14 Best Restaurants in Eastern Oregon, Oregon

A frequent winner at American beer festivals, Barley Brown's is just as famous in the area for its food, which is prepared with locally sourced ingredients and hormone-free beef for burgers and other tasty grub. The "Shredders Wheat" American Wheat Ale has beaten out international contenders for a gold at the World Beer Cup. You can watch the process behind glass windows as they brew some of the more than three dozen beers available. The adjacent taproom is open daily.

On the ground floor of The Landing Hotel, this intimate, upscale restaurant serves elegantly prepared dishes, with a regularly changing menu offering everything from sockeye salmon to Italian rib-eye steak. Desserts like Gateau au Chocolate are worth saving room for (or taking to go for a late-night treat). The breakfast offerings aren't too shabby either, with breakfast sandwiches, hot daily specials, baked goods, and high-end tea and espresso drinks.

Easily the most unique of eateries in Joseph, when you dine at the Dog Spot you'll either be inside by the open kitchen and adjacent dog supply shop, or outside where dogs are welcome to sit below the table while you enjoy delectable food prepared by internationally experienced chef/owner, Arion Canniff. Arion's wife and hostess/waitress of the establishment, Amy, is known to bring water bowls out for visiting dogs, and her deep knowledge of the current short but enticing menu is helpful when choosing what to order. Entrées have an international flair and some of the regular options, like shrimp street tacos, are tweaked with different sauces each week, such as lemon-garlic, mango, and even "German-inspired" during the Oktoberfest season. Regular items on the menu include an Argentinian steak salad with chimichurri, house mac and cheese with seven kinds of cheese, and Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich (available with pulled chicken, pork shoulder, or jackfruit or tofu for vegetarians). 

This Main Street mainstay is best known for its amazing sweet treats in the bakery case, but there are plenty of savory delights on the menu, too, including several grilled egg sandwiches, avocado toast, and quinoa bowls for breakfast and five creative variations of grilled cheese sandwiches at lunch. Soups and salads are also popular. If you didn't save room for dessert, be sure and get some of the tasty scones, cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and other treats to go.

Like many of the best establishments in Joseph, the Blythe Cricket was launched by talented locals—longtime friends Rachel Nutter and Margaret Lamm, who share a love for baking and for providing the community with tasty food and a comfortable, attractive place to gather over breakfast or lunch, both inside and outside. Start the day with an espresso drink featuring direct trade coffee roasted by Nosse Familia Coffee in Portland, or an artisan hot tea made with Metolius Tea from Bend. The breakfast menu includes such filling choices as a daily frittata, two breakfast burritos, baked oatmeal, and savory corn cakes that are gluten-free and filled with black beans and peppers. At lunch, choose from salads, soup, and tasty sandwiches like the Italian muffuletta, turkey pear panino, falafels on flatbread, and grilled cheese. The bakery case is filled with yummy treats that are known to sell out before closing time (2 pm). In summer, enjoy eating outside on picnic tables.

No historic Main Street would be complete without its soda fountain, and Charley's Ice Cream Parlor fits the bill, serving all manner of treats, frozen and otherwise. You can also get hearty soups, sandwiches, and salads, and cheese and meats cut to order.

Set in a stately 1880s former Masonic lodge in downtown Pendleton, what began as a coffeehouse and wine bar has expanded over the years into a full restaurant serving reasonably priced salads, sandwiches, soups, pizzas, and appetizers. The food tends toward traditional American café fare, with focaccia topped with kalamata olives and chèvre, smoked-salmon Caesar salads, and barbecued-pork pizzas among the favorites. There's a great selection of both international and local wines, and bottled and draft beers. 

A large downtown complex of western-style brick and log cabin buildings holds a steak house, café, and saloon, and captures Pendleton's cowboy heritage with its ornate interior. The swanky steak house is open for dinner only, the saloon serves a lighter bar menu, and the café serves breakfast and lunch. Peppercorn-crusted top sirloin, slow roasted prime rib, burgers, and fire-roasted salmon are among the favorites.

This cute spot opened in 2021 next to the historic Liberty Theatre, which is actively being restored, and quickly earned a loyal following for its great coffee and short but innovative menu of breakfast and lunch offerings. Tourists find it a welcome stop, too, whether to grab the revered breakfast sandwich "The Betty" (egg souffle, ham, creamed local spinach, Havarti, and dijon on a potato bun) for takeout or to stay for a more leisurely lunch, like curried chicken salad on sourdough or the messy-but-delicious grilled peanut butter and homemade jam on challah. 

The Outpost occupies one of the sleekest spaces in town: a large building with a log-cabin exterior, a vast entry lobby, and a bright, spacious, high-ceilinged dining room. The kitchen serves creative pizzas and has a lengthy menu of standard entrées including burgers, steak, seafood, salads, and quesadillas.

A cavernous and historic former car dealership houses this hip brewpub, which also has a kitchen serving tasty pub food, such as Tillamook cheeseburgers and beer-battered fish-and-chips. Since it opened in 2010, it's become known for its nicely crafted beers, including the heady Maxxx Power IPA, faintly tart Huckleberry Wheat beer, and robust Bruce/Lee Porter.

A downtown institution since 1883, this historic saloon hasn’t changed much in more than a hundred years. Locals donning cowboy hats and leather boots still belly up to the bar seven days a week for no-frills breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Rainbow chicken, a half chicken coated in batter then pressure cooked, is a signature item.

Side A Brewing is a couple of blocks south of La Grande's main drag but definitely worth seeking out to enjoy beer and upscale pub food that features local purveyors of meat and produce. Food options include burgers made of beef from Oregon's 6 Ranch, with Gouda cheese and tomato jam on the house burger. A peanut-butter bacon burger is also on the menu, along with non-beef choices like the ahi tuna sandwich, fried chicken sandwich, grilled cheese and tomato, veggie burger, baked mac and cheese, and a few salads. The brewpub welcomes kids with a pretty standard kids menu. Beers on tap change seasonally and often include the Sammyville Stout, which won an award in the Oregon Beer Awards in 2020, and the Fresh Hop IPA, which was voted the people's choice at a Seattle Hop festival in 2022. 

In this rich agricultural region, it makes sense that downtown Hermiston is home to a restaurant with a strong farm-to-table ethos, along with a great list of regional craft beers and wines. The menu rotates regularly, but recent dishes have included ruby red trout with butternut squash, potato-and-apple hash, and sautéed haricot verts, and hearty chili with three kinds of pork (ground, loin, and belly) with poblano chiles and local "tongues of fire" beans. The restaurant occupies a simple gray Craftsman bungalow with a charming dining room that befits the unpretentious cuisine.