Portland, OR for low-mid range good eats

Hello everybody: I will soon go to Portland for a few days and want to pick your brain on where to find good eats. I can’t care less for Michelin stars or fancy, $$$$ places that require dressing up.

Specifically, I am looking for food trucks or restaurants, ideally specializing in food with a PNW twist. I am from CA and therefore prefer non-Mexican. (I like Mexican food, but I just think that CA probably does it better.) I will stay at a hotel in downtown Portland.

I have the following places marked (in no particular order):
Tokyo Sando
Sorbu Paninoteca
Tin Shed Garden Cafe
Nodoguro
Seasons & Regions Seafood Grill
Otto & Anita’s Schnitzelhaus (I know this is not PNW food)
Lucky Labrador Public House
Yanaka
Petunia’s Pies & Pastries
Shalom Y’all
Lardo
Flying Fish Company
Salt & Straw (ice cream)

Special question: I really enjoy seafood. What seafood is common in OR? I see that razor clams seem to be a local delicacy and would welcome all suggestions for razor clams and other offerings from the ocean.

Another must is third wave coffee. I have quite a few cafes marked.

Thank you very much. Have a great day!

2 Likes

Can you please edit your title to specify Portland OR? Have a great trip!!

OK. Thanks.

1 Like

Are you driving up or flying?

2 Likes

I call Portland the A- city because it has a very high standard for typical places and when a chef sets out to make something, it may not be quite as good as the original in some other city but it’s close. So you end up with a plethora of very good to excellent options using some of the best quality produce in the U.S. where locals expect a high degree of quality. We also lack a lot of good high end options and so the food scene may fit well what you are looking for.

As there is no Michelin guide and there are no restaurants that require any kind of dress code and Portlanders as a group are non-formal with attire there shouldn’t be any restaurants that won’t fit your criteria aside from a few places that are $$$$ though maybe a bit less than in CA. Nodoguro is great but very pricey these days with only a tasting menu.

In general downtown is struggling since Covid and the best of everything is mostly on the east side of the river. I highly recommend spending most of your time there.

A few ideas for food trucks:

Sorbu (already on your list)

Matt’s bbq tacos and a hang at the Hinterland food carts (you could follow up with dinner at one of many places on or near Division inc Rangoon Bistro,
Ava Gene’s, Someday bar with its patio and Ruthie’s food cart). A slice of pie at Lauretta Jean’s to finish the night.

The original Matt’s bbq at Proust food cart pod on Mississippi (many great bars, cafe and restos to try after/before)

Frybaby - Korean fried chicken

Restaurants:

Seafood: for seafood done with PNW flair, Jacqueline. Flying fish seafood company has good casual options. Other higher end places with good oysters include Street Disco (really excellent creative PNW cooking) and Coquine (French inspired PNW, had been many times a James Beard nominated place). Longtime high end Le Pigeon is tasting menu only but his bistro next door has a similar French-pnw flair with good oysters and great wine/spirits options.

In the cocktail category but also with great oysters and some other excellent seafood dishes in Malpractice, my favorite cocktail bar in the city.

I know you said no Mexican but one of my fav spots is PNW-influenced small plates at a nanobrewery called Duality (really interesting experimental styles). Their food partner Astral does everything well. Think huarache with black bean puree, summer vegetables and grilled octopus, roasted Japanese sweet potato with salsa macha and miso.

Another fav is L’orange. Seasonal PNW with some French technique, ingredient driven.

More casual and a better option than Lardo is Bluto’s by the same chef. It’s Greek inspired PNW.

Pasture PDX is a butchery with excellent sandwiches

Also great for small plates is Bauman’s on Oak which is the taproom for Bauman’s cider (won many awards internationally) but the food offerings are on a very high level). Great outdoor patio. The crab toast is one of their classics and maybe the best in the city. All breads, charcuterie and cured seafood are made in house. Typical in Portland to see this kind of higher standard of food even at local bars, something you don’t find in every city.

Lovely’s 50-50 is a nationally acclaimed pizza place using high quality local ingredients in creative ways. Beyond that we also have top notch pizza in many styles, so good several legit publications and pizza people have said it’s the best pizza city in America. I don’t know if that’s true but growing up in NY and living on the east coast in my 20s the options here are excellent.

For brunch: fair weather. Cafe olli, Maurice

Coffee: push and pull, extracto, GOOD coffee. The original Coava is still excellent. There are many many independent roasters and the quality is very high on average.

Breweries: Ruse, Duality are my favs but I can elaborate more if you are interested.

The farmer’s market on Saturday at PSU (not the Saturday market along the river) will be in full swing and is worth visiting.

That’s a start. If you have particular interests in one thing or another I’m happy to recommend more in that category.

12 Likes

@tigerjohn and @bbqboy : Thank you for your recommendations. I will take a very good look at them.

I am flying. Not planning to rent a car.

1 Like

Haven’t been to Portland in a while, but when I last went, we enjoyed Dan & Louis Oyster Bar and Fishwife Seafood a lot. Both are very reasonably priced. We also found the seafood (and all the food) at Nostrana to be excellent. We especially enjoyed the sand dab, which I think is often on the Summer menu.

For not-seafood-focused, we loved Wajan (Indonesian), and Khao Moo Dang (Thai). You probably have phenomenal Asian food in CA too, but for us, these were a real treat. Very deep, authentic flavors. And Podnah’s Pit BBQ (Texas bbq) is worth a visit if you like serious pit-smoked meats. I’m not a big bbq person, but I thought their biscuits were better than the famous Pine State ones (which are also delicious—definitely have a biscuit when you’re in Portland).

From my experience, it’s hard to go wrong with food in Portland. Even the basic stuff at little diners, cafes, and snack shops is really good. Love and respect for food, ingredient-sourcing, and cooking seem to be a key part of the culture there, more than in any city I’ve visited in the US.

6 Likes

All such lists are highly subjective, but here’s mine.

I ate just once at Lardo and was grossed out. Heavy and tasteless.

Flying Fish is close by where I live, and I sure wish it were better. I find the food uninspired.

Salt & Straw is mostly too sweet for me, but the olive oil ice cream is remarkable.

Definitely hit up Eem, and definitely get the white curry. The hot cauliflower is pretty good too.

My favorite at the moment is Gado Gado, but it’s rather pricey.

Absolutely spend an hour or two on Saturday morning at the PSU farmers market. It might be the best anywhere (in the US). Berry time in this region is heaven.

Yes to Café Olli.

Just today I had lunch at Bing Mi on Vaughan & 26th, and it was wonderful. I’m curious about their dumplings. The last few years have seen an explosion of dumpling houses around Portland.

Here’s an offbeat suggestion. Yes, Portland has several very good authentic pizza places, but the best hippie pizza I’ve ever had, the kind I dreamed of during my own hippie years, is Dove Vivi on Gleason. Thick, crunchy cornmeal crust. Their weakness is a penchant for terrible toppings; stick with the veggie, the sausage and peppers or the blue thyme. Eschew the weird stuff.

I haven’t found a satisfying seafood outlet in Portland. If you make it to the coast I have some suggestions for over there, however. (And the OR coast is really nice, soooo less crowded than what you normally find in CA.)

Have a nice trip!

6 Likes

Thank you everybody again! Are there any eateries, cafes, or pastry shops worth crossing the border to Vancouver, WA?

1 Like

If you are heading across the river for another reason there are places to recommend but nothing that I would bother crossing over for.

1 Like

I just returned from Portland. It’s a very nice city and it’s not as unsightly as San Francisco (certain parts).

For cafes, I went to and enjoyed Coava, Proud Mary, Super Joy, Abba, and Heart. I also visited Never Coffee, but don’t recommend it for seriously black coffee drinkers.

For food, I like most places I patronized: Tokyo Sando food truck, Tanaka (excellent coffee pudding and sandos), Ken’s Artisan Bakery (must get the Oregon Croissant!), Lucky Labrador, Petunia’s, Pelmeni Pelmeni food truck, and Afuri. The highly regarded Lovely’s 50-50 pizzeria was just so-so. Disliked Latha African Style BBQ for its undercooked chicken and triple-overcooked lamb (kinda like charcoal).

Thank you everybody for their suggestions!

6 Likes

Glad you had a good time in Portland and you hit some of the better coffee and food carts on the West Side. Sorry Lovely’s didn’t work out.

1 Like