Visiting Portland (2022)

Quality recommendation.

 

Passable scenery too. So sources tell me........

 

As a passionate advocate for Ken's, let me just be clear that I love Apizza as well. They both serve fantastic pies, just that their styles differ enough that my personal preference comes to play. And if you're out by Apizza and Ken's, you could go the whole hog and stop at Scotties as well. There will be no losers(apart from you GI system), only winners.

 

I looked them up on my work computer. I guess I'll be hearing from HR shortly.

 

Portland has so many good pizza spots, almost all of them different, and I wish I could go to them more often. Ken's (Neapolitan), Scottie's (NY), Dove Vivi (cornmeal deep dish?), Ranch (Sicilian), Via Chicago (well, Chicago), Assembly Brewing (Detroit), Pop Pizza (Detroit) Lovely's Fifty Fifty (seasonal NW ingredients + ice cream), Dimo's, Red Sauce. I know I'm missing some and there's new ones I haven't been to yet that are also supposed to be damn good (Pizza Thief, Meta Pizza). People talk about how this or that city is a good pizza city because they excel at a given style, but you know what city has excellent examples of EVERY style? Portland. And I'm not even mentioning the suburbs - in Beaverton we have Hapa Pizza, Karam Lebanese, and Baghdad Gyro, among others, with fantastic pizzas.

 

I always stare at the place when I'm at Apex and wonder about it since I grew up on the arcade game. I'm actually staying a few blocks away this trip.

Thank you everyone. Awesome tips.

 

San Diego won best pizza city in the country I'm some magazine a few years back for the very reasons you laid out. Everyone lost their damn minds.

 

Sorry, I misread your original statement, I thought you said Tuesday.

My wife and I just got back from our week-long trip to Portland yesterday. We also stayed in Downtown (at the Moxy), but we walked over the river to places in SE (about 25-35 min walk depending where exactly), and to the Japanese Garden and Hoyt Arboretum (about a 35 min walk uphill). When it was raining, Lyft rides were about $15 bucks.

A few thoughts on some of the notable food we ate:

-Best breakfasts we had were the breakfast sandwiches from a food cart located at Pioneer Square called Fried Egg I'm In Love. We went back for a second time. https://www.friedegglove.com/

-Dinner at Andina (Peruvan Tapas) was very good - killer ceviche and lamb shank.
https://www.andinarestaurant.com/

-Afuri Izakaya (they have a SE Portland location but we ate at the Beaverton location after hitting up the Beaverton Ex Nomo location for beers driving the way back from a day at Willamette Valley wineries for my wife). Loved the Tonkotsu Tantanmen ramen in addition to other tasty things we shared. Shorter beer list but a few good local ones mixed in with the Japanese Macro lagers https://afuri.us/

-Ken's Artisan Pizza was worth the praise in this thread - great wood-fired style pies. Decent beer list available too.

-Lardo - we split the Korean Pork Shoulder and Pho'rench Dip sandwiches and were happy

-Wayfinder - we only had the Asada Fries as a snack but those were pretty good and the rest of the menu looked good.

-Hair of the Dog - between our two visits we had the Brewers Plate, Smashburger, Chicken Salad sandwich, Italian Sandwich, and both Pesto and Za'atar Twists. Nothing fancy, but solid food we enjoyed

-Loyal Legion - the sausages were a tasty lunch.

-Dar Salam- we walked past this place and well we've never had Iraqi food before, so had lunch here the last day and were not disappointed with the Golden Pompano “Zubede” Fish and Lamb kabobs. They served an "Iraqi pilsner" which had cardamom spice. https://darsalamportland.com/

 

I just wanted to thank you for the great review. I make it out to Portland 2-3 times a year and love all the great feedback here on BA both beer and non-beer related.
I second Fried Egg I’m in Love. I eat there for breakfast almost everyday for breakfast when I’m there. The house made sausage is magical.
Thanks for the feedback on Dar Salam. I tried to get my boss to go there on a recent work trip, but he wasn’t that adventurous.

 

damn..... well done. you hit the all star list of portland food and beer

 

My take on the brewery taprooms I visited:

Wayfinder - had pints of their Altbier and Cold IPA, I thought the Cold IPA was just okay for being their "signature" beer.
Hair of the Dog - visited twice, was awesome to enjoy draft beers and vintage bottles at the source and bring home a bottle of Don (I've only ever been able to buy Adam, Fred, and Doggie Claws in PA)
Deschutes - nice to drink a glass of vintage Abyss, the brewery-only Horchata Porter I drank was lacking the spice.
Pelican (we spent a day driving down the coast from Cannon Beach to Pacific City) - Tsunami Stout was up my alley but the other beers I tried were okay but forgettable. But great to watch the sunset on the patio right on the beach. The next day actually picked up a bottle of MoAS at The Bitter Monk in McMinnville to bring home so looking forward to that.
Golden Valley - (ate lunch here during our day in the Willamette Valley). The pints of ESB and Porter I had were good - I am a fan of traditional styles - so this being an old-school type brewpub was okay with me.
Ex Nomo- pretty good Dark Mild, Vienna Lager, and Schwarzbier, and nice to see the commitment to non-hoppy beers for half their taplist. The blue colored Hello, My Name Is Indigo Montoya was an interesting beer to try.
Gorges Beer Co (had lunch at their Cascade Locks location on drive up the Columbia River Gorge) - the open-air rooftop view was nice but the beers were meh.
McMennamins - Jerry's Ice House was cool vibe, the Hammerhead Pale Ale was mediocre, the Nitro Porter was fine. My wife really enjoyed the Brandy flight she had though.
Cascade Brewing - I'm not normally a huge sour guy, but I appreciate well made barrel-aged versions particularly Flanders Reds, so I very much enjoyed the darker beers I had - Sang Noir, Cocao Rojo, and Mayan Bourbonic. Their non-sour Oatmeal Stout was also solid.
Upright Brewing - the two cask beers were enjoyable (Pale Ale and IPA), but my favorite was actually the Dark Rye Saison.

We didn't just eat and drink all week, besides Washington Park and the days on the coast and doing a driving loop of the gorge and Mt Hood, we also visited the PSU Farmers Market, the Saturday Market, Art Museum, and Historical Society Museum.

Overall a very nice trip. My favorite beer drank at the non-breweries was a bottle of 2018 Buoy Brewing's Love Lost at Sea (Whiskey aged Barleywine) at Loyal Legion. Runner up was Barley Brown's Breakfast Stout - great coffee flavor.

 

@jmdrpi Pelican and McMennamins are always meh.

I had the Ex Novo Mild and Vienna Lager when I was up there a few months ago for Presbytery. Really enjoyed them. Took my group back there for dinner that night.

 

Ok, so, you are disqualified from being a great pizza city if you can't eat pizza for lunch. I can't believe Ken's doesn't open till 5 and Apizza till 4. This seems so crazy to me. It is the opposite side of the same crazy that Hair of the Dog closes so early.

But I still love this town and am having a great time.

Eggs I'm In love is a fucking fantastic breakfast sandwich. Thank you for that rec.

 

Without taking this thread on too much of a tangent, I'm surprised there's not much mention of Portland's crazy good SE Asian spots.

Sunshine Noodles is my new favorite restaurant in town, a nice variety of crazy flavorful Cambodian noodle soups - the Phnom Penh noodles are incredible.

For Thai (ish), check out Phuket Cafe / Eem (Thai BBQ!) / Hat Yai (fried chicken) / Langbaan / Paadee (all have the same owners and all are amazing).

It's hard to go wrong with Vietnamese, but a lot of the best spots are a bit further east than the typical beer crawl permits - Pho Mekha, Bun Bo Hue, and Rose VL Deli are my personal faves, but there is a ton of good pho all over this city.

Oma's Hideaway on SE Division has a very creative Chinese Malaysian menu that changes a lot but is always delicious; Gado Gado in Hollywood has the same owners but veers more Dutch-Indonesian, also worth checking out. Wajan on E Burnside is a more 'traditional' Indonesian place that never disappoints.

(Not SE Asian, but) Han Oak used to be a great Korean restaurant, but now they focus on hot pot; their new spot, Toki, has some inventive dishes and is the best brunch in town right now (imo). Steamed bao burgers, fresh-fried donut flights, and crazy whipped dalgona coffee drinks unlike anything I've had elsewhere.

 

This is the best tangent.

 

To be fair, Apizza DID do lunch for a bit, but the pandemic and staffing issues seem to have killed that. Highly recommend Scottie’s for a lunch slice or two.

 

Need a good Dim Sum recommendation