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

Tucked behind European-inspired brewery and taproom Away Days Brewing Co., you’ll find Champs Burgers, the once-pop-up now turned full-time food cart. Like many of Portland’s great burger joints, the menu is simple: A cheeseburger (made with dry-aged beef, quality American cheese, onions, pickles, and burger sauce on a housemade Cairspring Mills flour-based bun), in a single, double, and thick version. Plus, a rotating special (previous favorites have included a lengua pastrami burger and pickled jalapeño-topped Oklahoma burger); beef tallow fries; and a cookie (from classics like chopped chocolate chip to pumpkin toffee spiced corn). The cart continues to draw long lines, and it’s worth joining the queue.

Find more info here.

Buckman’s warm, subterranean cocktail bar, whose menu was built for “whisky lovers,” remains one of the city’s best in any season. A lengthy cocktail menu highlights clever riffs on classic cocktails, specialty vintage spirits – sip a truly ageless Rob Roy, here stirred with 1960s Cutty Sark – and tropical-bent spirits like pandan-infused mezcal and coconut milk-washed gin shaken and stirred into summery retellings of traditional whiskey drinks. Food, for the most part, sticks to small and shareable, with salty snacks and bites to balance your drinks – even if you’re only here for a nightcap, the pickle spice fries or the prosciutto cotto along with something from the raw menu is highly recommended – alongside a handful of mains, like a seaweed butter-infused pappardelle and an impressive soft shell crab sando.

This final project of restaurant titan Naomi Pomeroy was in its toddler-hood when the famed and beloved chef tragically died last summer. After a short run as a pop-up and a few months of build-out, L’Echelle is finally officially open again. On a recent visit, the restaurant hummed brightly, the space’s previously black-rimmed windows now shining an alluring cobalt blue. A short but expansive bistro menu offered all the hallmarks of French classics with a signature PNW flair. Oeufs as large as snowballs arrived buried in an airy, lemony aioli while a generous stack of chilled asparagus nestled into a green allium remoulade. Elsewhere, find a short raw menu and a quartet of well-priced mains like steak au poivre and seared duck breast. It’s the buzziest restaurant in town right now, and we can’t wait to go back. Oh, and did we mention? Reservations are live.

If there’s one thing Portland can never get enough of, it’s burger joints that serve nice cocktails. New to this slice of local dining culture is Pretty Ugly from Lulu and Silk Road owners Vijay Kumar and Gilbert Leon. Here, expect more than a half-dozen beef burgers — made with dry-aged prime beef from local butcher Revel Meat Co. — with everything from basic toppings to chile-glazed pineapple and house-smoked brisket, alongside chicken burgers and a vegan-friendly mushroom-miso chickpea patty. The drink list focuses on cocktails, with more than a dozen creative options ranging from “produce-driven, modern house signatures” to “vintage desserts” to pair with your burger of the night.

This quintessential Portland restaurant has been a dining destination for 20 years. One of the city’s first venues to feature a wood-fired oven, Nostrana’s dedication to regional Italian cuisine has made it a standout since 2005. The menu has shifted very little since its early days; start with simple antipasti like squash arancini and the iconic Nostrana salad, an anchovy-laced radicchio salad nestled beneath a shower of Parmigiano-Reggiano, move to a handful of fresh pastas tossed in simple sauces, pizza pulled fresh from the wood-fired oven, and a handful of meaty mains and sides, including another iconic dish: the 2.5-pound bistecca alla Fiorentina served with grilled lemon and rosemary oil. After dinner, order a thimble of the housemade limoncello, often seen infusing behind the bar.

Book now on Tock.

This award-winning Cuban cocktail bar has finally reopened on the West side, in sparkly new digs but with the same great drink and food. Find a long menu of rum-based Caribbean classics like daiquiris, pina 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.

Sharing a home with Vtopian Artisan Cheese Shop’s new Northeast Grand Avenue location, Adelleda has taken over the longtime vegan cheesemaker’s space from Thursdays to Monday nights. A self-described “refined lounge and pasta residency,” Adelleda’s menu focuses on fresh pastas using seasonal and wild-foraged ingredients like agnolotti with fennel, kohlrabi, and toasted pistachio, bucatini with lobster mushroom, cauliflower puree and pickled jimmy nardellos, and Parisian gnocchi with brussels three ways, chicken of the woods, and chile flake. Elsewhere, find small antipasti bites and small, often fried, plates. 

Old Town/Chinatown’s airy, Mexico City-inspired bar overlooking the river and Portland’s eastside recently got a shiny new update. At the beginning of the year, The Hoxton hotel named Adán Fausto — locally known for popular pop-ups like the summertime Mariscos con Onda — as executive chef to manage the menus at both the rooftop Tope and basement speakeasy 2NW5. The new Tope menu under Faustol includes small apps like chips and salsa and queso alongside a slate of tacos taking inspiration from Mexico City and Baja, with fillings like panela and crispy potato, beef rib eye, and fried rockfish Milanesa.

This seasonal Pacific Northwest bistro on Belmont’s restaurant row recently announced Timothy Wastell as its new chef. Fresh off a 2025 James Beard win for best chef, Wastell brings joyfully simple vegetable-focused cooking to any menu he touches. Naturally, the options here are simple and lovely, with a touch of European flair: herbed frites with preserved lemon mayo, sprouting broccoli with anchovy, and green garlic and ricotta cavatelli with local mushrooms. From behind the cerulean horseshoe bar, find a slate of cocktails like freezer martinis in gin or vodka, as well as a heavily French glass pour list, local light beers, and creative and fruity non-alcoholic drinks.

America’s iconic hibachi chain remains one of the original “dinner and a show” spots — still beloved for its tableside teppanyaki entertainment. And let’s be honest: We never stopped loving it. So, as always, grab a seat at a communal table built around a flattop grill while your personal chef for the night slices, dices, ignites onion volcanoes, flips sick spatula tricks, and of course, makes you dinner in the process. Sushi is also available, made by the in-house sushi chef. Nostalgia for the celebratory dinners of your childhood is free, obvi, and in ready supply.

The brand-new sister to the wine-centric bistro L’Orange, Buvons is bringing grilled cheese and fancy glass pours back to Portland. The specialty here is sparkling wine from across the Northern Hemisphere, here selected by Jeff Vejr, who not only co-owns L’Orange but for those who might feel this menu sounds familiar, was among the co-owners of Alberta Avenue’s former basement grilled cheese and wine bar Les Caves. Meanwhile, the deft hand of  L’Orange’s executive chef Joel Stocks can be seen across the food menu. Alongside fancy grilled cheeses like the vegetarian Georgian, which arrives with mozzarella, marigold flower, blue fenugreek, and walnut spinach sauce, expect easy-to-serve jarred dips like smoked fish with Ritz crackers and chicken liver mousse and crostini.

No reservations. Find more info here.

Portland’s only true tiki bar, Hale Pele has been a favorite grog-slicked haunt for more than a decade. An unassuming, darkened facade opens to a positively Rainforest Cafe-esque interior, with a small bridge guiding guests over a short moat before settling into the heart of what appears to be a hidden jungle hut, complete with thatched walls, masks, and blowfish lamps. As sparks of lit cinnamon sticks cast sparks over the bar, peruse a menu of iconic tiki classics, modern reinventions, and rum-forward staff creations, all served in various tiki glassware and paired with strength levels for appropriate imbibing. It’s hard to choose wrong here, but our favorites include the lava flow, and of course, the communal volcano bowl, a house original blending potent rums and citrus before being lit ablaze.

Book now on Tock.

Nestled into the foot of Mt. Tabor, Coquine has been among Portland’s best restaurants since it opened 10 years ago. Known for deft seasonal dishes — chef Katy Millard’s resume includes years at Coi and Plum in the Bay Area — Coquine is truly a one-size-fits-all restaurant. By day, the next door market offers coffee alongside some of the city’s best baked goods, plus restaurant-made goods, pantry supplies, and wine. By night, the market transforms into the casual, seafood-focused Katy Jane’s: An Oyster Bar, while Coquine proper focuses on beautifully prepared seasonal cuisine available a la carte or as a prix fixe. At the end of the summer, dishes included chilled yellow squash soup, pork and peach ragu over housemade mafalde pasta, and roasted chicken, glazed in molasses and black pepper, to share.

Book now on Tock.

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.

After a down-the-street move into Clinton Street’s former mussels house La Moule, Portland’s key oyster bar has reopened with all the same favorites. One of the city’s few seafood-centric spots, Jacqueline’s biggest claim to fame is the $1 oyster happy hour (harvested and delivered the same day!) and seasonal menu of fresh fare. Guests line up six days a week for oysters, fish-focused small plates, seasonal veggie salads and fishy large-format dishes. Summertime brings lobster buns, tossing Maine lobster and bay shrimp in lobster aioli; cedar-planked McFarland trout with grilled lemon; and in a nod to the location’s former owners, Totten Inlet mussels dotted with ‘nduja, garlic scapes, and fennel, appropriately named “La Moule.”

A modern Italian-meets-Jewish deli, this is a longtime, well, dream project, from husband-wife team John Bissell (Ava Gene’s) and Jessie Levine. Open for lunch hours five days a week, Dream Deli’s short-but-sweet menu shows off iconic deli offerings with a bit of PNW flair. A quintet of sandwiches range from a classic corned beef and veggie “meatloaf” to a spin on the tuna melt, subbing out smoked tea-cured whitefish for the standard build. A Jewish wedding soup melds matzo ball soup with Italian wedding, and a host of farmers market veg will see itself pickled with the seasons. Elsewhere, sweet and savory baked goods like a chocolate chip schmaltz cookie and a Reuben knish fill out the bakery case.  

Find more info here.