The July Hit List: Jeju Restaurant, L’Orange, Oma’s Hideaway, and More

The newest restaurant from Peter Cho and Sun Young Park of the family finally has a name. Jeju Restaurant — named for the island from which Cho’s maternal side hails — will focus on wood-fired, whole animal barbecue, with a trio of set menu options ranging from $65-$125/person inside the former home of Renata in Southeast Portland, once one of Portland’s lauded Italian restaurants.

The new Jeju will adapt the centerpiece pizza oven into a broiler ripping at close to 900 degrees. The kitchen’s wood-fired hearth will turn out cuts of beef and pork, both butchered in-house, sausages, seafood, and veg to be assembled into ssams paired with sauces and pickles, alongside chilled noodles, banchan, and other fun surprises from the Han Oak catalog. Though the restaurant is slated to open later in July, the space already kicked off with a special dinner with guest chef Mei Lin — the first in an Oregon AAPI Food and Wine Dinner series happening throughout the summer.

Canard’s Oregon City location is the perfect sunny day destination. At its expanded (suburban) digs, find greatest hits menu items like White Castle-inspired steam burgers, duck-fat pancakes, and inventive small bites. New dishes in the larger space include LeRIB — yes, you know the one — hot chicken tenders dipped in togarashi oil and topped with bonito flakes and koji honey, and Salisbury steak frites with mushroom Madeira sauce. Also new, thanks to the expanded footprint, is the burger and ice cream window, perfect for getting your hands on the too-good-to-ever-be-bad-for-you steam burgers and this location’s expanded ice cream desserts menu. Get in line for a quartet of sundaes, like pine nut buster, Black Forest and strawberry, made with strawberry Dole Whip and pound cake.

A new, minimalist brewery and restaurant from a quartet of former (and current) chefs, Duality Brewing brings a tight menu of daily beers that will rotate throughout the seasons, inspired by local ingredients like sour cherries, toasted fig leaves, strawberries, and pears. Guests will also be able to find low-ABV beers alongside espresso and natural wine. Food comes from John Boisse and Lauren Breneman, the duo behind the mostly Han Oak-hosted pop-up Astral PDX, and will focus on fast-casual-esque plates, which recently have looked like crab tostadas, chicharrón en salsa verde tacos, and concha sandos with housemade chorizo verde sausage.

Gado Gado sister Oma’s Takeaway is where you’ll want to post up this summer, now open for both lunch and dinner. Setting up shop in a 70s-pop-art-inspired space – once home to Pok Pok’s Whiskey Soda Lounge –  you’ll find favorites like the corn fritters and the roti canai paired with larger plates from the charcoal grill, like char siu wings and Chinese eggplant brushed with tomato sambal. Elsewhere, salads, curries, both chilled and hot, and platters boasting barbecue and fish sauce lacquered meats, make up the rest of the menu. The drinks program, overseen by Em Warden, will scratch that itch for both classic and vacation-y cocktails. Beer, wine and a duo of N/A cocktails fill out the rest.

As summertime rounds the bend, head to a sunset table at one of North Portland’s favorite neighborhood brewpubs to sip golden, hazy beers (or if you happen to not be a beer fan, something from their impressively extensive whiskey-heavy liquor menu) and enjoy plates of fried pickles, pretzels, and Detroit-style pan pizza. Once, snagging a table felt like winning the lottery. Now, that coveted handful of tables has evolved into a fully covered patio with way more seating. Settle in for the evening and raise a glass to summer’s long-awaited arrival.

Brand-new to the Portland dining scene, this wine-focused restaurant hails from two of the biggest and most missed names in the tasting menu scene: Joel Stocks (Holdfast) and winemaker Jeff Vejr, who selected the restaurant’s wines before going on to open Alberta Street’s Les Caves. Though both used to work together at a fine-dining restaurant, L’Orange will be much more simple, a place to enjoy a delicious plate of food and glass of wine, at least during the week. The Mediterranean plays big in inspiration, with much of the menu incorporating some form of seafood, whether mussels and clams in tarragon-mussel butter, bay shrimp and crab crepes, various fish on a binchotan grill, or pork chops with black olive caramel. On weekends, tasting menus will still be what’s for dinner, running eight to nine courses, with some courses pulling from the a la carte menu.

Find more info on Instagram.

Setting up shop in the upcoming Dekum Street Theater, once a silent movie theater, The Lobby Bar is bringing simple but lovely plates and cocktails to the neighborhood and the eventual pre- and post-show crowd. The kitchen is run by former Mediterranean Exploration Company chef de cuisine KBar, whose resume also includes stints at Coquine, Tusk, and Someday.

The seasonal small plates menu runs from starters and raw bites to grilled veggies and skewers that won’t weigh you down during the show, or keep you up late after. Find dishes like trout crudo, green garlic buttered popcorn, brown butter cabbage with aged goat gouda, and picanha steak skewers with chermoula. A quintet of specialty cocktails, alongside beer and wine, serve as pairings for the night, like the vodka-spiked Garden Notes, with rhubarb syrup and mint, and the Morricone, mixed with mezcal, Campari and elderflower.

Find more info here.

Laurelhurst Market, with its side-by-side in-house butcher shop and outdoor dining on a covered deck, makes it easy to stock up for holiday cooking at home, or just enjoying a night out, if cooking sounds like too much work. Those dining in should start with the steak tartare, before diving into steak frites, the summer-y hanger steak with piquillo peppers and nuoc cham, or indulge in the eponymous burger. If you’re ordering meat to take home, make sure to swing by early or pre-order by phone, as the choicest cuts and options dwindle as the day runs on. And if you happen to stop by around lunch, don’t miss a sandwich from the butcher counter.

This airy (literally), almost-secret seafood bar directly behind Southeast Portland’s new Lil’ America pod, feels like summer’s go-to spot for simple stunners sourced from the sea. The short menu from chef John Denison, who also doubles as St. Jack’s chef de cuisine, will offer raw oysters, a few crudos — like a raw scallop with chamomile oil and celery — poached shrimp with aioli, and a soon-to-be Instagram darling: a twist on the lobster roll, here served in a thick slice of hollowed-out toasted brioche with a slick of tarragon aioli and a dusting of sweet cream buttermilk powder. The space also disappears each night, with everything but a fridge set to relocate in time for Dos Hermanos Bakery to take over in the morning. Make sure to stop by while you can catch it.

Walk-ins welcome.

The first offshoot of the ever-popular Magna adds another dimension to Portland’s growing Filipino food scene. Magna Kubo, which opened last month along one of downtown Beaverton’s main drags, specializes in rotisserie meats, with snacks and sides to pair. The lechoneria is a more formal reenactment of a beloved childhood experience for chef Carlo Lamagna, who was born and raised in the Philippines. For now, options are short but sweet — quarter/half/full rotisserie chicken, marinated in lemongrass, calamansi, and fish sauce; crispy pork belly rubbed with garlic and onion; cola-braised brisket; sinigang chicken wings; pancit canton; and more.

Find more info on Instagram.