The 50 Best Restaurants in Portland Right Now

There’s no other restaurant in Portland quite like Akadi, chef Fattou Ouattara’s polyrhythmic pan–West African dining room on SE Division Street. The room features soaring ceilings, hanging twinkle lights, low-slung couches, African masks and art on the walls, and often a soundtrack of live music—perhaps a jazz combo, or a solo sax player bopping along to prerecorded backing tracks. The menu draws on the distinct culinary traditions of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast, where Ouattara grew up before moving to attend Portland State University. Peanut stew with fufu (a sticky cassava dough perfect for dunking) is a must, as are the suya wings, built on a Nigerian recipe for spiced peanut seasoning and served with a dash of Akadi’s cult pepper sauce. Debates rage over which nation in West Africa makes the finest jollof, but here you’ll find one of the city’s best renditions, fragrant with tomatoes and pepper and studded with your choice of meat or vegan options like tempeh or grilled mushrooms. 1001 SE Division St, Hosford-Abernethy —JM

By day, Annam VL thrives as a Vietnamese noodle-soup stronghold. By night, occasional pop-up Annam by Night rises. Edgy, animated, with something fresh to say. Lights down. Old Saigon funk turned up. Rare Hanoi floral gin appears. Hennessy pork floss flies. Congee offers another idea, a hulking oxtail brazenly braised in Sriracha, hoisin, and pho-restaurant condiments. The unofficial house slogan: Vietnamese food your mother wouldn’t make at home.

Remember those kids scurrying around Hà VL and Rose VL years ago? That’s them! Ân and Jerry Vu’o’ng, the grandkids—grandkids!—of Portland’s famed Vietnamese soup Jedis, the late Ha “Christina” Luu and William Vu’o’ng. Daytime Annam VL carries the soup torch, impressively, with mom Phu’o’ng La-Vu’o’ng at the stove. But Amman by Night, as Ân puts it, “feels like us. Not quite Vietnamese. Not quite American. Somewhere in between. Blurry. That’s the point.” His filet-o-shrimp captures Chinese honey-walnut shrimp and fast-food-burger joy; with banh mi pickles on a local HeyDay bun. This is empire-building food. Jerry’s Saturdazed imagines Annam VL’s pho in cocktail form; mom’s chile oil and all. His Ong Old-Fashioned, spritzed with housemade eau de cloves, “smells exactly like our grandpa William.” I can’t wait to see where this goes. 3336 SE Belmont St, Sunnyside —KB

Who makes Portland’s best pizza? Arguments rage here like Scripture debates. But for a strong contingency, 21-year-old Apizza Scholls is the Bible: muscular, almost forbidding behemoths of neo-Neapolitan splendor, made with eccentric perfectionism. The menu is like an active volcano, erupting with detailed variations, some shouted out in ALL CAPS. Build-your-own pies can be had “NO CUT or Double Cut.” The marvelous Neapolitan calzone “CAN BE MADE WITHOUT MEAT.” Revel in a house classic or a half & half. Some swear by half Amatriciana/ half sausage with Mama Lil’s peppers. Others live by the Diablo Blanco, a sauce-free wonder of ricotta pools, jalapeño wheels, and a roasted tomato–pumpkin seed pesto that tastes, somehow, like chorizo. The whole-leaf Caesar has its own believers. The menu rarely changes, so it’s easy to forget, seven nights a week, one of America’s best pizzas emerges from this electric oven. 4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Sunnyside —KB

Criminally undersung on a quiet stretch of the Pearl, Arden draws both wine collectors and adventurous gourmands. You can drink a 2005 pinot noir or 1989 Columbia Valley cabernet by the glass, or a skin-contact malvasia, or NA cocktails that stand up to the heady vino. In the kitchen, respected Le Pigeon alum Erik Van Kley tinkers with fancy wine restaurant clichés. Wagyu tartare swaps Wagyu chicharrónes for chips, and burrata subs almond salsa macha for balsamic. Meanwhile, morels, spicy mojo sausage, and shaved truffles weave through a menu unafraid of bold or audacious food swings. 417 NW 10th Ave, Pearl District —BJG

Across multiple hours and multiple courses at Astera, the blindingly creative modern tasting menu restaurant from chef Aaron Adams Casañas, you’ll hear certain terms repeated in dialogue with the intimate service team, or printed on informational note cards: foraged, fermentation, farmers markets. But there’s another bit of language on display that speaks to the moment in the remodeled dining room, emblazoned on a sign that roosts above the open kitchen: “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

The word you won’t see or hear—over purslane “noodles” served with their stems and edible flowers, eggplant ravioli en brodo, lobster mushrooms in corn foam, carrots smoked over bamboo, and multiple cheese courses—is vegan. The fact that not a single animal-based protein or dairy-derived ingredient is served at Astera is no secret: Adams is considered one of the finest vegan chefs working in America today, a reputation he’s defined over the last two decades of cooking in this idiom across Portland. But what he’s doing now at Astera transcends any limitations or preconceived notions of what vegan fine dining can be, an experience that’s been doubled down on by the outstanding drinks pairing—think sun gold tomato soda served alongside the consomme, or killer Barolo accompanying the pasta.

Take a bite of the delicately smoked, crisply charred cabbage atop soft lentils, spooned over with unctuous ochre hollandaise, or a forkful of the featherweight cheesecake, and your brain-tongue nexus can’t help but believe. I asked at one point how any of this was possible. How can the pasta in broth taste this real, right out of Piedmontese tradition, without a single egg or dash of chicken stock? The answer came back with half a laugh from my server as, simply, “magic.” Sometimes one word is enough. 1407 SE Belmont St, Buckman —JM

Portland’s nationally notable Thai dining scene landed a major new entry this year in the form of Bangkok Belly, from duo Kat Thirakomen and David Fiske. They met in Bangkok: Thirakomen grew up there, and Fiske arrived in the midst of the Great Recession to teach English. Back in Portland they linked with head chef Alicia Parter, a veteran of Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok empire (she helped oversee the restaurant’s NYC outpost), and together they’ve created a tight menu of skewers, salads, seasonal specials, and shareable plates that harness the five fundamentals of Thai cuisine—sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy—in an approachable neighborhood setting that invites repeat visits. To wit: a weighty chicken skewer, redolent with lemongrass and turmeric, served with grilled bread, sweetly herbal cucumber salad, and complexly dippable peanut sauce; yellow curry with squid and shrimp paste served alongside jasmine rice; rotating specials, like a hor mok pla–inspired red curry paste marinated black cod, grilled over banana leaf and served with coconut makrut lime dressing; and the restaurant’s signature larb mac salad, a multicultural backyard picnic stoner’s dream dish, creamy and tingly and deep. There’s Leo beer from Thailand to wash it all down, and a shot of tom yum–infused vodka to start things off. Your mouth will ping-pong across the many flavors and textures. You may dance briefly in your seat. My favorite dish here is the mushroom skewer. Oyster mushrooms are given a traditional Thai protein marinade of fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger then grilled over Thaan charcoal and served alongside excitingly spicy jaew sauce. The texture, the spice, the subtle char: This is my favorite new dish in Portland this year. There were bigger, more hyped openings in Portland over the last 12 months, but none better than Bangkok Belly. 3342 SE Belmont St, Sunnyside —JM

Sometimes the universe has a way of working out. Althea Grey Potter bounced around the local food scene for years—from Ned Ludd (RIP) to SE Wine Collective (RIP) to a series of pop-ups and private-chef gigs—and nearly left the industry before opening her dream restaurant, the scrappily charming French American cookbook restaurant Bar Nouveau in late 2025. A year in, it’s a bona fide hit: tables packed, reservations booked, and all built around an unstuffy, maximalist approach to food that’s resonant for fans of Julia Child, Alice Waters, and midcentury cooking magazines.

Now the chef-owner of Bar Nouveau is our Chef of the Year, the first time we’ve bestowed the honor since Vince Nguyen of Berlu nabbed it in 2022.  The finest way to celebrate is by visiting her for dinner and ordering every appetizer—the très iconique rabbit-liver-mousse sables, cloverleaf rolls with salted butter, gribiche deviled eggs, and whatever else is on that night—and letting things flow from there. In the months since our review of Bar Nouveau, the chef has added an easygoing “Chef’s Dinner Party” option to the menu at just $69, with wine pairings for another $38, as well as a popular brunch service featuring an eggs Benedict riff mounted atop a cornmeal gauffrete and crème brûlée French toast. C’est bon. 7425 N Leavitt Ave, St. Johns —JM

Berlu is always reinventing itself: high-concept Vietnamese tasting menu, regional soup explorer, pop-up bakery. What unites these iterations? James Beard–winning chef Vince Nguyen’s quest to define his food voice. I call it tradition-meets-Mind of a Chef. The search continues. Berlu is now America’s most original Vietnamese American bakery and, on Thursdays, a foodie’s night market. No dairy, no gluten—that’s the law here. Nothing fancy. Just counter service, help-yourself plates. The art is in the food, inventive drinks, incredible textures and details.

Coconut crème brûlée is perched precariously over caramelized cassava cake, then blow-torched to order. Who else dares? Behold, the year’s best cold latte: roasted peanut milk and double espresso shots marbled under toasted sesame foam. Inspiration comes from keo mè xu’ng, Vietnam’s beloved sesame-peanut brittle, gloriously crushed on top. I nearly injured myself gulping it down. Nguyen’s breakfast sandwich unites a regal pork sausage patty, neat avocado slices, and what might be the first bánh bò nu’ó’ng (honeycomb cake) burger bun. On the side, the kitchen’s intricate chile oil and bright basil-peanut pesto. Hands down, this is the breakfast sando of the year.

On Thursdays, Berlu’s Night Market menu emerges triumphantly. Industrial-playground tables fill with Vietnamese street foods, Nguyen-style, every molecule considered. In the swim: charcoaled rice paper “pizza,” wondrous char siu pork collar, and grilled banana leaf ice cream. Pandan waffles—for dinner—fit the tone. Grill-toasted, chewy, bouncy. A little sweet, a little vegetal. Fork bites into ethereal whipped chicken mousse, clocked with fried shallots. Vegans get rich coconut cream. Said a dazed visiting dad, “This is definitely different from a Waffle House in Georgia.” We fought him for the last bite. Vietnamese green papaya salad is the sleeper with its pickles, peanuts, bright herb game, and heavenly sweet-tender beef jerky. As my friend Matt put it, “you’ve eaten this, but you’ve never eaten this.” Expanded hours might be coming. Prayers up. 661 SE Belmont St, Buckman —KB

Sin and sunshine are one at Ollini. Look for a tiny bakery–coffee shop bursting with character on the edge of a parking strip. You might stumble on PBJ bombolinis, tiramisu Danish, or a corn bread–infused cold foam drink. Breads are stellar, period. Steps away, mother ship Café Olli is Portland’s premier brunch sanctuary. Bonus: Your Ollini pastries can join you at the table. In this cheerful foodie diner, “make everything” is the unofficial motto. For your consideration: brisket smoked out front, peach cobbler French toast yanked from a brick oven, or thick-sliced cinnamon toast lacquered in Ollini’s old-fashioned doughnut glaze. The über-golden potato rosti puts all potato pancakes on notice. Who can resist a shaken strawberry espresso invented by your gleeful waiter? Honestly, it will make your day. As night falls, cocktail creativity rises, the chocolate cake comes out, and the crisp pomodoro pizza beckons, the whole place quietly percolating. 3925 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, King —KB

If Tony Soprano lived in Portland, Campana would his Vesuvio. The mood: part Jersey home cooking, part New York fine dining. Chef-owner George Kaden comes from both worlds, and he’s got the meatballs to prove it—beef-pork orbs swaddled in a near-spiritual evocation of Italian American tomato sauce. Make an evening of scratch risotto and a Godfather-worthy cannoli. All-night happy hour at the bar is a best-kept secret—five pastas under $20, vivid to the bone. Attentive service seals the deal, as jazz tootles overhead. 901 NE Oneonta St, Woodlawn —KB

Le Pigeon’s next-door sister has its own groove, a neo diner inspired by France, gonzo party snacks, and Dairy Queen. Beef tartare scooped up with fried saltines? Have it with gorgeous Burgundy to catch the spirit. The semi-dark room teems with cinematic energy. Prime seats are at the long sleek counter, where cooks hand over duck-gravied pancake stacks and soft serve experiments to customers an arm’s reach away. The vaunted steam burgers are arguably better than their White Castle muse; the garlic fries and soft serve are life-affirming. Serious wines and confident cocktails are along for the ride. Suburban branches in Oregon City and Beaverton are booming, brunch to dinner. 734 E Burnside St, Buckman | 12395 SW Broadway St, Beaverton | 1500 Washington St, Oregon City —KB

Duality is not a brewpub. It’s a state of mind, three nights a week. To find it, head up a flight of stairs one block south of NE Sandy. Garage doors rolled up; six taps only. Come on in. Experimental craft brewer Mike Lockwood is a culinary supernerd. Anything is game for his tanks: toasted fig leaves, fennel pollen, housemade masa. I’m not a beer drinker, but I drink beer here. It’s complex, easygoing, and pairs well with food. You sip it and think: dear god, is this wine? Chisme is not a restaurant. But it is the year’s best new Mexican cooking. Imagine your abuela and Alice Waters hanging out in Duality’s makeshift kitchen. That’s Chisme, a new project from former Kachka head chef Francisco Leyva, busting out on his own at last. Dishes weave his Mexican American journey, chef flexes, and chile pepper infatuation. Seasonal ingredients are spark plugs. Tacos thunder with near-confit brisket and thrilling salsas on fresh tortillas. Hard to find better. One night’s fresh-shaved sweet corn polenta donned peppery curls of Belper Knolle, the cacio e pepe of cheese. It might be the best thing I ate this year. The depth of this collaboration goes beyond a shared space. Chisme’s fantastic fish tacos are beer-battered in masa and Duality’s wild rice pilsner. As limes are juiced for salsas, Lockwood repurposes the skins for his NA soda syrups. Food to drink, the ideas here are fluid, in the moment. Order away. Two souls could share the entire menu for under $100. Alyssa LeCompte, Lockwood’s partner, ever-present behind the bar, conceived the lofty DIY space. Sometimes a jazz trio takes to the patio, Lockwood on drums. The three of them do it all, including the dishes. The word Chisme connotes “bonding and connecting.” The spirit is “This is who we are, come join us.” It feels alive and genuine, essential. 715 NE Lawrence Ave, Kerns —KB

Portland’s mythical food scene lives on within this defiantly uncool den. No chef statements here, just a sensibility—pristine oysters, the season’s first porcinis, masterfully seared scallops. Spare dishes are formulated like calculus; everything à la carte. Pasta is a frequent guest star. Rabbit agnolotti, potato gnocchi in lamb neck sugo, individual lasagna “corners”—don’t think, grab it. The worn wood bar hides a deep cache of cult Champagnes. Infallible wines are poured into glassware typically reserved for the swanky set. You’d be happy to find these choices, these glasses, in an LA hot spot, let alone a humble house of seasonal cooking on East Burnside. In the minute kitchen, revered chef Kevin Gibson and 77-year-old pasta royalty Jerry Huisinga work elbow to elbow in crisp white jackets. It’s like watching Pacino and De Niro in Heat. 2215 E Burnside St, Kerns —KB [Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, Davenport was missing from the list in our Winter 2026 print issue. Portland Monthly regrets the omission.]

Our 2019 Restaurant of the Year remains an icon of affordable fun, lunch or dinner. Soak it in at sidewalk huts or the bumping café-bar. The hit parade includes Texas-style brisket burnt ends dancing in coconut curry and a lusty smoked lamb shoulder massaman number. BBQ fried rice is a house star, euphorically spicy. Sweet-and-sour fried chicken and hot fried cauliflower are sticky, blistering treats. Add the herb-strewn beet salad or field greens just to breathe. Luscious umbrella drinks are not so much sipped as sucked down exuberantly, as if this were the last hour on Earth. What a way to go. Good luck parking and battling the lines. 3808 N Williams Ave, Boise —KB

The daytime-nighttime split at this Cantonese dim sum hall delivers two hits in one dining room. By day, carts whir around the banquet hall, serving bowls of steaming congee, dozens of classic dishes, and less common options like popping orange juice balls or red rice shrimp rolls. By night, Excellent Cuisine roars again: whole crabs are fried with ginger and scallion, tables crush bottles of Tsingtao or expensive cabernets, and wonton soup releases enough herbaceous depth to cure any ailment. The parking lot is bursting, and somebody’s great-uncle is out front smoking every 20 minutes. Tables stay perpetually full, and for excellent reason. 8733 SE Division St, Montavilla —JM

Call it a thrill ride, electric and eclectic. Death row wish list food. Or, as a New York friend dubbed it, “God-O God-O.” The kitchen is beholden only to its Indonesian translation: “mix mix.” Dishes are Indonesian-Chinese-ish but with trippy detours and playful artistry. It’s fine dining and a hole-in-the wall all at once. Ordering is a will power-shredding situation. Bottom line: the more, the merrier. House sambals are essential; intoxicating. Even the clove rice is special. Ultrasmooth English pea and asparagus curry is its own planet; a mysterious energy shield of herbs and zings pulses on top. It’s vegan, to boot. Salads thrash with pickled fruits. Grilled roti, dunked in blistered tomato curry, can unleash a savage cry from within. Order à la carte or opt into the family-style Rice Table—a steal at $89 per person. Friendly staff, everyone welcome. 1801 NE 39th Ave, Hollywood —KB

Between the candles and moody cacti, Güero feels like an expat’s house in Tulum. Day to night, it’s hopping. Load up on fresh chips, guac, and intricate rice-and-bean bowls. Torta sandwiches thump with vibrant house condiments. The mood swings from spicy, messy, porky (the ahogada) to the cult vegan refried beans (the refrito). I ride with the hamburguesa, a ripping tribute to the guilty pleasure of Mexico’s street burgers. Think supercharged smashburger—the char, the American cheese drip, the crunch, the lettuce shreds, the sesame seed bun PLUS some hard-seared ham, gooey queso Botanero, pickled jalapeños, and a bolt of morita chile mayo. Hello!! Rotating pours of rare destilados, compelling agave-centric cocktails, and a smile-inducing mezcalita rimmed in avocado-leaf salt are worth the trip alone. Bar director Ben Skiba is a rising force. 200 NE 28th Ave, Kerns —KB

In 2004, William Vu’o’ng and Christina “Ha” Luu launched Hà VL, which soon became a legend far and wide. (Pavement bassist Mark Ibold famously professed his devotion in Lucky Peach magazine). More than two decades in, the kitchen still conjures liquid poems straight from Vietnam under the founders’ James Beard–nominated son Peter Vu’o’ng. Regulars know the drill: Choose from two or three Vietnamese noodle soups daily, most offered only once a week. Vietnamese iced coffee is mandatory. All days are good days, but soupers with true religion come on Thursdays for the glorious snail meatball noodle soup. Sunday showcases the famed Mi Quang turmeric noodles. Come early or face the sign at the door: Sorry, we sold out of soup today. 2738 SE 82nd Ave, Powellhurst-Gilbert —KB

Peter Cho and Sun Young Park’s magical indoor-out space is a scene of house-party chill and Korean family vibes. Come as you are; no rules here. Build your own menu, let the kitchen cook, or grab snacks and drinks and hang out. Foundational to the unpredictable list: seasonal banchan, dumplings and noodles, Coke-sweetened galbi-jjim short ribs, “mom’s kimchi,” and goofy fun. Chicken and waffles says it all, as a booming wing, dusted in Cho’s “essence of instant ramen” skates over a twice-cooked savory seafood waffle. Sweet-tangy Bull-Dog and the house “cherry-yaki sauce” bring it all home. 511 NE 24th Ave, Kerns —KB

Greg Higgins is the Icon, the OG. He’s the guy who envisioned our farm-to-table future, then gave it voice and direction. We can thank him for things we hold as Portland birthrights: hard-core localism, wood-fried pizza, charcuterie (before anyone could pronounce the word), chef-farmer collaborations, and the realization that ambitious food needs to be more than a pretty plate. It’s hard to imagine life without Higgins’s timeless cuisine, world-class salumi, formidable beer list, and Shakespearean waiters—unwavering since 1994. But we might have to. After 32 years, the bearded wonder says his watch is over. A search is on for a steward “who sees food the way we see it. They’re inheriting an orchestra.”   

The menu captures Higgins’s longtime preoccupations via intense local ingredients. Sicily, Alsace, and Greece meet Oregon fishers and fall’s first chanterelles. Outsize legs of curing meat swing from the ceiling like a Francis Bacon painting. Most mornings, at age 68, he’s coaching, mapping specials and sharing charcuterie wisdom. “It’s a skill and a craft, not a TikTok,” he tells me, each word freighted with concern. One-third of the menu is vegetarian, half of that vegan. Herbs, peppers, and heirloom fruits trickle daily into dishes from his eccentric home garden. Need be, he might smuggle hard-to-find seeds in a travel suitcase to grow at home. Which could be how super savory wild Cretan mountain mint landed in your zucchini fritters.

The vintage bar in back is a treasure. Charlie Vance is your avuncular waiter, food shrink, and martini mind-reader. He’s been here since the beginning, the embodiment of loyalty and hospitality, Higgins style. The vaunted burger is forever: the sirloin-marbled grind, the daily-baked semolina rosemary bun, Higgins’s mom’s ketchup recipe. Add Bleu d’Auvergne cheese to scale the mountain. If the world is just, Higgins will get a second act. Don’t wait. The time to go is now. 1239 SW Broadway, Downtown —KB

Asian ingredients, aguachiles, and local produce run freely on Jacqueline’s maritime menu. You might run into Oregon rockfish in a banana leaf or a killer Maine lobster bun dotted with bay shrimp. During the famed $1 oyster happy hour, the cheery room becomes a bivalve bacchanal—each half shell served with droppers of house hot sauces. Cocktails like the Tide Pools (Drank) accentuate the oyster’s complexity. From there, lots of moves from the daily list: trout on a cedar plank, whole grilled fish, or the latest catch. Servers unobtrusively refill glasses of cool Willamette Valley whites under the watchful portrait of The Life Aquatic’s Steve Zissou. 2500 SE Clinton St, Hosford-Abernethy —AF

Javelina is a success. The counter-service spot landed on Esquire’s Best New Restaurants list in 2025, and tickets for Inisha, its pre-Columbian tasting menu, regularly sell out. Chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson’s food draws on her Hopi, Yakama, Cree, and Skokomish heritage while pushing to revise what North American cuisine is understood to encompass. Javelina stands in Portland’s noticeable gap of restaurants serving Indigenous cuisines, but it’s also, outside of any great expectations, a kitchen putting out delicious, considered food on its own terms, from the tepary bean dip, bison steak, and oysters at dinner to the lunch-only “Powwow Burger,” served between two slices of frybread—a top-five burger in the city. If there’s native caught salmon on the menu from Traditions Salmon Co., or the seasonal BBLT made with boar bacon, those are also must-gets. 4636 NE 42nd Ave, Cully —JM

Now 12 years into its life in the Portland dining scene, Kachka has become that rarest of things: a deeply idiosyncratic, utterly singular restaurant that’s also a municipal institution. Husband and wife owner-operators Bonnie and Israel Morales draw on a panoply of pan-Soviet influences to create their own multicuisine universe: Georgian khachapuri, Azeri shashlik, and Ukrainian sour cherry dumplings, and copious amounts of vodka and orange wine to wash it all down (or a lovely bottle of Borjomi mineral water, if that’s more your speed). The restaurant’s annual glitzy-gilded New Year’s Eve party is the stuff of legend; the daily $35 happy hour caviar spread atop fresh buttered challah is definitive affordable luxury. In 2026 the couple spun off a proper distillery called Kachka Fabrika, with a rowdy cocktail snack bar tucked in alongside. At Kachka may your table be ever covered in zakuski, and may your little glass of freezer-chilled vodka stay repeatedly refreshed while Russo-disco dance soundtrack bumps all night. 960 SE 11th Ave, Buckman —JM

Kann’s opening in 2022 was, without exaggeration, the biggest event in Portland’s food scene this decade, a carnivale of promise and expectation and hype. Then the awards came rolling in, along with national headlines and a reservations queue resembling gladiatorial bloodsport. Four years later, the pandemonium has calmed just a bit, and Kann’s true nature has come into focus. The eight-foot wood-fired hearth is a focal point, with live-fire cooking emphasized across the menu: a whole cauliflower is smoked and charred, then jerked and lavished with sour coconut cream; wagyu NY strip steak is rubbed with Haitian coffee, then grilled. Some dishes never leave, like Gourdet’s mother’s rice and beans (a required order); others, like a startlingly good high-summer fruit salad with avocado, melon, and blackberries, come and go with the microseasons. The sumptuous Miami-modern dining room remains chic to the nth degree, the sort of place where people get dressed up to go out (a rarity in these parts). After the bomb drop of its opening bell, the restaurant has come to know itself in a way that feels comfortable and complete. Here’s a new headline: Kann in 2026 is better than ever. 548 SE Ash St, Buckman —JM

Coquine is dead. Long live Coquine. For 11 years, Katy Millard watched her dream of a quietly ambitious neighborhood restaurant balloon into a fine-dining destination backed by local vegetable worship, iron-clad French techniques, and homey charm. The combination swelled to 2025 James Beard Outstanding Restaurant finalist status. But secretly, Millard’s heart was in her alter ego next door: Katy Jane’s, a loosely defined “oyster bar” where diners would sit among Coquine Market’s curated grocery shelves. At its core: French raw bar food, seafood tower action, and homages to Millard’s Southern roots, including the fluffiest hush puppies around. In October, Millard decided to merge Coquine, Coquine Market, and Katy Jane’s into one project under the Katy Jane’s banner. The transformation is underway, as the wall between the two spaces comes down. Given Millard’s perfectionist streak, we’re eager to taste the next chapter. 6839 SE Belmont St, Mt. Tabor —KB [Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, Katy Jane’s/Coquine was missing from the list in our print issue. Portland Monthly regrets the omission.]

Of the metro area’s 50-plus Hawaiian restaurants, Kau Kau is a studied and unusually detail-oriented standout. Husband-and-wife duo Tracee and Brandon Hirahara both collected recipes growing up in Oahu. But their professional experience, as chefs de cuisine at Eem (Tracee) and Langbaan (Brandon), help explain the extraordinarily crispy-crunchy “Mom’s Garlic Chicken” and the beautifully tender octopus atop coconut braised taro leaves (tako lu’au). Why is the chile pepper water so good? Chiles shipped from home. What’s that certain zing in the chicken’s sticky sauce? Oahu’s own Aloha Shoyu. Hawaiian FM radio jams in the pleasantly laid-back, counter-service dining room, and there are plenty of li hing mui micheladas to wash it all down. 2026 NE Alberta St, Vernon —JM

On the second floor of a converted house, this clandestine space bumps like a supper club on a good night. It’s a Frenchish project from chef Joel Stocks, formerly of mod-cuisine darling Holdfast. His cooking here fits the homey room but maintains a cheffy rigor. Onion soup bubbles under a fan of Gruyère-crusted bread pudding slices. A rotating crepe entrée sometimes wears a crispy skirt of brûléed cheese. Confit duck leg, cleverly deboned and rolled into a neat parcel, could redeem any botched Thanksgiving. And you certainly don’t need to bring your own wine to this dinner party: Partner Jeff Vejr (Les Caves) quietly steers a global wine list that goes as deep as you want to follow it. 2005 SE 11th Ave, Hosford-Abernethy —MT

Charcoal grills blaze. Adventurous bites appear, one after another. Craft cocktails shake, handpicked wines flow. Playlists swerve from Esan folk to chef-rapper Action Bronson. No doubt: Langbaan is the country’s most distinctive Thai food experience, with 2024’s James Beard Outstanding Restaurant award as witness. It was born as a ground-shaking Southeast speakeasy in 2014. Currently, Langbaan shares a kitchen and casually serious party vibe with little sister Phuket Café. Now comes a new chapter: Watch for Langbaan 3.0, this winter, at 215 SE Ninth Ave. Think “same Langbaan, with bigger swings, more glow,” in the words of acclaimed owners Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom and Eric Nelson (Eem, Yaowarat). The signature changing menu themes, historical dives, and pastry-chef desserts will live on. Phuket Café’s fate is unknown, streetside “train car” to that crippling pompano salad. Book that lunch, stat. 1818 NW 23rd Pl, Northwest District —KB

Want to feel old? Punk rock Le Pigeon just turned 20. Twenty! Tattoo-blazing Gabriel Rucker, Portland’s preeminent gastobasher and two-time James Beard medalist, is now a soccer dad and sobriety leader. Edgy, dare-you, offal worship has given way to a kind of quasi-elegant expressionism. Choose from the night’s dueling tasting menus, and know this: Carnivores and vegetarians are now on equal footing at the Pidge. France is still Rucker’s springboard into the unknown; chef de cuisine Dana Francisco adds his own ideas. You might encounter a smoked rabbit pie, hearts and all, or woodsy king trumpets in your peach tarte tartin. Andy Fortgang’s wine list roams France and Oregon with insight and rigor. Pour one out for the last days of the famed foie gras profiteroles. 738 E Burnside St, Buckman —KB

Great traditional pizza is everywhere. But there is only one Lovely’s Fifty Fifty. Flavors you don’t associate with pizza prance across the chewy sourdough crust. A seasonal pie mingled taleggio cheese and stinging nettle leaves, which bike-riding owner Sarah Minnick might have foraged that morning in, of all places, Forest Park. (A diner once spotted her milling about the urban park’s bushes: “Is that you, Chef Minnick?”) No wonder Italian pizza master Franco Pepe is a fan. This is pizza on its own mountaintop, in its own conversation, with some wildflowers and Portland weird on top. Netflix’s Chef’s Table: Pizza devotes an entire episode to the Minnick way. The ice cream is just as good. 4039 N Mississippi Ave, Boise —KB

This charming spot evokes small-town Italy and the best of Portland, from the handmade ambience to a certain personal voodoo that makes food, drink, and magic happen at tiny tables. Even the floor-to-ceiling mini-mart grocery shelves are candlelit. Unadorned plates carry the kitchen’s paean to honest Italian food: pasta, fresh focaccia, and olive oil cake. Feast on $4 antipasti, slurp a truly soulful cappelletti in brodo, or make hay on insider favorites—stuffed trout, octopus with potatoes and olives, and a hunk of cabbage seemingly blackened by an ironworker, twinkling with garlic oil. Half-portion pastas stay under $20, backed by terrific Italian wines, priced to drink. Survive the inevitable table wait with a drink or snacks at Luce’s new Bar Martina next door. 2140 E Burnside St, Buckman —KB

Måurice is one woman’s ode to the art of eating. The kitchen occupies half of the room, bordered by a marble counter and Shaker chairs. In this egg-white wonderland, Kristen D. Murray and her band of cooks stir Le Creuset pots with great fury. The daily menu is her short story: French techniques, Grandma’s lefse, and seasonal visions. Regulars come for painterly smørbrød sandwiches, the state’s forgotten wild razor clams, and a true, jiggly French quiche. Somm veteran Danny McGeough is your gregarious host, waiter, and curator of startlingly delicious wines. Up front, a pastry case promises lovingly fragile fruit tartes and black pepper cheesecake. The lemon soufflé cake deserves the French Legion of Honor. They remind us: Murray is a New York–trained pastry chef. Don’t miss them, with tea in iron kettles. 921 SW Oak St, Downtown —KB

Not much changes at this wonderfully retro, elegantly understated sushi bar and restaurant, owned by the same family since 1988—except the daily specials board. For my money, this is the most important fresh fish sheet in town, a sighing surfeit of impossibly fresh seafood: Oregon abalone and Japanese firefly squid, Hokkaido uni and Puget Sound oysters, miso stewed mackerel, coastal crab, and the list goes on. Murata occupies a beautiful duality—Japanese cuisine through a Pacific Northwest lens, served with uncommon grace and hospitality. The folks next to you at the sushi bar have been coming here for 30 years. Let us all hope to visit for another 30 more. 200 SW Market St, Ste 105, Downtown —JM

In 2002, budding food philosopher John Taboada conceived a tiny eat spot with an “only what we love” mindset and a kind of lawlessness in the air, kicking off Portland’s east-side indie food revolution. It endures as a quirky candlelit marvel on NE 28th: the dim sum–like plates, the ugly-delicious vegetables, the daily layer cakes and fruit pies, the abiding wine passion, some 80 glasses deep. The minimalist menu still arrives with a pencil, checklist, and clipboard. Pam, the original waitress since day one, is still there—hell, she runs the place! The sprawling dinner list roams the world and our backyard; everything available in half portions, even the beloved gratins and leg of lamb. Weekend brunch is like a farmhouse gone haywire—eggs 10 ways and some 20 specials, perhaps steelhead trout toast or braised turnips, roots, stems, and all, served with outsize vintage spoons. If authentic Portland has a definition, Navarre is it. 10 NE 28th Ave, Kerns —KB

Cody Auger is perhaps Portland’s best-known sushi chef. His prowess in the milieu of fish and rice has garnered a strong following over the last decade, from early days at Fukami on Belmont to a brief stint as the head chef at Takibi over in Northwest. Today Nimblefish is the bedrock, a perpetually popular sushi restaurant on SE Hawthorne that’s home to two concepts under a single roof. The main room is dedicated to reservation-only omakase: $125 gets you snacks, soup, a dozen or so nigiri, and dessert. At the front of the restaurant, Auger’s team helms an approachable à la carte menu, slicing barracuda, filefish, and sardines, and filling up some of the city’s best creative handrolls (get the version with shima abe, miso and chive). You can book this version of Nimblefish in advance, or catch a walk-in seat if you’re lucky, and both versions are built around Auger’s perfect sushi rice, a trio of texture, temperature, and tang. Meanwhile, Auger rebooted Sushi Fukami in the West End in September, with an expanded omakase experience and an impressive drinks service from Billy Poplarchik, formerly of Departure. 1524 SE 20th Ave, Hosford-Abernethy —JM

Portland’s locavore pizza culture courses through No Saint. The wood-fired fetish, the peaches and corn topping, the ingenious green tomato Caesar tumbled with sesame croutons, two days in the making. Café Olli (see below) is surely a distant cousin. But this scrappy gem has its own ingredient-forward philosophy, pizza acuity, and salad wave. Not to mention balloon-puffed palencino bread—fresh from the fire in a shroud of sifted oregano, like a pita fever dream. On weekends, Café No Saint, the kitchen’s pizzaless alter ego, springs to life as Portland’s sweetest new brunch-lunch. Seasonality, carbs, and splendid focaccia sandwiches fuel the list. Eye-catching baked goods beckon near the door on pedestals. As the world burns, who doesn’t want a rocking cream puff at 10am? Wood-fired pancakes are stacked high enough to exert a gravitational pull over nearby objects. The whole thing topples over, unapologetically, into homemade pistachio butter, fruit chunks, and jam. Lasagnette snaps with überthin noodle sheets, baked-edge char, and a creamy tomato sauce that brings to mind Campbell’s soup (and I say that with love). The coffee is good, opera music soars. You’ve come to the right place. 1603 NE Killingsworth St, Vernon —KB

For 12 years, in different locations, Ryan and Elena Roadhouse have conjured a personal vision of dining. It’s not one thing or easily explained. But here’s a shot. Formal kaiseki cuisine without the rules. Keenly attuned to the seasons. What’s here and now, in Oregon. With dinner party charm, refined and giggly. A plush and moody room that evokes 1920s art deco Japan—hidden on the top floor of downtown’s Morgan’s Alley. Everything unfolding on found plates, some 100 years old. Small-batch sakes flowing, one better than the next. A sublime sushi course, with oceanic jewels overnighted from Kyushu as stars. No food porn or ego. Just poetry in motion. What counts as kitchen bling sits behind the chef’s counter—an old knife as long as your arm. It means business.

The night might yield a torrential uni risotto, sesame tofu tasting like silky halvah, or an ethereal vision of Dungeness crab, custard, and local matustakes. On Sunday afternoons, come for Portland’s best new food adventure: an omakase picnic with snacks, eye-popping sandwiches, and seasonal desserts arranged just for you, on whimsical trays.

Only this is predictable: A meal at Nodoguro is unforgettable. True then, true now. Our 2015 Restaurant of the Year is also our Restaurant of the Year 2026 (find our full article here). No place pushes harder or higher—while staying truly original. You feel like royalty here. Nothing slips by the Roadhouses. Heads up: Reservations go fast. 515 SW Broadway, Downtown —KB

First opened in 2005, Cathy Whims’s glowing Italianate restaurant is an institution. Frequently packed, atmosphere on point—they even do “Meatball Monday.” The classic approach is to hunt through wine director Austin Bridges’s superb list (and killer glass pours) and cut up a flawless wood-fired pizza with those fancy scissors or twirl some capellini sauced with Marcella Hazan’s fabled tomato butter. But Nostrana also feels vibrantly modern in 2025. New dishes appear nightly, pulling from a crosscut of Italian culinary traditions. Often, they’re built around the restaurant’s own garden, like fried calamari tossed with bittersweet radicchio or arancini studded with Autumn Frost squash. A shot of Spella espresso and a tiramisu slice for dessert concludes with Portland sprezzatura. 1401 SE Morrison St, #101, Buckman —JM

Maximalism is in the house at Gado Gado’s wild little sister. Every dish parties hard, as trippy Indonesian music wafts overhead. Salted egg yolk curry fries with sambal ketchup may be the last word on fries. If you’re really flying, add some char siu burnt ends on top. Malaysian-spiced fried chicken goes the distance: two-day marinade, elaborate rubs, cheffy secrets, double-frying, a glaze of house-smoked palm sugar syrup, fistfuls of peanuts and pan crispies on top. Gado’s cult roti flatbread is here for the taking. What better to scoop up crackling eggplant chaat or lobster jam swirling in Malaysian lala clams? Go à la carte or feast on Oma’s new option: a set menu of snacks, surprises, and dessert for the table. The bar looks like a disco ball, with drinks to match. If you’re not having fun, please check your pulse. 3131 SE Division St, Richmond —KB

It’s right there in the name: Oscar Food & Wine is a new Portland restaurant from chef-owner Jaime Martinez and wine director Victor Martinez (no relation), where wine and food are given commensurate billing in a small, convivial dining room overflowing with glasses and ideas. Blink and you could be in Paris—at Vivant in the 10e, or Chambre Noire in Oberkampf—except instead you are in the parking lot of a Plaid Pantry. Victor is an experienced natural wine veteran through his work as owner-operator at Ardor Natural Wine and Nil Wine Bar over on Belmont; Jaime is the former owner-operator of Bistro 23 in Argay Terrace. Victor’s wine is exclusively natural—a loosely organized genre whose popularity has grown considerably over the last decade—and priced to sell. Nearly everything on the list at Oscar is under $100, and many of the restaurants 150-plus bottles of red, white, orange, and sparkling selections sell for under $60. Experienced drinkers will have their knowledge rewarded; novices are capably guided by hybrid server-somms, happy to pour splashes by the glass or nudge you toward a bottle of something compelling.

This is no mere wine bar, however. Jaime cooks with seasonal urgency: tuna crudo with capers and olive oil in the style of Swan Oyster Depot; a fanned display of blood-red and traffic-cone-orange tomatoes topped with whole anchovies; mussels toast with creamy sauce gribiche; and an exceptional swordfish schnitzel, served with a tangle of creamy fennel salad, Dijon, and a half lemon. All of this food begs for wine, and if you visit on a Monday night—when the restaurant is packed with Portland hospitality professionals—you’ll find bottles topping every one of the restaurant’s petite tables. There are no reservations, and parties over six are politely discouraged. Instead, make believe you’ve taken an international flight somewhere chic, and go with the vinous flow. 2425 SE 26th Ave, Hosford-Abernethy —JM

A hand-cranked wood-burning grill is the centerpiece of Ox and the chariot to a grunt-worthy lamb shoulder chop, massive short ribs, and grilled maitake mushrooms, much of it glazed in signature fatty, garlicky “Black Gold” juice drippings. The core menu—Argentine-inspired wood grilling, coal-roasted vegetables, a little Portland mania—rarely changes, and nearly every dish is a classic, from spicy braised beef tripe to octopus with mint aioli to smoked beef tongue carpaccio. Clam chowder is the unexpected star: fresh, deep, and garnished the Ox way, with a smoked marrow bone the size of a Grecian pillar. 2225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Eliot —KB

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Across venue shifts, format revisions, departing chefs, closure announcements and rebirths, República remains home to some of the most vital, fascinating Mexican cuisine in the Pacific Northwest today. The restaurant (which is currently only open for lunch) prefers the term “Mexico-forward,” drawing on a sprawling range of influences and a thousand years of culinary history, from Indigenous Meso-American ingredients to the arrival in Mexico of foodways hailing from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and beyond. You might be served a deceptively simple dish of rice and beans with astonishing texture and flavor, or Peruvian ground cherries atop brûléed brioche, or the Mayan pumpkin seed dip q’anxe ik p’ak, or an ever-changing assortment of moles and guisados atop tortillas nixtamalized and rolled right in house. There’s some of grandma’s kitchen here, and also the farmers market, and also the exploding vibrant food scene of modern Mexico today. Above all else, República is deeply rooted in Portland, alive with seasonal intellectualism and a sense of self. Lunch in its beautiful space is a delicious history lesson collapsing into the almighty now. 100 NW 10th Ave, Pearl District —JM

Shake me another martini, please, and make it good and cold. It’s the perfect foil for the city’s best onion rings—for 80 years running, still piping-hot with little drip-drips of sacred oil anointing the white tablecloths. Tucked into one of the little booths at the sunken, dimly lit bar, you can watch the city flow in and out of RingSide, same as it ever was since 1944, modernized just enough to make sense in the twenty-first century. Where else can you choose from three kinds of Japanese Wagyu, six different steak sauces, a Brobdingnagian impressive wine list, and lobster mashed potatoes, all while watching the Blazers or Fire among your fellow Portlanders? For such utterly distinct pleasures, there is only RingSide. 2165 W Burnside St, Northwest District —JM

Goodbye days of waltzing in. Hot? Scotch Lodge is rocking and full tilt…at 4pm. Still, who didn’t cry when this lovable charmer won James Beard’s coveted 2026 Outstanding Bar award? Head down the stairs into the semidark bustle and glow. Tommy Klus’s world-class whiskey collection mixes holy grails, beautiful oddballs, and new cuts from exciting producers, priced discovery. Chef Tim Artale adds his own botanical arthouse whimsey. Make your own world here. The guy in the corner is having an epiphany over old Macallans rarely seen outside collector cabals. Daters shovel shrimp chips and yum yum sauce or teeny chocolate cakes with more petals than Washington Park’s Rose Garden. Regulars hunch over the beastly soft-shell crab sando. Others chat up ace bartenders who put the likes of coffee sweet vermouth and pandan-infused mezcal into smoky drinks of striking clarity. For all its scholarly curations, Scotch Lodge has not a drop of pretension. 215 SE Ninth Ave, Ste 102, Buckman —KB

Ahh, the classic French songbook. Chef Aaron Barnett’s Portland-fancy bistro on NW 23rd can sate any nostalgic aching for real-deal demiglace and butter-and-flour magic tricks—especially if you’re into the swagger and airy lift of Nouvelle Cuisine. Steak frites get sticky jus, foamy bearnaise, and more parsley-freckled frites than you could eat. Gougères, with a weightless mousse and salty-sweet craquelin crust, are no potluck “cheese puffs.” Choux farci, moules, marrow bones, a primally satisfying oxtail Bourguignon—gang’s all here to play with the long, mostly French wine list. Baked-to-order mini madeleines are the obligatory dessert. They’re piled by the dozen into the same dainty tureens that hold seasonal soups “en croûte,” domed with puff pastry in tribute to Paul Bocuse’s famous presidential offering. 1610 NW 23rd Ave, Northwest District —MT

Since 2012, this indie café has stood as a definition of quintessential Portland. The small space exudes stylish ragtag charm: hand-tagged market shelves, quirky art, a turntable spinning the history of American music. Scan the pastry case for a wedge of Victorian sponge cake or rye banana bread. Corn cakes the size of your head anchor the all-day breakfast, while the breakfast sandwich vies for Portland’s crown, with just the right egg fluff, cheese, and spice. Its secret weapon: the kitchen’s monumental cheddar chive biscuit. Ask and you will receive the housemade hot sauce. Lunch dovetails to seasonal surprises, an intriguing roasted carrot sandwich, and owner Eloise Augustyn’s handmade orecchiette pasta. The house barters food for vinyl with the iconic Mississippi Records next door. Is anything more Portland? 5202 N Albina Ave, Humboldt —KB

It’s something of a Portland tradition: deceptively simple, uproariously delicious places, the likes of Tulip Shop Tavern, where high levels of food and drink execution meet a lowbrow theory of dive bar comfort and smashburger phenomenology. Tulip comes on like a late-aughts North Portland boozer—all rickety tables and sticky bar tops—but then you’re served an original cocktail with Haitian rum and falernum, or hand-cut fries with a plethora of house sauces alongside one of the city’s best bar burgers, and it reminds you this place is serious. A weekly fried chicken sandwich draws major interest on Instagram and delivers IRL; if the “Mall Chicken” version with orange glaze and hot mustard is available on your visit, do not miss out. This is Old Portland soul with New Portland execution. 825 N Killingsworth St, Humboldt —JM

Despite its staggering regional delicacies, many from roadside warung stalls, Indonesia hasn’t yet become a global gastronomic superpower. Wajan, a batik-lined café, rouses the tides for an Indonesian wave. Jakarta expat Feny Lim covers the fundamentals: long-simmered, painstakingly developed braises, snacks and dumplings steamed or fried, salads and stir-fries in funkadelic sauces. Nasi uduk assembles deep-fried, hard-boiled eggs, long beans in turmeric peanut sauce, and toasty fried tempeh over coconut rice—naturally vegetarian, but why not add some beef rendang to the mix? Many dishes depend on Lim’s sambals, fermented relish sambal matah to jammy green chile sambal ijo. Order a few to stir into the brothy rice porridge burbur or slather on the little fried parcels of egg, chiles, and alliums called martabak telor. 4611 E Burnside St, Mt. Tabor —BJG

Xiao Ye’s giant “first generation american food” sign is a loud refusal to label itself. At a glance, things resemble the globe-trotting popular of cheffy 2010s menus: khao soi pasta, zucchini bread tartine, hamachi crudo, gelato. In practice, a meal at the warmly eclectic NE Sandy restaurant is like eating at a comfortably elegant exchange student potluck—especially at brunch. The Taiwanese American heritage of owners Jolyn Chen and Louis Lin shows up in some dishes, but so does the mashup of cooking styles they grew up eating in LA, as well as dishes their staff has inherited or fallen in love with. The best dishes blur cultural lines: Start with the mochi-masa madeleines and finish with the fior de latte gelato sporting Okinawan brown sugar. 3832 NE Sandy Blvd, Hollywood —MT

Yaowarat celebrates Bangkok’s Chinatown with pulsing energy, flavor truth, and exceptional service. Think Blade Runner meets Thai-Chinese night market, with most dishes cresting at $20. Essential eats: thunderously crunchy chive cakes; shattering bean curd skin dumplings; wok-charred guay tiew kua gai noodles; garlic-rumbling chrysanthemum greens with stalks like green beans; and super-toasted Hawaiian buns with dipping custards. House cocktails are lip-smacking joy rides. Tom yum–riffing tequila, Thai tea foam, or an elongated salt-and-pepper rim might be in play. Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom and Eric Nelson (of Eem and Langbaan fame) bring it to life with a coterie of talented cooks, bartenders, and floor generals. Vegan and gluten-free menus are a little-known bonus. 7937 SE Stark St, Montavilla —KB