General Restaurant Tip: Portland Web Eating Guide and other Portland, OR Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Name: Willamette Week's FoodFinder

Even on Virtual Tourist, you are not going to find a comprehensive list of all the various restaurants, bars, coffee houses, bakeries, and other eating establishments in Portland. There are hundreds. Furthermore, unfortunately it is very hard to do business in the restaurant industry here as there is a lot of competition. Therefore, many places do not stay in business long. It is an unfortunate hard fact of the restaurant industry in Portland that some of the places you will read about on Virtual Tourist will be gone by the time you visit Portland. Indeed, one of the highest rated restaurant tips for Portland is for Atwater's, but alas the person who wrote the tip visited several years ago. Atwater's is closed now.

Thus, one good place to check for up to date information on the various restaurants in Portland (and to a limited extent surrounding suburban communities) is the Willamette Week newspaper's FoodFinder, which is located on their web site.

WARNING: The Willamette Week is a newspaper that can be very explicit about the way it describes things. If they feel that a restaurant is serving %$#@!!!& they will say so, using words that the average family newspaper would not use.

Favorite Dish: I'm tempted to say that my favorite "dish" featured in the Willamette Week's FoodFinder was the cute young brunette woman they hired as a model for some of the photos in the 2006 Cheap Eats guide. That would not, however, help any of my fellow travelers.

My favorite features of the Willamette Week FoodFinder are that:

1. The food finder is a freely accessible database that can be sorted by location, food type, or other paramaters. You want to find places to eat near where you are going to be, and if the top rated Virtual Tourist restaurant tip is 10 miles from there, it isn't going to help you much. The Willamette Week's method of searching by area of the city is a much better way of finding something that integrates well with your list of activities for the day.

3. The web site is kept reasonably up to date, so that closed restaurants are not there any more. Furthermore, if the quality of the food at a particular place has changed in quality, chances are that someone has reported it to the Willamette Week.

3. The Willamette Week is a free newspaper. Their printed guides appear once a year, and are also free of charge.

Willamette Week also publishes three annual eating guides included in its free newspapers: Cheap Eats (economical restaurants) (published in early Spring), Drink (reviews of bars and taverns - including their food) (published in late spring), and a general Portland restaurant guide (published in the fall). The contents of these printed guides are integrated into the FoodFinder.

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Theme: Local

Address: This restaurant database is a web site only.
Website: http://foodfinder.wweek.com/

Restaurant Name: Willamette Week's Cheap Eats Guide

Look, its kind of a waste for me to advise you on what restaurant you should visit because your tastes in restaurants and my tastes in restaurants are going to be different.

Every year, approximately in late winter or early spring, the Willamette Week newspaper puts out a Cheap East guide.

If you can get a copy of this, it may benefit you quite a lot. The places listed in this guide are sometimes surprising. A group of people took a while to prepare this guide, and while Willamette Week is entirely dependent on advertising revenue for its publication, at least the places listed inside this guide will give you a really good starting point. Portland has some really good restaurants that are surprisingly economical.

Unfortunately, the annual guide is not available on the newspaper's web site, but there the food & drink finder takes on a whole different format.


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Theme: Other

Website: http://www.wweek.com

Restaurant Name: VeGe Thai

The name pretty much says it all: vegetarian Thai food, with no MSG added.

Take a look at the artwork on the walls too (some of which is for sale).

In terms of value, the food quality and quantity to price is quite good. Prices range from $6 for the most simple lunch items to $11 for some of the more involved dishes. I put down $10 or less, but really the price straddles the line right at $10 per person for what the average person is going to want to spend.

Favorite Dish: There is a pumpkin dish that shows up from time to time on the specials of the day board that is absolutely wonderful. The Thai Iced Tead ( $1.75 as of this writing) is very good. The Ginger Chicken is good too.

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Theme: Vegan/Vegetarian
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (503) 234-2171
Address: 3272 SE Hawthorne, Portland Oregon 97214
Directions: South side of Hawthorne, just after large white appartment building. Difficult to see from street, but normally has sandwichboard sign on sidewalk (with parked cars blocking the sign from the road).
Website: http://vegethai.com/

Restaurant Name: Buffalo Gap

Has two levels - a sports bar and pub on second floor, and a regular restaurant on the 1st floor.

Check the events calendar - there is usually something interesting going on upstairs.

Favorite Dish: Chocolate Fix - rich Chocolate Cake

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Theme: American
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: 503-244-7111
Address: 6835 SW Macadam, 97219
Directions: Near John's Landing
Website: http://www.thebuffalogap.com

Restaurant Name: Rovente Pizza

On a per-person basis, this is probably one of the least expensive restaurants on SE Hawthorne Blvd. Some of the special deals are only about $8 a pizza. A slice of certain types of pizza and a soft drink can be had for $3, depending on what the special deal of the day is.

However, if you are in a big group, and it is raining, keep this in mind: Rovente Pizza on Hawthorne has only about 2 seats indoors. Everything else is outside at uncovered picnic tables. People eat outside here anyway even in the rain, but not anywhere near as often as during nice weather.

And during nice weather the outdoor tables can be quite packed sometimes.

Favorite Dish: I really have no particular favorite pizza at this place that is better than any other.

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Theme: Pizza
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: 3240 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Directions: Area: SE Hawthorne, on the south side of the road. Look for the empty lot with the picnic tables in it.

Restaurant Name: Macadam's Bar & Grill

This is one of the popular places to come for college sports fans in the southwest part of the Portland area (and to a lesser extent the rest of Portland).

There are an extensive list of items on the menu.

Along with several large screens for the sports fan crowds that gather here, there are other games as well, including a shuffleboard, two pool tables, and a dart board.

There are few windows in the place and the interior is dark, but that makes for better viewing of the TV screens.

Some menu items are listed on the web site.

There are only a few vegetarian items on the menu for those of you that require vegetarian food, but some of the salads are a good choice.


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Theme: Pub/Brewery
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: 503.246.MACS
Address: 5833 SW Macadam Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97239
Website: http://www.macadamsbarandgrill.com/

Restaurant Name: Cha! Cha! Cha!

Cha! Cha! Cha!'s Hawthorne location has a large outdoor patio that is separated from the sidewalk by a small fence. This gets people away from the traffic noise a little bit, and with SE Hawthorne becoming a fairly heavily trafficed street by autos this is a bit more pleasant that some of the sidewalk tables some of the other restaurants have. Also, their patio area is covered.

The food is of reasonable quality and the amount of food for the price is a fairly good deal.

It is a very popular place on Hawthorne, because of the reasonable nature of the food quality and price for what you get.

Favorite Dish: No particular favorites here. I've never had a complaint with anything I have ever eaten in a Cha! Cha! Cha!, at any of their locations.

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Theme: Mexican
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (503) 236-1100
Address: 3433 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Directions: North side of Hawthorne. Parking on Hawthorne is nearly impossible, so try a side street if driving. The #14 bus runs quite frequently also.

Restaurant Name: Taco del Mar

One would normally classify this as a "Mexican" restaurant, but the California surf theme and Baja California (with a strong emphasis on California) really makes this into more of an American restaurant than Mexican.

Of course, the fact that it is a chain doesn't help much.

The food is of acceptable quality, and isn't overpriced, but I honestly feel that Cha! Cha! Cha! a few blocks east offers a better value for the money.

There are people who come here, but it is nowhere near as popular as other nearby restaurants. Seeing so few people come into a place on Hawthorne would probably be a death knell to something that isn't a chain. Take-out food is a popular item here. They have tables on the sidewalk too, but unlike Cha! Cha! Cha! these are right on the sidewalk, close to traffic and right in the middle of pedestrians. It would work OK on a wider sidewalk, but not very well here.

There is a kids menu which offers a considerable discount for less food. This is probably be a popular feature for families. Typical adult menu meal items are in the $6 to $8 range, and items from the children's menu are down in the $3 to $4 range.

One nice feature: things are made to order here in front of your eyes, so that you can tell the server what you want.

Favorite Dish: I'm afraid that to me all of it is fairly mediocre - not terrible but certainly not excellent or special either. Better than Taco Bell or other big national chains, but not as good as some of the local restaurants.

"Where the Food is So Good you Don't Mind Getting Messy" may be true of some places, but it certainly doesn't hold up well when comparing Taco del Mar with many of the other choices on Hawthorne, and the number of people coming through the door seem to indicte that others feel the same way.

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Theme: American
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (503)232-7763
Address: 3106 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214
Directions: On south east corner of SE Hawthorne Blvd and 31st Avenue. Parking lot is in the back, and you can get to it from Hawthorne by going past the restaurant.
Website: http://www.tacodelmar.com/

Restaurant Name: Pepino's Mexican Grill

Pepino's offers a very good value for the money, plus sells a number of different beers including local brands.

The art work inside the restaurant is traditional Hawthorne eccentric (old house windows hanging from the ceiling) with a Mexican twist.

The patio area is fenced and not very well covered, and unfortunately is very close to a busy intersection so that it gets a lot of traffic noise - but it is still a somewhat pleasant place to be if it is a low traffic time of day, and a very popular place during warm days.

Customers are requested to return their plates and wares to bins at the doors.

Favorite Dish: Veggie Enchiladas offers a fairly good deal with the volume of food vs. the price of $5.95 - but it is hard to say what your best choice is seeing how all of it offers a fairly good value for the money.

The web site gives a good idea of the prices and what is available, but check the several boards in the place for various special deals of the day.

Unfortunately for those with children, this restaurant doesn't offer very many options.

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Theme: Mexican
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (503) 236-5000
Address: 3832 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd.
Directions: South side of Hawthorne, just before the Old Hawthorne Theatre (39th Avenue), across the street from Fred Meyer
Website: http://www.pepinos.org/

Restaurant Name: Paradox Palace Cafe

Please note that the Paradox Palace cafe is NOT a 100% vegan or vegetarian restaurant. There are also dishes that contain meat. HOWEVER, be that as it may, this place is well known for its good vegetarian dishes, and in the mid to late 1990s even meat lovers discovered that vegetarian food from this restaurant was woderful. As this restaurant was one of the first places to start popularizing vegetarian and vegan foods, they also offer on their menu definitions of all the various words (starting with the difference between vegetarian and vegan) used for those unfamiliar with the terms.

There is a lunch counter for single diners or small groups, and booths for larger groups of people. This place has been crowded for years, and these days a waiting list is not unusual. One labor day weekend Saturday, when everyone should have been out of town or asleep, the waiting list was 1/2 hour.

At one time, the restaurant featured some very eccentric decorations, and changed themes every few months. For example, one of the more memorable themes was the alien theme, in which even the lights in the restaurant were decorated with special pieces to make them look like flying saucers, and a small fountain by the cash register had little green men. These day, unfortunately, the Paradox Palace Cafe is somewhat more conventional in its decorating tastes.

Credit cards are not accepted.

Favorite Dish: The vegetarian ravioli was excellent.

Their somewhat healthful chocolate cake is terrific.

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Theme: Vegan/Vegetarian
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: (503) 232-7508
Address: 3439 SE Belmont Street, Portland, OR 97214-4246
Directions: North side of street, before the movie theatre. Street parking on that section of Belmont is very limited, so try to find a side street. Stops for bus #15 are nearby.