The 38 Essential Restaurants and Food Carts in Portland

With its tangle of rivers, bevy of urban farms, and surplus of talented chefs, Portland is a dining city to its core. At food carts, subterranean bars, and white-tablecloth restaurants, chefs gather some of the region’s finest ingredients to transform into immaculate sushi, handmade pastas, and imaginative pintxos. For a city its size, Portland’s restaurant scene is impressively multifaceted — traditional and offbeat, casual and stylish, covering hundreds of cuisines from various countries and regions around the world. The through-line comes from the city’s collaborative nature, a desire to work with other farmers, producers, and even competitors to make something fun and new.

Each quarter, Eater Portland updates the Eater 38, a list of exceptional restaurants, food carts, and markets that define what it means to eat here. The list sticks to businesses that have been open in Portland for at least a year, and that add something distinct and invaluable to the dining scene at large. In particular, the restaurants and bars that this map celebrates are those who have gone above and beyond in a period when doing the bare minimum is herculean.

This update, Slavic standby Kachka returns to the map, and brunch haven Cafe Rowan makes its Eater 38 debut. The fried chicken food cart Jojo leaves this map while we wait for its restaurant to open, and jianbing staple Bing Mi joins the map. We removed Apizza Scholls, and swapped Gado Gado for Oma’s Hideaway, both owned by power couple Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly. We have also removed Malka, while we review the new menu format. For some of the most exciting new restaurants and carts in Portland, check out the Eater Portland heatmap.

Note: Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission. The latest CDC guidance is here; find a COVID-19 vaccination site here.

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Note: Restaurants on this map are listed geographically.

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