Restaurants in Portland

In Hemingway's Bar & Grill's bustling kitchen, Chef Jason West crafts rotating weekly menus inspired by seasonal produce and fresh catches. The seafood cache pairs pasta and vegetables with a sautéed or artfully blackened fillet, which, like Ebenezer Scrooge, is warm and tender beneath its toughened demeanor. A signature gnocchi of the day joins chops and bowls swirling with house-made soups, and lavish Sunday brunches greet the day with pastries, omelets, and curlicues of peel-and-eat shrimp. Hemingway's full-service bar, the Blue Marlin, pours domestic and imported beers alongside flights and bottles of wines, which often headline their own tasting events. Hemingway's Bar & Grill also caters special events throughout the Corpus Christi area.

Intent on supplying diners with healthy choices by making flavorful, readily available food, the chefs at Urban Fare Cafe craft a menu that mingles Mediterranean, Indian, Asian, and African cuisines. Piquant soups such as the carrot bisque with ginger and mint pair with guiltless sandwiches and wraps such as the Montreal-style roast beef. Alternatively, whole-grain-wheat pizzas stand in for starchier pies, and cooks prepare rice bowls with either white or brown rice. Baristas emit the aromas of roasted coffee beans throughout the eatery by brewing espresso drinks and practicing levitation with café mugs.

Dot’z Dawgs & Drafts transports diners back to a simpler time—a time when food was no-fuss and comforting and the world moved at a slower pace. There, diners drink beers and chow down on Chicago-style hot dogs, pizza, and wraps while gazing at vintage Coca-Cola advertisements and the photos of old Hollywood starlets like Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball that encompass every inch of free wall space. Amid the 1950s montage, vinyl-and-chrome chairs—striped with the scarlet and silver colors of a retro diner—tuck themselves beneath simple silver tables.

After dinner, patrons grab ice-cream cones and head outside for a stroll along Corpus Christi Beach. The adjacent outdoor playground area is perfect for entertaining kids with hula-hoops and rousing debates on the ethics of peeking during hide-and-seek.

Clean, sleek lines cut through the Bistro D’Asia’s lipstick-red dining room as servers dance between dark wood tables, balancing plates piled high with Asian-fusion fare that stems from all over the continent. Delicacies from vietnamese crepes and pork dumplings to mongolian beef or hunan-style stir-fried chicken vie for attention with specialty sushi rolls packed with shrimp tempura, freshwater eel, and soft-shell crab.