It’s time to update the Eater 38, the list of exceptional restaurants, food carts, and markets that define what it means to eat in Portland. The Eater 38 encompasses the entire city, spans myriad cuisines and dining styles, and collectively satisfies all restaurant needs, whether diners want to drop serious cash or magically transform a few bucks into a meal.
As happens every three months, the Eater 38 adds new stalwarts while others come off. On this update, we’re making some swaps: Ichiza Kitchen in Goose Hollow, Nimblefish, and Smokin Fire Fish join the map, while The Sudra, Jacqueline, and Stretch the Noodle leave.
Don’t see your favorite restaurant below? Rather than go into conniptions, let us know by lobbying for it over the tipline. Note, the points on this map guide are not ranked; rather, they’re organized geographically. Looking for Portland’s hottest new restaurants? Find them on the Eater PDX Heatmap.
1. Ataula
Portland, OR 97210
Eater PDX’s 2013 Chef of the Year Jose Chesa emphasizes a convivial vibe at his modern Spanish gastropub in Northwest Portland, and with a lively dining room facing an open kitchen, it’s not a stuffy “tapas restaurant.” The tapas themselves combine similar levels of comforting familiarity and playfulness: Beef and potato “bombas” arrive in a suitably spicy sauce; chorizo “lollipops” are hard to forget; and an almost-savory sangria is the ideal drink for rainy evenings.
2. Restaurant St. Jack
Portland, OR 97210
Eater PDX’s 2011 Restaurant of the Year spins the decadent French dining experience into a spacious, sleek NW bistro. An evening at St. Jack can feel light and laid-back over a pile of oysters and simple steak frites, but it’s far more likely to be an event, with rich roasted bone marrow dressed in caramelized onions and gooey gruyere, collard green gratin with duck confit and foie gras butter, and a dauntingly large landscape of fried pork rind with warm maple syrup — it’s best used as a vehicle for the restaurant’s chicken liver mousse, as cool and sweet as ice cream.
3. Ichiza Kitchen
Portland, OR 97201
In a tiny nook within a quiet stretch of Goose Hollow, Ichiza Kitchen is often packed with fashionable 20somethings chatting over bottles of sake and tea, the smell of sesame oil and ginger permeating the space while Missy Elliot plays over the speakers. Here, Cyrus Ichiza creates completely vegan, truly nuanced dishes representing various corners of Asia: shockingly meaty wontons in a beautifully balanced chili oil sauce, noodle soups with the complexity of a top-notch pho, and mapo tofu with astoundingly porky flavor to ground its mouth-tingling ma la.
4. Duck House Chinese Restaurant
Portland, OR 97201
In a casual former taproom, Duck House has finally provided Portland with a dreamy Chinese restaurant in the heart of the city. Since his 2016 arrival, San Diego chef Ivan Liu has played with heat and aromatics like a master, from delicate wontons with savory chile oil-spiked broth to tingly dan dan noodles with borderline-bitter bite. Deeply flavorful xiao long bao look their best in a table by the window, with a view of the game from mounted TVs.
5. MÅURICE
Portland, OR 97205
In a bright, beautifully appointed hole-in-the-wall venue near Powell’s Books, Kristen D. Murray delivers exactly what Portland didn’t know it needed: an incredibly charming “pastry luncheonette” that focuses equal attention on sweets and savory fare. The result is one of the city’s top leisurely lunch and dessert experiences, complete with artfully plated black pepper cheesecakes; warm, soft Meyer lemon pudding cakes; and bowls of super-fresh clams paired with duck fat dumplings.
6. Departure
Portland, OR 97204
Located on the 15th floor of the Nines Hotel, Departure serves eclectic Asian dishes in a dining room that could pass for a spaceship’s interior, including two large patios with great city views. But culinary director Gregory Gourdet’s array of seafood-heavy and meatless dishes, from super-fresh kampachi sashimi with roof-grown strawberries to vegan salads dotted with cilantro oil, impress far beyond any skyline view. Inspired by Gourdet’s time staging in kitchens from Thailand to Japan, sashimi, salads, and shaved ice desserts are a crime to ignore.
7. Lovely’s Fifty Fifty
Portland, OR 97217
In a pizza cafe that feels casual but intimate, pizzaiola Sarah Minnick embraces paradoxes beautifully: She took something brimming with childhood nostalgia — pizza and ice cream — and gave it a high-end twist. Seasonally rotating pizzas arrive strewn with edible flowers and chanterelles atop an airy-but-sturdy pizza dough made with Oregon whole grains. Portland may not be known for its pies, but if someone is defining Portland’s distinct pizza style, it’s Minnick.
8. Matt’s BBQ
Portland, OR 97217
Portland isn’t exactly a barbecue destination, but pitmaster Matt Vicedomini changed the game with his Texas-style food cart, which almost always attracts lines from its corner of Prost Marketplace. The payoff is down-home decadent: fall-apart brisket with black-and-peppery bark, ribs that slip off the bone like a silk glove, and gooey queso macaroni and cheese.
9. Olympia Provisions SE
Portland, OR 97214
In a sleek, industrial space with surprisingly quaint dining nooks, Olympia Provisions’s Inner Southeast holdout famously boasts Oregon’s first USDA certified meat-curing facility — but beyond the obligatory charcuterie plate, dishes like steak tartare and octopus a la plancha with chorizo Navarre elevate this local sausage giant to essential restaurant status. The weekend brunch, full of egg Benedicts with sweetheart ham and hashes with kielbasa and lardons, is one of the city’s most underrated.
10. Ox
Portland, OR 97212
Husband-and-wife team Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñonez Denton ignited Portland’s dining scene with their Northeast Portland Argentinian-ish steakhouse, where wood-grilled simplicity meets evil-genius concoctions like sweetbread “croutons” and smoked bone marrow clam chowder. The restaurant often has a hefty wait time, but it’s worth the wait for a chef’s counter spot around the crackling oven.
11. Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen
Portland, OR 97212
In a small parking lot off MLK, this red food cart and its massive “#Loaded” sign attracts hoards of customers as soon as it opens at noon. Cheerfully, owner Kiauna Nelson and her staff load up gargantuan containers of saucy-and-smoky pot roast and garlicky macaroni and cheese; the menu changes per Nelson’s whim, and her devotees usually go along with whatever she feels like serving. There’s a reason for that: Nelson’s food evokes shouts for how flavorful it is, from the fried chicken tossed in a seasoning reminiscent of Buffalo Bleu potato chips to her slices of cake, thrown in with the order for good measure. One meal is enough to feed four, and make no mistake: This is some of Portland’s finest soul food.
12. Nong’s Khao Man Gai
Portland, OR 97214
Nong’s Khao Man Gai makes a play at world domination with its no-frills, sit-down restaurant space open late enough for dinner. Chef Nong Poonsukwattana’s signature dish, a deceptively simple take on Hainanese chicken, takes center stage here in Southeast Portland and at her downtown restaurant. Ask five acolytes their favorite part of the dish and each will offer a different answer: the soul-satisfying broth, the rice, Nong’s ginger-heavy sauce, or the chicken itself, skins or no.
