Bacon Maple Bar
Portland's most photographed pastry: a yeast-raised maple-glazed doughnut bar topped with two strips of bacon. Sweet, salty, fatty, fried.
Where: Voodoo Doughnut Old Town, Pip's Original Doughnuts & Chai
Portland eats from the farm, the cart, and the roastery. The city's food story is the Willamette Valley on a plate: berries, hazelnuts, mushrooms, salmon, lamb from the Cascades, and Pinot Noir from Dundee, 30 miles south. The food carts are first-class restaurants here, not novelty. Cartopia on Hawthorne, Prost Marketplace on Mississippi and a sprawl of pods across the eastside feed the city for $10 a plate. The coffee scene set the third-wave template for the country, with Stumptown's 1999 Division Street roastery still pulling Hairbender espresso and Heart, Coava, Push x Pull and Sey-style roasters carrying it forward. Doughnuts, pastry and pizza all do canonical Portland versions: Voodoo's bacon-maple, Pip's chai-and-doughnut counter, Apizza Scholls's 18-inch pies and Lovely's Fifty Fifty's whole-grain crust. The Pinot list at any decent room is local.
Eat your way through Portland
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Map of Portland
Every restaurant, cafe, market and bar we cover in Portland, pinned. Click a pin for the page.
Must-try dishes in Portland
The plates that define eating in Portland.
Khao Soi
Northern Thai curry-noodle soup: egg noodles in a coconut-curry broth with braised chicken, crisp fried noodles on top, pickled mustard greens and lime.
Where: OK Chicken & Khao Soi, Hat Yai Belmont
Thai BBQ Brisket Curry
Texas-style smoked brisket braised in a Thai white curry: coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime, with the burnt brisket ends as the marquee.
Where: Eem, Matt's BBQ
Willamette Valley Pinot Noir flight
A three-glass tasting of Oregon Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley, the cool-climate wine country 30 miles south of Portland that the world watches.
Where: OK Omens, Ava Gene's Wine Bar, Olympia Provisions Bar
Where to eat Willamette Valley Pinot Noir flight in Portland →
Cardamom-Chai Doughnut Flight
Pip's mini cake doughnuts with five-spice chai: doughnuts come hot, six to a basket, served with a flight of cardamom, dirty, vanilla and lavender chai.
Where: Pip's Original Doughnuts & Chai
Khao Man Gai
Thai poached chicken and rice: rice cooked in chicken stock, poached breast on top, with the house ginger-soybean-garlic sauce that finishes the plate.
Where: Nong's Khao Man Gai
Restaurants to know in Portland
A handful of the places we send friends to when they are in Portland.
Le Pigeon
James Beard winner Gabriel Rucker's communal-table bistro on East Burnside, Portland's most decorated French room since 2006 with chef's counter walk-ins.
Signature: Pigeon, Foie gras profiteroles
OK Chicken & Khao Soi
Earl Ninsom, Sam Smith and Eric Nelson's Northern Thai room in Portland reopened the OG Pok Pok building in January 2026 with khao soi and grilled chicken.
Signature: Khao soi, Gai yang
Yaowarat
Earl Ninsom's Bangkok-Chinatown room in Portland's Montavilla neighbourhood, Portland Monthly's 2023 Restaurant of the Year for Thai-Chinese hawker cooking.
Signature: Crispy fried oyster, Five-spice braised pork
Eem
The Earl Ninsom, Eric Nelson and Matt Vicedomini collaboration on N Williams in Portland, where Thai marinade meets Texas-style smoked beef brisket.
Signature: White curry with burnt brisket ends, Crispy chicken
Han Oak
Peter Cho and Sun Young Park's family-table Korean room in the Kerns neighbourhood of Portland, The Oregonian's 2017 Restaurant of the Year.
Signature: Hand-pulled noodles, Galbi
Kachka
Bonnie Morales's Russian and Georgian room in southeast Portland, with infused vodkas, pelmeni dumplings and the city's most authoritative zakuski spread.
Signature: Pelmeni, Khachapuri
Where to eat by neighborhood
Pearl District (pearl-district/pearl)
Converted warehouses west of the river, the Pearl runs from Burnside up to the rail yards. Date-night Italian, Peruvian, and the city's design-set restaurants.
Best for: Date night, Peruvian, Italian, Wine bars
Alberta Arts District (alberta-arts/alberta/concordia)
Twenty blocks of NE Alberta Street between MLK and 33rd, where the ice cream queues form and the bakeries open at seven. Galleries, cocktails, brunch.
Best for: Brunch, Ice cream, Indian, Pizza
Division/Clinton (division-clinton/division/richmond)
SE Division between 11th and 60th is the city's food row, with the original Pok Pok building, Stumptown's 1999 roastery and a line of bakeries.
Best for: Thai, Pizza, Italian, Coffee
Mississippi/Williams (mississippi-williams/mississippi/boise)
Twin north-south corridors in north Portland where the cart pods, the new pizza rooms, and the dessert bars cluster. Brunch crowds on weekends.
Best for: Food carts, Pizza, Brunch, Desserts
Hawthorne/Belmont (hawthorne-belmont/hawthorne/belmont/buckman/sunnyside)
SE Hawthorne and Belmont run parallel through the Buckman and Sunnyside neighbourhoods. Cartopia pod, Apizza Scholls, the dive bars with fried chicken.
Best for: Food carts, Pizza, Wine bars, Dive bars
East Burnside/Kerns (east-burnside-kerns/kerns/east-burnside)
The 700 block of East Burnside is the most decorated stretch in the city, with Le Pigeon, Canard, Heart Roasters and Tusk inside a five-minute walk.
Best for: French, Coffee, Middle Eastern, Tasting menus
When to come hungry in Portland
Peak food season: June through October, when the Willamette Valley harvest peaks. May to early June brings strawberries and asparagus. July is stone fruit. September is mushrooms, hazelnuts and Pinot Noir release.
Local dining hours: Lunch 11:30-14:30, Dinner 17:30-22:00. Most kitchens close by 22:00 on weeknights, 22:30 on weekends. Brunch runs 09:00-15:00 on weekends.
Tipping: Service is not included. 18 to 20 percent on dine-in is standard; 22 percent for excellent service. Counter and food cart: tip jar, $1 to $2 per plate.
Portland food, FAQ
When is the best time to eat in Portland?
Peak food season in Portland is June through October, when the Willamette Valley harvest peaks. May to early June brings strawberries and asparagus. July is stone fruit. September is mushrooms, hazelnuts and Pinot Noir release.
What time do people eat in Portland?
Local dining hours: Lunch 11:30-14:30, Dinner 17:30-22:00. Most kitchens close by 22:00 on weeknights, 22:30 on weekends. Brunch runs 09:00-15:00 on weekends.
How does tipping work in Portland?
Service is not included. 18 to 20 percent on dine-in is standard; 22 percent for excellent service. Counter and food cart: tip jar, $1 to $2 per plate.
What is the one dish to try in Portland?
If you only have one meal, eat Bacon Maple Bar. It is the dish most associated with Portland.