Best Restaurants 2024

Portland's top 50 restaurants. Plus: Wolves, weed, wine country architecture, the solace of solo travel, and local private schools by the numbers.

In this issue:

Arts & Culture

Booktopia

With New HQ, the City’s Literary Heart (Finally) Finds a Permanent Physical Form

Literary Arts’ expansive Southeast building will house a bookstore, café and bar, and all-ages community resources.

09/18/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Lingua Franca

Portland Artist Sidony O’Neal Mines Math and Art for Connective Tissue

What can mathematical proofs, linguistics, and swimming pool ladders teach us about each other?

08/13/2024 Photography by Jason Hill By Matthew Trueherz

Memoir

Breaking Bread and Capitalism with Lola Milholland

The Umi Organic founder’s memoir challenges the nuclear family model with food.

08/01/2024 Photography by Jason Hill By Matthew Trueherz

Work From Home

Inside Portland’s Residential Contemporary Art Galleries

How public exhibition spaces—in and around private homes—change our experience with art.

07/16/2024 By Matthew Trueherz Photography by Michael Novak

Eat & Drink

Superfan

Fat City Café’s Pancake Patron

No, Tom Kervin doesn’t work at the Multnomah Village breakfast institution, but he still fixes things and runs errands.

09/17/2024 Photography by Michael Raines By Margaret Seiler

Action!

A Tasteful Adaptation: What Goes into a Movie-Themed Dinner?

Performance art to parties, Sopranos- and Twin Peaks–inspired meals aren’t just for kicks.

08/28/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Chef’s Notes

Five Portland Chefs Trace Back Their Favorite Dishes and Ingredients

Güero’s specialty import mezcal, Jeju’s riff on the Big Mac, and Måurice’s black pepper cheesecake.

08/23/2024 By Matthew Trueherz Illustrations by Rebecca Nguyen

Dining Picks

Our Restaurant Critics' Dream Meals

When asked, hypothetically, if they could order a meal of dishes cherry-picked from any menu across the city, this is how our critics filled their tables.

08/16/2024 By Portland Monthly Staff Illustrations by Rebecca Nguyen

Grape Spaces

These Willamette Valley Wineries Have Redefined the Tasting Room

Well-built wines meet spaces with architectural significance.

07/23/2024 By Emily Teel

Restaurant Review

It’s Exclusive, But Is the Soho House Restaurant Cool?

Members-only restaurants are having a national renaissance. Soho House is the closest thing Portland has.

07/11/2024 By Matthew Trueherz Photography by Thomas Teal

Recipe

Singer-Songwriter Y La Bamba Is Never without This Salsa Verde

Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos shares their father’s recipe, a staple of their Mexican American pantry.

06/25/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Best Restaurants

The 50 Best Restaurants in Portland Right Now

The legends, new voices, and wild ideas that make Portland a major dining destination.

06/04/2024 Edited by Karen Brooks

Home & Real Estate

Your Worst Nightmare, Solved

Got Rats, Portland? What to Do If Your Home Becomes Infested

Yes, our city has them, too.

05/07/2024 By Winston Ross Illustrations by Jack Dylan

News & City Life

Squash the Competition

How to Grow a Giant Pumpkin and Paddle It to Regatta Victory

A reigning champion of Tualatin's annual race spills his hard-won tips.

09/20/2024 Illustrations by Sam Island By Rebecca Jacobson

The Game of Portland

Navigating the Great Corn Maze of Fall in Portland

Look up at the swifts, look down at the mushrooms.

09/11/2024 Illustrations by Hawk Krall By Portland Monthly Staff

Editor's Note

From the Editor: Lessons in Hospitality

Portland Monthly’s new editor in chief reflects on what makes a great restaurant—and a great magazine.

09/05/2024 By Brooke Jackson-Glidden

Ballot Bonanza

Portland’s Upcoming Election, by the Numbers

Historical turnouts, close calls, and all those new ranked choices.

09/04/2024 By Margaret Seiler

Education

Portland Private Schools by the Numbers: 2024–2025

Application deadlines, tuition costs, demographics, and more key info on Portland-area K–12 private schools.

08/30/2024 Edited by Portland Monthly Staff

Sexually Implicit

Porn Is Everywhere. Why Has School Sex Ed Mostly Ignored It?

Even Oregon’s progressive health curriculum has struggled to address sexually explicit media, but it’s about to join the conversation in middle and high schools.

08/26/2024 By Ellee Thalheimer Illustrations by Matt Chase