Foodie Finds in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon certainly does not fall short on the foodie scene. The city is full of intriguing and innovative restaurants. We had quite the adventure exploring and sampling a variety of flavors. We could probably spend months exploring culinary treasures in the city! Alas, we only had a few days but we made some fab discoveries:



The Original

On our first evening in Portland, we dined at The Original sporting a retro diner feel to it. The Original features comfort diner fare but with a little more pizzazz. Local and regional flavors are infused throughout. My husband and I both ordered the Club House featuring turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado aioli and como bread. A club normally sounds simplistic but this was one of the best sandwiches I have had. As you can see in the photo, it was rather large. So, we each ate a half and packed a half which we would bring with us on our trip to Mount St. Helens. The side salad was a pleasant surprise with quality ingredients as opposed to just lettuce and a tomato or two. My daughter went for the Alfredo which featured mushrooms and chicken. She paired her dinner with a lemonade. We were off to a delicious start to our visit in Portland!

Salt and Straw

Salt and Straw is truly a must when visiting Portland. We all need a sweet treat, right? Salt and Straw crafts handmade ice cream with a twist. Flavors are exceptionally unique including Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper and Pear & Blue Cheese. You are invited to sample when you visit, so I recommend sampling a variety of flavors to try the more interesting ones. We enjoyed Salt and Straw on a pretty hot Portland day -- about 100 degrees. My daughter had the Chocolate Gooey Brownie:

Our Salt and Straw melted fast due to the heat!

My husband and I split the Coava Coffee & Cloudforest Craque:

Of course, you have to have coffee ice cream in Portland!

Very delicious with intriguing flavors using Oregon ingredients.


10 Barrel Brewing Company

Of course, we did have to enjoy some Oregon brewing! One evening, we visited 10 Barrel Brewing Company where my husband and I enjoyed a couple of brews. 10 Barrel Brewing first started in Bend, Oregon and has since expanded to Portland, Boise, Denver and San Diego.

We were pretty impressed with the brew pub's menu and found it to be intriguing while also including family-friendly options. Ever the pizza fan, my daughter went for pizza.

Winner, winner pizza dinner!

I was thrilled to find a hummus platter. The platter was huge and full of veggies -- just what I needed after a day of hiking while still being healthy.

My husband went a little less healthy and had the Steak Gorgonzola Nachos. Well, I guess he deserved it after hiking! 10 Barrel locally sources which I think really makes a difference in freshness.

Now that is a platter of nachos!

Pine Street Market

Pine Street Market is a food market featuring nine different restaurants. The concept allows members of your dining party a larger range of choice so you don't have to choose one type of cuisine when going out. I found this to be a great option when dining with a teen because she often opts for more casual fare and my husband and I prefer something a bit nicer. From pizza and burgers to ramen and tapas, a nice selection of choices. Salt and Straw also has a soft serve concept called Wiz Bang Bar that puts a spin on childhood favorites with some inventive choices like Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero and Roasted Strawberry Coconut soft serve. We opted to share tapas from Pollo Bravo. We started with the Potatoes Bravas which were delicious! They were slightly different than the ones we have at home, but in a good way. The lemon butter was an interesting touch.

Delicious and addicting Potatoes Bravas.

We also had a portion of the Pollo Bravo which was also incredible. Loved the chicken!

We also had the Rotisserie Roast Beef Bocadillo. My husband felt that this sandwich was perhaps a bit too fatty. He would try something new next time.

 Rotisserie Roast Beef Bocadillo

Tasty N Alder

Did I say we love tapas? WE LOVE TAPAS! So, we also tried Tasty N Alder for tapas as well. Tasty N Alder had a little more upscale atmosphere but not too fancy -- comfortable and upscale. We ordered several plates to share including a charcuterie board, the Blue Raven salad, fries and BBQ Spiced Half Chicken. The meal was entirely delicious. We had no problem finishing everything! Like so many of our Portland finds, Tasty N Alder also locally sources. We truly enjoyed the flavors of Oregon! Here is a peek:

Lauretta Jean's

If pie or biscuits tickle your fancy, we recommend Lauretta Jean's! We enjoyed several biscuits from Lauretta Jean's during our stay and they were heaven. My husband enjoyed a sausage biscuit for breakfast.

Yum! Yum! Sausage biscuit!

Public Domain:

Being in Portland, we did have have a little coffee. We both settled on Public Domain which has the distinction of Oregon's original specialty coffee roaster. Our coffee was delicious and just the pick me up we needed for the crisp morning. I would have liked to have tried more coffee during our visit but most days were in the 90s!

Locally roasted Public Domain coffee.

While writing this, I am actually pretty amazed by how much we tried while in Portland! We loved almost everything we tried and saw plenty of other spots we would like to visit in the future. Portland, Oregon is truly a city to explore culinary temptations! I can't wait to try some new spots on our next visit!