a wild birthday at wildwood

Jen brought me to Wildwood on NW 21st Ave for my birthday.   It's another one of those "foodie", chef-run type places that seem to abound in portland these days.  Heavy on the meat with some really good veggie options that are worth a try.  It's the price i pay for being choosy in how i eat while still attempting to enjoy great food.  Their menu, like most good ones, changes often as ingredients go in an out of season, so there is always something new to try here, even for us vegetarians
They seem to really love anchovies here, so be careful, many a menu-item can fool you.  We asked which items were veggie friendly and still received great service without any (additional) hint of attitude. 
We had the heirloom tomato & summer melon salad to start and it was marvelous.  Very fresh.  We also had the fried green tomato & eggplant which were a tad salty but balanced out well with the rest of the dish. 

For an entree we shared some sort of veggie stack which also had tomatoes.  We were fine with this as the tomatoes at the end of september are incredible around here.  This dish was a bit heavy on the broth and became a bit soupy and that diffused some of the stronger flavors a bit too much, such as the goat cheese.   I also had a wild mushroom and leek tart which was buttery, earthy and delicate; my favorite item of the meal.  Of course, the dessert with a single candle was a great treat. 

I highly suggest you go check it out, particularly soon-after the menu shifts, as you might be most likely to get the freshest ingredients.

Wildwood (0 to **** (stars), higher=better):

• Food Quality: * * *  (3 stars, great food, a few stumbles)
• Vegetarian menu: * (just enough options to make it worth going.  make sure you ask what is veggie) 
• Vegan menu: 0* (one or two apps if you are lucky or they are willing to convert)
• Service: * * * (friendly, very fast considering how busy, non-pretentious)
• Atmosphere * * * (modern, dim, white table cloths, quiet on a weeknight)
• Green: * * (+: lots of local ingredients, - lots of meat)
• price: $$ (moderate)
• overall: * * (if they had more vegetarian options it could be a 3)