This year, for 2020, I am going to revisit my top recommended restaurants in Portland. I’m kicking off this series with the Chef’s Menu experience at Castagna. One of the top fine dining destinations in PDX, Castagna has been nominated again and again for James Beard Awards. It features Northwest modernist cuisine in two different prix fixe menus – the longform Chef’s Tasting Menu, or the shorter Explorative Menu with 5 courses.
You can see my experience with the Explorative Menu last year with this post – the theme changes every two months. Meanwhile, the Chef’s Tasting Menu may look like it’s about a dozen courses, but don’t be fooled – there are many plates of Snacks that come to the table. Here’s a detailed look.
Snacks
If you opt for the wine pairing, you may be fortunate enough to start with a sparkling rosé to go with the five snack courses that are about to appear. If you select your own beverage, I would definitely recommend a sparkling wine.
The first plate was the signature Beet chip with tartare, accompanied by a Tokyo turnip with tarragon aioli.
Next came an oyster plating with soy milk gel and a crab dashi, with a pearl spoon to help loosen it from the shell. This was then followed by a fried chicken karaage (topped with an optional supplemental cost of Osetra Caviar) on a lettuce cup.
Next was a deep fried kombu seaweed cracker with Dungeness crab.
The final snack was a bit of a palate cleanser as well, a gin and tonic gelee in lime.
Breads and Butters
A hidden secret of Castagna is that they make phenomenal bread. You get a taste of this in both their Explorative and at OK Omens where you can get one of the butters on this plate a la carte. The full shebang though is here on the Chef’s Tasting Menu. There is a Miso Brie Butter (which you can also find at OK Omens), as well as a Whipped lardo with smoked hazelnuts and herbs, and a Brown butter with brown butter solids. Warm bread beow is the Rye seedy roll and an Olive oil rye roll. The usual wisdom is to not fill up on bread, but it’s hard to resist with such tasty warm bread and butters here – so just give in.
Savory Courses
Chanterelle, sorrel, malt. The chanterelle came in the original mushroom form as well as a cream sauce.
Gently steamed kanpachi, sauce blanchet, celeriac cream. Sauce blanchet is a sauce made with chicken and fish.
Squid a la plancha, with charred onion aioli and basil broth for smoky flavors and grilled to perfect balance of those crisp edges but still tender meat.
Foie gras, quickbread. This was definitely one of my favorite courses – the foie gras was topped with a berry gelee and spread on that huckleberry muffin, was like a twist peanut butter and jelly but with foie and berry. A compressed pear with blood orange on the side was a nice acidic break from the creamy richness of foie and sweet berry. I loved that it was a muffin form that offered the firm crunchyness of the muffin edges but the softness inside of the muffin rather then regular crusty bread that is usually served with foie. Incredible indulgence.
Duck, kohlrabi, sesame leaf. Inside the sesame leaf there is a boudin blanc sausage – and also there are a few shavings of truffles on the dish to compliment that perfectly done duck.
Beef zabuton cooked in fermented butter, charred onion, black olive. This was my other favorite course of the night. At first I was not sure why they sliced the pieces of beef so thinly and served it with chopsticks so you pick up each sliver individually – but after my first bite I understood. It’s to make it last as long as you can, every melt in your mouth morsel.
Sweet Endings
Matsutake, chocolate in tart form was the first dessert course
Toffee sorbet, meyer lemon, cinnamon. The cinnamon is in form of both cinnamon cookie and cinnamon crumble.
Toasted potato skin. This is a signature dessert here with the toasted potato skin ice cream topped with buttermilk granita, drops of sherry, and the folded meringue that is so fun in textures as it plays with thoughts of creamy mashed potatoes and Gehry architecture.
Finally, 2.5 hours after this dinner experience began, with the check came one last surprise bite: an anise pate de fruit.
If Michelin came to Portland Castagna is one of the restaurants that would definitely make the cut with a star or two. The price is high end for Portland and it is a long dinner featuring a lot of modernist techniques and fancy playing on white tablecloths. The general local foodies in Portland haven’t fully embraced this type of fine dining experience, leaning more casual then this formal. This means reservations are actually pretty accessible compared to other famous Portland Chefs Tasting menus like Langbaan or Nodoguro, so this is a great treat that you don’t have to plan 1-3 months ahead of time.
Also compared to similar caliber restaurants in other cities the price here is a great value – you might be looking at 50-100% more to have this similar experience someplace else. And don’t forget there’s no tax – do note though that an additional 20% gratuity will automatically added on.
Have you ever been to Castagna? Which of these dishes intrigues you?
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