How We Chose Our List of Top 50 Restaurants

This year, we opened the list to all eateries, including carts and weekly pop-ups.

Matthew Korfhage and Martin Cizmar

(Christine Dong)

50. Ha VL

Peter Luu makes every broth and ingredient fresh each day.

(Charles C. Campos)

49. Acadia

The execution is both elevated and restrained.

(Christine Aiko Beck)

48. Shizuku

The greatest innovation on Shizuku’s new menu is the six-course kaiseki menu.

(Amy Ouellette)

47. Autentica

The trio of salsas served with warm housemade tortillas had layers of brightness and heat we’d forgotten existed

(Thomas Teal)

46. Zilla Sake

This little Alberta Street sushiya is a tiny juggernaut punching well above its weight.

(Nolan Calisch)

45. Old Salt

It's home to the beefiest beef in Portland.

(Hilary Sander)

44. Beast

Naomi Pomeroy gets you where she wants you—stunned by the richness of a foie gras bon bon.

(Joe Riedl)

43. Nostrana

Nostrana succeeds by giving its audience what they want.

(Thomas Teal)

42. Aviv

Their hummus takes up about a quarter of the menu and includes eight distinct versions from Hatch Chile to zhoug.

(Thomas Teal)

41. Grain and Gristle

This little Prescott Street bar is a dream of farm-to-table come to humble life.

(Thomas Teal)

40. Davenport

Davenport is a tale of two restaurants. Both restaurants are very good.

(Joe Riedl)

39. Ataula

Jose Chesa’s Ataula is a transportive take on Portland Spanish.

(Megan Nanna)

38. Broder

The Broder Bord remains a perfect breakfast

(Rachael Renee Levasseur)

37. Chicken and Guns

Give up on any idea that food carts are more casual: This is true farm-to-picnic-table food.

(Henry Cromett)

36. Ken’s Artisan Pizza

Those Pine Street pizzas are marvels of consistency

(Emily Joan Greene)

35. Chin’s Kitchen

The exterior didn't change with the new owners, but what's inside did.

34. Maurice

The orchestrator behind Maurice is pastry chef Kristen Murray, who honed her craft in Paris.

(Thomas Teal)

33. Taqueria Nueve

T9’s super-smooth and lime-heavy guacamole is the best in town.

(Thomas Teal)

32. Bless Your Heart Burgers

Our favorite is the double cheeseburger with American cheese, but the specialty is a Carolina-style diner burger.

(Joe Riedl)

31. XLB

This dumpling house has rounded into fine form.

(Liz Allan)

30. Nak Won

Lee cooks every dish herself with the individual attentiveness usually reserved for home cooks.

(Hilary Sander)

29. Olympia Provisions

Olympia Provisions' meat wizardry makes for a nonstop holiday celebration for your taste buds,

(Thomas Teal)

28. Han Oak

The mood is looser since Peter Cho merged his justly famous noodle and dumpling menu into the everyday experience

(Nashco)

27. Toro Bravo

But there's romance enough on the plate.

(Kayla Sprint)

26. Enat Kitchen

Enat’s platters are gorgeous and overflowing with colorful piles of stewy vegetables and meat.

(Emily Joan Greene)

25. Expatriate

In this colonial drinking den, it feels as if all the detritus of human culture has washed ashore and been made elegant.

(Megan Nanna)

24. Little Bird

But at a French Bistro from Rucker, you get the foie gras.

(Thomas Teal)

23. Luce

Veggie sides are accented in just the right ways and lightly salted whole trout impresses with directness.

(Thomas Teal)

22. Mae

Mae is a world we wish existed, clean and generous and warmed by a bottle of brown-bag whiskey.

(Henry Cromett)

21. Ava Gene’s

The Giardini section of Ava Gene’s menu reads like the ingredients from a particularly challenging episode of “Chopped”

(Christine Dong)

20. Jacqueline

After a year, Jacqueline has evolved into Portland’s best home for seafood.

(Nashco)

19. Ox

But steak is only a player in a meal whose gargantuan flavors present with admirable balance

(Henry Cromett)

18. Paley’s Place

For a restaurant steeped in Continental tradition, there’s a playfulness here that borders on the giddy.

(Heather Case)

17. Pok Pok NW

If you’re paying $15.50 for wings, why not enjoy temperature control?

(Thomas Teal)

16. Nodoguro

No matter how good the sushi, Nodoguro isn’t about sushi.

(Shaun Daley)

15. Apizza Scholls

For years I was a skeptic about Apizza Scholls. I was wrong.

(Christine Dong)

14. Matt’s BBQ

There’s really only one barbecue spot we’re excited about. That’s this cart, in the parking lot of H&B Jewelry and Loan between the two Popeyes on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Photo: Nashco

13. Aviary

Our 2012 Restaurant of the Year continues to innovate and impress.

(Sam Gehrke)

12. Trifecta Tavern

This cavernous inner-eastside restaurant manages to feel raucous but intimate at the same time.

(Emily Joan Greene)

11. Renata

Renata was a throwback before it even opened its doors.

(Shaun Daley)

10. Poke Mon

Don't hate on them for serving a trendy (and maybe ecologically unsustainable!) foodstuff and having an encyclopedic collection of canned La Croix.

(Emily Joan Greene)

9. St. Jack

There are so many little treasures at St. Jack, from the cocktails to Oregon river trout other restaurants can't get.

(Thomas Teal)

8. Hat Yai

In a tiny, wood-slatted hall of a space with plastic, blue-checked tablecloths, Hat Yai shames full-service restaurants with three times the staff.

(Thomas Teal)

7. Tusk

The biggest difference between Tusk now and a year ago isn’t any of the tweaks, it’s the city around it.

(Emily Joan Greene)

6. Holdfast

Holdfast succeeds by masking their geeky impulses with fresh seafood and local produce.

(Thomas Teal)

5. Kachka

An ode to her own nostalgia for her parents’ Soviet memories, chef Bonnie Morales’ Southeast Grand Avenue Russian spot, nestled in the central east side’s bar district, combines classic Continental food training with Russian vigor to create a dining experience unlike any other in the United States.

(Christine Dong)

4. Castagna

“This town does mid-level dining great, but there’s no high end.”

(Kayla Sprint)

3. Coquine

French-trained Katy Millard and her partner, Ksandek Podbielski, have created the most nourishing dining experience in Portland, so far removed from the troubles in the city below as to be transportive.

(Christine Dong)

2. Langbaan

In the three years since chef Rassamee Ruaysuntia left Bangkok to join Ninsom at Langbaan, that dim, reclaimed-wood room has evolved from a disarmingly casual ode to Bangkok’s legendary Nahm restaurant to a spot that stakes its own claim as one of the greatest Thai restaurants in the world.

(Emily Joan Greene)

1. Le Pigeon

Gabe Rucker’s punky decade-old nook on East Burnside Street is experimental and loose in mood but exacting in every detail, animated by a tossed-off majesty that’s hard not to call genius.

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