It’s no secret that Korean-born pastry chef couple Jin Caldwell and Kyurim “Q” Lee’s pint-sized N Williams bakery, which specializes in viennoiserie and chocolates, has been serving Portland’s best croissants since 2019. The bakery is currently on hiatus (estimated to reopen by the end of March) while Lee undergoes breast cancer treatment, from which, Caldwell reports via Instagram, “she is recovering well.” You won’t be the only one lining up for the reopening, but the shop does maintain an insider-secret vibe, and gleeful, knowing glances among croissant-chasing customers. The signature “jumbo” croissants come in standard butter, ham and cheese scattered with a sesame and poppy seed topping, and chocolate, and they share real estate in the modest pastry case with sumptuous miniature desserts that glisten like Christmas tree ornaments, killer biscotti ($1 when you buy it to dip in your coffee, which you absolutely should), and a mesmerizing spread of glossy chocolate truffles.

As of November, three Vietnamese soup spots with “VL” in the name populate the city’s east side. All were started by Christina “Ha” Luu (who passed away last year) and William Vuong in 2004, and are run today by their children and grandchildren. Each location offers daily rotating soups and its own nuance—more like branches of a family tree than franchises. But aesthetically, they’re consistently nondescript. Making soul-warming soup is the highest priority, which, despite routine praise from countless famed chefs and media outlets, including from this magazine and Bon Appétit, has kept the empire somewhat under the radar. Open Wednesday through Sunday for lunch only, each offers two or three soup options daily, like classic northern beef pho, phở bắc, and the creamy, coconut-based yellow chicken curry noodle soup, bún cari gà. If you’re up for it, this is a safe space to leave your comfort zone: try the pork-based bún chả ốc, which flaunts sliced snail meatballs and vermicelli noodles, or the bánh canh cua, a hearty pork broth that floats shrimp, quail eggs, shredded pork, and its namesake crab flakes. Hà VL opened first on SE 82nd in 2004. Rose VL Deli, in the Foster-Powell neighborhood, came in 2015. And Annam VL, the latest addition, popped up closer in, on SE Belmont Street, in November.

Led by chef Kari Kihara, who came to Oregon from Massachusetts by way of San Francisco’s restaurant scene, Hayward sits in the falsely modest setting of McMinnville’s Mac Market, a repurposed factory that boasts a pizzeria, a refillable luxury cosmetics store, and a Wellspent Market outpost. In a partially sectioned-off corner of the high-ceilinged space, Kihara is as likely to host a dinner series themed by a favorite TV show (The Sopranos, Tokyo Vice, and Twin Peaks in recent months) as one that support causes like the Oregon Kelp Alliance, which advocates for regenerative ocean plants. The regular menu’s backbone is vegetable-focused Italian-ish cuisine, often zhuzhed with Japanese flavors—a koji-spiked butter for the roasted garlic focaccia; a little caramelized miso in the picatta sauce dressing a bone-in pork cutlet. Other dishes lean in further, like a scrapple musubi that swaps the Pennsylvania Dutch pork loaf for the spam usually found in the hybrid Japanese Hawaiian handheld rice dish. If you’re passing through town, a very trim lunch menu—quite literally soup and salad, the latter with the option to add a protein—is worth a stop.

In Ashland, MÄS chef Josh Dorcak bills his highly refined tasting as “Cascadian Cuisine,” referencing a sense of place through food, though the menu sources ingredients from around the world, and a strong Japanese influence looms large over both the cuisine and the spirit of the place; he’s said Tokyo’s intimate sushi counters inspired his vision. Many have deemed it worth the four-hour drive from Portland, if not a flight across the country, as the New York Times implied by including MÄS on its 2022 list of the 50 most exciting restaurants in America. Meals open with a signature, sippable dashi broth slicked with an agrarian, barley-scented clarified butter, and run through a poetic, omnivorous dozen or so courses. The menu changes constantly, but standouts include a lobster and foie gras chawanmushi (a silky, savory Japanese egg custard) and savory-leaning desserts; the current offering pairs maple-y candy cap mushrooms with hojicha, a roasted Japanese green tea. NAMA, Dorcak’s neighboring a la carte counter, serves similarly refined dishes, and is recommended as a good place to hang before your reservation.