Portland: What To Eat (Part I)

We went on foodie adventure in Portland last week and here is all the places we ate! Please, don’t judge… We were on vacation after all! Calories don’t count 🙂 Amy is Kelly’s cousin who lives there and she was our gracious host and tour guide for the trip. If you’re curious about our non-food adventures, you can check out both Kelly and Stephanie’s instagrams or search #ldbakinginpdx. There will also be a What To Eat (Part II – Desserts and Drinks) and a What To Do post, but for now…food.

Breakfast:

Besaw’s
Our first breakfast in Portland, which also happened to be Kelly’s birthday, was spent at Besaw’s on 23rd in NW Portland. Since we were so tired from traveling and drinking our beer samplers at Deschutes the first day in Portland, we ended up going to bed before 10 and as a result, we woke up at 6am. We headed to Besaw’s about 8, first stopping for vanilla lattes at Barista. Besaws is super cute inside and smells amazing! Everything on the menu looked delicious and we all seemed indecisive on what to order. We eventually ordered the following: Steph got the avocado omelette, Amy tried the oatmeal pancakes, and Kelly ordered the farmer’s hash. Amy’s pancakes were made with oat flour, so they weren’t really “oatmeal” pancakes like we were expecting. The hash had full sized garlic cloves spread throughout that at first Kelly thought they were potatoes. It was truly amazing how much garlic was on the plate! If you are in NW Portland, this is definitely a place to check out!

Tastebud
A trip to Portland would not be complete without at least having one meal from a food cart. The original plan was to grab Voodoo doughnuts before our hike but the line was soooooo long and it was raining so we needed a plan B. Plan B  turned out to be the most delicious bagel sandwich we’ve ever had and it has been voted one of the best sandwich places in Portland. Not kidding! We both got the Hot Ham sandwich that came with ham and peppercini. Amy got the Spring Veggie sandwich that came with pesto and veggies. We sat in Amy’s car in the rain on the side of the street and devoured these bagel sandwiches. Devoured! They also had a variety of bagel choices. We liked the everything bagel and the sea salt!

Pip’s 
Kelly loves donuts.  If she could eat donuts everyday and not gain a pound, she would. It seems only fitting that on our last morning we would grab donuts before brunch. Most people who don’t live in Portland associate only Voodoo doughnuts with Portland but they are really missing out if they do not stop at Pip’s for their mini donuts! Pip’s makes the donuts fresh to order and they come in four flavors. We ordered one dozen. Don’t judge. In our defense, they are mini donuts so really 4 donuts is like eating one normal sized donut. At least that’s how we justified it 🙂 Anyway, the three of us sampled the following four flavors: honey and sea salt, nutella hazelnut, cinnamon sugar, and strawberry rhubarb. All four were delicious! Pip’s is also known for their chai tea so next time you are in Portland, stop by and enjoy some donuts (you can buy the donuts in smaller batches than a dozen) and a chai and walk around in the cute neighborhood nearby!

Broder 
We had Easter Brunch at a delicious Swedish breakfast joint called Broder. We told Amy on our first day that we wanted to go to brunch and immediately she said Broder is the place. She and Lisa had only been there once before and said it was hands down, the best brunch place. I mean it must be good if they went on a random Tuesday afternoon and still had to wait for a table! Our goal was to get to Broder when it opened  because it’s small and the wait is always long. However, that was not the case. We took a while a getting up and then we had to stop at Pip’s for donuts first so we didn’t arrive at Broder until about 11. Fortunately for us, it was only a 10 minute wait! The food was delicious! Kelly had an open faced broder sandwich that included ham and eggs. The toast was made with some sort of walnut bread and Stephanie is going to try to recreate it! Steph ordered a traditional Swedish hash and Ames ordered the “Lost Egg.”  Not entirely sure what was included in that, but all three of us really enjoyed our last meal together in Portland and would definitely recommend Broder to anyone traveling to Portland!

Lunch/Dinner:

Deschutes Brewery
Our first taste of Portland food was at Deschutes Brewery. We had successfully navigated the public transportation down to Powell’s bookstore and were starting to get hungry. It was raining (of course) and neither of us had brought rain coats. We ran to the closest restaurant we could see…Deschutes! As if Stephanie didn’t get enough beer from the samplers (see below in drinks) she also got beer and cheese soup to warm up from the rain and a side of fries. Kelly got a brewery burger and sweet potato fries. We didn’t feel like we ate thaaat much…but it took us days before we were hungry again after all this! The design of the pub was really fun in a warehouse kind of building, with garage style doors that would open during nice weather. There were so many other things that looked good on the menu (like a grilled pear and goat cheese pizza?!) we would definitely go back again!

Blue Olive 
Seriously, the best hummus and pita of all time. The. Best. Ever. Enough said. Seriously…that’s all we ate for dinner. Not only was the hummus amazing, the pita was fantastic! It was still hot from the oven. Not warm….hot. I think our waitress was getting tired of bringing us more baskets. Along with the traditional style there was a cilantro hummus and baba ganoush, which is essentially the same as hummus but with roasted eggplants. Stephanie really liked it and might even plant some eggplant in her garden to experiment this summer! You can’t go wrong here.

El Diablito
On our second day in Portland, we had Besaw’s for breakfast and were headed to Pambiche for dinner so we wanted a “lighter” lunch and what can be “lighter” than a salad. Amy took us to the food trucks on Mississippi but all the food seemed kind of heavy. We didn’t want to completely stuff ourselves for every meal! These food trucks did have the most amazing looking biscuits, however, so next trip to Portland, we are stopping! Since the Mississippi food trucks were a bust, Amy took us to the food trucks behind her building at work and went to her favorite Mexican food truck for salad. We all ordered different “style” salads. Amy’s had pork, Kelly’s had spicy beef, and Stephanie’s had chicken. They were all topped with shredded potato chips, at least that’s why tasted and looked like! The salads were delicious!! I think we understand now why Amy eats lunch there all time; it’s just so good!

Pambiche
Kelly been hearing about Pambiche, a Cuban restuarant, since she visited Portland last year with her cousins but missed the dinner at Pambiche due to a late flight. Pambiche was all they talked about all trip and how they have the most delicious mango smoothies. Pambiche had a lot to live up to and did not disappoint! We started with a delicious appetizer platter, Primera Vuelta, which had an assortment of empanadas, croquetas, and frituras and an avocado salad. If you have never had a Cuban style avocado salad, you are missing out! Seriously delicious!! We then shared 2 dinner plates: Plato Cubano (pork) and Ropa Vieja (shredded beef). The plates came with rice, beans (red or black), plantains, beets and crustini. The plates were enormous and so incredibly delicious!

La Bonita
Our last night in Portland, Amy took us to her favorite Mexican food restaurant in Portland. It’s one of those places where you order at the counter and then sit down and wait for your number to be called. It’s one of those places that’s really good. Like really, really good! They give enormous portions and the guacamole could have been eaten with a spoon. So yummy!! Amy had a tostada, Steph got chicken enchilada that came smothered in a spicy green sauce and Kelly got a chicken burrito that was so big it was impossible to eat! This was the first time all weekend we were hungry…we’d just hiked over 4 miles and hadn’t eaten since our bagels that morning! Let’s just say we were both a bit “hangy”. Sorry Ames! 🙂 La Bonita would probably be a favorite of ours too if we lived in Portland.

It’s really unbelievable how much we ate in Portland and how many restaurants there STILL were! Pretty sure you could eat at a different place each day for a year and still not try them all. There were a few more places we’d heard good recommendations on, like Frank’s Noodle House from Steph’s dad, so I guess we’ll have to go back again! Check in on later for Part II, where we talk dessert and drinks!

~Kelly & Stephanie