[ariel88]

Quo Vadis, on Feb 17 2010, 10:51 AM, said:

ariel88, on Feb 17 2010, 12:13 AM, said:

I ordered a sweet riesling off the dessert wine menu, and while it was delicious, the pour could not have exceeded 2 ounces (and was $10). However, I have very little wine experience in restaurants, so maybe that's fairly common with a dessert wine, even if I have never seen such a small pour in my very limited experience?

Dessert wines & ports are generally served in much smaller pours than wine.
As to whether that 2oz was worth $10 only your enjoyment can be the standard of whether it was a fair price.
By and large though, decent dessert beverages are spendier than decent wines.

Oh, the wine was fantastic - don't get me wrong. I just thought I would appeal to those with more knowledge as to whether a small pour in this case was normal. Times that I have ordered moscato d'asti off the dessert wine menu (at many different restaurants), I have gotten about a 4oz pour, but this was my first time ordering a sweet riesling so I wasn't sure whether it would be different.

[Calabrese]

http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/st...826309442375300 DiStefano

Quote

Grüner’sbread plate is a danger to the appetite, especially the soft, dark-hulled pretzel bread. You can also ease into dinner with a bowl of salty, grassy pumpkin seeds.

Beet and ricotta dumplings, nuzzling each other in a pool of butter, are deceptively light in the mouth. They’re fluffy yet rich, with a striking bright pink color. They’d be almost too unctuous, if not for a cap of poppy seeds that provides texture and a bit of bitterness. Another appetizer, venison terrine, is rustic and woodsy but not very memorable.

The stolid pairing of meat and potatoes appears in almost every entrée, but Grüner spices up the marriage in various ways. Quail, trout and rabbit join chicken, pork and beef on the flesh side, while the potatoes may appear in a salad, as dumplings, or in a terrine.

Instead of wiener schnitzel (veal), there’s a schnitzel made with pork tenderloin, which delivers a good, porky flavor even in very thin strips, coated in a crisp and uniform breading. In fact it’s a little too uniform, although it’s greaseless and has a kick of spice. Cranberry sauce and a squeeze of lemon add tartness. Dainty yellow potato slices form one salad on the side, countered by another salad of paper-thin cucumber slices with vinegar and dill.

more of the review at the link

***********************

My note: the Germans I work with are appalled that Americans call any dish not made with veal (and prepared properly) schnitzel. I think I understand that.

[egor]

http://en.wikipedia....iener_schnitzel

[abefroman]

Calabrese, on Mar 15 2010, 07:15 PM, said:

http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/st...826309442375300 DiStefano

Quote

Grüner’sbread plate is a danger to the appetite, especially the soft, dark-hulled pretzel bread. You can also ease into dinner with a bowl of salty, grassy pumpkin seeds.

Beet and ricotta dumplings, nuzzling each other in a pool of butter, are deceptively light in the mouth. They’re fluffy yet rich, with a striking bright pink color. They’d be almost too unctuous, if not for a cap of poppy seeds that provides texture and a bit of bitterness. Another appetizer, venison terrine, is rustic and woodsy but not very memorable.

The stolid pairing of meat and potatoes appears in almost every entrée, but Grüner spices up the marriage in various ways. Quail, trout and rabbit join chicken, pork and beef on the flesh side, while the potatoes may appear in a salad, as dumplings, or in a terrine.

Instead of wiener schnitzel (veal), there’s a schnitzel made with pork tenderloin, which delivers a good, porky flavor even in very thin strips, coated in a crisp and uniform breading. In fact it’s a little too uniform, although it’s greaseless and has a kick of spice. Cranberry sauce and a squeeze of lemon add tartness. Dainty yellow potato slices form one salad on the side, countered by another salad of paper-thin cucumber slices with vinegar and dill.

more of the review at the link

***********************

My note: the Germans I work with are appalled that Americans call any dish not made with veal (and prepared properly) schnitzel. I think I understand that.

The word Schnitzel actually means cutlet or escallop. Wiener Schnitzel may only be prepared with veal, it is a law. There are many other Schnitzel preparations using various meats with pork being a very popular and cost effective substitute. Cutlets from a pork top round are more commonly used for schnitzel and even from the shoulder. Porkloin also used, tenderloin just the spendiest.
Some other variants are; Jaeger Schnitzel, hunter style with a mushroom sauce, Ziguener Schnitzel, tomato based sauce with red peppers, mushrooms and onions, Paprika Schnitzel, tomato based sauce with paprika nd red peppers, Kaese Schnitzel, melted cheese, Rahm Schnitzel, pepper cream sauce, Holstein, fried egg, onions and capers, Cordon Bleu, Swiss variantion stuffed with ham and cheese and Parisian Style, no bread crumbs, just flour and egg. Chicken and turkey are popular meat substitutes and portabello mushrooms make a great vegetarian option.

[Angelhair]

I will wager hard cash money that I've eaten more schnitzel than anyone on this board. The overwhelming majority of that schnitzel was chicken and consumed in Israel (even though I've been to Germany a half dozen times).

EDITED to add: but Gruner isn't traditional German at all. I mean, there is a German/Swiss influence to be sure but they aren't a German restaurant. The cuisine is cleaner and more elegant. Every German restaurant has things like Sauerbraten and rouladen and rosti. Gruner has none of these on their menu (though, I for one owuld like to see what they would do with 'em).

[polloelastico]

Calabrese, on Mar 15 2010, 07:15 PM, said:

My note: the Germans I work with are appalled that Americans call any dish not made with veal (and prepared properly) schnitzel. I think I understand that.

First time a German has ever been disingenuous.

[ExtraMSG]

http://wweek.com/editorial/3621/13851/

Quote

Even from a block away, Grüner is a far cry from your stereotypical German restaurant. There are no gilded gables of a faux chalet. Instead, amber light spills from tall windows cut into a jutting, angular facade—the work of Portland avant-architects Skylab, who also designed the Nines hotel’s futuristic rooftop restaurant Departure. Inside, servers in crisp black and white weave through the space’s clean lines and muted earth tones, delivering cleverly titled cocktails like the gin-based Zeitgeist ($8). No buxom, blond-braided beer wenches slosh multi-liter steins. No lederhosen or cuckoo clocks or alpenhorns or roaming accordion players, either.

Of course not. This isn’t some sprawling suburban purveyor of das kitsch. Grüner is the new venture from Chris Israel, the chef behind some of Portland’s culinary titans—legendary Zefiro, 23Hoyt and Saucebox, the restaurant that introduced Portland to Asian fusion. Grüner isn’t even technically a German restaurant—it’s the food of the Alps, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary and Romania.

[ExtraMSG]

Stopped in at the bar at Gruner the other night to get their burger. Comes with a house ketchup, pickled onions, and sweet pickled cukes.



Also got an order of the smashed potatoes -- yellow fins that are cooked, then smashed into pancakes, and fried until crunchy. Just terrific. My burger buddy said he'd rather eat these than any french fries. They are terrific. Lots of golden surface area, well-salted, yielding to an almost creamy potato interior. The "special sauce" on the side is really just ranch, I think, and could be punched up a touch. They're on the normal menu, not the bar menu, so when you get a burger, remember to order these as well.



Burger comes with bacon, cheese, mustard greens, and aioli on probably the best burger bun in town, a house-made poppy-seeded potato kaiser roll. The bun has wonderful flavor from a nicely browned top, yet isn't truly crusty. It also has the perfect balance of softness and density to make it easy to bite through while holding up to one of the juiciest burgers in Portland.



The burger was cooked medium, as asked, and better than most without a large grey barrier, but instead evenly pink from edge to edge. It's one of the juicier burger I've had, too. The menu says gruyere, but they gave us the option of fontina, which is what I went with. I love fontina's creaminess on burgers, and it's often a fairly pungent cheese, too, which works well on these high end burgers that are generally fairly flavorful. The bacon was a little thin, just barely noticeable once the terrific pickled onions and bread & butter pickles were added -- which I highly recommend. The mustard greens worked, though they're not as crisp as some greens would be, they still didn't become limp and added a peppery bitterness. The house ketchup is also delicious and a good addition to the burger. It's made with tomatoes and celery root. It has a pie spice sweetness. It's seasoned with ginger, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg and the like. Still just subtle enough to add flavor without overpowering the burger like Heinz tends to. Lots of attention to detail on this burger.

[Sarah]

http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/index.ssf...uner_offer.html

Quote

Three starters, however, are marvelous. The tarte flambé is like a flatbread version of onion and bacon-laden pizza, addictive and easily sufficient for two. The charcuterie sampler features house-cured meats, including speck, coppa, salame and liverwurst, the latter almost as unctuous as a mousse of foie gras. The best appetizer is a bowl of large Swabian ravioli called maultaschen, filled with veal, pork and spinach, floating in a delicious broth and criss-crossed with spring chives. This dish was invented by Bavarian monks who, wishing to conceal that they were eating meat during Lent, hid the forbidden ingredients inside the maultaschen hoping that God would be fooled. Order them and you won't be the least bamboozled.

[Kim-Chi]

I had the burger early this week and loved it too. I'm right with you on the perfect burger bun assessment. I wanted the smashed potatoes at the bartender's rec. but worried I'd have leftovers which I didn't want sine I was heading to a reading right after.

My favorite HH food at Gruner so far is an order of the nettle ricotta dumplings with a brat and sauerkraut and a glass of the happy white wine -- lately a German pinot gris. Grand total somewhere around $15. So good...

[ExtraMSG]

Talked to someone that works there tonight. They will be opening for lunch as of July 1. And yes, the burger will be on the lunch menu.

[sacman]

As great as my meal at Tanuki yesterday was, it didn't stand alone as the greatest of meals amongst all I ate last week. In fact, there were two. The other one was Tuesday evening at Grüner. mrs. sacman, Jennifer, Jennifer's husband, and I met there for dinner.

Gruner may have topped Tanuki; I don't know for sure because they were so different. I can tell you that I nearly weep for joy that I live in a town with restaurants this good.

Also, you'll note below what I believe is the most gorgeous plate of food in town at the moment, and perhaps the single best food photo I've taken all year. I've taken a lot of food photos so far this year...


See this? This ain't the photo I'm talking about. I took a number of pictures of the bread, and truly, this one is the best shot. It does kind of look...well, perhaps I shouldn't interpret this visual too much. In any event, I can assure you that this was a delicious collection of house breads. My favorite was the pretzel bread, which tasted vastly better than it looked. Jennifer loved the pumpernickel, which is the small loaf on the left.


This dish is called "obatzer." It's primarily an upscale cheese spread, made of camembert, caraway, and paprika. Delicious, but the camembert was not really shining through as camembert. It could have been any mild soft cheese; perhaps that's the point. The vegetables were pristine, as you can see.


Foie was on the menu in the form of this rabbit/foie terrine. I had to have some, of course. Yes, it was delicious, and fatty, and salty. We were surprised though - it's advertised as coming with rhubarb and fiddleheads. Instead, it came with rhubarb and pickled baby turnips. I was quite happy; the turnips turned out to be the best part of this dish. That's saying a lot, because the terrine itself was quite good. However, the pickling brine had been spiked with a huge shot of clove flavor, which put the dish over the top. Yum, yum, yum.


Jennifer's starter was a ravioli dish called "maultaschen". Look at those peas - perfectly cooked (e.g. barely touched).


Inside the raviolis you'll find spinach, beef, and pork. I guess I should mention that we were sharing everything, as nobody wanted to miss any flavors.


mrs. sacman ordered a bowl of pea/asparagus soup with fried speck. What she got instead was a bowl that simply embodied spring. Sorry about waxing poetic, but the dish was that good. Flavors were clear as a bell, and the speck was crunchy and plentiful (this photo doesn't do the speck portion justice; there was a lot of it in the soup). A terrific bowl of soup. I think it had a chicken broth base, but I could be wrong.


Various beverages were consumed that evening, including this. It did strike me as a particularly beer-friendly meal, for some reason.


Well, here it is. A spectacular salad of shaved radishes, dill, chervil, chives, pumpkin seeds, and a pumpkin seed oil/cider vinegar dressing. What an awesome bunch of flavors, too. Thank goodness Gruner included the pumpkin element. The radishes are at their peak in the market at the moment (but seriously, when aren't they?), but everything else about the salad was beautiful as well. Crunchy radishes, good amount of acidic vinegar, herby herbs, and a great mouth feel from the pumpkin seed oil. Amazing. I wish I could dream up salads like this one. What a photogenic plate of food, too.


We continued the theme of great salads with this plate. It's a smoked trout salad with apples, peas, green onions, mizuna, frisee, dill, gherkins, and a horseradish cream. The trout was beautifully smoky and, of course, tender as could be (lots of trout in Northern European dishes, due to the landlickiness of some of the geography). A delicious salad.


Another winner of a salad was this endive salad with more speck. I didn't get to taste a lot of it, but what I had was good. It had endives, gruyere, ham, walnuts, chives, and a mustard vinaigrette.

The level of attention and creativity given to the salads at Gruner is astounding. You could make a meal out of an appetizer and a salad, no problem. Of course, we were a bunch of piggies, so we bravely soldiered on through our mains.

[sacman]

Two at our table ordered the choucroute garnie, which comes with house-made bratwurst and saucisson, braised pork belly, cured pork tenderloin, a pile of sauerkraut and potatoes, and a side of sweet mustard. You can see the mustard trying to hide behind the garnish. Everything about this plate was delicious. I am an absolute sucker for well-cooked cabbage, and this was a good example. Tender, but with a vinegary kick and a good amount of fat. This is an excellent plate of food - but be warned, it is quite thoroughly stick-to-your-ribs-style food.

Here, we encountered the only service error. I've always thought that a good measure of a restaurant's service is not really whether or not a mistake is made (within reason). Rather, I think a good measure is how mistakes are handled. In this case, mrs. sacman had ordered the plate of food above. However, she accidentally received a lesser plate of food - essentially the above, but minus the belly and tenderloin:

The server immediately acknowledged her error, apologized, and asked if it would be okay to simply bring out a plate of the missing cuts. It was all very gracious and smooth, and very much appreciated.


Weirdly, I ordered the steak. I rarely order the steak (weirdlier, I ordered the steak again tonight at Cafe Nell, which was also delicious, but I'll save that for another post). It was a good choice, though. The steak must have made a deal with the devil, it was packed with so much flavor. In the ongoing battle of tender vs. flavor, I'm definitely in the flavor camp, and this specimen delivered amply. Even better, it was also quite tender. Even better again, the sides were excellent. Everybody but beet-hater mrs. sacman enjoyed the pickled beets, and everybody but nobody loved the horseradish cream.


Jennifer ordered the spätzle, which came with the chicken. I tasted this twice. The first time was immediately after eating my steak. The steak was so flavorful and salty that the spätzle fell a little flat on my palate. After I'd cleared it with a little beer and water, I tried the spätzle again. It was much better. I wish I could have tried a little more, but I was getting pretty stuffed by then.


Here's mrs. sacman's second plate of food. It was the last thing delivered to our table. There was zero possibility of dessert, as we were all very full.

I really, really enjoyed Grüner. It's Le Pigeon good, and it's smack in the middle of downtown, too. There's a tremendous amount of care put into this food. Chef Israel could have taken this concept a lot of different ways. Imagine the pork prepared above, but with a curry crust. Think of the radish salad done with daikon shavings. These could have been okay to eat, but there's a lot to admire in the adherence to a predominately European aesthetic. Moreover, the chef's real skill is obvious not so much in the technique, but in the creativity that's evident within the boundaries he's set for himself. But that's probably bullshit, as the technique was faultless, too.

The point is this: go to Grüner. You'll have a great time with excellent food and sublime, polished service.

The cost was a stitch over $50 per person, including the tip.

-sacman

[Amanda]

OMG! I need to get back there. That spaetzle and steak look incredible!

Best regards,

Amanda

[Angelhair]

NICE PICS! You make me want to eat there RIGHT NOW.

[Sarah]

Lovely pics, Sacman! I had the steak the other day also. Deliciously beefy, a generous portion and tons of horseradish cream. I took half of it home and had a great steak sandwich the next day. Too bad you didn't have room for the rhubarb crumble with cream.
Gruner is definitely at the top of my list whenever we're in the mood to go out to dinner.

[RM]

We had an early dinner there last night. Very knowledgeable server (Lauren), good food and wine, overall a very nice meal. And the real reason for my post - they're going to start lunch service on July 5th!!

[spillred]

ExtraMSG, on Jun 3 2010, 08:36 PM, said:

Talked to someone that works there tonight. They will be opening for lunch as of July 1. And yes, the burger will be on the lunch menu.

I wonder if the burger is becoming a lunch-only item? Or bar-only? I didn't see it online in their Spring menu...

[ExtraMSG]

The burger already was a bar-only item. Never been on the regular dinner menu.

[Kristi]

Great review, Sacman! Fantastic pictures and now, as a result of looking at them, I am starving. I want that spaetzle, now!