The Best Places in Portland OR

Spella is a tiny downtown espresso bar built the Italian way: a marble counter, a narrow ledge to lean on, and no chairs, so nobody is writing a novel here. The menu sticks to the classics, macchiatos and lattes and espresso with a pleasant bitter edge, all of it ordered, drunk, and finished in about the time it takes to check your phone. It's a coffee break in the original sense, minus the laptop. The Infatuation put it on its list of Portland's coffee shops.

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Coffee Shops In Portland

A downtown coffee shop and roastery that sources beans from Yunnan, China, then puts Chinese flavors in the cup, like an osmanthus latte or a Sichuan pepper mocha that tingles on the way down. The seasonal rose honey pistachio latte has its own devoted following. There are only a few tables and a wall of beans and brewing gear, so you'll mostly be ordering and leaving, or guarding a seat like it's the last lifeboat.

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Coffee Shops In Portland

1. Time Out The 19 best restaurants in Portland, Oregon

The Fresh Pot is a Hawthorne coffee shop attached to a Powell's Books branch, which means half the room is holding a paperback they haven't bought yet. The walls double as a gallery of local paintings, the sconces have curlicues, and regulars with actual newspapers claim the good tables. It's been outlasting trendier cafés since forever, and The Infatuation lists it among Portland's best coffee shops.

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Coffee Shops In Portland

Redwood paneling climbs to a vaulted ceiling lit by stained glass skylights, and a sign on the wall politely warns guests to watch their language. Huber's is a bar that has been around forever, and it shows in the best possible way, with tableside Flaming Spanish Coffees set ablaze by bartenders who have clearly done this before. Old Portland money and curious newcomers share the room, and nobody seems to check their phone.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

Hat Yai is a casual Southern Thai spot on Belmont where the fried chicken comes with a stack of flaky roti and a bowl of curry you will absolutely pour over everything. The breading is rice flour and tapioca, so it shatters, and the pickles on the side are there to remind you that you have a palate. Orders at nearly every table look identical, which is the closest thing Portland has to a group chat.

1. Portland Monthly Fried chicken combo · Portland’s Most Iconic Dishes

1. Portland Monthly Fried chicken combo · Portland’s Most Iconic Dishes

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

Lardo is a casual sandwich shop on SE Hawthorne that grew out of a food cart, and the pork shoulder sando still draws people in with kimchi, chile aioli, and a grilled ciabatta that won't survive your wrists. Portland Monthly put it on its list of the city's most iconic dishes. The dirty fries come buried in pickled peppers and pork bits, so plan on a nap and a loose waistband.

1. Portland Monthly Korean pork shoulder · Portland’s Most Iconic Dishes

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

1. Portland Monthly Doughnuts and chai · Portland’s Most Iconic Dishes

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

1. Eater Portland’s 8 Best Rooftops for Views, Drinks, and Sun

The 65-foot marble bar is the first thing you clock, backed by a wall of taps that looks like it was built for a congregation. Jackknife is a high-volume neighborhood bar attached to the Sentinel Hotel, heavy rock on the speakers and a toasted-oak floor that leans more saloon than cocktail lounge. The short cocktail list skews toward house drinks. Come for draft beer and a loud night out, not a quiet first-date conversation.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

From the street it reads like a shop, and inside it's barely bigger than one, with around thirty seats tucked under warm light and a hefty oak bar. Kask is a cocktail bar with a leather-bound list organized by spirit, leaning hard on amaro, sherry, and vermouth. The drinks skew classical without being stiff about it. Small rooms either feel intimate or claustrophobic, and this one lands on the right side.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Alma is a Balkan dinner spot on Northeast MLK where everything arrives built for sharing, so you'll be passing plates and negotiating over the last bite of octopus. Seafood runs through the menu, alongside an eggplant dish that makes a quiet case for vegetables. Strong black tea starts the meal and cubes of Turkish delight end it, which is more hospitality than most places manage. The cocktails include a lamb fat-washed mezcal, in case that was your next question.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Apna Chat Bhavan is a casual counter-service Indian spot in Beaverton, tucked between a food market and a micro cinema, serving the kind of range most places would split across three restaurants. A "half" order of biryani arrives as a mountain of rice, and the dosa is roughly the length of a small runway. Order at the counter, ignore your better judgment, and save room for the pastry case. Eater included it on its list of Portland's best restaurants and food carts.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Double Dragon is a Division Street lounge where the island-bar mood comes with a short, focused menu of burgers, banh mi, and rice bowls, plus well-made cocktails. Dinner here is bar-priced and nobody is dressed up. The potato salad is the side dish people bring up, creamy and funky with fish sauce and pickled mustard seed, and somehow vegan, which feels like a clerical error in the best way.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

The bar inside Jupiter NEXT Hotel is draped in plants and local art, designed to feel like somewhere sunnier than Portland on a Tuesday. It's a cocktail bar that shapeshifts across the day, quiet enough to nurse a drink in the afternoon and loud enough to justify a second one by night. The drinks lean tropical, bright and built for humidity the Pacific Northwest rarely delivers.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Spirited Awards 2023 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

Kita Steak & Ribs is a steakhouse run like a family business, which it is, with grill-dad barbecue given a Vietnamese accent. It began in a Hillsboro strip mall with a short menu and a loyal following packed into very little room, and it has since moved into nicer digs in Beaverton. The menu has grown a bit, but the beef is still the point. Eater lists it among Portland's best restaurants and food carts.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Lansdowne is a fine-dining room behind an exposed brick facade, where the service is the attentive, old-fashioned kind that notices your glass before you do. The seasonal menu runs to beef tartare and scallops perched on maitakes, plated with care but without the tweezers or the portions that make you stop for a burger afterward. The wine list stays strictly Oregon and Washington, which turns out to be a wider world than it sounds. It's on Eater's list of Portland's best restaurants and food carts.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Masu is an omakase sushi counter that sits at the quiet end of the sushi spectrum, where nobody has ever draped a roll in roe or a squiggle of spicy mayo. The dozen or so courses are mostly about the fish itself, cut with the care of someone sizing a diamond, with the occasional hit of yuzu or grapefruit kosho. It's a sit-down, plan-your-evening, reservation-minded sort of dinner, and Eater has it on its best Portland list.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Mirisata is a counter-service Sri Lankan spot on Belmont, and it's fully vegan, worker-owned, and tip-free, which covers three Portland personality types in one stop. The daily rice and curry arrives on a banana leaf, with four rotating dishes at different heat levels. The roti and pastries are worth a second order if you're bringing company. Eat inside or at the patio picnic tables, and it's listed among Eater's 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Pal's is a seafood restaurant tucked against a yacht club at the far end of Hayden Island, which means you get the marina views without the dock fees or the mildew. Oyster platters and seafood towers sit alongside calamari nachos, a combination that sounds like a dare and goes down easily. It's a casual, convivial spot, best timed so the sun drops into the Columbia while a paloma is in your hand.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

This is a family-run Mexican spot on the Tigard stretch of Pacific Highway, a counter-service taqueria with a panaderia attached and a price tag that won't make you check your balance. The burritos arrive at roughly the size of a throw pillow, and the rice and beans migrate across the plate like they're settling new territory. A glass wall of pan dulce guards the door, which makes leaving without a bag nearly impossible. Eater has it on its list of the best restaurants and food carts in Portland.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Someday is a cocktail bar and restaurant tucked down an alley off Division, so the busiest shopping strip in the neighborhood quietly becomes someone else's problem. The shady patio has a Mediterranean slouch to it, and the drinks lean playful, with basil, strawberry, pandan, and tamarind all getting a turn. Plan on a spritz that turns into the cheese plate, and dress for a first date or a 50th anniversary, both of which fit.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

Sunday Sauce is an Italian-American restaurant on North Killingsworth that treats New Jersey red-sauce comfort food as a cuisine worth remastering. The decor is a loving nod to Y2K little league pizza parties, which is a sentence nobody expected to write about a pasta joint. It works for a date or a Tuesday, and the lunch menu now runs to heroes and subs, with the Bergen County line debate left to you.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

A roadside soft-serve stand on the Historic Columbia River Highway, Sugarpine has been stopping Gorge-bound traffic for a long time, the building's past lives as a gas station and bait shop still faintly readable in its bones. The Cherries Jubilee Sundae landed on the New York Times list of the year's standout dishes: sour-cherry sauce, almond brittle, cherry almond baba rhum, and vanilla soft-serve doing a lot of quiet work together for nine dollars.

1. The New York Times 2024 · Cherries Jubilee Sundae · The 26 Best Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2024

1. Esquire #16 · The Best New Restaurants in America
2. The New York Times The Restaurant List

1. Esquire #16 · The Best New Restaurants in America

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants