Food Reviews & Stories Sitting at a bar stool, beneath the chalkboard scrawled with daily specials, splitting a dish of olives and a half-carafe of something red, Spanish and spicy until a table opens up—that’s how one ought to start a meal at Lauro. It allows a person time to watch the flame and sizzle of the   More

Food Reviews & Stories Planted at Northeast 30th Avenue and Killingsworth Street, scant blocks from a handful of excellent cheap taquerias, Autentica sets itself apart by elevating Mexican cuisine above plastic trays and counter ordering to elegant fine dining. Owner and chef Oswaldo Bibiano marries his roots in Guerrero,   More

Food Reviews & Stories It’s no wonder restaurants of all cuisines are appropriating the small plates format of Spanish tapas. The variety of dishes and the casual, convivial atmosphere they encourage make it the best way to eat. So it’s not surprising that Patanegra, named for the finest grade of Spain’s   More

Food Reviews & Stories Probably the best reason to set foot in the Pearl District, Andina serves up dishes that are as superb as they are unusual. While Portland is rife with praiseworthy Euro-Northwest restaurants, there’s little Peruvian fare, and Andina stands a head taller than the best of its scant competition.   More

Food Reviews & Stories Simpatica serves you on its terms. That means you eat what they make at fixed-menu dinners ($35 plus wine and gratuity) on Fridays and Saturdays. And you’d better get a reservation early, because they go fast. But Simpatica can get away with this heavy-handed approach because the food is just    More

Food Reviews & Stories The sheer number of Portland Thai restaurants is matched only by their general mediocrity. Pok Pok is an exception. Its menu and aesthetic sit a tier above your average travel poster-adorned pad Thai purveyor—as does its price point. But dip charcoal-grilled boar collar in fiery chile-lime-gar   More

Food Reviews & Stories Some meals start out looking promising but wind up disappointing. A recent meal at East India Co. was the opposite. Our server was friendly but inept, running to other tables halfway through questions, seemingly as clueless as we were about the description-less “House Specials” menu; she   More

Food Reviews & Stories To the right kind of eyes, no more enticing pair of words can be printed on a menu than “beef heart.” There’s a savage appeal to ingesting a bloody symbol of another animal’s vitality, which by its very name seems so much closer to the lusty, violent truth of carnivorousness    More

Food Reviews & Stories Since it opened last fall, diners and drinkers have flocked to this window-wrapped Old Town bistro where both menu and space are split between formal fine dining and top-tier pub offerings. A convivial atmosphere fairly spills out the door; one gets the sense everyone is laughing and leaning in to c   More

Food Reviews & Stories Even from a block away, Grüner is a far cry from your stereotypical German restaurant. There are no gilded gables of a faux chalet. Instead, amber light spills from tall windows cut into a juttin ...   More