Skip to main contentLittle Wing--a sweet, informal place better known for its simple lunches, excellent coffee and baked goods than for its dinners--is a restaurant geared to American cooking that's often tarted up with inspiration from other cuisines such as Thai, Mexican and Italian. Because the cooking doesn't strain for ethnic authenticity, Little Wing, where the urban al fresco scene may seem particularly Italian, can put diverse styles together and somehow they don't feel incongruous or discordant. Normally Thai peanut chicken salad followed by risotto would make my culinary gyroscope spin out of control, but not here. I surrender to the new geography.
This is not to say that everything is wonderful at this cafe. There are two main flaws at Little Wing: One is an occasional lack of vibrant, full flavors, as if the kitchen hesitates to go for powerful tastes; the other is that occasionally too many conflicting flavors appear on a plate. There's a marvelous Yiddish word to describe this second condition--"ongepotchket." This is defined as "excessively baroque, or assembled in a slapdash manner," a term that captures the cafe's inclination to pile things up. Hence a prawn "tapas" appetizer ($7) with a tasty Romesco sauce also includes cold beets and carrots, warm fingerlings, and a couple of slabs of Manchego cheese. Who's in charge here?
I usually avoid writing about many specials on a menu, since they are here this week, gone the next. But Little Wing brings them around again, and for the most part they sound more interesting than the regular items. The Thai salad ($7) is a splendid combination of spinach, grilled chicken strips, a hot chili-peanut sauce and crunchy wonton chips. Southwestern spring rolls ($8) are an American regional turn on the Chinese variety, the rolls crispy, long and open down the middle, filled with peppers, onions and corn. On the regular menu, a starter of salmon cakes ($8)--a nice break from crab cakes--displays the full flavor of the fish. The subtle Asian touch where the hash is inflected with miso for saltiness and sesame oil is an excellent idea, and the cakes blend well with a vinaigrette laden with, of all things, pumpkin seeds. Best of all, the cakes are generously showered with fried leeks, bright as angels' hair.
An orange curry coconut sauce, laced with carrot strips, sets off a trio of glistening tiger prawns ($12) and makes for a fine sauce over the rice. And a skirt steak ($12) comes perfectly cooked and enhanced imaginatively by a tempura of asparagus and onions. However, the accompanying mashed potatoes are dreadful: lumpy, tasteless, and not a good match for the tempura.
The best special I tried is a superb pasta studded with chunks of deliciously braised pork ($12), and sauced with a pesto made from arugula. The menu notes the pasta was tagliatelle, but the noodles seemed as wide as pappardelle, just as well because they could easily support the meat, which was cooked down to sugar sweetness. But sometimes Little Wing doesn't give a dish the attention it deserves. The risotto ($12), thoughtfully "spiked" with tarragon, contains hunks of salmon without any attempt to integrate the fish into the rice. And chicken mole ($13) is dullness itself, the chocolate sauce far too bland, the chicken set down on the black beans almost as an afterthought. More blending of ingredients is called for.
Speaking of chocolate, the dessert menu (all $6) is top-heavy with it; I'd have preferred lighter and simpler berry-inspired choices. Nevertheless, Chocolate Domingo cake arouses a childhood nostalgia with its all-American whipped cream and berry compote. The best dessert option is a delicious almond chocolate-chip pound cake splashed with rum and doused with cinnamon syrup, something you might find at a pastry emporium in the Emilia-Romagna. But you should avoid the peanut-butter-and-caramel mousse on shortbread crust topped with caramel and raspberry sauce, a prime example of pile-up.
When the weather turns back to Northwest "normal," you'll have to retreat to the interior of Little Wing, a down-home space with not much more for decor than a few paintings, a linoleum floor, '50s cafe furniture, a counter and the pastry case. But the mostly young crowd hardly minds the absence of posh, and, besides, anything elaborate would feel incongruous. Little Wing never tries to be more than it is: honest, straightforward, and with just a spot of adventure.
529 NW 13th Ave. 228-3101
11:30 am-4 pm Monday- Saturday, 5:30- 9:30 pm Tuesday- Thursday, 5:30-10 pm Friday- Saturday. Children welcome. Moderate.
Picks: Salmon cakes, Thai peanut chicken salad, pastas, almond chocolate- chip pound cake.
Nice touch: City- smart al fresco dining on the loading dock.
WWeek 2015