Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
These days, rising-star chefs and the foodies who adore them are flocking to Portland. In this playground of sustainability and creativity, many of the city's hottest restaurants change menus weekly—sometimes even daily—depending upon the ingredients they have delivered to their door that morning from local farms. The combination of fertile soils, temperate weather, and nearby waters contributes to a year-round bountiful harvest (be it lettuces or hazelnuts, mushrooms or salmon) that is within any chef's reach.
And these chefs are not shy about putting new twists on old favorites. Restaurants like Le Pigeon, Beast, Ox, Ned Ludd, Natural Selection, and Aviary have all taken culinary risks by presenting imaginatively executed, often globally inspired fare while utilizing sustainable ingredients. There’s a strong willingness in and around Portland for chefs to explore their creative boundaries.
Menus frequently extend across nations and continents. First-time visitors to Portland always seem to be impressed by the culinary scene’s international diversity, especially when it comes to Asian and Mediterranean fare, but you’ll also find outstanding examples of Peruvian, Russian, regional Mexican, and dozens of other ethnic restaurants. Of course, seafood is prevalent, with chefs regularly taking advantage of the availability of fresh salmon, albacore, halibut, crab, oysters, and mussels from the rivers and the Pacific Ocean.
Most of the city's longtime favorites are concentrated in Nob Hill, the Pearl District, and downtown. But many of the city’s most exciting food scenes are on the East Side, along Alberta Street, Mississippi Avenue, Williams Avenue, Fremont Street, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Burnside Street, 28th Avenue, Belmont Street, Hawthorne Boulevard, and Division Street, and tucked away in many neighborhoods in between. Serious food enthusiasts will definitely want to make some trips to some of these vibrant, if out-of-the-way neighborhoods.
Bar and restaurant culture greatly overlap in Portland, and many eateries around the city stand out as much because of their carefully curated beverage programs as for their food. Expect to find wine, craft beer, and cocktail lists that rely heavily on Northwest products, and also note that many of the top cocktail lounges, brewpubs, and wine bars we included in our Nightlife and Performing Arts chapter also serve excellent tapas and bar snacks.
You'll find some of the tastiest sweets—including heavenly pistachio-rose croissants and blueberry-blackberry scones—in town at this cozy patisserie and café a few blocks south of Jamison Square. Be sure to check out the ever-changing selection of fluffy macarons.
The flagship restaurant of one of the country's leading sources of artisanal charcuterie, such as smoked chorizo, pepper-coated capicola, and pork-pistachio pâté, Olympia Provisions serves gorgeous platters of meats and cheeses along with more eclectic seasonal Mediterranean-influenced fare like eggplant à la plancha with pine nuts and lemon vinaigrette, and pan-roasted black cod with stewed chickpeas. The setting is a smartly designed warehouse space and features a glowing "Meat" sign which quite simply says it all. There's also a pub and a Spanish-inspired tavern, Bar Casa Vale, which are both also in Southeast.
Colorful lights, floral-print tablecloths, and lush plants provide a bit of tropical flair to this festive culinary homage to the hawker foods of Singapore and Malaysia, such as corn fritters with sweet-chili peanut sauce, charred-pineapple salad with chili-shrimp sauce, and sour-tamarind baby-back ribs with fish sauce. Save room for a Fruity Pebble rice crispy treat.
Specializing in "Argentine-inspired Portland food," Ox is all about prime cuts of meat—along with flavorful garden-fresh side dishes—prepared to perfection. In a dimly lit dining room with hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, and a bar against the front window, the flannel-shirt-and-white-apron-clad waitstaff serves beef, lamb, pork, and fish dishes cooked over flames in a large, hand-cranked grill.
At this trendy restaurant inside the hip KEX hotel, the menu showcases not only delectable foods of the entire Pacific Coast, including the Northwest but also California (try the steamed and then chilled Castroville artichoke with umami mayo and garlic butter) and even Baja (the Tijuana-style whole-leaf Caesar salad is spot on). The warmly lighted, atmospheric seating in the dining room–cum–lobby is at tables or the long, elliptical bar, a space that encourages lingering and socializing over an Oregon berry cast-iron crumble and rosé negroni.
Launched in 2009 in Melbourne, Australia, this third-wave coffeehouse that sources its beans sustainably from around the world opened a U.S. location on Alberta Street in 2017. In this light-filled postindustrial space, you can savor perfectly prepared espresso drinks alongside tasty breakfast and lunch fare, such as Korean fried chicken sandwiches and grilled croissant brioches with cured ham, blackened corn, and poached egg.
The flagship restaurant of a fast-growing, nationally acclaimed group of sensational Latin American–inspired bars and eateries that include Lilia Comedor, Comala, and several others, this high-ceilinged, unpretentiously elegant spot serves prix-fixe tasting menus of gorgeously plated dishes that often utilize Pacific Northwest ingredients. The nightly offers change according to what's in season but might feature venison with Oaxacan chiles, king trumpet mushrooms, pears, and walnuts, or albacore with avocado and chile de agua.
This now nationally known artisanal ice-cream shop began here with this still always-packed café in the Alberta Arts District and continues to wow the public with its wildly inventive classics as well as seasonal flavors (freckled-chocolate zucchini bread and green fennel and maple are a couple of recent examples). Locally produced Woodblock chocolate bars and homemade salted-caramel sauce are among the toppings. Expect a long line, but take heart in knowing that the patient staff works fast and cheerfully encourages patrons to sample the different flavors.
The line that forms outside this Southern-cooking restaurant during weekend brunch and dinner is as epic as the food itself, but you can more easily score a table if you come for weekday brunch, and it's easier to find seating at the newer Pearl District location. A large, packed dining room with canned pickles and peppers along the walls, this Portland hot spot does justice to authentic Southern cooking, especially when it comes to the crispy buttermilk-battered fried chicken with creamy mashed potatoes and collard greens cooked in bacon fat. Or choose the Screen Door plate with your choice of four sides (consider the mac and cheese, creamy grits, and most any of the salads on the rotating seasonal menu).
At the center of Portland’s locally steeped tea scene is Smith Teamaker, founded by the late entrepreneur Steven Smith, who the New York Times said “helped transform the nation’s tea-drinking habits.” Duck inside to learn about the tea’s origin stories, sample different varieties at the tea bar, and leave with a few gift boxes.
Though the cooks at this lively counter-service restaurant are adept at preparing tamales—both the Oaxacan style wrapped in banana leaves and the more conventional style wrapped in corn husks (try the version filled with roasted pasilla peppers, onions, corn kernels, and queso fresco)—the kitchen also turns out fabulous seafood burritos and grilled-corn esquites. Be sure to check out the colorful murals that decorate the space and don't miss the chance to dine on the spacious side patio. There's an additional location on North Russell Street.
Established by the team behind the vaunted weekend dinner house, Han Oak, this cozy, casually minimalist spot in the trendy West End doles out inventive modern Korean bites, from savory bay shrimp pancakes with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce to Manila clams with miso butter and ginger sake. A highly popular brunch is served Friday–Sunday and is especially known for its twisted donuts in tantalizing flavors like milk tea and toasted coconut.
The long lines outside this late-night Old Town doughnut shop, marked by its distinctive pink-neon sign, attest to the fact that this irreverent bakery is almost as famous a Portland landmark as Powell's Books. The aforementioned sign depicts one of the shop's biggest sellers, a raspberry jelly–topped chocolate voodoo-doll doughnut, but all the creations here, some of them witty, some ribald, bring smiles to the faces of customers—even those who have waited 30 minutes in the rain. The Loop (covered in Fruit Loops cereal), Grape Ape (vanilla frosting, grape dust, and lavender sprinkles), and Dirty Snowballs (marshmallow topping, dipped in coconut, with peanut butter center) are other faves. The location in a slightly seedy section of Old Town makes this a not-quite-appropriate venue for very young kids—plus some of the more amusing doughnuts are adult themed. A second location in Northeast tends to be a bit less crowded.
