"Simply put, Ava Gene's is my favorite special occasion restaurant in Portland. With a focus on local, seasonal ingredients, the kitchen puts a unique spin on Italian cuisine and turns out some of the most flavorful food around. Add to that impeccable service in a fine dining but not stuffy atmosphere and you've got a winner. Although not a vegan or vegetarian restaurant, the chef is vegetable focused and changes the menu weekly to showcase the best of the seasonal produce. The results are spectacular. The salads offer unexpected combinations like beets and cherries mixed with a generous assortment of herbs perfectly dressed so that the flavor of each ingredient pops in your mouth Other salads might include sprouted grains, fresh beans, nuts and squash. When it is on the menu, the borlotti bean pane is not to be missed. I never imagined I'd pay $15 for a slice of toast anywhere, but this is no ordinary toast. A garlicy, lemony puree of borlotti beans is spread on a thick slice of toasted country bread, topped with whole beans and drizzled with garlic and olive oil. With the contrasting textures of the creamy beans on the crunchy bread, who needs avocado toast? This seriously raises the bar when it comes to toast. The homemade pasta does contain eggs, but they always have a vegan pasta option or two that they can prepare. Depending on the season it could be kale pesto, pomodoro, chili, garlic almond, mushroom or my favorite, nut ragout. Vegan and vegetarian items are not indicated on the menu, but the well informed servers can tell you which items are vegan or can be made vegan. Service all around is top notch. The servers are friendly, accommodating and knowledgeable. Dessert is limited to the current sorbet flavor. For more more varied offerings you could skip the sorbet and walk a block west to sample the vegan ice cream flavors at Salt Straw or a few blocks further for the vegan yogurt at Eb Bean. In a city with so many vegan restaurants, my preference is to patronize them as often as possible. But I also appreciate the non-vegan restaurants that go out of the way to be vegan friendly, and few (if any) do it better than Ava Gene's. Chef Joshua McFadden truly is the vegetable whisperer. He knows how to prepare vegetables and combine them in ways that bring out their unique flavors. I wish Happy Cow would let me give five stars because this is one restaurant that easily earns that rating."
