Portland restaurant info

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

We’re out-of-towners looking for a place we haven’t been to yet. We have Wed & Thurs (11/4-11/5) for both lunch & dinner and are looking for some recommendations. TIA.

We’ve tried the following (and actually like almost all of them):

Alba Osteria
Blue Hour
Cafe Castagna
clarklewis
Fife
Ken’s Artisan Pizza
Lovely Hula Hands
Nostrana
Paley’s Place
Park Kitchen
Ping
Pok Pok
Serratto
Tabla
Ten01
Toro Bravo

2

Jimmie, go to Carafe (200 SW Market) for dinner. BYO at $10 corkage and they’ll generally waive it if you share. Excellent French bistro food with a reasonable wine list if you don’t BYO. Have lunch at a taco truck. My favorite is Flor de Michoacan between 33rd and 34th on SE Division. Tortillas hechan a mano.
Also good for lunch, if you like pho, is Silk at NW 10th and Glisan. They have sister restaurants called Pho Van in Beaverton and on SE 82nd. Also good for cheap lunch is Best Baguette where they specialize in Banh Mi. Beaverton and SE 83rd and Powell. Sandwiches are about $3.00 and you can get a durian shake if you can stomach the smell.

If you’re doing low atmosphere, go to Podnah’s Pit, a BBQ place run by Rodney Muirhead, who you may have met at the Manning’s. NE 15th and Prescott.

Sometimes underrated for casual dinner is JoBar and Rotisserie on NW 23rd between Irving and Johnson, and The Stockpot Broiler on Scholls Ferry near Washington Square is a hidden gem, especially if you eat in the bar. They get a lot of crap for stuffing the ballot box in the annual restaurant polls on the Internet, but the place is pretty solid.

Oh yeah, for lunch there’s Kenny and Zuke’s Delicatessen at SW 11th and Alder. Plan on splitting a house-made pastrami sandwich unless you’re skipping dinner.

PS - I hate Pok Pok.

3

Le Pigeon

4

Jimmie, I haven’t been there yet, but I keep hearing rave reviews of Bar Avignon. I also love Carafe.

Are you in town to meet with your vendors? I was happy to see a ton of your fruit at New Seasons this past summer. It was hard to find in '08.

5

We ate at Silk for lunch in august and would recommend it. Also had lebanese that had a bunch of Musar on their list. Can’t remember the name. Someone must know. Is was right by Ruth’s Chris

I think this is it.

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6

A lot of people (I’m not one of them) like Andina.

7

I’m a fan of Navarre (on 28th, close to Burnside).

8

Check this place out.
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9

Clarification for out-of-towners. That’s EAST Burnside. Those of us who live here know there’s no 28th and West Burnside, but Jimmie might find himself at the Pittock Mansion trying to find that intersection.

10

Ate at Palley’s Place last year it was very good but not really great imho. A pedestrian wine list for sure-you would think that there would in fact be a restaurant in Portland that has a decent cellar of aged Duck Juice but I’m not sure that animal exists.

11

That’s awesome, Nick!

12

The beauty of Portland is that there might be one place in town that doesn’t welcome BYO, so there’s no need to rely on the wine lists. The only places I know of that have older Duck Juice are the Joel Palmer House and Nick’s - in Dayton and McMinnville, respectively.

13

Ned Ludd - creative wood-oven cooking
Evoe (esp. lunch) - just superb casual (and I mean Zen casual)
Noble Rot - wine bar
Lincoln - solid NW food
Navarre - small plates, matching wines
Lemongrass - classic Thai
Laurelhurst Market - meat
Apizza Scholls
Allora - casual Italian
For extremely casual options (in the evening/late night cart swarm on SE 12th and Hawthorne) - Potato Champion - poutine, Belgian fries in duck fat; Whiffie’s fried pies (sweet and savory)

14

I got back from Portland recently and really enjoyed my meals at Apizza Scholls and Le Pigeon. I’ve read complaints about the wait at Apizza Scholls, but we went relatively late (8:30 maybe?) and had no problems. We also preferred it to Ken’s Artisan Pizza.

15

Duck fat fries… Poutine… must… try… [swoon.gif] [thankyou.gif]

16

Thanks for all the suggestions thus far. I’ll let you know what we chose.

17

Cool. Appears from your “done that” list that you have been to a lot of great PDX restos already!

18

Melissa, you definitely need to visit Potato Champion. Great late night eats al fresco in the parking lot. Total 20-something scene though. You’ll feel old.

19

All she has to do is drag me along and she’ll feel young again.

20

I did indeed feel old but once I dug into the poutine and pumpkin cream fried pie I didn’t care…I suggest partaking of a little something before going, everyone else has…