The Five Restaurants We’re Most Excited About This Week

Our Restaurant Guide picks the best restaurants in Portland every October. We hem and haw and fuss to recommend 50 restaurants we think best represent the city.

This is not that list.

Rather, these are five spots we're excited about right now. Maybe that's a taqueria we've loved forever, maybe that's a seafood spot with a special menu this week or a new burger joint we stumbled on Friday night. It's designed to answer that age-old question: Where should we go out to dinner tonight?

1. Woodsman Tavern
4537 SE Division St., 971-373-8264, woodsmantavern.com. $$-$$$.

Former Imperial chef Doug Adams is currently wearing the toque at Woodsman—and it feels like the Tavern's golden age again. Get you some serious down-home comforts.
2. Bark City BBQ
1331 N Killingsworth St., 971-227-9707, barkcitybbq.com. $$.

There's some seriously good new 'cue in town: Split a pit-master platter and a banana pudding milk shake.
3. Bottle Rocket
1207 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 971-279-4663.  $.

Club 21's burger chef is back at this cart serving up some of the best damn old-school burgers in town, with a side of new-school fish sauce tots.
4. Oui! Wine Bar
2425 SE 35th Pl., 503-208-2061, sewinecollective.com/oui-wine-bar-restaurant. $$.

SE Wine Collective's bar is doubling down on food with a new name, a $35 prix-fixe and really amazing whipped butter with espelette peppers and maple syrup.
5. Revelry
210 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 971-339-3693, relayrestaurantgroup.com. $-$$$.

One of the best deals in town is Revelry's $5 fried chicken and Rainier deal on hip-hop Tuesdays.