The Resy Hit List: Where In Portland You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

If there’s one thing you can say about Portland, it’s that we love our burgers. Last November, the team behind the popular Podnah’s Pit BBQ launched a simple burger pop-up in the former La Taq space on Killingsworth. Barely a month later, the pop-up went official, formally taking over the space to become Lone Star Burger Bar with a short but sweet menu of options built around a burger blend ground fresh every day. Alongside a quartet of burgers served with aioli on Dos Hermanos buns, Lone Star also serves fresh-cut fries, Sabrett hot dogs, Coney Island dogs, and onion rings.

Find more info here.

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.

One of the city’s newest brunch spots has quietly risen through the power rankings. Popping up in the Park Blocks’ Cadejo coffee shop on Thursday-Sunday mornings, Ancestro’s simple but well-executed menu of Mexican dishes like chilaquiles with pork belly, sopes with pickled cactus and black bean, buttery crisp tortas, and black bean-laced tlacoyos topped with scrambled eggs and tomato-onion sauce has been quickly gathering a cult following. Like the best restaurants in town, everything is excellent, so either come with a group or plan a return trip soon.

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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.

The newest restaurant in the Montelupo family, opening right around the corner from its Sellwood focacceria, is Monty’s Red Sauce, chef and owner Adam Berger’s version of an East Coast Italian American restaurant. Here, among low-slung, red vinyl booths, find dishes like generous portions of spaghetti and meatballs; thick, golden cutlets of chicken Parm; chicken marsala; and fried starters like mozzarella sticks and calamari alongside Monty’s creative spin on the antipasti plate: the mozzarella bar, with a you-pick selection of cheese, dips, and veggies.

One of the city’s best cocktail bars returned from winter break mid-last month, and sadly, without the fantastic French bistro pop-up, Plumb, back in the kitchen. Though the pop-up finished its residency at the end of the year (and news on what’s next is slim), we thankfully still have Adam Robinson’s creative and globally inspired cocktails to enjoy. Drinks here frequently boggle the mind, often combining surprising ingredients like cumin, chocolate, chamomile, and gin, into complex and well-balanced cocktails.

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.

Drawing inspiration from the famed Eurasian trade route, expect to find cocktails and food at this Pearl District late-night bar infused with east and west Asian ingredients. The glamorous bar is a collaboration between LULU’s Vijay Kumar and Chinese stalwart Ambassador’s Lexy Foong, who is supplying the Chinese American food menu. Snack on wagyu beef-stuffed dumplings, salt and pepper calamari and General Tso chicken while sipping on seasonally shifting cocktails scented with five spice, shiitake mushrooms, curry, and genmaicha.

After years of bouncing around town as a pop-up, Luna Contreras’ Guadalajara street food and casual fonda-style restaurant finally has a permanent and familiar home. Early this year, Chelo officially took over Dame, the shared Northeast Killingsworth restaurant space, which has hosted a slew of pop-up residencies (including Chelo), between the main corner space and its next door Lil’ Dame kitchen almost every day of the week. Now, on Thursdays-Sundays, find many of Contreras’ signature dishes like mushroom gorditas, stuffed with kale, epazote, and Gruyere, and the tlayuda, currently topped with roasted carrots, charred chicories, and winter squash. Close out dinner with another signature, the ultra popular tres leches cake, scented with almonds and dolloped with matcha cream.

Dame’s former anchor restaurant Estes is now taking up residence in Mississippi’s Broder Nord. Four evenings a week, chef Patrick McKee will be serving his Italian-inspired menu after the popular Scandinavian brunch spot shutters for the day, trading Swedish hash and aebleskivers for fresh pastas stuffed with butternut squash and porchetta paired with polenta and braised kale. The short but sweet menu changes frequently, swapping out seasonal veggies and pasta sets as winter continues to wane. For those that want to bring a bite of Estes home, neighborhood favorite Bella’s Italian Bakery in Southeast Portland stocks fresh pastas and sauces from the Estes team in the grab-and-go fridge.

This pandemic-era coffee shop and bakery has returned with a full brunch and lunch menu five days a week. Taking over its sister restaurant Jacqueline’s former corner space on Clinton, Fair Weather’s menu will look somewhat familiar to fans of the previous oyster bar. Here, find pastries and smaller morning bites like yeasted waffles with hazelnut praline butter, an egg and pork belly slider on a milk bread English muffin, and cured Chinook salmon. Larger plates also channel the previous seafood scene, with dishes like shrimp & grits with Calabrian chiles and chilled Dungeness crab with avocado on toast. There’s also Dear Francis coffee, wines-by-the-glass, and cocktails behind the bar.

Find more info here.

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.

This fully sustainable sushi restaurant-turned-West Coast chainlet has been a go-to spot for years. Find TikTok-inspired crispy rice rolls, here topped with spicy salmon, albacore, and tuna, or smashed avocado. Daily changing hand roll specials, poke, nigiri, sashimi, and signature rolls make up the rest, with abundant vegan options to boot. The green machine is one, filled out with tempura-fried green beans, and can be boosted with albacore, salmon, and crab for those craving fish. Landlubbers, too, will be happy here, with a short menu of sea-free options, including a wagyu burger and a grilled truffle teriyaki rib eye.

No Saint’s excellent bread program and creative seasonal vegetable dishes earn this Northeast Portland restaurant a spot in the strong class of pizza and pizza-adjacent restaurants that have become pillars of the area’s culinary scene. Even in the winter months when seasonal options are limited, the menu continues to shine, and especially now with spring on the horizon. Salads are a must, like mache with preserved citrus and green daikon in a tahini vinaigrette. Elsewhere, housemade pastas are worth the table space and of course, the main event: Wonderfully chewy and creative pies that support a cast of toppings like nowhere else in town (cabbage alla gricia? Sign us up). These cycle through frequently and we’re consistently impressed.

The restaurant located inside one of Portland’s most mysterious openings — the subterranean spa Cascada that’s been teasing Portlanders on the internet for more than a year — Terra Mae blends Portuguese and Japanese cuisines in a sleek, wood-lined space. The menu kicks off here with a trio of bread service options anchored by milk bread buns paired with spreads and bites like black olive pate and black cod rillettes before cold dishes and small and large plates incorporating clever twists. Fish and chips get an upgrade with black cod and yuzu roe dip. A yellowtail crudo infuses the delicate fish with Port, cara cara orange and a seaweed salsa verde. And croquettes, here stuffed with linguiça, get a lift from citrus cream.

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.