Portland did well in the VegNews Restaurant Awards two years in a row: Best Diner, Best Mexican, Best Soul Food, Best Bakery, Best Ice Cream, and Best New Restaurant. Portland and I have a love-hate relationship. I hate going to Portland, and Portland loves not caring about my opinion. For someone from the car-culture of Southern California, the entire state of Oregon is jarring. The speed limit is 55 mph in places where it should be 80. Folks act terrified of driving around other cars (merging onto the freeway, using roundabouts, turning right). And you can’t pump your own gas. (They’re fixing this one actually! As of 2023 it’s no longer illegal to pump your own gas, and gas stations can choose to offer self-serve, so I was able to pump my own gas 100% of the time on this last trip. New Jersey is still hanging in there, the last state where you can’t pump your own gas.)

But if VegNews says the food in Portland is that good, maybe it’s time for a trip to Portland. I still felt skeptical. Best Soul Food that far from the south? Best Mexican in a place that uses that much ranch dressing? I dunno about that. But I trust VegNews and their many vegan readers, so I gave it a try. (The photo is the blueberry tart from Orange & Blossom.)
First stop was Kate’s Ice Cream in the Mississippi Avenue neighborhood. (Which was a great neighborhood. I spent some time wandering around, and they have some delightful shops and outdoor eating areas.) The ice cream shop started in 2019 at farmers markets, then became a pop-up, and now is a brick-and-mortar. It’s also won awards for being the city’s best ice cream (vegan or not). This is the salted peanut butter brittle flavor, and it was good. It was creamy, so it didn’t have that watery base that instantly betrays it as vegan. I’m not sure it is better than Van Leeuwen, but it’s definitely as good as Van Leeuwen. I took pints of their rose water cardamom almond and marionberry cobbler flavors (which are both supposed to be excellent) and stashed them in Nene’s freezer, but I was so sugared-out by the end of the trip that I never had either flavor. (Nene has since tried the rose water cardamom and said it was excellent.)
Mirasata wasn’t on VegNew’s best-of list, but that’s probably because they don’t have “Best Sri Lankan” as one of their categories. From my research, it sounded like Mirasata was a must-try, especially their rice and curry plate (pictured). The curry is different every day, and you get to pick one condiment, and the rest is a surprise. My plate had lentils, broccoli, sliced carrots, halved potatoes, chickpea curry, and pol sambol (shredded coconut with chilies, which is why it’s carrot-colored), and rice. It was good. And it was definitely enough for two meals. The pol sambol was way over my spicy-food limit (my limit is not high), but everything else left you feeling like you wanted to eat that again later.
Doe Donuts was a surprise favorite of mine and Nene’s. Although not first in the Best Doughnut Shop category (that went to Donut Friend in Los Angeles), they did place second. They do savory donuts in addition to traditional sweet donuts, so they have things like a BLT sandwich on an unglazed donut and the Chips and Dip donut (pictured here with Hamlet the cat). The Chips and Dip donut is sour cream and onion dip baked into a donut, topped with potato chips, and garnished with chives. It was outstanding. The one we split on Thursday was so good that I went back on Friday and got two more (twice on Friday, actually, because the Chips and Dip donuts weren’t ready at first).
This was my favorite savory thing on the trip. Boxcar Pizza placed third for Best Pizzeria, but it’s also the only Detroit-style place in the running. (First was Screamers in NYC, then Pura Vita in Hollywood). I’ve never had Detroit-style pizza before, and I can see why it’s popular. The idea is that you use a fuller-fat cheese, and a lot of cheese, so that it bubbles over and runs down the sides of the crust, not only creating a heavenly crispy edge but also making the entire slice taste more buttery. The problem with vegan cheese is that it doesn’t brown very well. It melts, it stretches, but if you want cheese broiled onto your pizza for a juicy cheesy bready bite, you’re going to have a rough time. But Boxcar Pizza did it somehow. It was so. good. This is the Four Minute Mile which is olives, pepperoni, red sauce, and chili flakes. (You put the pepperoni under the cheese for Detroit-style.) The toppings and the cheese balanced perfectly, and the crust was excellent. I haven’t had that juicy-cheese crust experience since my pre-vegan days.
This cardamom bun from Orange & Blossom was my favorite sweet thing on the trip. It’s brioche with a cardamom-cinnamon butter filling topped with orange blossom glaze. I liked it so much that I tried to bake it when I got home. (It was difficult, and I’ve since gone back to purchasing my baked goods instead of trying to make them.) The bun in the background is a miso butterscotch sticky bun. The roll is soaked in miso butterscotch caramel and topped with sesame seeds.
Since I was staying with Nene, we took advantage of some of the new (well, new to me) vegan options in Olympia. Le Voyeur is 100% vegan and serves outstanding bar food (burgers, dogs, fries, wings). We got chili cheese fries, BBQ wings, and a dog. The only problem was that we didn’t have stomach capacity for more, because everything was delicious. It’s definitely on my must-eat list for next time.
And I’ve posted about the Nineveh food truck four times on this blog already. It’s arguably some of the best food in America (I haven’t been to 5 states, so you never know, but I have a good feeling). In the midst of what feels like a massive restaurant closure streak, Nineveh opened a brick-and-mortar in addition to keeping their food truck open, so we finally have some good restaurant news. Nene and I went for brunch, and the food was good, but the vegan options aren’t as good as the sabich sandwich from the food truck. But I’m still glad they’re expanding.
Overall, VegNews was not wrong, and the food in Portland was phenomenal, like the kind of stuff I think about later and would be willing to go back for. The only exception was Mis Tacones (photo on the left). The al pastor meat was spicy but flavorless, the refried beans were bland, the bread wasn’t bad but wasn’t remarkable, and the crema looked and tasted suspiciously like ranch. Eating their torta felt like having a sloppy joe at an outdoor potluck. It was so disappointing that I went out of my way on the drive home to overwrite the experience with a torta from El Cocinero in Van Nuys (on the right). I already sang El Cocinero’s praises in another post, and they continue to do great work. The al pastor meat was flavorful–this unreal mix of savory and sweet–and they used mayo and avocado instead of crema and beans so the sandwich was gooier and more like comfort food. The bread was outstanding–soft, flavorful, and so good it would have been delicious by itself. There still might be good Mexican food in Portland, it just seems VegNews readers haven’t discovered it yet.
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