John Valls
The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland
Award-winning omakases, South Asian restaurants serving airplane hanger-sized dosas, and oyster barbecue hangouts to add to your Stumptown bucket list
Updated
Portland is a city of abundance. Towering mountains shield us, bountiful rivers feed us, and vast forests shelter us when Trader Joe’s is out of the good sunscreen. But our greatest resources are the people who choose to live here, local and transplant alike. The farmers who keep us stocked in organic broccolini, the restaurateurs who bring the tastes of home to the Pacific Northwest, and the kitchen crews who keep the plates moving at the height of a rush. It’s what’s made us a world-class food town, the rival of larger and more cosmopolitan metropolises. To thrive in Portland is to come in hot with a dream, and then slog it out until that dream has a cocktail menu and maybe table service if you’re feeling fancy.
The Eater 38 isn’t a list of the best food in Portland, which is both subjective and also far more expansive than 38 slots could accommodate. But it is a record of what’s being executed at the highest level, at a variety of price points, neighborhoods, and culinary traditions. Because having a dream is all well and good, but executing it is a whole other thing. The map is updated quarterly with a mix of hot new critical darlings and old-school classics alike, so if your favorite isn’t on it now don’t despair: there’s always next season!
This summer 2026 refresh includes two of the most exciting sushi restaurants in town: the award-winning Nodoguro, a culinary playground of curiosity and invention, and Masu, a multi-decade celebration of elegant simplicity. We’ve also added a couple of uniquely Portland neighborhood bars that make style look easy, and an all-star Indian deli nestled between a market and a micro cinema.
This list includes a rough range of pricing for each restaurant on our list. One $ means entrees are mostly under $10; $$ signifies entrees under $20; $$$ means the average entree is under $30; and $$$$ indicates pricier entrees or tasting menus.
For some of the most exciting new restaurants and carts in Portland, check out the Eater Portland Heatmap.
Open for: Dinner
Price range: $$$
Since Zoraya Zambrano and her children, Gary and Gloria Marmanillo, opened Casa Zoraya back in 2018, this Peruvian spot has been Piedmont’s under-the-radar gem: Ceviches land at the table like works of art, fried calamari adding crunch to a bed of fresh seasonal seafood tossed with a summery leche de tigre. Anticuchos de corazon, beef heart skewers, make for a great starter for a romantic dinner. Arroz chaufa, a Peruvian fried rice dish, gets an upgrade with a passionfruit rocoto sauce, which adds a dose of acidity, sweetness, and peppery zip. And the pisco sours feel like they’re shipped straight from Lima, best sipped on Casa Zoraya’s back patio on nice days. Reservations are available through Resy.
Must-try dish: Don’t skip the picarones: warm, crisp sweet potato doughnuts spiced with clove and cinnamon, then drizzled in molasses.
Brooke Jackson-Glidden
Price: $$
Open for: Lunch, happy hour, dinner
Killingsworth’s Tulip Shop tavern is a bit like the Velvet Underground of the Portland bar scene: Maybe it’s not the first name that comes to mind, but chances are your favorite bartender drinks there. Part of Tulip’s charm is that it’s not trying to be everything for everyone, just a damn good bar. The quirky interior has a bit of the late lamented Expatriate’s dimly lit back-alley charm, but the brick walls bedecked with abstract outsider art and shelves of cassette tapes are very much doing their own thing. The small but punchy food menu is uniformly high in quality, though thankfully not in price (at least among cocktail bars operating at this level). The basic tavern burger and fries is among the best in town, and the densely packed back-bar allows for a mix of creative originals and classic cocktails
Know before you go: The frequent specials feel, well, pretty special, and tend to sell out quick as a result. Arby’s dupes, katsu burgers, “marry me” chicken salad — they’re inventive, delicious, and rarely have an equivalent on the permanent menu. Keep an eye on the Instagram, and if the Funeral Sandwich makes an appearance, drop everything and get there early.
Ron Scott
Open for: Dinner
Price range: $$$
After over a decade of cooking in restaurants around Portland, chef Vedran Jordan opened Alma in the summer of 2025, serving the Balkan flavors he grew up with. In true Balkan fashion, everything on the menu is built for sharing, from corba (stew) to crudo to clams. Seafood is done particularly well here, with dishes like grilled octopus paired with white beans or muhamarra, a whole branzino smothered in herbs, or squid topped with leeks and fried tentacles. But even simple ingredients like eggplant shine in the imam bayildi: silky eggplant paired with a swipe of yogurt, zingy zhoug, and crispy oyster mushrooms. Touches of hospitality, including strong black tea at the beginning of the meal and cubes of Turkish delight at the end, make dinner here feel extra special. Pair the experience with a Croatian or Bosnian wine, or a cocktail made with Balkan ingredients like lamb fat-washed mezcal or house yogurt liqueur.
What to drink: Alma serves three varieties of custom-made rakija — super-strong Balkan-style brandy — from local one-man distillery Tuff Talk. Try one made from grape pomace, another with foraged plums, and another made of wine lees, all paired with a pickle and cheese plate.
Moni Kovacs
Open for: Breakfast and brunch
Price range: $$
What do you get when you Voltron together Matta’s Richard Le, Portland Cà Phê’s Kimberly Dam, and Heyday’s Lisa Nguyen? You get an incredible counter-service Vietnamese brunch spot that boasts pandan waffles, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, and rice bowls with toppings like fish sauce bacon, fried garlic, and over-easy eggs, plus rotating pastries like matcha cinnamon rolls — a joyous celebration of Vietnamese American cooking and brunch itself. Don’t skip the Vietnamese iced egg coffee, a not-too-sweet, custardy, caffeinated treat that does double duty as a drink and a dessert. Diners can also order online for pickup.
Know before you go: Seating is limited, so be prepared to wait for a table or take your food to go.
Christine Dong
Open for: Dinner
Price range: $$$
Indonesian food historically hasn’t been well-represented in Portland, but one restaurateur, Feny, is single-handedly changing that. In 2019, she opened Wajan, serving hearty rice dishes with fried chicken legs, curried jackfruit, and lacy tapioca crackers. Pasar, which translates to market, opened in 2023. The dining room is decked out with Indonesian-inspired decor, from traditional masks and shadow puppet-style cutouts to the thatched roof above the bar. Pasar serves a shareable, street food-inspired menu that’s also easily adapted for plant-based eaters. Start with the gorengan combo of fried snacks and the rujak serut, a pineapple, papaya, and cucumber salad with spicy tamarind. Can’t-miss mains include lontong cap go meh, coconut broth with chewy rice cakes and succulent chayote, and babi goreng, bites of crispy pork belly. Don’t neglect the sambal portion of the menu, from roasted green chile to sweet tomato chile.
Must-order: This is the only restaurant in Portland where you’ll regularly find kue — small, colorful, and often intricate Indonesian desserts, many made with chewy tapioca and rice flour and lightly sweetened, featuring the likes of jackfruit or pandan.
William Guan
Open for: Dinner
Price range: $$$$
At Urdaneta, husband-and-wife team Javier and Jael Canteras offer their take on Spanish tapas culture through a playful, modern lens. Look for classics like croquetas de jamon, homemade morcilla blood sausage, and beautifully charred pulpo a la brasa. Close out with Basque cheesecake for dessert. The restaurant’s selection of vermouth, sherry, and Basque cider would make any Iberian proud.
Best for: Splurge-y, but never stuffy, special-occasion dinners, from big birthdays to anniversaries.
Urdaneta
Open for: Brunch, lunch, dinner
Price range: $$
One of chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson’s favorite comfort foods, frybread is a major part of Javelina’s menu: It’s the base for “NDN” tacos with bison chili, the buns of the powwow burger, and a sweet treat tossed in cinnamon sugar or drizzled with honey. But Numkena-Anderson wants people to know there’s much more to Indigenous cuisine than frybread; in fact, wheat isn’t even native to North America. Much of Javelina’s menu focuses on First Foods, or ingredients that are native to Turtle Island. Proteins include braised elk shoulder, boar bacon, tribal-caught salmon, and rabbit-rattlesnake sausage, while plant-based staples include tepary beans, wild rice, squash, and blue corn. Javelina’s sister tasting menu experience, Inisha, is housed in the same space, offering dinner seatings several times a month that focus entirely on pre-colonial foodways, with storytelling and history presented between courses.
Must-order: Along with Indigenous-made wines and cocktails featuring Indigenous ingredients like chokecherry and duck egg, there’s an impressive menu of dozens of Indigenous herbal teas, aiming to aid with everything from digestion to arthritis to skin and hair health.
Carter Hiyama/Eater Portland
Open for: Dinner
Price range: $$$
If someone is defining Portland’s distinct pizza style, it’s Sarah Minnick of Lovely’s Fifty Fifty. Ever-changing pizzas, typically eschewing meat and red sauce, are a garden of edible flowers, seasonal greens, wild mushrooms, and esoteric cheeses atop an airy but sturdy pizza dough made with Oregon whole grains. Try the year-round pizza with fermented tomato, carrot, Calabrian chile, and the likes of curly kale or rainbow chard; in summer, stop by for peach, guanciale, shishito, and corn pie. Salads and soups are made with peak-season produce. Pizza is available for dine-in in the casual yet intimate dining room or to-go. While the menu changes on an almost weekly basis, Minnick maintains a devotion to culinary creativity and attention to detail.
Must-order dish: A scoop from the ice cream case, from malted milk ball flavor to buckwheat honey toffee.
Nick Woo
Open for: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch
Price range: $$$
Northeast MLK’s Cafe Olli features a giant wood-fired oven at its center, tying together the space visually and setting the cozy mood for the hearth-fired food that’s to come. It’s a haven for gorgeous pastries, char-dotted pizzas, and bubbling pastas al forno. Oregon produce plays a major role in dictating the menu, though a few dishes have become beloved constants: the simple breakfast sandwich, featuring a juicy homemade sausage patty and a fluffy milk bun; pizza pomodoro, showcasing the flavor of the hearth as much as the tomato and grain in the dough. Cafe Olli’s charm is in those fleeting seasonal portraits, from springtime green garlic cavatelli to summery beet salad dotted with Rainier cherries. Dessert, such as the restaurant’s famed thick-sliced chocolate cake, is mandatory. Indoor and patio seating is available; the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, but you can order to-go by phone.
Know before you go: Brunch lines can get gnarly, and there’s no indoor waiting space, so get there early or be prepared to be patient. In a pinch, you can snag a lavender latte and a cardamom pinwheel at the new satellite cafe Ollini.
Taylor Hayes
Price: $$$
Open for: Dinner
Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly’s sibling restaurants, Gado Gado and Oma’s Hideaway, regularly trade spots on best-of-the-city lists, and for good reason. The vibrant dining space pairs with a constantly evolving menu of Indonesian, Malaysian, and American melting pot cuisine, resulting in a stream of sensory experiences that Portland diners keep coming back for. The 2026 slate of James Beard nominees has put the spotlight back on Gado Gado, which leans into the “rice table” family-style tasting menu for $89 per person, although the a la carte menu is also worth your attention.
What to order: Sumatran-style beef bendang is a rare constant on the menu, and for good reason. It’s an absolute flavor bomb of slow-simmered beef paired with crispy anchovies and the curious sweetness of gula jawa, a type of coconut palm sugar that’s close to caramel in its intensity. And anything on the seafood side of the menu is going to be a winner, especially if soft-shell crab is involved.
Christine Dong
Open for: Dinner
Price range: $$$$
Akkapong Earl Ninsom is the restaurateur behind several stars in Portland’s culinary universe, but Langbaan — his supper club within Northwest Portland’s Phuket Cafe — is the brightest. It’s no wonder Langbaan won the James Beard award for most outstanding restaurant — in the entire country — in 2024. Constantly changing tasting menus pull inspiration from regions, time periods, and styles of dining throughout Thailand’s culinary history, from a deep dive into Bangkok’s Chinatown to a survey of Southern Thai cuisine. But the opening dishes are constants. Jewels of cara cara orange mingle with plump shrimp and peanuts, cradled in a betel leaf with fish sauce caramel; a crispy rice cup supports Hokkaido scallop, coated in a sweet coconut cream. Thoughtful, creative natural wine pairings come from sommelier Dana Frank. Every meal ends with not one, but two desserts from pastry chef Maya Erickson, one of the city’s finest. Make a reservation online.
Vibe check: The gorgeous plating and attentive service are reminiscent of the fine dining of yore, but the experience feels fresh and inventive.
Christine Dong
Open for: Dinner, weekend brunch
Price range: $$$
Louis Lin and Jolyn Chen serve what they call first-generation American food, drawing from their experiences growing up Taiwanese American and working in restaurants across the country. That means dishes like khao soi radiatori, green curry lamb with pakoras, and whole-grilled branzino with Chinese chimichurri find a home at the same table. Once a month on Wednesdays, diners are drawn in for an ephemeral burger special, like jalapeño popper burgers or their take on an In-N-Out double-double. Finish with a flight of homemade gelato, from fior di latte with Okinawan brown sugar to blood orange sorbet. The newly added weekend brunch ranges from Taiwanese rice porridge with pickles and pork floss to a classic diner pancake. Xiao Ye translates to midnight snack, which captures the restaurant’s mission to welcome diners to connect with loved ones and friends over unexpected flavor combinations.
Must-order dishes: Mini madeleines, a menu staple, are fashioned from masa and mochiko and serve as a sweet-savory start to the meal.
Carter Hiyama
Price: $$
Open for: Lunch and dinner
The Indian subcontinent is crosshatched with hundreds of diverse and often subtly overlapping culinary traditions, each with their fervent adherents among the South Asian diaspora. So “Indian food”, as a blanket term, can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. But Apna Chat Bhavan in Beaverton is a strong contender for the most Indian eatery in the Portland area. Situated between a food market and a micro cinema, Apna is a one-stop shop for a wide range of South Asian staples, richly seasoned, sinus-clearing spicy, and served in truly staggering proportions. The “half” order of biryani features a couple of roasted chicken legs underneath a towering heap of rice and onions. And the dosa, a lightly fermented crepe with various savory fillings, could be used as a runway for light aircraft in a pinch. Roll up hungry, but save room for dessert: There’s a substantial pastry case fully stocked with regional delicacies.
Vibe check: A lunch rush at Apna is an exercise in barely controlled chaos. Dishes come out as they’re ready, everyone’s ordering something different, and the clientele ranges from Intel engineers to extended families reuniting for a meal. Treat this more like a bustling deli than a traditional sit-down restaurant.
Price: $$$$
Open for: Dinner and afternoon tea
This esteemed sushi restaurant snagged a James Beard Award in 2026, and the accolade is well-earned. But despite the national attention, Nodoguro still has the aura of a wonderful discovery. Monthly ticket drops make high-end dinner reservations feel more like scoring three-figure concert tickets, while the location itself feels hidden — in the back of SW Broadway’s oddly Victorian Morgan’s Alley, past cobblers and tailors, up a flight of stairs, and through a moody antechamber. The theatricality is all in service of the cuisine, which is both exceptionally delicate and profoundly fulfilling. “Tweezer” food can be a better feast for the eye than the belly, but the various set menus here are marathons of sensory delights, and unlikely to leave anyone yearning for a Burgerville run afterwards.
Know before you go: Tickets for the various omakases drop monthly and go fast. The Sunday afternoon tea service is usually more accessible, costs a bit less, and displays just as much creative mastery.
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