Willamette Week's Cheap Eats Directory 2016

180

Jose Chesa and Cristina Baez, owners of the excellent Spanish eatery Ataula in Northwest, serve several varieties of deep-fried dough, little cups of sauce-thick cocoa and coffee.

808 Grinds Cafe

In a tucked-away location in a Cedar Hills strip mall—often hidden behind its own mobile catering truck—808 Grinds serves up tasty garlic furikake fries, kalbi ribs and its trademark fried chicken.

A Little Bit of Smoke

Never mind barbecue’s reputation as the carnivore’s candy: The pulled pork at this pillar of the Alder midway isn’t trying to pass as dessert.

An Xuyen Bakery

One of the great mysteries of our time is how banh mi can be so cheap.

Angel Food & Fun

Out in Cully sits a cash-only burrito dream world.

Apna Chat Bhavan

Apna Bazaar has long been my favorite Indian grocery in the Portland area. Two years ago, it added a serviceable Indian food counter with goat curries, dosas and a wealth of sauces.

While the utilitarian storefront slathered with islands-themed kitsch may awaken memories of a third-grade luau, Ate-Oh-Ate has loftier ambitions—wringing sophistication from a cuisine best known for embracing Spam.

Beaverton Sub Station

Earlier this month, Chuck Wilson celebrated 35 years of making the best sandwiches in the Portland area.

Bing Mi

Jian bing is the quintessential Chinese street food, found on every Northern roadside—but until now, nowhere in Portland.

Bollywood Bites

Newly nestled next to the Cedar Mill Safeway in a strip mall set for remodel, Bollywood Bites is poised to carry Sunset Mall into a new era.

Bollywood Theater

The jewel in the crown of Troy MacLarty’s burgeoning Bollywood empire.

Bora Bora

Before Pollo Norte and Pollo Bravo and Polli-Tico, and long before Chicken and Guns, the only truly great slow-cooked, crispy-skinned, spice-rubbed Latin chicken was all east of I-205.

Boxer Ramen

Alberta Street and 21st Avenue is the Times Square of Micah Camden’s fast-food mini-empire, with the entire side of a building painted with the Little Big Burger menu (now sold to Hooters).

Breken Kitchen

Breken is where the Montessori moms and Slabtown’s most minimal dressers convene to eat paleo bowls, fried-egg breakfast sandwiches and the cafe’s signature lasagna.

Bridge City Pizza

Never judge a food joint by what’s on the marquee.

Bun Bo Hue

Even as the glory of pho spreads across suburbia, there’s still something of the underground sensibility lingering about bun bo Hue.

Bun Bo Hue Dong Ba 3

Don’t be confused. You didn’t miss Dong Ba 1 or 2.

Bunk Sandwiches/Bar

Tommy Habetz started his chef’s career cooking in the restaurants of seemingly every celebrity chef in America, from Bobby Flay to Mario Batali to culinary tycoon Drew Nieporent.

Bywater Grocery

In new Sandy Boulevard food complex “the Zipper,” Bywater’s “the Original” takes a custom French loaf by Alessio and tops it with french fries and mayonnaise.

C'est Si Bon

This candlelit creperie behind Burnside Brewing specializes in wine, French bistro fare and a cozy intimacy that can be hard to find in Portland.

Cedo's Falafel and Gyros

If you live or work in Northeast Portland, there is a nine-in-10 chance you will see someone you know standing in line during any given lunch rush at this narrow, bustling eatery.

Chennai Masala

You can get more expensive dinnertime dishes, but the lunchtime buffet’s row of steaming chafing dishes is the ideal way to experience the metro area’s undisputed best Indian.

Chez Dodo

Shyam Dausoa runs a travel kiosk for a place you’ll probably never visit: the impossibly scenic Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

Chongqing Huo Guo

The spicy broth offers no quarter—it’s Radio Flyer red with a slick of orange oil and swimming with Szechuan peppercorns, lotus seed and figgy jujube.

Dar Salam

This excellent, casual Iraqi restaurant has made some of the best Middle Eastern fare in town since opening as a cart operated by a pair of refugees who fled the chaos of their native Baghdad after Dubya’s mission was accomplished.

Delicious Donuts

You can’t sleep on Delicious.

Devil's Dill

You want a giant, delicious sandwich at like 2:30 am on a Sunday? Well, this is your spot.

Dockside

The Dockside is forever.

Dog Town

The best dog at Dog Town—a Lamborghini lamb sausage with pickled onions and sweet chili sauce on naan bread—goes almost too far afield to even be called a dog anymore.

Donut Byte Labs

We have met our new mini-doughnut robot overlord, and its name is Donut Byte Labs.

Double Dragon

The unbridled masterpiece on the menu, as it turns out, is the kimchi Kobe beef hot dog.

Drunken Noodle

The restaurant’s house-specialty drunken noodles are made with wide rice noodles, wok-bronzed fronds of broccoli and wilted Thai basil.

Du Kuh Bee

Get a seat near the kitchen and watch a veritable squadron of cooks perform a hypnotic line dance before steaming cauldrons and red-hot saute pans.

Du's Grill

Du’s is a meaty institution charred into the very nucleus of Portland’s DNA.

Dub's St. Johns

We can think of no better way to carbo-load before a marathon than Dub’s fried chicken.

E'Njoni Cafe

Beware: When they say a “four” is hot, they mean it.

Edelweiss Sausage & Delicatessen

At this German deli and butcher shop, second-generation deli masters Tom and Tony Baier dry-cure their proteins according to centuries of Teutonic tradition.

Enat Kitchen

Enat quietly goes about its business as the best all-round Ethiopian restaurant in the city while being far from the most expensive.

Escape From New York Pizza

EFNY has a decades-long consistency wrought from equal parts talent and simple stubbornness.

Farina

Laura Farina’s confections have a slight firmness to the tooth that gives way to a moist interior and the lightest, creamiest fillings we’ve ever tasted.

Fat City

Every square inch is covered in rusty license plates or vintage Northwest road signs that read “Entering Portland” and “Oregon Trail.”

Fire on the Mountain

Of course Portland has a Grateful Dead-themed sports bar and brewery, pizzeria and wing stop.

Frank's Noodle House

The hand-pulled noodles made in this small house on Broadway are simple and pretty much perfect.

Fried Egg I'm in Love

Say “breakfast sandwich” to Portlanders and this sunny yellow cart on Hawthorne’s most trafficked stretch is the first thing in their head.

Fuller's Coffee Shop

Take one step into Fuller’s, and you’ll feel like you’re back in 1947, when the always-packed Pearl District greasy spoon opened across the river.

Gastro Mania

Each of Gastro Mania’s gyros—whether lamb, chicken, salmon or tuna—is cooked fresh to order, not from spit or hot plate, and the herbs and spices that flavor them are equally fresh.

Geraldi's

Geraldi’s makes pizza and pasta, but it’s the old-school hoagies that get most folks excited, especially the so-called Spicy Geraldi

Grant's Philly Cheesesteaks

True story: Every other Friday, I take my newly acquired paycheck three blocks south of the WW office and plunk down $13 on a full-sized Grant’s Original.

Grassa

Like an old punk rocker who now works in marketing, craft-pasta spot Grassa has aged surprisingly gracefully.

Gyro House

In Rust Belt cities with large Greek and Arab populations, there’s a spot like the Gyro House on every major thoroughfare.

Güero

Operating out of an Airstream trailer dotted with surf-shack signage, Güero has narrowed its output almost exclusively to tortas—roughly speaking, the submarine sandwiches of Mexican cuisine.

HK Cafe

Must-gets include the shumai, taro balls (those little spiky things that look like onion straws) and the chilled tripe, squeaky clean and well-seasoned, with freshening ginger and earthy green onion.

Ha & VL/Rose VL

Every day but Sunday at rose-walled soup shop Rose VL—a sparse, brightly lit space with 1980s cityscape paintings on the walls—$9.50 will get you a choice between two different bowls of plush heaven in liquid form.

Haan Ghin

It’s appropriate that Haan Ghin is smack dab in the middle of Portland State’s campus in the South Park Blocks, because its mii gai ($7) tastes like the best ramen you’ll ever eat in your life.

Hae Rim

11729 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, Beaverton, 671-9725. Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday. The premises are purely utilitarian, ensconced in one of Beaverton’s endless strip malls. But this K-town Korean spot offers a brilliant hot stone-pot version of bibimbap with fish roe, kimchi and rice ($11.95). It’s delicious and a textural wonder, especially once the searing pot works … Continue reading Hae Rim

Helser's on Alberta

At a mere 22 years old, Helser’s is somehow also one of the oldest restaurants on Alberta.

Helvetia Tavern

The Jumbo Burger at Helvetia might just be Hillsboro’s top tourist attraction.

Holy Mole

Juan Fernando Otero prepares his meals with a reverence traditionally reserved for holy rites, keeping everything fresh to ensure it gets to the customer in the best possible shape.

Honey Toast Cafe

This Taiwanese-style deluxe honey toast is quite possibly the fanciest toast ever invented.

Hot Pot City

After your waiter brings your utensils and personal pot of roiling broth, head to the buffet station and pile your plate with meat.

Iron Horse

This taverny Tex-Mex spot is one of the most welcoming restaurants in Sellwood, in part because it’s less restaurant than it is Sellwood’s greatest specialty: a dive bar.

J & M Cafe

The industrial eastside’s J & M Cafe has been quietly making some of Portland’s best no-frills breakfasts and lunches for decades.

Joe Brown's Carmel Corn

Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn is the only store in Lloyd Center to survive unscathed and unmoved since Lloyd began as an open-air mall in 1960.

Kenny's Noodle House

When a friend asked a couple from Singapore, long ago, their favorite Chinese spot in town, they didn’t pause: Kenny’s Noodle House.

Killer Burger

Even with its mandatory bacon policy, Killer Burger reins it in to create tight, interesting burgers that are disposed toward smoky and spicy flavors.

Kim Jong Grillin'

Few carts in town have faced the trials of Kim Jong Grillin’, Han Ly Hwang’s revelation in Korean barbecue that rises like a Phoenix (literally, because it once burned) on a lonely covered cart locale across from the Woodsman Tavern.

Kizuki Ramen and Izakaya

Don’t hate Kizuki (formerly Kukai) because it’s part of a chain—albeit one based in Japan. Embrace it for the deep flavors of soy, miso and fish deeply distilled in the broths.

Kung Pow and Shandong

Kung Pow: 500 NW 21st Ave., 208-2173, kungpowpdx.com. Shandong: 3724 NE Broadway, 287-0331, shandongportland.com. Lunch and dinner daily. Irvington’s Shandong has been serving its own subdued, better-than-most ode to its titular province for a while. But with Nob Hill’s Kung Pow, San Francisco-raised Henry Liu has made an amped-up celebration of the old-school American Chinese … Continue reading Kung Pow and Shandong

La Catrina

You should be glad this place is way out on deep 82nd. Otherwise, it would’ve killed you already.

La Guanaquita

uietly enough to slip past Yelp and confuse Google, those beautiful loroco, bean and cheese or plain old cheese pupusas from La Guanaquita have reappeared.

La Taq

Start with the house-fried tortilla chips and brisket queso, which might be the best thing you’ve ever purchased for $6.50.

Lardo

The rich, meaty ’wiches, which mostly use pork and tend toward the rich and salty.

Loncheria Mitzil

The masa is the star at this Oregon City institution, which straddles the line between taqueria and family Mexican restaurant.

Los Alambres

At the two Los Alambres locations, father and son Antonio and Bryan Hernandez serve massive football-sized tortas so stacked with meat and cheese that they are also football-shaped.

Love Belizean

Tiffany Love has essentially opened a tropical travel agency in Portland State’s South Park Blocks.

180

Jose Chesa and Cristina Baez, owners of the excellent Spanish eatery Ataula in Northwest, serve several varieties of deep-fried dough, little cups of sauce-thick cocoa and coffee.

808 Grinds Cafe

A Little Bit of Smoke

Never mind barbecue’s reputation as the carnivore’s candy: The pulled pork at this pillar of the Alder midway isn’t trying to pass as dessert.

An Xuyen Bakery

One of the great mysteries of our time is how banh mi can be so cheap.

Angel Food & Fun

Out in Cully sits a cash-only burrito dream world.

Apna Chat Bhavan

Apna Bazaar has long been my favorite Indian grocery in the Portland area. Two years ago, it added a serviceable Indian food counter with goat curries, dosas and a wealth of sauces.

Ate-Oh-Ate

Beaverton Sub Station

Earlier this month, Chuck Wilson celebrated 35 years of making the best sandwiches in the Portland area.

Bing Mi

Jian bing is the quintessential Chinese street food, found on every Northern roadside—but until now, nowhere in Portland.

Bollywood Bites

Newly nestled next to the Cedar Mill Safeway in a strip mall set for remodel, Bollywood Bites is poised to carry Sunset Mall into a new era.

Bollywood Theater

The jewel in the crown of Troy MacLarty’s burgeoning Bollywood empire.

Bora Bora

Before Pollo Norte and Pollo Bravo and Polli-Tico, and long before Chicken and Guns, the only truly great slow-cooked, crispy-skinned, spice-rubbed Latin chicken was all east of I-205.

Boxer Ramen

Alberta Street and 21st Avenue is the Times Square of Micah Camden’s fast-food mini-empire, with the entire side of a building painted with the Little Big Burger menu (now sold to Hooters).

Breken Kitchen

Breken is where the Montessori moms and Slabtown’s most minimal dressers convene to eat paleo bowls, fried-egg breakfast sandwiches and the cafe’s signature lasagna.

Bridge City Pizza

Never judge a food joint by what’s on the marquee.

Bun Bo Hue

Even as the glory of pho spreads across suburbia, there’s still something of the underground sensibility lingering about bun bo Hue.

Bun Bo Hue Dong Ba 3

Don’t be confused. You didn’t miss Dong Ba 1 or 2.

Bunk Sandwiches/Bar

Tommy Habetz started his chef’s career cooking in the restaurants of seemingly every celebrity chef in America, from Bobby Flay to Mario Batali to culinary tycoon Drew Nieporent.

Bywater Grocery

In new Sandy Boulevard food complex “the Zipper,” Bywater’s “the Original” takes a custom French loaf by Alessio and tops it with french fries and mayonnaise.

C'est Si Bon

This candlelit creperie behind Burnside Brewing specializes in wine, French bistro fare and a cozy intimacy that can be hard to find in Portland.

Cedo's Falafel and Gyros

If you live or work in Northeast Portland, there is a nine-in-10 chance you will see someone you know standing in line during any given lunch rush at this narrow, bustling eatery.

Chennai Masala

You can get more expensive dinnertime dishes, but the lunchtime buffet’s row of steaming chafing dishes is the ideal way to experience the metro area’s undisputed best Indian.

Chez Dodo

Shyam Dausoa runs a travel kiosk for a place you’ll probably never visit: the impossibly scenic Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

Chongqing Huo Guo

The spicy broth offers no quarter—it’s Radio Flyer red with a slick of orange oil and swimming with Szechuan peppercorns, lotus seed and figgy jujube.

Dar Salam

Delicious Donuts

You can’t sleep on Delicious.

Devil's Dill

You want a giant, delicious sandwich at like 2:30 am on a Sunday? Well, this is your spot.

Dockside

The Dockside is forever.

Dog Town

The best dog at Dog Town—a Lamborghini lamb sausage with pickled onions and sweet chili sauce on naan bread—goes almost too far afield to even be called a dog anymore.

Donut Byte Labs

We have met our new mini-doughnut robot overlord, and its name is Donut Byte Labs.

Double Dragon

The unbridled masterpiece on the menu, as it turns out, is the kimchi Kobe beef hot dog.

Drunken Noodle

The restaurant’s house-specialty drunken noodles are made with wide rice noodles, wok-bronzed fronds of broccoli and wilted Thai basil.

Du Kuh Bee

Get a seat near the kitchen and watch a veritable squadron of cooks perform a hypnotic line dance before steaming cauldrons and red-hot saute pans.

Du's Grill

Du’s is a meaty institution charred into the very nucleus of Portland’s DNA.

Dub's St. Johns

We can think of no better way to carbo-load before a marathon than Dub’s fried chicken.

E'Njoni Cafe

Beware: When they say a “four” is hot, they mean it.

Edelweiss Sausage & Delicatessen

At this German deli and butcher shop, second-generation deli masters Tom and Tony Baier dry-cure their proteins according to centuries of Teutonic tradition.

Enat Kitchen

Enat quietly goes about its business as the best all-round Ethiopian restaurant in the city while being far from the most expensive.

Escape From New York Pizza

EFNY has a decades-long consistency wrought from equal parts talent and simple stubbornness.

Farina

Laura Farina’s confections have a slight firmness to the tooth that gives way to a moist interior and the lightest, creamiest fillings we’ve ever tasted.

Fat City

Every square inch is covered in rusty license plates or vintage Northwest road signs that read “Entering Portland” and “Oregon Trail.”

Fire on the Mountain

Of course Portland has a Grateful Dead-themed sports bar and brewery, pizzeria and wing stop.

Frank's Noodle House

The hand-pulled noodles made in this small house on Broadway are simple and pretty much perfect.

Fried Egg I'm in Love

Say “breakfast sandwich” to Portlanders and this sunny yellow cart on Hawthorne’s most trafficked stretch is the first thing in their head.

Fuller's Coffee Shop

Take one step into Fuller’s, and you’ll feel like you’re back in 1947, when the always-packed Pearl District greasy spoon opened across the river.

Gastro Mania

Each of Gastro Mania’s gyros—whether lamb, chicken, salmon or tuna—is cooked fresh to order, not from spit or hot plate, and the herbs and spices that flavor them are equally fresh.

Geraldi's

Geraldi’s makes pizza and pasta, but it’s the old-school hoagies that get most folks excited, especially the so-called Spicy Geraldi

Grant's Philly Cheesesteaks

True story: Every other Friday, I take my newly acquired paycheck three blocks south of the WW office and plunk down $13 on a full-sized Grant’s Original.

Grassa

Like an old punk rocker who now works in marketing, craft-pasta spot Grassa has aged surprisingly gracefully.

Gyro House

In Rust Belt cities with large Greek and Arab populations, there’s a spot like the Gyro House on every major thoroughfare.

Güero

Operating out of an Airstream trailer dotted with surf-shack signage, Güero has narrowed its output almost exclusively to tortas—roughly speaking, the submarine sandwiches of Mexican cuisine.

HK Cafe

Must-gets include the shumai, taro balls (those little spiky things that look like onion straws) and the chilled tripe, squeaky clean and well-seasoned, with freshening ginger and earthy green onion.

Ha & VL/Rose VL

Haan Ghin

It’s appropriate that Haan Ghin is smack dab in the middle of Portland State’s campus in the South Park Blocks, because its mii gai ($7) tastes like the best ramen you’ll ever eat in your life.

Hae Rim

Helser's on Alberta

At a mere 22 years old, Helser’s is somehow also one of the oldest restaurants on Alberta.

Helvetia Tavern

The Jumbo Burger at Helvetia might just be Hillsboro’s top tourist attraction.

Holy Mole

Juan Fernando Otero prepares his meals with a reverence traditionally reserved for holy rites, keeping everything fresh to ensure it gets to the customer in the best possible shape.

Honey Toast Cafe

This Taiwanese-style deluxe honey toast is quite possibly the fanciest toast ever invented.

Hot Pot City

After your waiter brings your utensils and personal pot of roiling broth, head to the buffet station and pile your plate with meat.

Iron Horse

This taverny Tex-Mex spot is one of the most welcoming restaurants in Sellwood, in part because it’s less restaurant than it is Sellwood’s greatest specialty: a dive bar.

J & M Cafe

The industrial eastside’s J & M Cafe has been quietly making some of Portland’s best no-frills breakfasts and lunches for decades.

Joe Brown's Carmel Corn

Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn is the only store in Lloyd Center to survive unscathed and unmoved since Lloyd began as an open-air mall in 1960.

Kenny's Noodle House

When a friend asked a couple from Singapore, long ago, their favorite Chinese spot in town, they didn’t pause: Kenny’s Noodle House.

Killer Burger

Even with its mandatory bacon policy, Killer Burger reins it in to create tight, interesting burgers that are disposed toward smoky and spicy flavors.

Kim Jong Grillin'

Kizuki Ramen and Izakaya

Don’t hate Kizuki (formerly Kukai) because it’s part of a chain—albeit one based in Japan. Embrace it for the deep flavors of soy, miso and fish deeply distilled in the broths.

Kung Pow and Shandong

La Catrina

You should be glad this place is way out on deep 82nd. Otherwise, it would’ve killed you already.

La Guanaquita

uietly enough to slip past Yelp and confuse Google, those beautiful loroco, bean and cheese or plain old cheese pupusas from La Guanaquita have reappeared.

La Taq

Start with the house-fried tortilla chips and brisket queso, which might be the best thing you’ve ever purchased for $6.50.

Lardo

The rich, meaty ’wiches, which mostly use pork and tend toward the rich and salty.

Loncheria Mitzil

The masa is the star at this Oregon City institution, which straddles the line between taqueria and family Mexican restaurant.

Los Alambres

At the two Los Alambres locations, father and son Antonio and Bryan Hernandez serve massive football-sized tortas so stacked with meat and cheese that they are also football-shaped.

Love Belizean

Tiffany Love has essentially opened a tropical travel agency in Portland State’s South Park Blocks.

Maharaja

It’s no secret that when it comes to Indian food, if you want the real stuff, you drive to Hillsboro.

Mama Leo's

The succulent shredded beef in the Colombian arepas ($9) is juicy and tender enough to get even the most city-centered cool guy to hop in a Car2Go and make it out to Roseway.

Mama's Kitchen

Visit Joseph Richburg’s restaurant to see how great catfish can be.

Maple Parlor

We must have reached peak dietary restriction in Portland, right? Thus, Hawthorne’s new Maple Parlor, “an inclusive sundae bar.”

Matt's BBQ: Co-Cart of the Year 2016

Pure Texas parking-lot ’Cue smoked up by an Aussie-trained Long Island native.

Meat Cheese Bread

he simplicity is deceptive. The meat on these ’wiches might be Nueske’s bacon, and the cheese a Gjetost spread straight outta Norway, while the bread is airy Fleur De Lis.

Mekong Bistro

8200 NE Siskiyou St., 265-8972, mekongbistro.com. Lunch, dinner and late-night daily. Portland’s only Cambodian-oriented restaurant since the departure of Sok Sab Bai—hidden across from a hair school, save its perpetual grand-opening sign—is as much bar as bistro, with a chili hot wing challenge, house beef jerky ($8) and sports on the TV screens. Its menu, meanwhile, … Continue reading Mekong Bistro