Portland - Need Recommendations for Upcoming Visit - Restaurants & Breweries?

Americas - USA West Greater Seattle / Pacific Northwest
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Hi All,

Was wondering if anyone had recommendations for the Portland area for:

  • Great food (any cuisine). Price range around $100/person max or so (before tax & tip).

  • Great breweries specializing in Stouts / Porters.

Thanks in advance! (@Srsly @attran99 and others.)

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For breweries specializing in stouts I would recommend Great Notion, Rogue and Modern Times. A few notes though. Modern Times has a bunch of breweries in SD, Carlsbad, DTLA and opening soon Anaheim so not a local Portland brewery but they have very good stouts on tap right now. You may have already visited some of their other locations so might want to try other places. Great Notion is more well known for hazy IPA but they have a couple good stouts. Most of them use maple syrup as its main adjunct. A tad on the sweeter side and a very distinct flavor. I think it’s worth trying but if you are not a fan of maple syrup then I’d pass. Rogue is old school but stl make very good stouts. They have some unique flavor combinations like spicy Siracha flavored stouts.

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Le Pigeon, save room for the foie gras profiteroles

https://lepigeon.com/

Olympic Provisions, I usually just nosh on all the different charcuteries
https://www.olympiaprovisions.com/

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Thanks @Jase @js76wisco!

Really appreciate the recs. :slight_smile:

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Dunno if this is any good but I had an amazing “anaerobic washed” coffee tasting experience at their main location in Melbourne a few months ago. They mentioned opening a branch in Portland recently

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We’re going in August, so am going to piggyback off of this list. My intern at work is from Portland and has given me a list of recs…I’ll have pull that up for you and post it as options for you.

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Hi @Chowseeker1999!

Portland is an awesome eating city, and I think you’ll have a great time. In my experience, almost anywhere outside of the few very highest end places will be more than doable for $100pp - it’s a distinctly more affordable city than LA (though tbh I almost never spend more than $100 in LA either…).

From my couple visits I’d recommend Eem (Texas BBQ + Thai food with a Tiki kind of theme? It’s bonkers but it really works - be prepared to wait though), Ok Omens, Olympia Provisions, and Ava Gene’s for sit-down meals. I have a ton of places marked because they sound great that I haven’t been able to try, yet, too… (Dame, Jacqueline, Gumba, Kachka…)

It definitely seems like an IPA + Sour city on the beer front, but as @js76wisco mentioned above Great Notion makes some pretty cool pastry-style stouts (big and sweet with lots of added flavors). I also like a lot of the malty beers from Hair of the Dog, who make all sorts of interesting and unusual styles, relatively few of which are IPAs. It’s refreshing, and their spot also has a fun old-school brewery vibe.

You could always try Apex and Beermonger too - Apex is a casual / mildly divey beer bar that always has a great tap list, and Beermonger is a bottle shop/bar combination, so they’ll have a wide array of local beers to try. I’d also keep an eye out for Pfriem beers - like many of the PNW breweries they lean towards funky farmhouse beers, but they make a couple of very nice stouts and dark beers too.

Have an awesome trip!

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By chance, did you ever get the opportunity to visit Portland? @Chowseeker1999

As part of my cooking at home experiments during this time, I’ve been trying to recreate the breakfast hash (with fingerling potatoes and chanterelles mushrooms) at Coquine. They are a very small restaurant, and I hope anyone who lives in the area would consider supporting them, by picking up some of their food. I do hope they’re doing well.
Pickup order info here: https://www.coquinepdx.com/
They remind me of LA’s Milo and Olive, their flavor profile almost belong to the same category. While it looks out of the way on the map, if you’re driving, everything in Portland seems reachable within 15 minutes.

I also made a stop at Le Pigeon, @Jase’s recommendation. The counter is similar to what I imagine the original Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare in NYC sorta looked. The food was very creative, and sometimes exceeding 20 ingredients per dish. They were kind enough to sign a cookbook I bought from them, and the sommelier is an absolute expert of wine.

Also finally paid a visit to Beast. Had the interesting experience of being seated at their banquet table. Everyone’s meal starts at once, at the same time. The view of the prep area was fun. The guy seated in front of me was hilarious, the ‘bro’ type. He seemed very knowledgeable in all kinds of food and wine. Endless entertainment as we explained to his date all the dishes, and frequently expressed his ‘wow!’ out of amazement at each dish, proceeding to turn around and yell out his praises to the chef. Sommelier here is also very serious, and extremely good with words, in the way he explained all the differences in wines to everyone.

Langbaan seems like a difficult reservation, if you have months to plan.

I had 3 types of coffee drinks at different locations of Heart. So much better than Stumptown. The milk in Oregon is sensational, rich and creamy, and I must sadly admit, much better than what you get in California.

Besides beer, you should also try cider. I learned how proud they are locally of their cider culture. Belmont Station was for me, the most impressive selection of beer in a store here. Imperial Bottle Shop is also pretty cool. But great beer is just about everywhere. Like @Srsly mentioned, I couldn’t help but notice the ubiquitous sight of Pfriem everywhere.

@Sgee I stepped into Proud Mary. But being the fool that I am, I ordered and iced tea instead of coffee. I have tried their beans though.

There are well known chains like:
Salt and Straw, the location at NW 23rd, I think it’s called the Alphabet District great street to browse shops
Blue Star Donuts

The one market that really impressed me is this gourmet goods shop called Providore Fine Foods.

There seems to be a really strong culture here of food halls called ‘pods’.

Well, I hope some of this is helpful. I think it’s good to keep this sort of itinerary making mindset in practice, to stay sane. I look forward to hearing the city get back on its feet after all this.

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