The superstar chefs of Ox, Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, will throw open the doors to SuperBite on April 26, 2016. The 2016 James Beard Award finalists have created a fun restaurant in the former Gruner space at 527 SW 12th Avenue, Portland in the “North End” of downtown.
SuperBite is all about big tastes on small plates. As they have explained in interviews, we get the most satisfaction out of the first three bites of a dish. So why not enjoy those bites and move on to the next great dish? The menu at SuperBite is divided into three sections for savoring, sharing, or splurging.
In the Bites section, you can choose bites from $2-$7. On a preview night, these included Dungeness crab with artichoke custard on an onion ring with taragon and mandarin. A fun small dish of spaghettios was graced with fresh truffle, parmigiano and irish butter. The house-cured beef gravlax arrived on a tiny English muffin with cream cheese, cucumber and horseradish. While some of the Bites are big enough to split, you probably want to keep them for yourself. They are perfect for solo diners.
Moving up to the Plates section, the portion size was perfect for sharing, with pricing from $12-$18 each plate. These include vegetable-focused plates as well as meat-focused plates. The maple-roasted pork belly with sesame chile oil, strawberry and watermelon radish was what all pork belly aspires to be – savory, sweet, smoky and balanced with the berry and radish to refresh your tastebuds between bites. The BBQ beef shortribe with Ecuadorian potato pancake featuring Vermont cheddar was also a satisfying dish. A solo diner wouldn’t be overwhelmed with the size of the dishes, but sharing was easy and allowed more sampling.
If your group or appetite is big enough, you can move up to the platters. These are priced in the mid-$30 range and on preview night included a whole fried trout with Dungeness crab and a platter of pork shoulder confit with hazelnut chimichurri.
The Cheese & Dessert menu had interesting offerings that combined savory and sweet – most of the dishes were both cheese and dessert. We enjoyed the carrot-coconut cake with camembert and then swooned over the chocoflan.
The food came from the kitchen fairly swiftly, all the better to enjoy more bites. As a fan of big tastes, my dining companion and I were thrilled and delighted by the bites, dishes and desserts. SuperBite is worth a stop for a meal, a taste, or a dessert.
SuperBite 527 SW 12th Ave, Portland, OR