ASTERA
Restaurant · Buckman ·
Plant-based tasting menus of inventive vegan dishes & cocktails
Plant-based tasting menus of inventive vegan dishes & cocktails
"Step into the small Belmont dining room—with a Turkish rug, framed pigeon paintings, and an eclectic soundtrack—and you’ll feel like you’ve landed in an eccentric Portlander’s home as you work through one of three tasting menus that become progressively more arresting: examples include a fall poached celeriac on creamed kale and sautéed mushrooms with roasted leek demi-glace and a crispy buñeulo pipetted with a maitake “lardon” cashew cheese, and a parsnip ice cream with carrot butterscotch topped by a delicate rye sable cookie." - Hannah Wallace
"Formerly known as Workshop, Aaron Adams’s fancy vegan restaurant Astera offers a dining experience revolving around the “horticultural cuisine of Cascadia.” Similar to Workshop and the influential (and now closed) Farm Spirit, the menu utilizes locally grown and foraged seasonal produce. The symphony of vegetable courses vary, depending on what’s in season. A recent spring menu featured dishes like a nettle pasta with spruce essence and poached rhubarb with chamomile custard and sorrel granita. A smaller menu is available on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays for $65 per person while the full tasting menu is $115 plus beverages and service fees. Astera is by reservation only, check out their Instagram or Tock reservations for collaborations." - Anastasia Sloan
"Chef Aaron Adams’s SE Belmont Street restaurant offers seasonal tasting menus Thursday through Sunday. This spring, that means cultured cashew and pollen caneles and nettle pasta with mushrooms and spruce essence. The menu includes all kinds of only-in-Portland kitchen specials: vegan cheese, koji charcuterie. To that end, a smaller menu runs for $65 Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Also on Sundays, there’s an early three-course supper at 4 p.m. Reservations can be made via Tock." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden
"Formerly known as Workshop, Aaron Adams’s fancy vegan restaurant enters the new year rebranded as Astera — a vegan dining experience revolving around the “horticultural cuisine of Cascadia.” Similar to Workshop and the influential (and now closed) Farm Spirit, the menu utilizes locally farmed and foraged seasonal produce. Additionally, ingredients like smoked onion shio koji and fermented habanero are evocative of its fermentation-centric sister restaurant Fermenter. The symphony of vegetable courses vary, depending on what’s in season, but one can expect savory dishes like broken kabocha squash and black trumpet mushroom broth with kelp oil and sweets like celeriac ice cream with sunchoke caramel and roasted apple puree. Astera is by reservation only." - Waz Wu
"This brand new vegan cocktail bar on Southeast Belmont isn’t strictly Cuban, but the menu pulls heavily from owner Aaron Adams’s aunt’s Cuban recipes. Here, massive empanadas arrive stuffed with heavily seasoned tempeh picadillo, while dessert empanadillas get a sweet balance of guava and cashew queso blanco. Instead of the typical shrimp-laden camarones enchilados, Workshop’s version is a spicy tomato sauce loaded with charred carrots and tempeh. Adams, who is perhaps best known for his preservation palace next door, Fermenter, makes all of his cheeses and ferments in house, from the cashew cheese on the braised black beans to the tempeh in the empanadas." - Elizabeth Delgado, Chandler Petersen, Olivia Lee