Blowing on the Embers

A note from the editor.

Where should I take my extravagance-allergic mother for her birthday dinner? What about my visiting college buddy, a simple man mostly interested in burgers and strip clubs? How about my cocktail-obsessed partner who just got a promotion?

We field such questions often. When people find out you review restaurants, they want your expertise. For me, it's always an honor to answer. Because after we spend three months and a junior staffer's annual salary eating through the city, it's fun to share what we've learned.

This guide is designed for typical Portlanders, people who eat out at a nice restaurant maybe twice a month, not the handful of trend-obsessed foodniks we see at every pop-up. That's long been our philosophy, but our commitment hardened in June, when the local daily's food critic gave his highest honor to a restaurant that had been officially open for just two weeks. Chosen before it'd actually done a normal dinner service, the restaurant subsequently floundered a bit, drawing fussy crowds and mixed reviews. When we were picking the top 15 fine-dining restaurants in town, it wasn't even in serious consideration.

Great restaurants almost always take time to alchemize.

Take Imperial. Local legend Vitaly Paley's second restaurant debuted in late 2012 with massive expectations. Paley even hired Ben Bettinger, the chef behind Beaker & Flask, our 2009 Restaurant of the Year, to man the wood-fired grill. But the room, the staff and the menu didn't quite come together. Paley promoted the sous chef, a brash young Texan named Doug Adams, and everything finally started to click. Finally, the food had enough swagger to fill the space. Today, we name Imperial our 2015 Restaurant of the Year.

That dynamic became a theme this year. Our runner-up, St. Jack, really found its stride only after it moved across the river and into a space that allowed the chef to realize his vision. Our No. 3, Mediterranean Exploration Company, comes from a restaurateur who's won two previous Restaurant of the Year honors, but it took his 16-month-old Israeli project a year of tweaks before it finally learned how to turn out proper pitas.

All those chefs and more will tell you: Their craft takes a little time. It's tough to perfect a dish without months of practice, if not years.

That's why this dining guide aims to blow on the embers. We want heat, of course. But we want a steady, reliable glow instead of a flash of brandy that disappears in a puff.

So take your mom to Burrasca, the city's best new Italian restaurant, where two plates of outstanding housemade pasta and a whole bottle of wine will run you $50. Take your college buddy to Le Pigeon, still the best overall restaurant in town nearly a decade after it opened, and just two blocks from Union Jacks. And take your partner to either Expatriate or P.R.E.A.M., the hip-hop pizzeria off Ladd's Circle that makes a killer olive oil Gibson.

The Process

Willamette Week's annual directory of Portland's top 99 restaurants includes both new and old.

  • Restaurants are assessed primarily on the quality of their food, but also on service and atmosphere.
  • Writers visit unannounced and purchase their meals, and are reimbursed by the newspaper.
  • To qualify for inclusion in the main directory, a restaurant must offer table service, be open at least four days per week and be located in Multnomah, Washington or Clackamas counties.
  • New restaurants have been reviewed sometime during the past year and are often (but not always) revisited in the months before the guide is published.
  • All restaurants older than one year are revisited within a few months of the guide’s publication.
  • Many, many restaurants are visited by our staff but ultimately not included.
  • Advertisers are not given any preferential treatment.

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