Full Bar Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Gluten Free Portland

Dave April 28, 2009

Restaurant Review: Virgo and Pisces

We’ve been really excited over the past couple of months about how many places here in Portland Oregon now offer gluten-free pizza! It’s really amazing, and would appear to mostly be thanks to one company, Nugrain Foods. Virgo and Pisces is one of the few places that make their own gluten-free pizza crust. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can say about their pizza right now because I didn’t try it during our visit to Virgo and Pisces.

Virgo and Pisces is located on NW 21st Street at Glisan, so it’s located in quite a hot-spot. They’re just a half a block away from the New Cascadia Traditional Bakery and Trader Joe’s. We went there at 7:00 PM on a Friday night.

Being in such at hot-spot at 7:00 PM on a Friday night, we were worried that we would have to wait before we could sit down. On the plus side, that was not the case. On the minus side, the place was practically empty, which I never take as a good omen.

Virgo and Pisces is a bar and restaurant. One room is the bar and the other the restaurant. On one end of the restaurant room there is a small area where bands play. It looks like they have live music there on a regular basis, and as we ate, a band was setting up. We left before they started up, though (not because we weren’t interested – we usually love live music. We had a prior commitment.)

The space is nice. Our waitress was extremely helpful and the food came out promptly. Our one big complaint with the atmosphere was the music. The music playing in the bar was different from the music in the restaurant. That wouldn’t normally be a problem except that the music in the bar was turned up a lot louder, so we were treated to both at the same time. I find listening to two different pieces of music simultaneously to be jarring and annoyingly distracting.

Sienna got a hamburger (which was not gluten-free) and I ordered the fish and chips. I’ve been on quite the fish and chips jag (what with our recent review of the Starfish Gluten Free Battered Cod, the gluten free fish and chips at Hugo’s Restaurant in Los Angeles, and the gluten free fish and chips at the Hawthorne Fish House, we’ve been looking really seriously at battered and breaded fish. So I figured it would be worth doing. (By the way, Gina over at Gluten Free Gourmand has an excellent review of the Starfish Battered Halibut and Haddock.) At one point we had the idea that Virgo and Pisces had gluten-free pasta, but that is not the case. Virgo and Pisces also has gluten free beer. We’ll have to go back for their pizza sometime too.

So how was the food? The food was good. It was pretty standard bar food kind of fare. If I had to come up with a word to describe the food it would be “functional.” The thing with bar food is very often you’re really there for something else, like some live music, or to knock back some drinks with your friends. Very often bar food is just background filler, even at bars that are known for their food. The food at Virgo and Pisces is like that. The fish was tilapia. I usually love tilapia, but in this case it was a little tasteless. The fries were a hair too mushy. The coleslaw didn’t turn me on, but I’m not really a coleslaw fan. Sienna’s burger was good.

And that, dear reader, is about all I have to say about this place. I am curious about their pizza, but considering the place was empty on a Friday night, I don’t have big dreams about it. Maybe the place fills up once the music starts?

We want to know: Have you had the pizza at Virgo and Pisces? Let us know in the comments!

Times we have visited: 1 (So your mileage may vary.)
Overall rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Virgo & Pisces
500 NW 21st Ave, Portland, Oregon 97209 / 503.517.8855
www.virgoandpisces.com

Dave March 5, 2009

Restaurant Review: Hawthorne Fish House

We’d been to the Corbett Fish House before, and it almost seems like a landmark. You can’t say “gluten free” to someone in Portland Oregon without hearing about the Corbett Fish House. The Hawthorne Fish House is run by the same people.

Serious About Gluten-Free Food

Almost everything at both restaurants can be had gluten-free. In fact, we were notified by our server that they just started carrying gluten-free buns, so all the sandwiches are good to go as well. The Hawthorne Fish House seems like an English pub but cleaned up so it’s family-friendly. The Corbett Fish house seems a little more upscale. Both have a full bar. They both have almost identical menus. Both also seem to have brought space age technology to fried fish.

Our waiter at the Hawthorne Fish House was friendly and helpful. He was able to answer our questions without having to consult a list or the kitchen. The food came out very quickly. The decor is interesting. Almost every square foot of the restaurant has a plastic fish or a picture of a fish in it. They also serve gluten-free beer. One last note: They follow the guidelines of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sustainable Seafood List, which we think is really cool.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I tend to equate fish and chips with dive bar food or English pub food, or a place like Two Jacks in the Lower Haight in San Francisco. Fish and chips should be greasy. It should be served on oil-spattered paper in a basket. There should be too much batter on some of the fish and not enough on the rest. The batter should be flavorful. There should be one piece of fish in the the batch that looks strange and you will have to debate if you should or shouldn’t eat it. The fish should be cod. The entire place should smell like vinegar. The table tops should be carved up to heck. The person handing you the fish should be wearing too much eye make-up, have artfully huge runs in her stockings, and be wearing Doc Martens. Or it should be a strangely skinny guy wearing all black and sporting a bad moustache. Am I painting a clear enough picture here?

I guess what I’m getting around to saying is that when I want some fish and chips or a fried fish sandwich, I don’t think to myself, “Where can I get myself a nice, healthy, sanitized version of an unhealthy, greasy, battered dish?” Maybe that’s the wrong way to look at it, but there it is.

I can see the appeal of the Hawthorne and Corbett Fish Houses. They deliver a consistent product, and I think that for people who are looking for what they have to offer, they can’t be beat. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that if you really love both restaurants, I think I can understand why and I won’t even hold it against you. I’m just going to have to keep hoping that a greasy, unhealthy, gluten-free place shows up to offer me a nice fried fish sandwich.

Gluten Free Fried Fish: Click here for our breaded fish recipe.

We want to know: Do you love the Corbett Fish House? Are there any differences between the two fish houses that we missed? Are there other places for a person on a gluten free diet to get fish and chips in Portland Oregon? Let us know!

Times we have visited: 2 (So we feel pretty good about our rating.)
Overall rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Hawthorne Fish House
www.corbettfishhouse.com
4343 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, Oregon 97215 / 503.548.4434

Dave March 2, 2009

Gluten-Free Dessert at Pix Patisserie! Wow!

When you’re a foodie, life can be a little like bear hunting. Sometimes you get the bear. Sometimes the bear gets you. But then sometimes… Sometimes you go looking for the bear and find yourself confronted with a piece of food that has transcended normal food preparation and has become a work of art. You relish the experience, but have a little sadness because you know that you’re not going to have it this good maybe ever again, or, if you’re lucky, not until the next time you come back.

A few notes about Pix Patisserie: The atmosphere is playful and energetic. The layout is confusing but that fits somehow. There are sock monkeys and paper lanterns hanging all over the place. There is a display case with fine chocolates in the back. There is another display case with desserts by the register. Although it isn’t obvious, you are supposed to sit and be waited upon. The wait staff knew what I meant when I said gluten-free and were able to tell us what they had that fit the description. They serve beer and wine. They are open until 2 AM. The coffee was far better than Papa Haydn’s but still not as good as we would have liked (considering we live in Portland Oregon and this is a dessert place.) People-watchers will love this place. The staff is friendly. The music was cool.

Gluten-free items

The Aphrodite – Cherry mousse, chocolate mousse, a single drunken cherry and moscato-soaked chocolate flourless biscuit all hide inside a crisp
chocolate shell.

Concord – Chocolate meringue, chocolate mousse, and chocolate ganache are hidden by sticks of meringue and a single red ribbon.

Crème Brulee – Flavors include Vanilla Bean with Cointreau, Lavender,
Passion Fruit, and Pumpkin

Ice Creams and Sorbets – 12 rotating housemade flavors

French Macaroons – A current favorite in 12 rotating flavors

I think they need more gluten-free items, but then that’s me. Here’s another picture. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the Aphrodite when we visited. Hopefully they will put us on their notify list.

The Concord looks whimsical like a bunch of Parisian chimney tubes. The meringue sticks are like sweet chocolate air. The ganache is like wow. The mousse has snap and is chocolatey. I’ve never had anything like it. Sienna loved it too. It was all I could do to keep myself from picking up the plate and licking it when the Concord was gone. Wow. We will be back.

Bad for your diet: Click here for more posts on Gluten-Free Desserts.

We want to know: Have you been to Pix Patisserie? Did you have the same experience? Why do you think they named a dessert “The Concord?” Let us know!

Times we have visited: 4 (So we feel very good about our rating.)
Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Pix Patisserie
www.pixpatisserie.com
3402 SE Division St, Portland, Oregon 97202 / 503.232.4407
3901 N. Williams Ave, Portland, Oregon 97227 / 503.282.6539

Dave February 15, 2009

Restaurant Review: The Valentines Day Dinner Murder Mystery

Ah, restaurants. We love them. Especially now that Portland Oregon has become some kind of food mecca. At best you can go to a restaurant, get great service, eat good food, relax, enjoy a conversation, discreetly watch people at other tables, maybe have dessert (or not,) settle the bill, and walk off into the night – perhaps to another destination.

At times we become sure that this is the way the world should be all the time, and an inexplicable break from this norm can make us question ourselves, our neighbors, and the very relationship between restaurants and humankind. Sometimes a night at a restaurant goes so wrong that we end up discussing the events of the night almost as if we were discussing a murder mystery.

Was it Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen?

We wonder:

Could the murderer of our dinner have been the snooty and downright unfriendly waiter who was evasive about the special Valentines Day menu?

What did it mean when a second waiter showed up at our table after we had ordered drinks and, nonplussed after he found out we had already been served by our snooty waiter, fled to the other end of the room? Did a soured relationship between the waiters murder our Valentines Day meal?

Did the waiter, simply through his own inaction, leave our entrees in the kitchen long enough that they got cold?

How could a waiter, when he was told that both our dishes were brought out cold, simply nod his head and walk away?

Or maybe it was the kitchen who murdered our Valentines Day dinner?

Did the kitchen finish our entrees too promptly and then fail to notify the waiter that they were ready, thus resulting in cold dishes? Our wait seemed overly long, but somehow not long enough for a pair of entrees to be that cold. But then that points to a conspiracy. Which we find unthinkable.

Would the food have tasted like a real $25-per-entree meal if it had been the right temperature? (No.)

How could a $25-per-entree restaurant dare to serve such dull food? (The chicken marsala was flavorless, my potatoes were overdone to the point where they were dry like toasted bread crusts. The mashed potatoes tasted mostly like salt. It was mediocre bar food dressed up to look like fancy dishes.)

Celiac-friendly? Yes. Scruptious? No.

Was it just our bad luck?

Do all these people frequent the place for the glorious ’70s chandeliers? In other words, does a regular stream of customers with complacent bad taste keep this place afloat?

Did the strangely silent couple next to us, who seemed to be doing the opposite of enjoying themselves, contribute? Had they done something that made our waiter avoid our area for all but the most necessary of functions?

In cases like this sometimes I wonder if there’s something I did wrong.

Maybe we should have sent the food back immediately.

When our salads came out and hers was too dull and mine too dry, did we get a bad attitude that poisoned the rest of the meal?

Maybe I unknowingly committed such a grievous offense that our waiter was holding back tears of outrage and that was why he was so brief with us.

Picking up the pieces.

At times like these, we are left with troubling questions. How could a restaurant that won so many awards (five years ago) commit such a heinous crime? Are all these people who are giving this restaurant five star reviews on City Search unknowing victims, dupes, paid stoolies, or co-conspirators?

And as reviewers we are left with a troubling question: Did we go on an off night?

We felt like we should give them another try before naming the place, but we changed our minds after checking other reviews online and finding enough people who had basically the same experience to decide there was a pattern. Also we feel like the place is so expensive and the food so bad that we just can’t chance it again. So, sorry Wild Abandon, we have to give you a bad review and say we won’t be back.

We want to know: Do you have a favorite gluten-free-friendly romantic spot in Portland Oregon? Have you had a similar experience? Let us know!

Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same price, but expensive.

Wild Abandon
www.wildabandonrestaurant.com
2411 SE Belmont St. Portland, Oregon 97214 / 503.232.4458

Dave January 29, 2009

Restaurant Review: Iorio Italian

Iorio is an upscale Southern Italian Restaurant on the 900 block of SE Hawthorne. In addition to winning the Portland CitySearch Best Italian Restaurant award for 2008, they are “committed to providing sustainable local and organic” food and will accommodate any dietary restrictions. For gluten-free folks and people with celiac disease, they have a number of nice options, and can modify some of the items on their menu to suit. In the case of the pastas and gnocchi, they ask that you call one day ahead.

Lots of atmosphere at Iorio

We were a little nervous when we arrived at the restaurant, because it was basically empty. However, by the time we got our entrees the restaurant had begun to fill up. The restaurant is upscale and a larger than usual number of people were dressed up (for Portland, that is.) Our waiter was knowledgeable and also asked the chef some questions for us.

Horay! Calamari!

One thing that we got excited about immediately is that their award-winning calamari can be prepared gluten-free, so we ordered that, and it was delicious! Calamari was one of the things that I had recently figured I wouldn’t be eating again any time soon, so it was a nice treat.

We also got the Caesar Salad, which they serve with whole leaves. This turned out to be disappointing. It needed pepper, lemon juice, anchovies, and croutons. The calamari was so good we found ourselves surprised at the Caesar Salad.

Next came the gluten-free gnocchi and fresine pasta. The fresine is made with fresh pasta and a red sauce and can be ordered with either meatballs or sausage. The gnocchi is served with pesto. The best item from either dish was the meatballs. They were outstanding. Next, I would say the fresh pasta was good. It was a little inconsistent somehow, but ended up being way better than the standard rice noodles you can get at the store. The tomato sauce, however, was disappointing. It was sweet and sort of flavorless. Even worse were the gnocchi. They were so salty that we couldn’t taste the pesto. It was like eating the dead sea salty. I can only imagine that it was that bad by some fluke.

Last, they had a gluten-free chocolate flourless cake with a scoop of vanilla gelato and raspberry sauce. The presentation was delightful and the cake was warm like it had been cooked especially for us. It was really amazing. Like really really mindblowingly amazing.

Wow wow wow

All of which left us scratching our heads that a restaurant could be so good and yet so bad at the same time. On the plus side, they have gluten-free versions of some exciting dishes. Here’s how we scored everything:

Calamari – 5 out of 5
Gnocchi – 1 out of 5
Meatballs – 5 out of 5
Gluten-free pasta – 3 out of 5
Red Sauce – 2 out of 5
Caesar Salad – 1 out of 5
Chocolate cake – 5 out of 5

Later note: It seems like the service there is spotty, so we’ve downgraded their rating.

Times we have visited: 4 (So we feel pretty good about this rating.)
Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same price. Most dishes are around $18.

Iorio
912 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, Oregon 97214

Dave January 26, 2009

Restaurant Review: P.F. Chang’s

Happy Year of the Ox! In honor of the Chinese New Year, I decided to review our one Chinese restaurant on the restaurant list. P.F. Chang’s is a restaurant chain and the Portland Oregon branch is in the Pearl, about a block away from Powell’s on Couch. It is large, popular, and always seems to be 85% full.

Our Executive Researcher, Sienna, was out of town visiting her family, so I had to go it alone. I’m going to apologize because the food photos aren’t up to my usual standards. I was sitting at the bar with not one, not two, but three bartenders watching me. As a result I felt conspicuous taking photos of my food with a camera, so I covertly used my phone instead.

P.F. Changs has a completely separate gluten-free menu. It is very brief, and strangely omits all beef and pork dishes, but there’s enough on it that most people will probably be able to find something they want to eat. They even have a gluten-free appetizer, soup and a dessert. They also have a full bar.

I started with some Egg Drop Soup, which was a little salty for my taste, but the flavor was right. For my entree, I got the Lemon Chicken. The chicken comes breaded, which was a nice surprise, and is served with brocolli and thin slices of lemon. The whole dish smelled like garlic when they brought it out, which got me excited. Unfortunately, besides the garlic, the flavor of the dish was a little underwhelming. The chicken was done right, but I found myself eating the chicken with the lemon slices to provide flavor. Also the brocolli was overdone. At some point, I got to an area where the chicken had enough sauce on it, and suddenly BAM it was good. So the sauce is good they just need to hit all of the chicken with it. (Doh!)

I finished the meal with their gluten-free dessert, the Flourless Chocolate Dome. This is a seriously chocolatey confection served with raspberry sauce and fresh berries. Imagine a quarter-inch thick piece of chocolate cake with something akin to a piece of fudge on top. I didn’t manage to make it through the whole thing, but I liked it.

Notes from a second visit:
P.F. Chang’s has gluten-free soy sauce they can bring to your table. Our rice was dry like it had been left out and then microwaved. The Singapore Street Noodles are awesome! Very much like fried rice but with rice noodles. The Spicy Chicken is good but suffers from the same problem I had with the Lemon Chicken and that is: Not enough sauce. Maybe I should ask for extra sauce next time.

To wrap it up, I think P.F. Chang’s is a good place to get Americanized Chinese Food. I’ve eaten there before and I would go there again. Another nice thing about P.F. Chang’s is that they have their nutritional info available. When I was finished, the bartender brought me a fortune cookie, but he didn’t know if it was gluten-free or not. I figured it wasn’t, but I still broke it open to get my fortune. It said: “Your efforts in a critical area will soon be rewarded.” That sounds good to me!

Times we have visited: 3 (So we feel pretty good about our rating)
Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same price. Most dishes are around $12.

P.F. Changs
1139 NW Couch St.
Portland, Oregon 97209

Dave January 21, 2009

Restaurant Review: Francis – Adventurous Dining on Alberta

We realized recently that we didn’t have any breakfast or brunch reviews, so we decided to make it a point to get over to Francis. We’d already heard a lot about the restaurant from friends of ours, so we were looking forward to it.

First some miscellaneous notes about Francis. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere and is clearly popular. Our waiter was awesome, friendly, and spent a lot of time talking to us about the gluten-free options. Besides a gluten-free menu section, they also have vegan options. The coffee was awful, but the grapefruit juice was perfect. Our food came out in a timely manner. The presentation was good. I love fresh fruit! Did I mention that they have a whole section of their menu devoted to gluten-free and vegan options? That was really nice. They also have a full bar.

Our Head of Research, Sienna, had the special of the day Eggs Benedict, which in this case was baked avocado and tomato with a truffle Hollandaise sauce. They are made gluten-free by serving them on a gluten-free biscuit. Sienna told me to note in the review that she is hard to please when it comes to Eggs Benedict, and that she felt her dish was only so-so. For one, the poached eggs were undercooked, and also she felt like the dish was a little bland. She was left wishing for some Canadian bacon.

I had the gluten-free “overnight” oatmeal pancakes, which I thought they were really good. They are basically oatmeal pancakes, heavy on the oatmeal, with apple chunks and hazelnuts. They are nutty and very flavorful. The one complaint we had was that they seemed about twice as thick as they should be. Sienna didn’t like them because they ended up being a little underdone in the center. For me, the thickness imparted a kind of “hearty” feel to them which won me over in the end. I would definitely order this again.

Our waiter did something custom for us, which was to take the curry tofu scramble and have the chef make it with vegetable hash. The waiter told us this was his favorite dish. I was expecting a more traditional yellow curry, which I sometimes do with my eggs at home. Instead this dish is a coconut curry with just a bit of a hot spicy kick. Included in the hash (besides eggs) were brussels sprouts, onions, squash, and broccoli. It took my palate a while to switch gears, but in the end I decided that I could see why the waiter liked it so much.

There’s a phenomena where our expectations go up a notch when we are presented with a fancy menu, and in the case of Francis this went against the restaurant. Originally, we were thinking about giving them only three and a half stars because we felt like the food wasn’t amazing enough for the fancy menu, but in the end I decided to give them an extra half star for being adventurous. They are definitely that and are doing it well.

P.S. The gluten-free biscuits are perfect!!!

Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary)
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same price, although the restaurant itself is a little more expensive than your regular brunch spot.

Francis Restaurant
2338 NE Alberta St.
Portland, Oregon 97212

Dave December 26, 2008

Portland Loses a Great Gluten-Free Dessert Item

We went to the Portland City Grill for lunch on Christmas and imagine my shock when the dessert menu came and I found that it was missing my favorite gluten-free dessert, the Flourless Chocolate Torte with Brittle. When I was done picking my heart up off the floor, I asked our server. She confirmed that it had recently been replaced with some kind of Oreo cake. Oreo cake?!?

If you’ve never been to the Portland City Grill, it really is an excellent restaurant. While their menu can’t exactly be called “gluten friendly” they can tell you what is in every dish, so you can find out what has gluten and what doesn’t. They also have some of the best sushi in town.

I hope they reconsider!

Dave December 22, 2008

Restaurant Review: Mississippi Pizza Pub

Finally! A Portland-specific gluten-free food review: The Mississippi Pizza Pub in Portland Oregon is now making gluten-free pizza, and I’m going to say up front that both of us thought that their pizza was OK. They offer this pizza both at the restaurant and in a “take and bake” form. We opted for the take and bake. That’s because we are much too cool for the kind of speed-of-light gentrification and further boutique-izing that the Mississippi area has been going though (ha ha only joking – but really isn’t it an amazing change from just three years ago?)

On their website, the gluten-free page says that you need to call ahead the day before to order their special crust, but the person we talked to said that it was no longer necessary. If you go to their gluten-free page you will see that they are very serious about being gluten-free. For instance, they have put in a whole separate pizza oven just for the gluten-free pizzas. We think that’s awesome.

In addition to pizza, they also have gluten-free beer and other various alcoholic beverages, and live music almost every night of the week. There is, of course, a gotcha or two. Gotcha number 1 is that they only make the gluten-free crusts in 16 inch form, which we don’t think is a huge problem. Gotcha number two is that the gluten-free pizzas are two dollars more than the regular ones, which is a bummer, but more reasonable than we’re used to for gluten-free fare. But how about the pizza?

We got what we call the “Dave and Sienna special.” It has red pizza sauce AND pesto with extra garlic on the whole pizza and then half mushrooms (for Sienna) and half black olives (for me.) No cheese. Like I said, we did the “take and bake” option where you put the pizza in the oven following their directions. The pizza was awesome. They put the right amount of sauce on the pizza, and didn’t skimp on the ingredients. I know you’re all like: “Yeah OK but THE CRUST Dave, get on with THE CRUST!” So I will get on with the crust. The crust was good. It is definitely more like the kind of crust that is kind of short and a bit crumbly. It was also definitely crunchy. It was almost what I call a Long Island style crossed with a deep dish style. To say what it wasn’t: it wasn’t chewy or bready, which for us was just fine.

Being used to gluten-free pizza crusts that either have a texture like extruded foam, and/or come out of the oven rock hard, we were delighted. While they do make wheat pizza there, they also seem to take enough care to prevent cross-contamination that a person with gluten allergy should be OK (depending on how bad your allergy is, obviously.) We will definitely go back there sometime in the future to do a more complete review of the restaurant itself.

Times we have visited: 2 (So we feel pretty good about our rating.)
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Somewhere around 11% more expensive

The Mississippi Pizza Pub
3552 North Mississippi Ave Portland, Oregon
(503) 288-3231

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