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.

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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.

If you’re even somewhat aware of Oregon’s wine scene, you’ve likely heard of David and Lois Cho. The Korean American couple first rose to local fame via social media, sharing their journey and dreams of one day opening a winery in Oregon after leaving friends and careers in California behind. Over the past six years, the couple has steadily shared their progress, setbacks, and wines online, from their first eponymous label in 2020 to a full-scale tasting room, bottle list, club, events and more as the state’s first Korean American vintners. Inside the airy tasting room (or on the patio, weather permitting), which overlooks the Wapato Lake Wildlife Refuge, sip six of their house wines or opt for the sparkling tasting, which exemplifies winemaker David’s award-winning method sparkling wines and pet-nats.

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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.

Portland offers just about every type of sushi experience, from chef counters to vegan preps to Americanized mega roll standbys to ultra high-end specialty spots. Kaede, a sushi-kappo spot in a small Sellwood storefront, falls somewhere in the latter, with a delicate, seasonally focused tasting-meets-bistro menu that changes each month. Guests seated at the sushi counter will begin their menus with a few sips of sweet corn surinagashi with shrimp oil, while table seats kick off with tomato and striped jack in a tomato dashi vinaigrette. For $12 extra, sushi counter seats will also nab an extra mini hand-roll during the nigiri course, which features 10 pieces of sushi sourced straight from the famed Toyosu fish market in Japan, interrupted halfway with a small bowl of miso soup.

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This Hawthorne Avenue wine bar is home to one of the city’s best wine lists — alongside the most creative tasting descriptions we’ve maybe ever seen. Once the never-too-serious little sister to fine dining restaurant Castagna, OK Omens has grown into its own over the past eight years, landing among the city’s best happy hours (and two James Beard nominations in ‘23 and ‘24) with creative snacks and plates that have a “maniacal devotion to quality sourcing” and frequently pair best with their “deep love of riesling.” As summer winds down, enjoy the final few weeks of patio season with a glass of white Burgundy or an Italian orange wine with notes of “sunburnt pear dipped in melted marzipan” and the Albacore crudo with housemade potato chips and charcoal-grilled dry aged trout.

Few restaurants over the past decade have brought a national buzz to Portland the way Kann has. Nearly four years in, it remains one of the best, showcasing the ingenuity and tenacity of Portland chefs, and helping launch their careers elsewhere across the country, too. Completely gluten- and dairy-free unbeknownst to many, Kann proudly focuses on chef Gregory Gourdet’s Haitian heritage. Signature dishes — the bread, cleverly made with plantain flour and served with epis butter, and the griyo twice-cooked pork — are staples alongside any number of plates emerging from the wood-fired hearth. Look for a centerpiece jerk-marinated whole cauliflower served with coconut sour cream, grilled pork coppa with confit potatoes and pikliz remoulade, and a celebration-worthy coffee-rubbed smoked beef rib. Even now it can be hard to find tables, so snag a spot when you see it.

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.

On Thursday nights from 5 to 8 p.m., you’ll find Berlu chef Vince Nguyen and a small team of cooks taking a break from the pastry concept to vigorously fan a long, smoky grill while plating a menu of chef-ified classic Vietnamese dishes into the bakery’s briefly-charcoal-scented dining room. This casual, walk-ins-only “Night Market” is one of the city’s best recent pop-ups, serving excellent versions of chao tom,  shrimp meatballs wrapped around sugarcane; banh cuon, delicate rice sheets wrapped around wood ear mushrooms and Lan Roc pork paired with a fiery chile oil and nuoc mam; and the main event, bun cha, vermicelli noodles topped with grilled pork belly and meatballs, herbs, peanuts and more. Make sure to order at least a few dishes and save room for dessert: The grilled banana and sticky rice served with grilled banana leaf ice cream is phenomenal and — unbelievably — vegan to boot.

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This palo santo-scented companion to Montavilla’s beloved Bellwether Bar brings a cozy sweetness to Southeast Belmont. Settling into the former Sweet Hereafter digs, Bar Loon softened the longtime vegan bar with marble accents, fresh and dried flowers, and a menu that showcases why eating seasonally can be so special. Start with the bright farm salad showered in Fiore Sardo before ordering from the long and lovely small plates selection. Recently, we’ve found ourselves spending more and more time on the covered indoor/outdoor patio on sunny days exploring the bar’s rotating “scoots” menu: a seasonal selection of half-sized classic cocktails ($8), like Negronis, martinis, and Manhattans, alongside crispy fried artichokes with Calabrian chile mayo.

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For wine lovers in Oregon, fall is one of the best times to head to the Willamette Valley. Sure, you could drive there and back after a day of tastings, but for those looking to celebrate a special occasion, book a mini-staycation, or simply have a great evening, head to Jory at the Allison Inn, the Valley’s award-winning luxury resort tucked into the foothills of the Chehalem Mountains. Jory’s farm-to-table menus — with many ingredients grown year-round in the adjacent 1.5-acre farm — span all day: from straightforward breakfast beginning at 7 a.m. to midday brunch to happy hour to a more casual dinner setup in the living room to upscale dining served a la carte or as a five-course tasting menu. Naturally, menus here shift with the seasons, but recently featured halibut in a green garlic veloute and grilled pork loin with charred eggplant puree.

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This vibey, Millennial pink East Burnside restaurant remains a mainstay for Mediterranean-inspired dishes built with locally sourced produce. A hefty snacks and dips menu with favorites like silky hummus and labneh with hot pepper and green olives kicks off a lengthy choose-your-own-adventure menu. Find a heavy vegetable presence here, with options like crunchy falafel, little gems tossed with crispy shallots and smoked goat cheese in a pomegranate-Dijon vinaigrette and heirloom carrots scattered with puffed sorghum. Meat and seafood mains range from beef kafta skewers to hawaij-spiced chicken thighs with saffron rice to Friday- and Saturday-only lamb ribs lacquered with a black garlic glaze.

Coming this fall from the owners of Urdaneta, Alberta Street’s beloved, longstanding pintxos and tapas bar, will be the couple’s second restaurant, named Feli after chef Javier Canteras’ grandmother. Trading in inspiration from Basque Country for Southern Spain, guests should expect the same level of care and focus at Feli, alongside a slate of new dishes now rarely found in Portland. Though menu details are far from finalized, expect crudos and raw seafood preparations, a housemade mojama, cuts of Iberian pork, llauna rice, and a sherry-focused bar program. Construction is still underway, but expected to be completed this month. And for cravings in the meantime, head to Urdaneta.

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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.”

For years, this retro red-, yellow-, and blue-striped food cart has served some of the city’s best burgers, smashed thin and seared to a crisp with the classic cheese, onion, pickle, and special sauce toppings, all stacked on a Franz bun. Paired with excellent fries dusted in “super salt” and the cool ranch-dusted chicken nuggets, it’s always been good times here. This past July, those good times got an upgrade into a full-scale brick-and-mortar, located just next door. Now, under wood paneling and neon lights, find the full cart menu alongside a handful of new items like a crunchy ice house salad, and a full drink menu, from creative highballs to beer and wine to house-branded root beer, served in a frosty mug.

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