Listed below are Portland’s 25 finest new eating places for 2022

November 21, 2022

Have you ever ever learn a restaurant listicle and puzzled … wait, how did this come collectively? Has the author even been to Portland? Didn’t that one place shut final yr? Typically, it’s finest to do the precise legwork. As a substitute of web analysis carried out in some New York workplace constructing, restaurant critic Michael Russell spent the previous two months visiting greater than 70 new Portland eating places to carry you our upcoming listing of 2022′s prime 10. To kick issues off, he’s naming his 25 favourite nominees, every opened up to now yr (kind of). Learn why they stood out, then test again in December to see which of them made the ultimate listing.

Bar Cala

With gentle pink partitions and tropical palms, this self-described “Latin bar” appears extra like a watering gap in South Seashore than a former electrical substation in Northeast Portland. However hey, a little bit break from the chilly climate sounds fairly good proper about now. At Bar Cala, the meals matches the vibe, from the chile-charged seafood aguachile to the potato-carrot dorados to the juicy burger with caramelized pineapple relish, every well-considered and properly executed. If summer time crowds turned you away, attempt dropping by now, particularly throughout completely happy hour, which begins as early as 3 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, for some botanas — together with my favourite fresh-fried tortilla chips and fluffy guacamole for the reason that short-lived Chalino — and a traditional Tommy’s Margarita (and to knock a couple of bucks off your invoice). 2703 N.E. Alberta St., 503-719-4290, barcalapdx.com

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Bluto’s

It’s been greater than a decade since Rick Gencarelli moved right here from New England. After increasing his sandwich store Lardo and pasta spin-off Grassa into a number of places every, Bluto’s looks like a recentering of priorities. Right here, Gencarelli and govt chef Barry Fitzpatrick have constructed a menu round souvlaki: lamb, hen, shrimp and sausage skewered and charred over a wood-fired fireplace, finest paired with creamy hummus and small, fluffy rounds of pita, every served in a slim paper sleeve. Add in seasonal salads and veggie dishes, ouzo-based cocktails and traditional soft-serve ice cream dipped in chocolate tahini magic shell or drizzled with honey and halva, and you’ve got a brand new restaurant that already looks like an establishment. 2838 S.E. Belmont St., blutospdx.com

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Cafe Olli

Plenty of new eating places are opening as “all-day cafes,” a hip label hinting at an formidable goal: to revive eating places’ function as a vital third place for gathering all through the day. Few have realized that aim as utterly as Cafe Olli, which opens from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days every week with a number of the metropolis’s finest pastries by morning and a contender for Portland’s finest new pizza at night time. Which means you may arrive early for a espresso and a flaky, blistered Portuguese egg custard tart for breakfast, a skillet of baked eggs and cannellini beans throughout weekend brunch or drop by at dinnertime, when the previous Ned Ludd oven seems super-thin pizzas topped with shiny tomato sauce and house-made stracchiatella. In February, we known as that pomodoro pie “the one most spectacular pizza in Portland proper now” — phrases we stand by 9 months later. 3925 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., 503-206-8604 cafeolli.com

Canard Oregon Metropolis

When most Portland eating places head to the ‘burbs, it’s to some small pockets of actual property: Central Beaverton, downtown Lake Oswego and maybe Vancouver’s new waterfront. Credit score to Canard for bucking the pattern. At their new Oregon Metropolis restaurant, Gabriel Rucker, Andy Fortgang, Taylor Daugherty and Co. have carried the fun-loving method to menu growth from their East Burnside restaurant right here to the previous Grano bakery house. The place else can you discover beet jojos with Pernod mayonnaise, Tokyo sizzling hen tenders or Salisbury steak frites? The best hits are right here, together with the duck stack and the White Fortress-inspired steam burger. However there’s one thing else new for the ‘burbs: A “Little Geese” children part full with Funfetti pancakes, printed proper on the primary menu. 1500 Washington St., Oregon Metropolis; 503-344-4247, canardrestaurant.com

Dolly Olive

For those who wished to attract a crowd to your restaurant in 2022, you most likely led with pasta. Among the most packed eating rooms I’ve visited have been somewhat-to-mostly Italian, together with North Portland’s Tartuca (3951 N. Mississippi Ave.), Northeast’s Scholar (2226 N.E. Broadway), plus a number of others additional down on this listing. Among the many extra achieved iterations is that this restaurant from Sesame Collective, the group behind Mediterranean Exploration Firm and the close by Lil’ Shalom. Discovered within the nook house beforehand house to Grüner and Bistro Agnes, Dolly Olive, a describes itself as a “Southern Mediterranean” restaurant with house-made pasta and bread. On a current go to, the focaccia and rigatoni amatriciana have been good, as was the olive-infused freezer martini, however higher was a traditional caprese with burrata, balsamic, basil and a few surprisingly tasty late-season tomatoes. 527 S.W. twelfth Ave., 503-719-6921, dollyolivepdx.com

The Dough Zone Dumpling House in downtown Portland

Dough Zone’s signature pan-fried Q bao get a sprinkling of black and white sesame seeds.The Oregonian

Dough Zone

Portland has lengthy been the beneficiary of Seattle Chinese language eating places trying to develop. First there was the Sichuan bumper crop, with Style of Sichuan and Szechuan Chef (which begat Tasty Nook, see under) heading south on I-5. Then Din Tai Fung staged its upcoming Portland takeover by opening a primary location in Beaverton. Dough Zone, a dumpling-world competitor to Din Tai Fung within the Northwest, is the most recent import, taking on the putting waterfront constructing as soon as house to fine-dining catastrophe Lucier. You’re right here for dumplings: piping sizzling soup dumplings, lacey pan-fried potstickers, steamed shrimp-pork dumplings. However you need to save room for home specialities such because the spiralized cucumber, dainty pan-fried “Q” bao and one of many simple-but-good noodle bowls. Sure, the house is an odd match for the comparatively humble menu — the dim sum certainly can be simply as tasty in a much less dramatic setting. However from the place I stand, regardless of the setting, extra dumplings can hardly be a foul factor. 1910 S. River Dr., 503-446-3500, doughzonedumplinghouse.com

El Yike Oaxaqueño

I’ve visited Oaxaca, however by no means tried yique earlier than visiting El Yike Oaxaqueño, a 6-month-old restaurant within the former La Superior house. The North Portland restaurant makes a speciality of yique, a sort-of savory soup created from corn cured in home that will get layered with strips of goat meat. I don’t know that the chewy goat meat could have common enchantment, however the soup base itself is impressively nourishing, particularly with the climate turning chilly. And if soup isn’t your bag, El Yike has different, extra acquainted dishes to fit your urge for food, together with empanadas, tamales and two moles, an amarillo and a mole Oaxaqueño deeply price your time. 2727 N. Lombard St., 503-206-5313, orderelyikeoaxaqueno.com

Gabbiano’s

Have you ever heard of Aperitiki, the brand new worldwide cocktail pattern that mixes Italian spritz tradition with traditional Tiki drinks? Gabbiano’s, a brand new Italian joint in Northeast, doesn’t precisely do Aperitiki — a tropically shiny amaretto bitter slushee with aged Jamaican rum most likely comes closest — however from the crispy mozzarella cups overflowing with tomato sauce to the outsized plates of house-made spaghetti and meatballs, it does appear equally taken with tweaking custom whereas having enjoyable. Regardless of that sense of playfulness, Gabbiano’s is a red-sauce restaurant by and thru, way more pleasant than Portland’s overstuffed pre-pandemic takes on Italian-American delicacies, and an excellent new date-night possibility for 2022. 5411 N.E. thirtieth Ave., 503-719-4373, gabbianospdx.com

The fried chicken melt sandwich at Jojo (the Restaurant)

A fried hen soften sandwich from former meals cart Jojo’s new brick-and-mortar restaurant.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian

Jojo

Meals carts typically battle to scale up when making the brick-and-mortar soar. That’s not the case with Jojo, which introduced its namesake potato wedges, crunchy fried-chicken sandwiches, scorching smash burgers and social media goodwill to the Pearl District with out skipping a beat. The menu has grown, with a separate vegan menu crammed with crispy Ota tofu sandwiches and spicy Past burgers, former specials discovering a extra everlasting house and many sweets, together with Funfetti-topped shakes, traditional cocktails and a half dozen desserts. In case you have a food-loving teenager in your life, shock them with a birthday journey to Jojo. They’ll thanks sometime. 902 N.W. thirteenth Ave., 971-331-4284, jojopdx.com

Kann

For those who’ve learn this far down a brand new restaurant listing, I’ll assume you’ve both already heard about Kann, the brand new wood-fired Haitian restaurant from “Prime Chef” star Gregory Gourdet, or have spent the previous few years dwelling underneath a rock. Gourdet, who first introduced plans to open a restaurant of his personal in 2019, explores the flavors of Haiti, the place his mother and father have been born earlier than transferring to New York. The restaurant is attractive, with white partitions, gold accents and open sightlines all through the eating room and kitchen, the place Gourdet will be noticed ending plates of epis-rubbed hen or smoked beef ribs with herbs and oil. Reservations have been arduous to come back by, but when you’ll find a seat, attempt the twice-cooked pork, a kind of mission-statement plate of supremely tender meat, contemporary avocado, fried inexperienced plantains and pikliz, the spicy Haitian pickled cabbage. 548 S.E. Ash St., 503-702-0290, kannrestaurant.com

La Fondita (et al)

Between the bakery, the cafes, the taqueria and the cocktail bar, maintaining with República Hospitality’s current openings will be head-spinning. The restaurant group, which rose to prominence final yr by its eponymous Pearl District tasting menu spot, launched a half dozen new initiatives in 2022, together with Lilia (3159 S. Moody Ave.), an thrilling new South Waterfront spot introduced as we have been finalizing this listing (I promise to report again quickly). The meals at La Fondita, discovered within the former Park Kitchen, resembles Republica’s early lunch menu, with a soul-nourishing menudo, a spot-on sopa de fideo and the tri-color quesadilla with its signature swoosh of salsa matcha. A number of nights after visiting, I returned to the adjoining Taqueria Los Ponchos, the place I loved some tacos and a beer earlier than a live performance downtown. Lower than two weeks later, the house reopened as Comala, an upscale cocktail bar. 422 N.W. Eighth Ave.

Masala Lab

Sitting alone at this really que Indian brunch spot, sipping a mug of sizzling chai and dipping ghee-spread gluten-free toast right into a paella pan of saagshuka, I discovered myself fascinated with Houston. Particularly, I puzzled whether or not Masala Lab, the most recent challenge from Desi PDX cart proprietor Deepak Saxena, can be extra celebrated in a metropolis with a extra developed Indian meals scene. If this similar menu — with its breakfast dahl, chicken-fried lamb and that saagshuka, a spinach-fused mix of Indian saag and North African shakshuka — have been the brunch providing at a resort restaurant from Anita Jaisinghani or another well-known chef, would the eating room be full? There’s no option to inform, however although some Masala Lab dishes got here off a little bit bland, it’s a must to respect a spot that’s making an attempt one thing new. Particularly once they include a free refills on that spicy chai. 5237 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 971-340-8635, masalalabpdx.com

Mis Tacones

Final yr marked a powerful rise for Portland’s vegan scene, with new eating places providing plant-based takes on Sri Lankan delicacies (Mirisata), soul meals (Soiled Lettuce) and Vietnamese (Mama Đút), amongst others. The push of latest openings slowed this yr, however there have been a number of new additions, together with Lilla (960 S.E. Madison St.), a pasta store the place I just lately had some gentle tagliolini in a surprisingly tasty, presumably Parm-free pesto. Even a meat eater can discover one thing to like at Mis Tacones, the brick-and-mortar model of the Chicano- and queer-owned former Gateway space meals cart, which carries on its coverage of providing free meals for trans individuals of shade. Right here within the previous Tiffin Asha house, house owners Polo Bañuelos and Carlos Reynoso make pure consolation meals, maintain the carne. Tacos, burritos and (sure!) chimichangas as a substitute include house-made seitan spiced like asada, carnitas and extra — all underneath the watchful visage of famed astrologer Walter Mercado, Mis Tacones’ modern-day patron saint. 1670 N.E. Killingsworth St., 503-444-7972

An espresso martini on a wooden table at the upcoming Pacific Standard.

Present in KEX resort’s library-esque foyer, Pacific Normal is a fantastic place take pleasure in a espresso cocktail and a superb e book.Courtesy of Pacific Normal/Rachelle Hacmac

Pacific Normal

If you already know something about Pacific Normal, it’s most likely that it’s the primary bar from longtime Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler and partner-in-crime Benjamin “Banjo” Amberg. As somebody who ranked Morgenthaler’s barrel-aged Negroni among the many finest issues I ate in 2011 (underneath the “dessert” class, lol), the pitch-perfect chilly brew espresso martinis and old-school Outdated Fashioneds right here is likely to be sufficient to safe it a spot on this listing. However there’s one thing good a couple of meals menu as unfussy as Pacific Normal’s, with its Willapa Bay oysters and shrimp cocktails, sizzling sauce Deviled eggs and steak frites and, for dessert, chocolate chip cookies from Morgenthaler’s personal internet-famous recipe. Just like the cocktails, some traditional dishes don’t want a twist. 100 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., kexhotels.com/eat-drink/pacificstandard

Pah!

The menu at this new Deaf-owned restaurant in The Zed meals corridor reads like easy pub fare: burgers, fries, fish and chips. Probably the most unique merchandise is likely to be an Outback-style blooming onion. However visiting Pah!, named for the American Signal Language time period for “lastly,” is a rare expertise nonetheless. Right here, prospects can signal their order — house owners Lillouie Barrios, who’s deaf, and husband Victor Covarrubias, each perceive ASL — or by talking close to a pill on the counter outfitted with speech-to-text software program. It’s an inversion of the standard deaf-hearing dynamic, a fish-out-of-water feeling not dissimilar to ordering in a international language. And better of all, 10 minutes later, you’ll have a tasty cheeseburger to pair with a Zoiglhaus pilsner from the neighboring bar. 5716 S.E. 92nd Ave., 503-500-5742, eatpah.com

Pastificio D’oro

After I look again on the summer time, one in all my fondest reminiscences is sitting with buddies on the wobbly picnic tables exterior this pasta pop-up, the solar slowly dropping behind the Wishing Effectively’s neon palm tree simply down the road. At Pastificio D’oro, which just lately inherited the unique Gracie’s Apizza house full time, chef Chase Dopson and accomplice Maggie Irwin, a painter, serve pastas minimize from sheets rolled out fully by hand utilizing an extended picket rolling pin, a way extra acquainted to Emilia-Romagna nonnas than typical American eating places. For those who go, you’ll discover a zippy salad made utilizing Irwin’s honey-sweet dressing, some good aged prosciutto, two pastas — a squash-stuffed tortelli, maybe, alongside a tagliatelle al ragu — and a country dessert. Lately, the solar is lengthy passed by 5 p.m., however with Pastificio’s new weekend hours, now you can eat contemporary pasta with a glass of wine, then head throughout the road for a film on the St. Johns Twin. Identify a extra iconic duo…I’ll wait. 8737 N. Lombard St., doropdx.com

Pasture

“Have you ever tried Pasture but?” a sandwich-loving good friend texted me final summer time. “I believe I discovered my Tails & Trotters alternative.” I had passed by as soon as, hoping to attempt one of many new deli’s casual small plates dinners, when steaks ordered straight from the butcher case may very well be seared off and eaten on the spot with a glass of pure wine. However these early night companies have been dropped shortly in favor of to-go dinner containers. What I didn’t know then was that Pasture had already turn into an excellent sandwich store, with tasty grinders filled with house-cured meats on fluffy Dos Hermanos rolls. Order at will amongst the cold and hot sandwiches and also you’ll discover one thing you want. And for anybody sick of the smash burger pattern, Pasture’s thicker patty highlights grass-fed beef floor course, gently seared and topped with pickled peppers and aioli on a brioche bun. Held collectively by prayers and melted provolone, that is one in all Portland’s finest new burgers. 1413 N.E. Alberta St., 503-841-5033, pasturepdx.com

Phuket Cafe in Northwest Portland offers fusion Thai

The multi-layered coconut ash crepe cake from Northwest Portland’s Phuket Cafe.The Oregonian

Phuket Cafe

Between the bone-in pork chops and dry-aged ribeyes, it’s most likely finest to consider Phuket Cafe as one thing of a Thai steakhouse. Which is smart, on condition that restaurateur Earl Ninsom (Hat Yai, PaaDee) and resident ringmaster Eric Nelson (Shipwreck) are two of the forces behind Eem, the Thai barbecue spot that was our 2019 Restaurant of the Yr. But when it is a steakhouse, it positive is a playful one, shaking up expectations with pandan-green cheese roti (sure, critically) offered like blini with creme fraiche and salmon roe and probably the most eclectic cocktail menu this facet of Expatriate. Right here, shrimp come floating in a turmeric curry, paella is a three-alarm fireplace, salad is an entire fried fish and even these chops include a fiery tomato relish. Word: On service nights for Langbaan, Ninsom’s progressive, just lately relocated Thai tasting menu restaurant, Phuket Cafe strikes exterior to a mock Thai prepare automobile constructed within the parking strip out entrance. Cocktails, heaters and spicy meals ought to maintain you heat. 1818 N.W. twenty third Pl., 503-781-2997, phuketcafepdx.com

Piccone’s Nook

As with Pasture above, Piccone’s Nook is a Northeast Portland restaurant and butcher store that launched in levels, beginning by promoting meat from its affiliated Wallow and Root farm, then opening a takeout window for sausage and pepper sandwiches and eventually debuting an Italian-influenced lunch and dinner service. Although it technically debuted in early 2021, the eating room wasn’t totally open till this yr, which could assist clarify why Piccone’s Nook won’t be in your radar. That ought to change. Lately, you may drop by for some crisp arancini, a superb bucatini amatriciana or an impressively tender pork chop whereas sipping a Negroni in one of many restaurant’s gentle inexperienced scallop-shell cubicles. Followers of Laurelhurst Market searching for a date-night shakeup ought to head to the neighborhood’s northern edge and do this different butcher store and restaurant. To date, the one factor that’s lacking are the crowds. 3434 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 503-265-8263, picconescorner.com

Rangoon Bistro

One other yr, one other intriguing new Portland restaurant exploring the delicacies of Myanmar. After lengthy lamenting the dearth of a strong Burmese restaurant scene alongside the strains of San Francisco’s, Portland now has a number of carts, a rising chain in Prime Burmese (one in all Portland’s finest new eating places of 2021) and now Rangoon Bistro, a extra homestyle restaurant with tea leaf salads, slippery pork shank noodles and hen simmered in a curry or deep fried with chile and lemongrass in a mode midway between southern Thailand and southern United States. Discovered on the Breathe Constructing, a well being and motion middle finest identified for its yoga courses, Rangoon Bistro present menu is ideal for chilly evenings, whereas the return of sizzling summer time nights subsequent yr will imply easy-drinking turmeric Pegu Golf equipment served on the rocks to a sprawling entrance patio. 2311 S.E. fiftieth Ave., 503-953-5385, rangoonbistropdx.com

Pad Thai at Southeast Belmont Street's new Rukdiew Cafe can come topped with a fried trout fillet or soft shell crab.

Fried trout pad Thai at Southeast Belmont Road’s new Rukdiew Cafe.Michael Russell | The Oregonian

Rukdiew Cafe

Is it time to have enjoyable once more? Loads of eating places on this listing — Gabbiano’s, Jojo, the Oregon Metropolis Canard — argue sure. After greater than two years of security precautions, some new Portland eating places appear to be embracing a extra festive ambiance. At Rukdiew Cafe, that appears like a vigorous bar lined with tufted pink chairs and a equally colourful menu of acquainted Thai dishes. Begin with some crab rangoon with pineapple sauce or sizzling wings over a mattress of noodles, then dive into the pork stomach bites stir fried with Chinese language broccoli and soy or a tasty pad Thai cradling a filet of fried trout or some crunchy gentle shell crab. There’s a critically spicy khao soi, and desserts that proceed the brightly hued theme, together with mango with sticky rice dyed a vibrant shade of butterfly pea blue. 2534 S.E. Belmont St., 503-841-6123, rukdiew.com

Siam Umami

In the meantime, in South Portland, one other Thai restaurant is presenting a vastly completely different model of the delicacies. At Siam Umami, Songsak Tithipreecha, aka “chef Tong,” presents a menu of Royal Thai dishes much less spicy and extra balanced that typical American stir-fried noodle and curry outlets. There are artistic salads and mains, together with an intriguing tofu-filled zucchini wrapped in a “mesh omelet” (think about a caul-wrapped crepinette, then make it vegan). Not all the pieces works — gentle baked apple slices didn’t add a lot to some underseasoned rockfish, and also you don’t want greater than a contented hour portion of the braised pork. However when you do go, begin by dipping your toe in with the distinctive dim sum, particularly the the signature chor muang, dainty, deep purple bao filled with floor pork, peanuts and candy pickled radish. There’s no different Thai menu prefer it in Portland. 4237 S. Corbett Ave., 503-479-8188 siamumami.com

Sunshine Noodles

After leaving its unique pop-up house at North Portland’s Psychic bar, Diane Lam’s Cambodian-influenced noodle spot partnered with Win Win, the brand new restaurant group from XLB’s Jasper Shen and Linh Tran, to take over XLB’s former Slabtown location. Right here you’ll discover a shiny restaurant adorned with a tiger-like mascot, cute pink lamps and colourful neon lights hanging overhead like an artwork set up. There are many enjoyable issues to eat and drink right here, together with some Singaporean-style chile crab prawns, a wealthy beef noodle stew and each Orange Julius and vegan Thai iced tea-flavored slushees. My recommendation? Go for lunch on a Friday, order a number of the lime-pepper wings beforehand out there at Lam’s Prey + Inform pop-up, plus an order of lort cha, the rice pin noodles stir-fried with egg, agency Ota tofu and sprouts. These noodles have all the flavour of a some nice wok-fired Cantonese noodles, solely with a distinctly Cambodian bent. And save room for an lovely mango sticky rice sundae. 2175 N.W. Raleigh St., 971-220-1997, sunshinenoodlespdx.com

Tasty Nook

When Daniel Chen was a Portland State College pupil, he longed for a superb Chinese language restaurant close to campus. Ten years later, he’s taken issues into his personal arms. Chen, co-owner of Hillsboro’s extremely regarded Szechuan Backyard, returned to his previous stomping grounds in early summer time with Tasty Nook, a brand new restaurant serving a slimmed-down “biggest hits” menu of dishes from Sichuan Province and past — “there’s no gut,” our server mentioned, explaining one massive distinction. To date, my favourite bites have been the mapo tofu, with medium-firm tofu swimming in aromatic chile oil and floor pork; the new and spicy “dried pot” pork ribs; and hand-shaved noodles, every with simply simply sufficient salt, chile and Sichuan peppercorn spice to make your lips tingle. To date, I’ve most popular the dumplings at Duck Home simply across the nook to Tasty Nook’s. However that simply means the world has a couple of possibility. As a pupil, Chen longed for a superb Chinese language restaurant close to campus. Now there are two. 624 S.W. Corridor St., 503-954-1835, tastycornerpdx.com

Wu-Rons

There’s a 15 minute spot within the small parking zone at this new Southeast Portland restaurant that, if this have been most different Portland ramen outlets, can be reducing it shut. At Wu-Rons, these quarter-hour depart you time to spare. The restaurant, which takes its identify from Tokyo Tribes, a “The Warriors”-style manga turned hip-hop musical, makes a speciality of Nagahama-style ramen, with skinny noodles organized underneath fields of inexperienced onion and sesame seeds on a tonkotsu broth much less milky white than cappuccino beige. Relying on once you go to, you’ll additionally discover kimchi, karaage, shishito peppers, curry specials, a vegetarian ramen created from a mushroom-kelp broth and a Sapporo-style miso topped with butter and shucked corn. However the tonkotsu, an in depth cousin to Hakata-style ramen, is the one to know. From the parking zone, you may squint up on the Hawthorne Bridge overpass and picture you’re in Fukuoka, the birthplace of Nagahama-style ramen. Inside Wu-Rons, the noodles come out quick sufficient you simply may imagine it. 1430 S.E. Water Ave., wurons.com

— Michael Russell; [email protected]; @tdmrussell

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