Around the Table was so singularly dissatisfying that we are still scratching our heads over it. I can think of only two other comparable experiences we’ve had: Dinner at Francis (which is now closed) and our Horrifying Valentines dinner at Wild Abandon. Sienna went on an Internet search to see what other reviewers were saying about it, and found strangely mixed reviews. People seem to either love the place or complain about how their entire meal had been murdered in a microwave. Maybe it depends on what night you go there? The bad news is that the place is expensive and thus not worth the gamble, at least in our book. Sorry Around the Table.

Around the Table
aroundthetable.net
316 NE Dallas Street, Camas WA / 360.834.0171

We want to know: Do you have a favorite gluten-free friendly sandwich in town? Have you been to Around the Table? Let us know in the comments!

Dave October 13, 2010

Restaurant Review: Meat Cheese Bread

We love the block where Meat Cheese Bread is located. It’s a tiny island of hip art, fun buildings, a Thai restaurant that lights up a night, and now it has gluten-free bread. We heard that they had gluten-free bread at Meat Cheese Bread, and of course we had to go check it out. It turns out that they are making their own bread using the Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Whole Grain Bread Mix and adding honey.

Here was the sandwich menu when we went. It bears noting that they: A) Have a plentiful salad menu in addition to the sandwich menu, and B) Will make any sandwich into a salad for a little extra cash. So, it’s not like we couldn’t enjoy a meal there before (and we had). At the same time, it’s a sandwich! Who doesn’t love sandwiches? I love sandwiches, and I especially love steak sandwiches. So I was happy when we were quizzing the guy behind the counter about which sandwiches are best with the gluten-free bread, and he said that the Park Kitchen is really good on it.

The Park Kitchen is a cold sandwich with flank steak, pickled onions, blue cheese aoili, lettuce, and vinaigrette. My sandwich was really amazing. Good steak. Good cheese. Perfect amount of dressing. Fresh greens. The bread is tasty, although it doesn’t hold together as well as wheat bread probably would, that was OK with me.

The not-so-good news is that they don’t have a dedicated toaster. When grilled further about their cross-contamination policies, they said that while they keep things as clean as possible, they do have wheat around and so people who are terribly sensitive may want to steer clear.

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-free Friendly but Ask Questions!
Times we have visited: 2 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same.

Meat Cheese Bread
www.meatcheesebread.com
1406 SE Stark St. / 503.234.1700

We want to know: Do you have a favorite gluten-free friendly sandwich in town? Had any experience with the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Bread Mix? Let us know in the comments!

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