What to do, eat, and drink in Portland, Oregon
Screen Door's hedonistic Southern food is so rich and delicious it will make you forget you just waited two hours for it. Go on a Tuesday, skip the line, and get the chicken and waffles.
2337 E. Burnside St., Portland, OR 97214
503-542-0880
The low-key Montavilla spot has become a weekend staple—perhaps driven by the loss of iconic neighbor the Country Cat in 2019, but deserved anyway for their fried oatmeal waffles and array of egg options.
7915 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97215
503-841-5118
The former A.N.D. Cafe vegan brunch is now in residence at Off the Griddle, serving up some truly spectacular waffles. Carnivores, you can get eggs, it's fine.
6526 SE Foster Rd., Portland, OR 97206
503-764-9160
More of an oceanfront property (metaphorically) than a strict seafood restaurant, Normandie offers date-night imagination with perhaps Portland's fairest fine-dining prices. The seasonal peanut butter ice cream is as good as it gets.
1005 SE Ankeny St., Portland, OR 97214
503-233-4129
There are many sushi places in Portland, but only one I have been to as many times as Yama. It was one of the first restaurants I came back to after covid caution—and made me realize immediately months and months of delivery sushi had not been cutting it. Yama is popular but you can usually get a reservation; it has a suspiciously huge menu but no skips. Don't miss Fifty Licks ice cream across the street.
2038 SE Clinton St., Portland, OR 97202
503-231-2859
The Belmont blocks of Sunnyside cover just about everything but a nice dinner. Yui offers terrific Thai that delivers a sit-down experience without any white tablecloth fuss—there's an Anthony Bourdain quote on the wall to prove it.
4246 SE Belmont St, ste 2, Portland, OR 97215
Quality late-night eating is a rare blind spot in the Portland food scene, but the best sandwich shop in town doesn't even open until 5 p.m.—and delivers until past last call if you're in the eastside neighborhood. Get the tuna or whatever the weekend special is, it is routinely magical.
1711 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214
503-236-8067
Personally, I go for the coconut milk ramen (a sneaky contender for best bowl in town) but the báhn mi—a hipster take on the Vietnamese staple—is the heart of the menu, and the bartenders will serve you well whether you're in the mood for a tall boy or a fancy cocktail.
1235 SE Division St., Portland, OR 97214
503-230-8340
Lifehack: you can order any of these very indulgent sandwiches as a salad. Get something made out of pig.
1205 SW Washington St., Portland, OR 97205
503-241-2490
1212 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214
503-234-7786
A sit-down steakhouse at night, at lunchtime, Laurelhurst Market opens the butcher shop and offers excellent and affordable sandwiches from pastrami to smoked turkey. Get one to go and buy some records at Music Millennium across the street.
3155 E. Burnside St., Portland, OR 97214
503-206-3099
The best ice cream in town and quite possibly the best dairy dessert west of Florentine gelato. It's that good.
2021 SE Clinton St., Portland, OR 97202
503-395-3333
Like all Portland tourist traps, this is actually pretty great, but you have to wait in line. Like Baskin-Robbins if their 31 flavors were wacky and artisanal. In the winter, don't miss their spiked eggnog pints—an annual collab with their investor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
3345 SE Division St., Portland, OR 97202
503-208-2054
2035 NE Alberta St., Portland, OR 97211
503-208-3867
838 NW 23rd Ave., Portland, OR 97210
971-271-8168
While Pinolo is the most noisily authentic of Portland's gelato shops, Staccato has more flavors, better prices (under $10 for a pint, almost unthinkable in 2020s Portland) and is just plain tastier. A strong stop after lunch or dinner among 28th and Burnside's many stand-outs.
232 NE 28th Ave #3148, Portland, OR 97232
503-231-7100
Also recommended:
Pinolo Gelato's gelato and Eb & Bean's frozen yogurt are perfectly fine, but Portland is much better at plain ol' ice cream. Just go get that.
Formerly Tonnali's, now under new ownership. Tonnali's basically made the platonic ideal of every cheap classic donut. No funny business. It's been a few years since I went, so I hope it's still as good as I remember.
2805 NE Alberta St., Portland, OR 97211
503-284-4510
Portland's famous (infamous?) weirdo donuts. They're donuts. They're pretty good. The secret of Voodoo is they make all the same donuts (or doughnuts) over at the Voodoo Doughnut Too location across the river and you can skip the line and the tourists.
A rant: don't listen to the people who moved to Portland five minutes ago telling you they're Voodoo snobs—they weren't here for when founder / punk rock lifer Tres Shannon helmed the X-Ray Cafe, a crucial 1990s all-ages indie venue. Voodoo is Portland as hell.
22 SW 3rd Ave., Portland, OR 97204
503-241-4704
1501 NE Davis St., Portland, OR 97232
503-235-2666
Also recommended:
Vegan shop Doe Donuts. Reliable family business Delicious Donuts.
Blue Star is fine if you want to pay like $4 for a donut. Get one with chocolate, those are the winners.
Formerly stranded on the east end of Hawthorne, Tabor Bread is now stationed on busy Belmont, where parents, grandparents and the occasional lone Portland punk keep the morning rush line out the door. The winners: any loaf with olive in it, the seasonal cream buns, and a shockingly great vegan peanut butter cookie. I need you to know that I was the first-ever customer at the new location.
4438 SE Belmont St., Portland, OR 97215
971-279-5530
Just about the best coffee ever if you are into flavorful acidic roasts with notes of cherry or tomato. I am! All the coffee in Portland is good but Heart is special.
Fun fact: this is where the War on Drugs get coffee in Portland, or at least they did the one time I saw them there.
2211 E. Burnside St., Portland, OR 97214
503-206-6602
5181 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR 97206
503-208-2710
The most reliable coffee in Portland. Bags are still under $20 and pound for pound, they're as good as anyone in town, and better than most. A shot of Bull Run, their mainline espresso blend, is a taste of perfection.
1028 SE Water Ave #145, Portland, OR 97214
503-808-7084
I've been to bottle shops all over the world and this is as good as any of 'em. Its growing library now houses over 1,400 bottles, with a spread from Oregon favorites to state-by-state domestics to plenty of European imports. Bring one into the taproom or just see what's on tap, it'll be something amazing.
The bar closes a little earlier than most Portland bars, which is nice for us because it keeps down the crowds.
4500 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97215
503-232-8538
A serious, terrific English-style pub from the early days of the Portland craft beer scene. Come in for an honest 20-ounce pint, a game of darts, the fish-and-chips, and a reliable place to find Pliny the Elder.
4534 SE Belmont St., Portland, OR 97215
503-232-2202
Portland's answer to Amoeba has been run for decades by Terry Currier, a true local treasure. From vinyl to CDs to tapes and indie to jazz to classical. Buy a "Keep Portland Weird" bumper sticker, but only if you mean it.
3158 E. Burnside St., Portland, OR 97214
503-231-8926
This is Jamie xx's favorite Portland record store, and Vinyl Me Please agrees. I wouldn't go that far, but it's home to many unique, lovely new pressings of old-time classics as well as a carefully curated selection of other releases.
5202 N. Albina Ave., Portland, OR 97217
503-282-2990
Vinyl geeks can get lost for hours in here. Crossroads is a consignment shop—and a big one—so you never know what you're going to find, or whose crate you might be digging through.
8112 SE Foster Rd., Portland, OR 97206
503-232-1767
A record label and a series of retail stores with art, clothes, and home goods as well as music, TLE is the best one-stop shop to find local music releases, both its own and other community stand-outs from Typhoon to Ural Thomas and its annual, essential Friends and Friends of Friends compilations.
525 NW 23rd Ave., Portland, OR 97210
503-964-6592
3541 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214
503-548-2927
412 SW 10th Ave., Portland, OR 97205
503-243-5859
Like the Troubadour or Bowery Ballroom, Mississippi Studios is intimate, affordable, sounds great, and has a band cooler than you headlining tonight. A little more songwriter-focused than the Doug Fir Lounge.
3939 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97227
Like the Jetsons version of a ski lodge, generally superbly booked with rad newer bands. Like Mississippi Studios, it's small, affordable, and full of hipsters. Has a competent late-night diner upstairs.
830 E Burnside St., Portland, OR 97214
Generally has the most cutting-edge bookings in town—electronic, hip-hop, and edgy indie—along with exuberantly curated and inclusive dance nights.
1001 SE Morrison St., Portland, OR 97214
503-239-7639
The best-sounding room in town on a good night, Revolution Hall is a mid-size theater tucked away in an old high school that brings in artists from Art Garfunkel to Wild Nothing.
1300 SE Stark St., Portland, OR 97214
503-288-3895
The Crystal is over 100 years old, has a curious "floating floor," and occasionally haphazard sound in its odd-shaped room. But it's a beautiful, historic venue and at about a 1,500-person capacity, home to some of Portland's bigger shows and winter's annual "December to Remember" concert series. Owned and operated by McMenamins, the psychedelic force behind many of Portland's reclaimed historic buildings.
1332 W. Burnside St., Portland, OR 97209
Restored by McMenamins, the Bagdad is a big and beautiful single-screen theater with a very modern 4K screen. You can order a beer—this is Portland. By the time you read this, the new location of Straight From New York Pizza may be open across the street, grab a slice there before you go in.
3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214
503-236-9234
Portland's premiere art-house venue, a non-profit which has all kinds of special screenings—classics in 70mm, a kung-fu series—and is the best place to see the small films that only seem to open in New York and Los Angeles. Consider becoming a member.
4122 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland, OR 97212
503-493-1128
Formerly a humble $4 second-run theater, the Laurelhurst is first-run now and a little pricier but still has its bohemian charm and remains an ideal cheap date. Tasty pizza, too.
2735 E. Burnside St., Portland, OR 97214
503-238-4088
One of America's greatest video stores. If they don't carry it—on Blu-Ray, DVD, VHS, whatever—it probably doesn't exist. Come for the selection, stay for the surprisingly impressive collection of film memorabilia. Now owned by the Hollywood Theatre, also a Portland essential.
4320 SE Belmont Street, Portland, OR 97215
503-234-4363
I hope I don't need to tell you to go to Powell's, one of Earth's mightiest book stores. But I do need to tell you there is a second location on the eastside.
1005 W Burnside St., Portland, OR 97209
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214
503-228-4651
A bright and inclusive comic shop that routinely sees talks and signings from comics all-stars (who somehow all live in Portland now) and a staff who will tell you or your teenager exactly what to pick up next. Sign up for their newsletter for a rundown of every week's new issues, as summarized by your coolest/nerdiest/most well-read friend.
1401 SE Division St., Portland, OR 97202
503-841-6276
10,000 square feet of Magic: The Gathering glory, and a treasure trove of all kinds of board games and other tabletop experiences. The best place in town to play a pre-release tournament for 6 hours and decide, "You know what, I'm going to stick around and play the next one."
345 SE Taylor St., Portland, OR 97214
503-238-4000
I live equidistant between Guardian and Red Castle and like to shop here to support a smaller shop. Nice staff, a fun place to play, and well-stocked with kid-friendly items such as coloring books. M:TG focused, of course, but also for fans of Dungeons & Dragons and beyond.
7160 SE Foster Rd., Portland, OR 97206
503-477-5727