Well, we went back to Portland for a week in August! What does this mean for you? You get a guide of even more food places to check out if you’re ever in the area!
You’re welcome. ;)
We went with a friend who is on a vegan diet, so I will also include what he had to say about the food we tried.
Pho Van
11651 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, Beaverton, OR 97005
Pho Van was SO GOOD. I loved eating there and all of us enjoyed the food so much. I could honestly go back every week and be completely satisfied. The staff were friendly, the atmosphere was not sparse but not showy, there were many people who appeared to be regular customers, there were actually Vietnamese people eating there etc etc.
I never had pho before this experience, but I loved it. I am usually hesitant about being too excited for a different type of food I’m not used to because I don’t have enough experience to know what is good and what is not. Is this pho better pho? Or is it crappy pho? Seeing so many Vietnamese people in the restaurant let me know it was probably okay for me to be excited about this meal I loved. I highly recommend it!
Pip’s Original Doughnuts & Chai
4759 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR 97213
As some of you know, I’m a chai fan. Pip’s is known for its chai flavors. They have at least five different flavors of chai, which you can actually get a flight of. It was just Chris and me drinking so we didn’t go that route, unfortunately. I got the Heart of Gold (Toasted coconut chai, turmeric, greentea, clove and ginger) and Chris got the Smokey Robinson (Campfire chai, smoke, cinnamon, clove and vanilla). The Heart of Gold flavor was a nice blend of chai, coconut and turmeric. I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure how to put this in a better way, but the Smokey Robinson was a bit too smokey for my taste.
The doughnuts at Pip’s are about the size of a Hostess Donette. They were the perfect size for Chris, me and A to share a set of six, allowing for us to try each flavor available. The standout flavors for me were the raw honey and sea salt, candied bacon maple and the seasonal flavor at the time; nectarine. Honey and sea salt and nectarine kind of explain themselves, but I was surprised to enjoy the bacon maple flavor. It was approached differently to what I’ve seen from other doughnut shops. This doughnut had a bacon maple jam on top which was surprisingly good! I really enjoyed the jam as apposed classic maple glaze with bacon bits on top.
Salt & Straw
100 A Ave, Lake Oswego, OR 97034
We went to the Lake Oswego location, but there are at least four other places in Portland where you can get Salt & Straw.
First, I want to mention the store itself. I was incredibly impressed by the efficient, yet personalized, job Salt & Straw does! We went twice and both times the line was huge, but it went so quickly.
Crew members come out to each group in the line and ask if they want any samples. As the line moves along the crew member goes back and forth grabbing you as many samples as you need, USING ACTUAL SPOONS TO CAUSE LESS WASTE! Then you choose your flavor and you’re on your merry way! No standing about forever thinking “ehhh I may like that one, but I’ll have to wait to be at the front to try it and then I might need to try a million more to actually find one that I like!”
The first time I went was with A and our friend. We both got the Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies & Cream vegan ice cream flavor. It was AMAZING. (A and our friend agreed) You could not tell at all that it was vegan, and it had chocolate and hazelnut in it. What more could you want?
The second time I went was with A and Chris and I got the Goat Cheese, Marionberry and Habanero flavor while Chris got the Snickerdoodle flavor. A loved both of them. I was so surprised! I was expecting him to hate mine, but he loved it! It was smooth, with just the right amount of tang from the goat cheese and the marionberry and habanero were blended together in a perfectly balanced berry swirl throughout the scoop. Just thinking about that ice cream right now is making me salivate. Sounds SO strange, but it was SO good!
I think a dream job would be to work for Salt & Straw creating flavors. Just have to throw that out into the world.
Vancouver Farmers Market
605 Esther St, Vancouver, WA 98660
Kind of a random food location to post, but if you’re in Portland I think it’s worth making your way across the bridge to Vancouver. We didn’t explore much of the city (toddlers need to nap you know) but the area near the farmer’s market was lovely. It was quieter than Portland, there were murals and art all over, it felt smaller and the people were really nice. The farmers market itself was a great size and there were so many fresh fruit and veg stands. We bought some honey and toffee and had a great time.
Pizza A’Fetta
231 N Hemlock St, Cannon Beach, OR 97110
I’ll say right now, I will pretty much never buy food in a beach town again unless it’s just a snack/treat. I was expecting expensive, but it was crazy. Our pizza was about $35 for a large. Our friend bought a pizza full of veggies on top of tomato sauce and it wasn’t great. The pizza we bought was a chicken curry pizza (us trying to be adventurous) and it was absolutely disgusting. The first half of my first slice was tolerable, but after that…oh man. The chicken was dry, the sauce was a gummy texture and there was an insane amount of cheese on top of all that.
You might be saying to yourself, “Sariah, you took a food risk and it didn’t pay off, own up.” What I would say back is, you’re right, BUT I saw some other pizza there and it was just as sad looking, the restaurant was full of flies and the service was mediocre. Do not go to this restaurant if you can avoid it.