Portland is renowned for its great craft beers, easy access to dramatic nature, independent spirit, excellent live music scene, and generally laid-back lifestyle. One of the city’s best kept secrets, though, is its outstanding culinary offerings. Portland restaurants serve up a wide variety of cuisines, and their flavorful offerings keep residents well satiated. From fine dining to food carts, there’s something in Portland to suit everyone’s taste.
Dining in Portland is incredibly diverse. If there’s one aspect of the city’s culinary scene that really stands out, it’s the food carts. Downtown is home to a whole court of food carts, serving up flavors from every corner of the globe. The term “food cart” can be a bit misleading though, since many of these small kitchens housed in trailers, like E-san Thai, Flogene’s Home Cookin’, and the Frying Scotsman, serve up the kind of sophisticated dishes normally reserved to sit-down restaurants.
Eating well in Portland also includes visiting the city’s gourmet dining spots. For haute French cuisine, Le Pigeon in Lower Burnside is the place to be. Andina in the Pearl District has mouth-watering tapas covered and Caffe Mingo in the Alphabet District is among Portland’s top Italian restaurants. One of the great features of dining in a fine restaurant in Portland is that it still retains a more casual feel than any other American city. It’s just great food without any pretentiousness.
No guide to the Portland food scene would be complete without mention of the city’s fantastic brew pubs. Portland is the birthplace of the microbrewery movement and some of the country’s most beloved beers are produced here. Deschutes, BridgePort, and Rogue are just a few of the brewpubs in town that serve up delectable eats with their flavorful sudsy creations. The Portland mainstay McMenamin’s can also be found in practically every one of the city’s neighborhoods, meaning good food and great beer are never far away.