The September Hit List: Han Oak, Bhuna, Olympia Provisions, Kee’s Loaded Kitchen, and More

After months of waiting out the pandemic closures, Han Oak is back with takeout three days a week. One of the city’s most popular restaurants, known for their creative spins on Korean American dishes, Han Oak’s takeout menu is a short and sweet greatest hits list. Each week, diners will need to pre-order from main courses like bo ssam or galbi jjim, accompanied by rice and banchan. The fried chicken is there, too, along with a thoughtful selection of wine, cider, and sake by the bottle. Preorders open each week for pickup Thursday through Sunday.

Dining status: Takeout available; preorder required.

This fast-casual Indian restaurant from Kashmiri chef Deepak Kaul recently added a duo of outdoor tables for outdoor seating. Born as a “Kashmiri soul food” pop-up at Northeast brewery Culmination, Bhuna’s brick-and-mortar menu is now built around rice bowls with pairing snacks and sides. Choose from Goan pork vindaloo spiked with Thai chilies and jaggery; the spiced Kashmiri lamb rogan josh; the tomato and coconut milk-braised Chettinad chicken and more. Crunchy snacks like chickpea-battered calamari, lotus-root fries and the Kashmiri mushroom naan, as well as veg-heavy sides like masoor dal, dum aloo and kohlrabi and collards fill out the menu. Those who are lucky enough to snag a seat on the patio can also enjoy one of the city’s best happy hour deals: your choice of rice bowl and a beer for $11. Order online for take-out or delivery, or make reservations on Resy. 

Dining status: Takeout, delivery and dine-in seating available.

One of North Portland’s favorite neighborhood brewpubs is back. The popular brewery and its often overflowing patio recently reopened for phase 1 dining, pouring 15 beers ranging from “light & fresh” to “hop forward” by the pint, to pair with the classic brewpub fare of fried pickles, pretzels, sandwiches, and Detroit-style pan pizza. If you’re not ready to venture into restaurants yet, their entire food menu and a shortened beer list (by the individual can or 4- or 6-pack) is available for carry-out. Locals can also have beer delivered the next day for free if you live within the delivery zone, or shipped to 10 other states, as well as the rest of Oregon. The brewery’s Beaverton location is also open for dine-in.

Dining status: Order online for carryout, or reserve a table for dining in.

You’ll want to get in line early at this fire-engine red Northeast Portland food cart if you’re hoping to score a plate. Serving massive — or as owner Kiauna Nelson calls them, “#Loaded” — takeout containers of soul food classics, Kee’s has been a beloved cart ever since it opened in 2016. Menu options change daily: sometimes smoked brisket, sometimes fried chicken, Kee’s killer mac and cheese, spaghetti, what Kee calls fried “crack fish,” fresh bread, desserts, and more are posted, day of, on her Instagram and Facebook, alongside pictures of her daily life and family. Since the murder of George Floyd sparked ongoing citywide protests, Kee has also been on a mission she tags as #feedingblackportland, where people can get a meal for free at the cart, thanks to donations from local business owners, a former mayoral candidate, local musicians and rappers, and others.

Dining status: Takeout available; open Thursday through Saturday, noon to 5:15 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 5:15 p.m.

In a normal year, this would be one of Portland’s most popular patios, stretching out across a corner lot on one of the city’s main dining thoroughfares. In this not-so-typical year, it’s still one of the busiest patios in town. The menu is built as an homage to Alpine butcheries, so you’ll find all manner of cured, dried and encased meats served on boards, with house pickles, grain mustard and bread; in sandwiches; on salads; dipped in Emmental fondue; on platters with potatoes and sauerkraut. Even a nine-beer deep list of Rosenstadt Brewery beers can be paired with salami for just $2. An extensive menu of non-Rosenstadt beer, wine, cocktails, Alpine schnapps and non-alcoholic choices is available.

Dining status: Make reservations for dining in; food can also be ordered for delivery or pickup.

Fine-dining darling Berlu is offering a one-two punch for pandemic takeout options. Chef Vince Nguyen launched a takeout tasting menu for $85/person, featuring minimalist dishes like chilled corn tea; peach, tomato, and hyssop; artichokes with spicy leaves and flowers; and Oregon bay shrimp, zucchini and lovage. But there’s also the Bakery at Berlu, a grab-and-go Vietnamese pastry window at the front of the restaurant. And while the tasting menus satiate a craving for fancier dining, it’s that pastry window we keep coming back to. Look for sweets like mango cake rolls, seasonal fruit tarts, pandan waffles, coffee cream puffs, and Nguyen’s take on bánh bò, the chewy, honeycombed rice cakes sweetened with pandan. The bakery window also serves coffee from Southwest Vietnam, and housemade kombucha.

Dining status: Takeout available for coursed dinners; bakery items available for takeout mornings, Tuesday to Friday.

Just before lockdown, Ataula chef-owner Jose Chesa, his wife Cristina Baez and longtime collaborator Emily Metivier opened Masia, their second Spanish restaurant, in downtown Portland’s Hyatt Centric Hotel. The restaurant, which has shades of Chesa’s inaugural stunner Ataula, was a massive undertaking. After a few months of lying in wait, it reopened in July with takeout, and recently added dine-in service again. Now, find the full menu: In the mornings, think iberico sobrasada-stuffed breakfast burritos, hearty brunch paella, and house brioche with a caramelized sugar crust and white chocolate creme caramel. At lunch, simplified tapas and paella à la Ataula, plus new iberico meat-centric sandwiches alongside heartier dishes like braised lamb shanks. And of course, the beloved xurros, dusted in cinnamon sugar and paired with rich drinking chocolate, available from morning ‘til night.

Dining status: Order online for delivery or pick-up (including at-home paella kits), or make reservations for dining in.  

Another contender just joined Portland’s Detroit-style(ish) pizza game. Pop Pizza, from Nuvrei owner Marius Pop, opened Aug. 13 selling whole pies for pick-up with streamlined toppings: cheese, pepperoni, vegetable, sausage, Pop’s take on Hawaiian style, and a kale pizza with Parmesan sauce. Though it would be unfair to categorize the pizza as truly Detroit-style, the crisp, cheesy edges and crunchy, thick crust bear the most similarity to the Midwest classic. But in true pastry-chef fashion, Pop, known for baking some of the city’s best croissants, has taken a scientific approach, obsessively testing different flours, mills, various starters, and ratios of water to land on his pies, all of which are available gluten-free, too. Simple salads and merch currently fill out the rest of the menu, but expect natural wines, beer and more sides to come soon.

Dining status: Order for takeout online.

In the Before Times, Scotch Lodge was a warm, subterranean cocktail bar, whose menu was built for “whisky lovers,” highlighting Japanese whiskies, island Scotches and ingenious infused and fat-washed spirits. The food menu, from St. Jack French bistro whiz Aaron Barnett, took a modern French spin: beef tartare with buttermilk blue cheese and berbere spice; bone marrow with green curry. Now, Scotch Lodge has traded dark indulgence for summer fry-ups. Five days a week, the restaurant hosts Oui Chippy, an outdoor pop-up specializing in fish and chips. Find Oregon rockfish, lingcod and Ota tofu (made just down the street!) paired with ramp tartar sauce, house chips, and a choice of anything-but-ordinary slaw. Other snacks, like pickle fries, Szechuan duck poutine, and a snap pea salad, fill out the menu. Order whiskey cocktails, frozen drinks, beer, wine and more on the patio, too.

Dining status: Reserve a table for outdoor seating, or order online for pickup. 

A very recent addition to the Portland dining scene, Yalla specializes in Eastern Mediterranean cuisine from a trio who worked at one of the city’s popular, if recently embattled, Mediterranean restaurants. Having relaunched the restaurant group as the Sesame Collective, the three owners added Yalla as the newest addition to the family. The menu focuses on ingredients from around the Black Sea, with dishes like roasted cabbage salad, hummus with burnt beef ends, perogies, and fried corn “ribs”; which, nearly half the dishes will be vegetarian. Opening mid-pandemic, the restaurant is dedicated to safe dining practices, with 40 to 50 outdoor seats and an adjacent service cart per table, allowing both diners and servers limited tableside interactions during food delivery.

Dining status: Reserve a table for outdoor dining, or walk up to order for takeout.