I had the opportunity to eat at The Pastini Pastaria Restaurant at the NE Broadway location in Portland, Oregon. There is over 30 main pasta dishes that they will substitute the pasta for a penne pasta, which is their gluten-free pasta.
The restaurant is easy to get to, there is bus access and bike lanes. If you are going to drive there make sure you give yourself a little extra time because there is only street parking. Also the restaurant is close to The Rose Garden and The Coliseum. You can eat dinner there and then head on over to The Rose Garden to watch The Trail Blazer's play a basketball game or go to a concert.
My family and I had a great time there. We were warmly greeted. They took us to a table to sit down at. There was music playing in the background. The restaurant is very pleasant to the eyes and is kept very clean.
Yvette, The Director of Kitchen Operations gave me a tour of the kitchen. Yvette is terrific, she showed me where the gluten-free pasta is stored. It is stored in the refrigerator all wrapped up and kept separate from all the other food. Then she showed me the cooking area. The kitchen is kept very clean. She explained to me that the gluten-free pasta is cooked in a separate pan from the regular pasta and they use a tong that has a black rubber end. The tongs used for the regular pasta has no rubber end, so they can tell the difference. And the tongs are kept in a different area from each other.
The meat for the main dishes are kept wrapped up till they are ready to heat them up in a different pan from all other meats. They do a very good job of guarding against cross contamination. They educate there staff very well about celiac disease and gluten intolerance. When you order and tell them that you are gluten intolerant they touch the wheat free and gluten-free buttons on their computer to ring it up. When you get the receipt is says wheat free and gluten free right on the receipt.
Now I will tell you what we ordered. We ordered The Antipasto Platter off there Antipasti (appetizer) menu. Picture showing above. It is a spread of soprasetta, mortatdella, provolone, Italian olives, roasted eggplant spread, fresh mozzarella and marinated tomatoes with mixed greens dressed in balsamic-red wine vinaigrette. We dug into it. It was very delicious. A very good appetizer for the gluten intolerant.
Then for the main dish we ordered The Fusilli alla Roma from their Pasta Con Il Pollow (pastas with chicken) menu. It comes with gluten-free penne pasta tossed with grilled chicken, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and roasted garlic in a parmesan cream sauce. Oh talk about good, the pasta tasted very good, you would not know that is gluten-free. A very good gluten-free dish. Between the appetizer and the main dish we had plenty to eat. We ordered The Spaghetti Marinara off their kids menu for our son. My husband and our son are not gluten intolerant, I am the one who is gluten intolerant. So the guys did not have to have the gluten-free pasta.
For our beverages we ordered water of course and milk for our son. Coffee for my husband and I ordered the Strawberry Italian Soda. They have a terrific wine list.
Then for dessert we ordered Chocolate Tartufo. They separated it for us. I got the ice cream and the guys got the warm triple chocolate cake with a chocolate truffle center with whipped cream. Very decadent, yum. Yevette told me that they are working on getting gluten-free bread and gluten-free desserts to add to the gluten-free menu.
I give Pastini Pastaria5 stars out of 5. I highly recommend this restaurant for when you want to got out to eat. Everything was excellent and the waitress did a wonderful job. Everything was clean. You don't have to worry about cross contamination at this restaurant. Pastini Pastaria has eight locations in the Oregon area. There are four locations in Portland. The other locations are located in Tigard, Beaverton, Bend and in Corvallis.
Thank-you Pastini Pastaria for the wonderful food and the amazing dining experience. Everything was excellent.
For more Gluten-Free Restaurants, I have a Gluten-Free Restaurant list on the top left hand side of my website.
No comments:
Post a Comment