This year brought us lots of travel opportunities, which means we weren’t in town as much as we have been in the past years. Definitely bittersweet because of all the food that Portland has to offer and the fact that it’s changing, growing, moving and adding new places every month.
We spent the year enjoying many favorites when we were in town, but also trying to knock some new places off our list. We have 2 all time favorites that we just can’t get enough of.
Life of Pie Between the mushroom pizza and the $5 Happy Hour Margarita pizza, we spend many a quick lunches at this place. Even though this is not our hood, we have still become regulars here.
Our second favorite that we can’t help but take people to is The American Local. Not only do we drag out of town guests and neighbors here, we also chose to do our company Christmas party here. Some of my favorites that are always on the menu are the beets and the burger. There is always a tostada, but how it’s topped is always changing with seasonal veggies. I have loved every single one I have tried. My suggestion is go with a group and plan to over order.
My list is crazy long, but we did manage to knock off a few places we had not been to yet and these are the places that really caught our attention this year.
Taylor Railworks wowed us with the most unusual dish of Fried Chicken and Clams. Honestly we wouldn’t have even ordered this, but we were sitting at the chef”s counter and they all said we had to try it. We did!
Never Coffee are newcomers to the coffee scene this year. They came out of the gates hot and ready to wow the coffee snobs of Portland. They have hand crafted lattes. My favorite being the Oregon. Great space with exceptional service.
Renata with their sesaonal Pork Chop. The whole meal was fantastic, but that Pork Chop was exceptional.
Southpark Seafood keeps us coming back with their Clam Chowder with Gnocchi and those brussel sprouts!!
Chicken and Guns with their outstanding chicken won over many of our out of town guests. We would take them and later discover that had gone back on their own because they needed it one more time before they left.
As far as out of town travel goes, this year I discovered that I really like Haggis and pretty much any pasta you can find in Italy. Also someone in Portland needs to make these Brussel Sprout nachos I discovered in Phoenix.
How about you? What were some of your favorites this year?
My posts aren’t as frequent as they used to be, but follow me on Instagram to see what I have recently devoured.
Omg these dishes look amazing. I’m so curious about the chicken & clams.
Do you have any coffee recommendations?