Monday, Park Kitchen Review

Since I (Maxine) am the foodie in the family, I’ll be contributing occasional restaurant descriptions to the blog. Last night we went to Park Kitchen which is at the edge of the Pearl District near downtown. This restaurant has been around for a while, gets great reviews and I’d wanted to try it but never had a chance during previous trips to Portland.

Well it deserves its good reputation. Although it’s a tiny place with just a few tables and a view into the open kitchen it has an ambitious and creative menu. The guy who greeted us also waited on us and remembered our names. We enjoyed his banter; his knowledge of the menu and recommendations were spot on. The menu is divided into Small Hot Plates, Small Cold Plates and Large Plates and I could have ordered just about anything and been happy. We decided to have an assortment of small plates which is always great since you get to try more things.

As the experimental member of this couple, I followed our waiter’s recommendation and tried baby octopus for the first time. Tom was a little mortified when he realized that the chef heard him say “yuck!” when he delivered the sizzling skillet of octopus to our table. We were extra nice to him later to make it up to him. The octopus was cut into pieces so that I couldn’t recognize its original state (a good thing) and tasted garlicky, buttery and delicious, sort of like sautéed calamari. I would order it again. I also had chickpea fries with an Indian spiced squash ketchup and grilled asparagus (the skinny pencil size) with olive salsa and slow-roasted tesa. If you don’t know what tesa is, you’re not alone. I learned that it is pork and it tasted like thick cut pancetta. All were a little unusual and all were delicious.

Tom ordered buckwheat & rhubarb soup with foie gras – he can never resist foie gras. This combination was sweet, tart and a little crunchy all at the same time. Not my favorite but Tom liked it. His duck terrine with pistachios was served with a grainy mustard and crumbly crackers. It was a combination of sweet and savory and made me think that I need to learn to make terrine so that I can eat it more often! He also had a flank steak salad with blue cheese and sherried onions which was similar to steak salad that we’ve had before but better. The key is the sherried onions, I think.

The chef says that the menu changes frequently so we’ll go back in early June to check out the late spring/early summer version. Given the seasonal ingredients, I’m sure it will be equally interesting.