The Resy Hit List: Where In Portland You’ll Want to Eat Right Now
There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
We’ve designed it to be your essential resource for dining in Portland: a monthly-updated (and expanded!) guide to the restaurants in that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In Portland Not to Miss This Month
- Holiday Celebration at Quaintrelle: This Christmas Eve, head to Quaintrelle for their five-course holiday celebration dinner. Dishes include oysters, prime rib and sticky toffee pudding, alongside two levels of additional wine pairings. Reservations are $200/person with seatings at 5:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. And keep an eye on the Resy Events page for more options.
- Last (Minute) Christmas: Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, dining on the 25th is always tricky between closures and adjusted hours. But Resy has you covered. Restaurants with reservations still available include: Jade Rabbit at The Emerald Room, Little Bitter Bar, Cafe Nell and Cafe Nell. And search the latest options here.
- Double Duty: Forgot a gift for your New Years’ host? Thankfully, you can dine and shop at a number of Resy favorites. Snag a bottle of Champagne after some tuna toast at Heavenly Creatures. Montelupo Italian Market‘s well-stocked pantry section includes everything from wines and sweets to grab-and-go dinner ingredients. And for the camper in your life, Snow Peak’s flagship store offers the best of the best, perfect for a post-Takibi tour.
- Give the Gift of Made in Portland: There’s no shortage of incredible products — edible and not — made right here in Portland. Head to one of the many well-curated markets, like the Portland Bazaar, Indigenous Marketplace and Pop-up Shop, Portland Flea, and Crafty Wonderland to spend an afternoon window shopping (or not!), enjoying local bites and support local artists and makers.
New to the Hit List (Dec. 2024)
Anthology, Jacqueline, L’Echelle, Miracle at Deadshot, Tusk.
1. Kann Southeast Portland
Portland’s arguably most sought-after restaurant proudly focuses on chef Gregory Gourdet’s Haitian heritage. And it’s still worth trying to snag a reservation. The James Beard Award-winning menu is truly best suited for joyous reunion, with groups of four to six (or more in the private dining space!) getting a chance to try a little bit of everything if you’re sharing across the table. Don’t miss the signature dishes — the plaintain brioche and the griyo twice-cooked pork — as well as any number of plates emerging from the wood-fired hearth. We’re partial to the red cabbage with smoked herring and African pepper sauce and a glazed duck breast and leg, lacquered with cane syrup. Add in sides to share, and desserts, and you’ll see why Gourdet is so lauded.
2. The Love Shack Slabtown
How many times have you wished you could try everything off the menu? This cocktail bar from the team behind Northwest Portland’s veggie-forward G-Love, is here to help you achieve that dream. The format here lands somewhere between dim sum and steakhouse-meets-dinner party, with a bingo-like menu card filled with small, group-friendly bites and pint-sized drinks as well as a centerpiece prime rib, served with a sparkler. Guests should expect a brass cart winding its way through the room, stacked with plates of croissant banh mis, oysters, crab rolls, vegan celery root falafel, pickled onion rings, “mini tini”s, High Life, and more. Alongside the mobile offerings, dishes, like that prime rib can be ordered from the kitchen.
3. Heavenly Creatures Sullivan's Gulch
The original St. Jack duo that brought Portland its beloved and longstanding French bistro got back together to recreate a bit of magic with Heavenly Creatures. The can’t-miss wine bar offers a short-but-sweet menu of French-inspired drinking foods that helps keep the wine flowing all night. Snacks like whipped Camembert with potato chips and the young yellowtail toast have risen to signature status, while heartier snacks and plates like poached halibut and manila clams with lobster-garlic bread and braised oxtail with cherry tomatoes and sauce verte mean you won’t need to stop elsewhere for “real” dinner. Wine, of course, is the main event, ranging from a lengthy glass pour list to a robust bottle selection, available to enjoy on site with a corkage fee or at home.
4. L’Echelle Division
Restaurant titan Naomi Pomeroy’s final project opened this summer in honor of the pivotal chef whose restaurants defined the city for more than two decades. A casual, no-reservations pop-up serving lighter versions of French bistro food, L’Echelle is one of the few places in town where a menu du jour reigns. Depending on what’s in season, you might see a country pâté with persimmon mostarda, seared mackerel with lentils and aioli, or duck confit with braised beans alongside soups, salads, and other small plates best shared among a group. The restaurant is preparing to transition to a full-service bistro sometime early next year, but in the meantime, stop by for the eight-dish menu paired with eight wines by-the-glass every Thursday through Saturday.
No reservations. Find more info here.
5. Takibi Northwest
Taking up residence behind 23rd Avenue’s Snow Peak store — a high-end, Japanese outdoors gear retailer — this restaurant celebrates that feeling of sitting around a campfire at the turn of the seasons. After a fire earlier this year, the beautiful outdoors-meets-indoor Japanese American restaurant has reopened with a new team and menu. Find seasonal, wood-fired dishes alongside crunchy chicken karaage; silky dashi-simmered squash; hearth-fired American wagyu; and simple sushi and sashimi. Dream about your next camping trip from the dining room, with a cocktail in hand. Everything you need is just around the corner.
6. Someday Richmond
Down an alley along Southeast Division, is Someday, the neighborhood cocktail bar from bartending vets-turned-back-alley cocktail patio and mini food cart pod. Sip old and new cocktail recipes from a classic Scofflaw to a reimagined daiquiri, here infused with pandan. Bites (from the bar itself) focus heavily on snacks, with dishes like olives, cheeses, anchovies, simple veggie plates and a fancier old-fashioned weiner. But if none of the bar’s options fit your fancy, or you missed snagging a reservation for the bar’s Sunday evening oyster grill, explore Ruthie’s, the wood-fired pizza cart located just behind the bar.
7. Bar Nina Alberta Arts
Taking residency in Alberta’s famed subterranean wine bar Les Caves, Bar Nina has continued the wine bar’s legacy of fantastic wines in a singular space. With Golden Cluster winemaker/Les Caves manager Jeff Vejr leaving to focus on his own label and his restaurant, L’Orange – Ovum and Big Salt’s Ksenija Kostic House and John House have stepped in to fill the gap with the newly rechristened Bar Nina. Longtime guests will deeply recognize the vibe: Expect similar, delicious-without-the-pomp glass pours, the assemblage of grilled cheeses, and even Les Caves’ lengthy collection of fortified wines, now paired with a larger selection of Ovum’s own bottles. Snacks are getting an influx of heartier foods like Spanish sausages and Serbian pepper spreads.
8. Deadshot with food by Plumb Restaurant East Portland
One of the city’s best cocktail bars is decking the halls in preparation of their annual Miracle Bar holiday pop-up. To pair with the very festive holiday drinks, complete with themed glassware — think naughty and nice shots in opposing Santa Claus shot glasses — find Plumb Restaurant, which has been plating an impressively short yet complete menu since its residency began. Expect well-balanced salads, one of the city’s few steak tartares — and a great one at that — before more classic large plates, like a punchy steak frites paired with chimichurri, sauteed pork loin with bacon-braised purple cabbage, and cider-steamed mussels.
9. Ox Restaurant Eliot
This beloved Argentine grill has had a commanding presence over Portland’s dining scene since it opened a decade ago, thanks to its all-stunners-only menu. Now it is back after months of rebuilding from a kitchen fire. Any night here should start with something from the always fantastic cocktail list (the Dirty Grandma Agnes martini is a mainstay) or a glass from the wine list before delving into the menu. Numerous iconic dishes have earned their keep over the years, like the clam chowder with smoked marrow bone and the tripe and octopus, that should be part of your order. Meat options rotate throughout the year, but when the halibut collar is on, it should be on everyone’s table, dietary restrictions aside.
10. Tusk Buckman
The vibey, Millennial-pink Tusk remains a mainstay for Mediterranean-inspired foods built with locally sourced produce. A hefty snacks and dips menu with favorites like silky hummus and labneh with preserved lemon kicks off a lengthy menu that allows for any customization you’d like. Find a heavy vegetable presence here, with options like crunchy falafel, chicories tossed in green tahini, and rainbow carrots scattered with puffed sorghum. Meat and seafood mains range from za’atar-crusted albacore and lamb belly to whole trout and beef kofta. If you don’t want to choose, the restaurant offers a kitchen-guided experience for $55-$65/person.
11. Quaintrelle Southeast Portland
Having taken up residence in Southeast Clinton’s former Burrasca location, Quaintrelle continues fine-dining flair in a space that feels like home. The menu spans a range of options and levels of commitment, from a la carte dishes to tasting menus in seven- and 10-course iterations. Dishes, regardless of menu choice, all remain ever-changing but always seasonal and gorgeous. But meals typically start with some form of oyster, often delivered on a bed of shells mimicking tidepools, before winding through a luxurious caviar course, salads, meats, and fish, all set with local produce. Cocktails, too, remain as ephemeral as the changing seasons, built out with fresh fruits, herbs, and savory elements.
12. Abyssinian Kitchen Alberta
More than two years since its rebirth along Alberta Street, this remains one of the city’s best Ethiopian restaurants. It’s worth ordering everything you want and bringing the leftovers home. Start with an order of the sambusa, here arriving as a trio of crispy, deeply spiced beef- or lentil- filled dumplings similar in size to samosa. Platters here can be built in any assortment, from an all-veggie sampler of the Big Seven – kik alicha, gomen, timtimo, stewed yellow split peas, seasoned collards, spicy red lentils and mixed veg to all meats, with conveniently one-per protein, or something in between. If you eat meat, the unparalleled rosemary-scented kitfo, here gently warmed in butter and served with a side of housemade ayb is a must.
Find more info here.
13. Anthology Dundee
The newest high-ticket fine dining menu addition to the wine country food scene debuted just in time for high-end holiday hosting and special occasion family meals. By day, find curated Four Graces tasting flights paired with small plates in a brand-new space. Four nights a week, from Thursday-Sunday, chefs Chase Williams and Zack Ehrlich take over the wood and glass open kitchen to showcase the best of Oregon produce, meats, and wine in an intimate 14-seat setting. For $275/person, guests start the evening with canapes and a complimentary glass of bubbles before diving into a multi-course dinner with pairings overlooking the Willamette Valley.
14. Montelupo Italian Market Kerns
Northeast Glisan’s fast-casual red sauce concept serves a concise but exciting menu of fresh pastas and salads, alongside grab-and-go pantry goods. By day, the market sells sauces, wines, olive oil and desserts. By night, the evening menu brings salads and starters like burrata with pesto and grilled brassicas and a radicchio salad with grana Padano, before heading into a robust pasta menu. Several mains will look familiar to any long-time Portlanders who ate at Adam Berger’s former 28th Avenue Italian restaurant Tabla, like the classic tajarin tossed in truffle butter, as well as seasonal spins like mafaldine with beef and pork Bolognese.
15. Grana Pizza Napoletana Kerns
Former farmers market pizza pop-up Grana Pizza — with their dual Ooni setup roaring at full blast — retired those portable ovens for a brick-and-mortar space last fall. These days, find bubbly, charred pies topped with everything from the classic margherita to mushrooms and pancetta. Grana’s other claim to fame, besides just great Neapolitan pies, is their entry into Portland’s emerging panuzzo market. Grana’s “pizza dough sandwiches” include the classic mortadella, with chicories and pistachios, and a simple caprese, lined with mozzarella, tomato, and basil.
16. Teardrop Lounge Pearl District
When the craft cocktail scene took off in Portland in the aughts, Teardrop Lounge was at the forefront. With a tried-and-true list of awards and bests to their name, Teardrop is still worth a visit, more than a decade and a half later. The menu here is vast, and deep, ranging from “bright & crisp” to “deep & dark.” You’ll find house blends of almost all the standard liquors, and an almost dizzying amount of options to satisfy every type of cocktail drinker out there. With 30 cocktails to choose from, it’s either best to visit in a group, or start a personal cocktail passport to keep track of all the drinks you’ve tried.
17. Memoire Ca Phe Northeast Portland
The long awaited Vietnamese American brunch spot from Matta’s Richard Le, Cà Phê’s Kimberly Dam and Heyday’s Lisa Nguyen, offers a menu that will feel at home to Matta fans. On weekdays, find an abridged version featuring the breakfast sandwich with a Heyday milk bread bun; a burrito layered with scrambled eggs, avocado salsa and one of Le’s famed hashbrowns; and the house (pandan) waffle stacked with fish sauce bacon and a fried egg. On weekends, the menu expands to include items like biscuits and fish sauce gravy and a shrimp and coconut milk omelet, alongside other baked goods and house roasted coffee drinks from Dam.
Find more info here.
18. Palomar Ladd's Addition
Take a trip to this Cuban-inspired cocktail bar-by-way-of-Miami to enjoy the last days of summer. Find a long menu of rum-based, Caribbean classics like daiquiris, piña coladas, and punches, alongside signature drinks spanning from matcha flips and Negronis to swizzles and sours. Food starts small, with handheld, fried favorites like croquetas and mojo-braised chicken wings before expanding out into large plates, like flank steak with salsa roja and jackfruit ropa vieja. Make sure to snag a seat on the rooftop patio while the good weather lasts.
19. Jacqueline Clinton
This Clinton neighborhood oyster favorite — now in a new home a few blocks down — is one of the city’s few seafood-centric spots. Lines start to form at the door before opening as folks hope to snag a seat for the ever-popular $1 oyster happy hour (harvested and delivered the same day!) and a seasonal menu of fresh fare. The menu kicks off with a trio of oysters on the half-shell, as a mezcal verdita-spiked shooter or roasted with bacon date butter before diving into crudos, seasonal veggie salads, and larger format dishes with seafood of course playing a starring role. Can’t decide what to order? For $90/person (with whole table participation required), the restaurant will cook for you.
20. Parallel PDX Kerns
A new wine bar in town is focused on putting the wine first. Parallel PDX, from husband-wife duo Joey (Roman Candle, Olympia Provisions) and Stacey Gibson (Park Avenue Wines), is building their small plates and boards menu around its dozen or so affordable wines-by-the-glass, sherries and cocktails, not the other way around. Glass pours range from local and Loire Valley sparklings to Spanish Mencia blends and Portuguese Touriga Nacional, while food keeps things fairly simple and straightforward. Expect a quartet of finger foods like smoked onion dip and hush puppies with honey butter, a trio of boards (cheese, meats and tinned fish) and a short menu of plates with optional pairings, including a house Caesar with Worcestershire-cured egg yolk, seafood cannelloni and Spanish chorizo with crispy potatoes.
