Gruner PDX

Last night I took Jose out for his birthday, though his birthday is today. Friends had recommended Gruner, a restaurant that serves mostly northern European cuisine with Pacific Northwest influence. It's a very modern looking restaurant inside and out. There are quite a few restaurants like this through out Portland with clean modern lines and material combinations. We had a reservation, which turn out to be a good idea for 6:30pm on Saturday night.
I studied the menu online before hand and kinda knew what we wanted. We were both hungry so we ordered two appetizers and two entrees. One appetizer, beet and ricotta dumplings, was both attractive and tasty. The other one, swabian ravioli, was less good in comparison, but not bad.

Beet and ricotta dumplings; so soft and tasty

The entrees are very impressive. The choucroute garnie - bratwurst, saucisson, cider braised pork belly, house-cured pork tenderloin, sauerkraut, sweet mustard with yukon gold potatoes. It's a lot of meat. Pork tenderloin was cooked just right. The pork belly was very well seasoned and tender. The mustard that came on the side was strong but finished on a sweet note. So very good. But not as good as my entree, buckwheat spätzle with braised rabbit, shiitake & black trumpet mushrooms. This spätzle is insanely good. It's much smaller portion compared to the other dish. But every bite in this dish counts. The rabbit meat is sweet, the buckwheat spätzle was nicely textured and full of flavor. I wish I knew how to make this dish. =)

Brats, pork and more pork

spätzle with rabbit and mushroom

The check poking out from inside a book, though I don't know if they expect you to read the book while waiting for them to pick up the card, or the significance of the book selection. Either way it's a very Portland thing to do.