Portland Dining Month 2015 Aviary

March 11, 2015 by 16 Comments

I covered in a previous post what Portland Dining month / March 2015 is and a few highlights from the amazing list of more than 100 restaurants in the Portland area offering the $29 3 course special. Today, I’m going to share my first Portland Dining Month 2015 meal, which was at Aviary. Aviary is located in the Alberta District at 1733 NE Alberta Street and offers eclectic Northwest ingredients combined with Asian flavors fusion food.

This was not my first time at Aviary – but during dinner service (the only meal they serve), the restaurant has really dim romantic lighting which doesn’t do well with my regular camera-phone photos. This time though, I brought my backup camera so was able to absorb a little bit more light through the lens. Although there are no vegetarian options on the Portland Dining menu, the regular Aviary menu has almost half a dozen options to choose from.

You can make reservations online at OpenTable, and this is recommended because I’ve heard of others dropping in and them being full!

Now without further ado, my Portland Dining Month 2015 Aviary menu selections, with my choice being in the bold.

First, the complimentary bread service at Aviary is wonderful as instead of just bread with butter, they offered a bagna cauda (butter, garlic, anchovies) for dipping the bread. Obviously because this has anchovies it’s not vegetarian so if that’s important to you, you’ll have to pass on the dip. One of the two breads on the plate was an olive bread.
complimentary bread service at Aviary is wonderful as instead of just bread with butter, they offered a bagna cauda (butter, garlic, anchovies) for dipping the bread. Obviously because this has anchovies it's not vegetarian so if that's important to you, you'll have to pass on the dip. One of the two breads on the plate was an olive bread.

First course (choose one)

Dungeness crab chawanmushi with bone marrow, sea urchin, Asian pear, snap peas and truffle vinaigrette
-OR-
Warm vegetable salad with romanesco, pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, lime-pickle vinaigrette and black garlic
Aviary first course of Dungeness crab chawanmushi with bone marrow, sea urchin, Asian pear, snap peas and truffle vinaigrette for Portland Dining Month 2015 Aviary first course of Dungeness crab chawanmushi with bone marrow, sea urchin, Asian pear, snap peas and truffle vinaigrette for Portland Dining Month 2015
Seriously, this dish alone is worth a visit. I was sitting at the Chef’s Counter facing the open kitchen and man, chef Sarah Pliner was a BOSS whipping these out with somehow being able to pick up bowls of the chawanmushi from the steamy water pan just with tongs, and then flame on with a fiery torch. My favorite course.

Second course (choose one)

Miso braised beef short rib with taro root, yuzukoshō slaw, and shitake mushroom
-OR-
Pan-seared salmon with cauliflower, saffron, green apple, trout roe and American caviar
Aviary first course of Miso braised beef short rib with taro root, yuzukoshō slaw, and shitake mushroom for Portland Dining Month 2015

Third course (choose one)

Brown Butter Cake with whipped ricotta and rhubarb and basil Note this is different than what is listed on the Portland Dining Month website which listed a strudel, but I think the brown butter cake is even better.
-OR-
Chocolate budino with butterscotch ice cream and sour cherry
Aviary third course of Brown Butter Cake with whipped ricotta and rhubarb and basil for Portland Dining Month 2015 Aviary third course of Brown Butter Cake with whipped ricotta and rhubarb and basil for Portland Dining Month 2015

Extras

Since I was passing on the salad, I thought I might need a little bit more vegetable. And it’s March = St Patrick’s is this month. So I rationalized the Aviary cocktail of the Canicule with Bombay Sapphire East Gin, Ransom Dry Vermouth, Sauvignon Blanc, Pineapple Shrub, Cilantro, and Jalapeno. Because it’s green. It’s not a spicy drink, despite the presence of jalapeno somewhere – it was much more on the cilantro side. If you like cilantro, this is the drink for you. I didn’t know it at the time I ordered it, but this was the cocktail highlighted by Portland Monthly in their Best Bars 2014 article and most recently in their list of The 10 Most Interesting Cocktails in PDX Right Now in their March 2015 issue!
Aviary cocktail of the Canicule with Bombay Sapphire East Gin, Ransom Dry Vermouth, Sauvignon Blanc, Pineapple Shrub, Cilantro, Jalapeno

Also you must order this Crispy Pig Ear with coconut rice, chinese sausage, and avocado. I was dining alone because veggie F is not too keen on the idea of pig ear (and I knew dining alone pretty much guaranteed a seat at the Chef’s Counter – I and several other ladies dining alone or in twos chatted a bit). So ordering this, I knew this meant I would have leftovers, because the 3 courses are already more than enough for dinner.  But I’ve taken back this dish more than once and I love having it as a leftover the next day, even though the crispyness of the dish of will be gone (I nibble on as much of the crispyness as possible at the restaurant). I always get this dish,  it is one of the Aviary signature dishes and I urge you to get it too.
Aviary dish of Crispy Pig Ear with coconut rice, chinese sausage, avocado

Aviary on Urbanspoon

Next on my Portland Dining Month list is Laurelhurst Market, which I’ll share on Friday!

Where have you dined or are planning to dine this month for Portland Dining Month? 

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Photos of a dinner of small samplers at Aviary Portland

February 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Just some photos of a dinner of small samplers at Aviary Restaurant in Portland. Between the two of us, we shared 3 appetizers, and then 3 of the slightly larger and heavier small plates (everything at Aviary is small plates though). First to appear at the table was the bread with butter dipping sauce (I particuarly liked that one of the breads was an olive bread), it was a thoughtul and welcome start. Then came the first dish from the kitchen,  tempura pumpkin with red curry, scallions, thai basil. This was our favorite of the appetizers thanks to the crispy lightness of the batter surrounding the warm firm/softness of the pumpkin with a bit of spice from the curry which was rounded out by some coconut cream in the curry.

Second best was the ox tail croquettes tomato jam which were tender bites of rich meatness. The fried chicken skin salad with watermelon, bitter greens, baba ganoush was raved about in reviews, but we found it the weakest- I was expecting a better pop of contrasting flavors between the luxury of fried chicken skin with the bitterness of the greens, acid of watermelon, and smokiness of baba ganoush, and this just wasn’t realized. Part of me was also hoping the fried chicken skin would be really crunchy crispy- sort of the equivalent of when  you get extra crispy from fast food place- and I guess I expected the fried chicken to be in the kind of quantity ratio to the salad like a normal chicken breast would be in a salad with chicken breast. You can see from the picture the greens seem to barely qualify this dish as a salad.

Aviary, Portland, small plates Aviary, Portland, small plates Aviary, Portland, small plates

In terms of slightly heavier small plates, we went with a trio of one pork, one beef, and one chicken. The weakest was the crispy pig ear atop coconut rice, chinese sausage, and avocado and greens, again where similar to the fried chicken skin salad, the fat wasn’t balanced well enough by the other components, and leaned instead towards layers of different types of oils. I did like the smoothness of the coconut rice, but then the rest of the dish didn’t balance out for me.

Her favorite was the hoisin glazed short rib with farro and turnips and yuzu pickles, which I really did like- it was so juicy tender and the meat disintegrated on your mouth while teasing you with a bit of the pomegranate and the creaminess of the farro mixing in with that savory melting meat- and a playful texture difference betwen them all- but it was also a very heavy dish. That’s why my favorite was the four cup chicken with taro root, dried apricot and truffle, wood ear mushrooms, all subtle flavors that you could individually appreciate but also harmonized well with the tender juicy chicken. I could probably actually eat that whole dish, but would get overwhelmed after a while with any of the others even though they were good for the first shared portion.

Aviary, Portland, small plates Aviary, Portland, small plates Aviary, Portland, small plates

Honestly, we ordered 2 small plates too many- although all the plates are small, this would have really been better at a table of four rather then two. The clean simple decor of a lot of warm wood and candlelight made the space seem very empty and open, but this minimalism also lacked a bit of character- we could have been in any Portland restaurant, I wish there had been a little more there in terms of atmosphere to give a better feel of its personality. However, the service was smooth and friendly, paced wonderfully as we enjoyed our bottle of ’08 Scipt & Seal Bourdeaux to get us food quickly but then considerately let us linger with our conversation without much interruption. Also, they did survive a fire (started from fireworks that landed on the roof) that closed them down for a while, so I give them a break for rising like a phoenix from the ashes.

If you visit, make sure you take more people to share dishes and reduce how much of a single dish you need to eat (four seems like it would be a perfect number). Aviary is really a restaurant that seems best suited to lots of little bird bites of many of the rich dishes- so plan your dining party accordingly.

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