DOC: Restaurant Guide 2014

By BRIAN PANGANIBAN

5519 NE 30th Ave., 946-8592, docpdx.com

[LOCALS ONLY] DOC's name—a play on the regional designation for Italian wine and foods —isn't just some cheap appeal for foodie cred. While a good kitchen should always be able to take local ingredients at their apex of seasonality and make magic, what DOC does is so good it's almost like cheating. This Northwest-by-way-of-Italy restaurant takes the celebration of local ingredients very seriously on its six-course, $60 prix-fixe menus. Netarts oysters are bathed in a strawberry-jalapeño mignonette that balances the mollusks' mineral brine with a sweet heat in the opening course of a recent rendition of the tasting menu. Desert King figs thrive in our microclimate and make a great showing as a fruity salad spiked with chilies and chevre. A humble risotto follows, redolent with summer cherry tomatoes, nailing that balance of toothsome creaminess that answers the question of why anyone would bother with such a persnickety dish. Char-touched padron peppers cushion a perfectly seasoned lamb chop as one of the mains, offset with cubes of peach and bound together with avocado. As a matter of punctuation, a marionberry sorbet in the dolci course makes a phenomenal statement: This comes from where you live. This is how good you have it. BRIAN PANGANIBAN.

Pro tip:

Reservations are recommended. For larger parties, items are served family style and your chances of being able to try every option for a particular course goes up. Oh, and don't be alarmed when you have to walk through the kitchen to get inside.

6 pm-close Tuesday-Saturday. $$$.

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