Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Restaurant Review: Por Que No Taqueria

I’m always pleased when I can write up a review on a place we’ve been to a bunch of times, because then I feel like I’m probably not going to steer anybody wrong. I’m also usually pleased to find that (unless you want a burrito) Mexican food is usually pretty easy to go gluten-free. You can get around the burrito problem by getting one without the tortilla and and eating it like a rice and beans plate with chips. Finally, I’m especially happy to report that Por Que No Taqueria has gluten-free fried fish tacos! Not only do they have fried fish tacos, but the fish is the breaded kind. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Por Que No View

This is the pleasing view you’ll see when you enter Por Que No on Hawthorne. Everything in the restaurant seems to have been salvaged from somewhere and then artfully placed in a chaotic way that puts me in the mind of an island retreat.

The Line at Por Que No Hawthorne

This is the not-so-pleasing view you’ll see when you enter Por Que No on Hawthorne. To be fair, the line moves very quickly, and for some reason there always seems to be somewhere to sit, even though the restaurant seems full to the gills every time we visit. It is a very popular spot. At Por Que No, you order at the counter. They give you a number and then you sit. Within a reasonable amount of time your drink and food shows up.

Horchata at Por Que No

I like their Horchata.

Salad at Por Que No

Their salad is very attractive, and includes a generous amount of avocado. We don’t feel like it’s their strong spot, however. While it’s good, it isn’t excellent. Sienna had a problem getting one without hot sauce and had to send hers back a second time.

Gluten-Free Fish Tacos and Carnitas

Here’s a serving of three tacos. Two of these are carnitas and the third is their gluten-free fried fish taco. The carnitas tacos are mostly meat with a little veggies, onion, and some cilantro. I think they must make their own corn tortillas at Por Que No. The corn tortillas are really awesome there. The fish taco is sort of what I call “Baja Style,” which I first became acquainted with on a trip to San Diego. So there’s fried breaded fish, cabbage, and some kind of white sauce. On the Por Que No fish taco I had, there was also some pineapple. All the tacos were awesome, flavor-wise. Sadly there wasn’t much fish in the taco. My taco had a single piece the size of my thumb. Sienna’s was a little better, but we still felt like the taco to fish ratio was off the mark. We also feel like the tacos are a little expensive for what you get.

The person who helped us at the counter knew exactly what I was talking about when I asked if the tacos were gluten-free, and I ended up feeling like it would be a safe place to eat as long as you asked questions about what you are ordering. As with any place that serves things that have gluten in them, be careful and remember that there’s basically always a chance of cross-contamination. The nice thing about Mexican food, though, is that they don’t use a lot of wheat – except for the tortillas and desserts.

We’ve been to Por Que No a bunch of times and have also visited their other place on Mississippi. Although we have a few issues with the place, the food there is awesome, and it has a really good energy. Now you can add gluten-free fried fish tacos to your Portland eating experience!

We want to know: Have you eaten at the Por Que No? Do you feel like Mexican is generally pretty easy to modify for gluten-free eating? Have you had any of the other entrees at Por Que No? Let us know!

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-Free Friendly But Ask Questions.
Times we have visited: 4+ (So we feel pretty good about our score.)
Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Por Que No Taqueria
http://porquenotacos.com/
3524 N Mississippi Ave Portland, OR 97227 / 503.467.4149
4635 SE Hawthorne Blvd Portland, OR 97255 / 503.954.3138

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Published on August 31, 2009 in Restaurant Review. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Restaurant Review: Portobello Vegan Trattoria – Gluten Free Items

Portobello Vegan Trattoria is a cute little Italian restaurant and cafe in Southeast Portland. When possible, their food is organic and locally sourced. They also have many gluten-free options and mark them on their menu. Their website has information about what farms they get their food from, and their menu changes frequently depending on what’s available in the market and from the farms.

Portobello Vegan Trattoria

It’s hard to dislike any restaurant that has Edward Gorey books in their waiting area. The atmosphere is charming, relaxed, and a little upscale. When we arrived, about three quarters of the tables in the house had “Reserved” signs on them. We were able to get a table immediately, but if you’re going at a popular dinner hour on a weekend, you might want to call ahead. By the time we left, the place was almost full.

Their menu is marked for gluten-free and soy-free items, which is very cool. They also made their menu so that you can get half orders of every entree and salad. That way you can get more variety and share. When we went, about half of the menu was marked gluten-free. Under their appetizers, they had a marinated olive plate and a polenta dish with marinara. All of their sides are gluten-free, including pan roasted summer squashes, melon with olive oil & basil, roasted fingerling potatoes, and garlicky broccolini. While they did have two salads on the menu which were gluten-free (the Chilled Beet & Plum Salad and Heirloom Tomato & Cucumber Salad), there was only one gluten-free entree, which was OK under the circumstances. For dessert, they make a vegan tiramisu, but alas, it is not gluten-free.

You can also add this to your list of places that serve gluten-free beer! They have Bard’s Gluten-Free Sorghum Malt Beer.

gluten-free side dishes

gluten-free tomato and cucumber salad

The gluten-free entree was Portobello Steak with Crisp Polenta & Swiss Chard. As the name would suggest, this was a grilled portobello mushroom with rosemary on a layer of swiss chard, all on a bed of perfectly crisp caramelized onion polenta.

gluten-free vegan entree

Everything was perfectly done and very tasty. Our waitress was very friendly and was able to answer all our questions. The food came out promptly. The broccolini was excellent. We were especially enamored of the Heirloom Tomato & Cucumber Salad. The tomatoes were fresh and delicious. They were served cut up into huge chunks with pieces of cucumber, basil, and olive oil. I found myself wishing for more.

We want to know: Have you eaten at the Portobello Vegan Trattoria? Have you had any different entrees? Let us know!

Gluten-Free Safety Rating: Gluten-Free Friendly But Ask Questions.
Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Portobello Vegan Trattoria
http://portobellopdx.com
2001 SE 11th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97214 / 503.754.5993

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Published on August 25, 2009 in Restaurant Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Site News: New Gluten-Free Restaurant Classification System

Over the past two months we’ve been doing a lot of thinking and soul-searching about how we look at restaurants and how gluten-free restaurants can be. For instance, we reviewed a certain restaurant in Portland, and someone who went there later reported that their server told them that the fries weren’t safe. When we called the restaurant about the fries, we were told that the fries were safe. Whether or not they were safe hinged on whether or not the fryer was dedicated gluten-free only AND all the employees followed that.

So here’s the deal: We know that some of our audience needs to stay away from all gluten at all times, and we know that others are eating gluten-free for health reasons and are going to be OK with some here and there. We also know that depending on how they’re set up, and how vigilant their staff is, different restaurants have varying degrees of control over how gluten-free their food is.

Sooooo… we have decided to create a classification system for restaurants based on our experiences with them and things we know about them. This shouldn’t replace vigilance on the part of our readers, but I think it will ease our minds a bit. We don’t really want people to walk into the restaurants we review and assume that they don’t have to worry. Here’s what we’ve come up with:

Gluten-Free Mostly Safe – We will use this to designate the few places that have dedicated facilities or who (like the Whole Bowl – except for their cookies) are gluten-free by nature.

Gluten-Free Friendly But Ask Questions – We will use this to designate places at which most gluten-free people should be able to enjoy a meal after they ask a question or two and make sure their waiter or waitress is on board. Usually this will mean that we have asked questions about cross-contamination.

Gluten-Free Friendly But Be Warned – A place we might put in this category would be a bakery that cooks wheat goods and gluten-free goods in the same facility and that was unable to convince us that they are safe (Sweet Pea Bakery, we are looking straight at you) and some of the pizza places around town who offer both gluten-free pizza and pizza on wheat dough. While someone who is gluten-free for health reasons would probably be OK eating here, we would not recommend the establishment to people who are very sensitive to gluten.

Obviously what you choose to do with the information is up to you. We’re not doctors, and if you find yourself wondering how much you should worry about cross-contamination, that’s a question for your doctor.

We plan to go through our restaurant listings to categorize everything, but this is definitely going to be a work in progress. If you have any information about various restaurants in town, drop us a line or send us an email. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate it!

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Published on August 24, 2009 in News and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .