Gado Gado

Something about being on this list makes us feel like a real restaurant! I know that we are literally a real restaurant but imposter syndrome can get in the way of perspective and sometimes seeing Gado through the eyes of a stranger really sends it home.
Thank you to our incredible team who just keeps getting better and better, Gado Gado 4 eva!

Oregon strawberries are here and we are going to enjoy them while they last!! They’re featured in our Smoked Chicken Lawar Salad alongside mizuna, green papaya, radish, spicy lime & shrimp paste genep, toasted coconut and candied hazelnut.

Tomorrow night we’ll be welcoming Satay Kelinci to our menu! Inspired by Javanese street food, we are marinating local rabbit saddle in our Mala Paste before skewering it, glazing it with glistening gula jawa, and grilling it to order over live fire. Nestled next to the rabbit satay is a quick pickled Persian cucumber salad with last seasons fermented Bulgarian carrot chiles!

Thank you to for hanging with our little family at the farmers market last weekend! We are so lucky to live in a place where a person can spend a whole morning outside among perfect produce, fresh flowers, tasty treats, and so many friends. Pick up a copy if you want to see the joy on my daughter’s face when toasted her marshmallow before her eyes. Thank you to and for making it fun and doing all the documentation, it was a great way to spend a spring morning

Satay Lilit Ikan is moving off the menu soon in order to make space for our next rotating satay offering! While we cannot wait for our next satay (hint, it’s weirdly appropriate for Easter) we’ll be sad to see this beautifully charred seafood satay and its pineapple salad exit the building. Get it while you can and stay tuned for what’s next!

Before, during, and after. We are celebrating spring with charcoal grilled Iberico Pork and Sambal Andiliman. This numbing green chili sambal from North Sumatra is bursting with favas, fiddleheads, fresh peas, grilled green garlic, caramelized shallot, stinging nettles, charred poblanos, and mint balanced out with anchovies and unfiltered fish sauce and topped with some dainty little chive blossoms.
We love her and hope you will too. Keep your eyes out, she’ll be making her menu debut real soon

I feel so incredibly grateful for the way the last couple weeks has treated us!! Gado Gado became a Awards FINALIST and our little family had the absolute pleasure and privilege to spend time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was a great opportunity to recalibrate our pallets, immerse ourselves in sensory joy of all kinds, eat mountains of roti, and come back to beautiful springtime in Oregon with renewed vigor.
Look out for new dishes bursting with inspiration, coming your way soon ❤️

I feel literally overwhelmed with gratitude for the fact that and Gado Gado have been named finalists again this year alongside so many people we admire so deeply.
It’s such a wild gift to have the opportunity to dream something up, share it with other people, and continue to grow it in ways you didn’t even give yourself permission to believe were possible.
It’s seriously something else to look back at the first time I ever laid eyes on our little strip mall space and see what it has become.
To our guests, thank you for your time and trust. To Portland, thank you for being the kind of city where taking risks and trying something new is celebrated. Most importantly, thank you to our team for showing up with your whole selves, for evolving with us, and for continuing to shape Gado into something more than we ever imagined it could be.
We’ve been finalists before but it truly hits different every single time because we are different every single time. I can confidently say, whatever happens, we are better today than we’ve ever been before and that brings me so much joy.
Go team Gado. Go Chef Tom. Go Portland. I love you all.
Also, since you’re still reading, free Palestine and F**k Ice forever and ever amen.

Out for Saint Patrick’s Day: Green Beer. In for Saint Patrick’s Day: GREEN CURRY!!!
Come soak up the springtime and enjoy the curry that made famous. Our English Pea & Asparagus Green Curry with shiitake mushroom, fermented ramp salsa verde, pickled ground cherry, and pea tendrils is the only way to celebrate.
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Hope you’re sitting down because we’ve got some news. We are exploring some new satay. Don’t worry, the chicken satay you know and love isn’t going anywhere but our Rice Table will feature some extra special skewers. Right now we’re rocking Duck Heart Satay with a char siu glaze, spicy citrus marmalade, and a pickled kumquat & turmeric salad. Up next is a Satay Lillit that knocked out of the park. I’ve heard some rumors that there’s Rabbit Satay research in motion and I just feel so inspired by these chefs and their work. Come on down to Hollywood, settle in for a Rice Table and enjoy the satay of the moment, lovingly cooked just for you over live fire.