PDX Restaurant Review: Dick’s Kitchen

By Dr. Samantha Brody, On March 27, 2011

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Dick’s Kitchen, on SE Belmont is billed as a “stone age diner.” The menu was developed around the concept of the Paleo diet which basically holds that our bodies have not been able to adapt to the changes in our diets that have occurred over the last 10,000 years. The idea is that we will be healthier if we eat the diet of our ancestors- predominantly built around meat, fish, veggies, fruit, roots, and nuts. The diet typically excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and unhealthy oils. Dick’s kitchen doesn’t follow this to a tee but for people who choose this route there are a plethora of delicious options available. As a matter of fact is easy for those on many specialty diets to have their needs met at DK.

Take me for instance. I don’t eat dairy, wheat, most gluten, or animals that have been commercially raised. I typically avoid sugar and prefer to eat fewer carbs. It is rare for me to eat fried foods or low quality oils because of their inflammatory nature. And take my son. He has severe eczema that is 99% controlled with diet and supplements. He doesn’t eat soy, dairy, rice, or citrus. And we generally avoid wheat in his diet as well. My husband eats just about anything that isn’t nailed to the floor but always errs on the side of healthy, when he’s with me, in any case. We all mostly stay away from sugar and eat only whole grains with very rare exception. My sister, who doesn’t touch red meat, poultry, dairy, or saturated fats can also easily be accommodated at Dick’s.

At most restaurants my family will have a few options on a menu and we pick very carefully. At Dicks it’s a field day. They have burgers either on buns (wheat and potato or gluten-free), “naked” or on a salad or raw kale salad. We skip the buns mostly because they are refined grains…not much nutritional value. I did taste them though and they’re quite good. There are many vegetable sides, almost all free of dairy. The staff is lovely and will greet us when we arrive and immediately take our vegetable order so we can get some of that down our kid before the meat and fries show up. And oh my the fries. They are twice baked, not fried and are offered with homemade ketchup or an option of house made aioli or sauce. And with a special request you can get organic Heinz if you must (we do.) If you don’t eat night shade vegetables? Go for the sweet potato “not fries.” I found them a bit mushy but looking around at the other tables on any given night I can see there are plenty of folks who disagree.

Each week they offer a special burger, this last week it was the “dork” burger. Duck and pork. My husband thought it was bland and ate my turkey burger instead. A few weeks ago the special was wild boar (tasty but quite fatty). The buffalo burger (fabulous), turkey burger (meh), salmon burger (delish), tempeh burger and and portobello burger (haven’t tried they yet) are all on the menu at all times. Beef is the stand by and it is grass fed and grass finished. The fact that the cows are grass finished is important. If a grass fed cow is taken to a feed lot for the last few weeks of her life the fatty acid profile of the meat will be altered and much of the health benefit of the cow being grass fed is undone. Of course you still get the ethical benefit of the cows being able to wander outside instead of being penned up- which is certainly an improvement over commercially raised meat. They also have meatloaf, hot dogs, salads, sausages and a number of very cool specials each week. The burgers were very good, and cooked as ordered (albeit a bit on the greasy side.) When you order naked they come on a piece of iceberg lettuce, which sometimes is smaller than the burger so I couldn’t really use it as a ‘bun.’ I think it would be great if they were able to get leaf lettuce in which you could actually wrap your burger.

In addition to classic milkshakes they even have coconut bliss (dairy free “ice cream”) shakes that look fabulous. One with liquor I believe.

Get there early if you don’t want to wait for a table, and expect to be sitting close to your neighbors if not at the same table.

Enjoy!

Dr Samantha