Karen Brooks eats, drinks and thinks about food for Portland Monthly, as the magazine's trend-spotting food critic at large. Karen's reviews and think pieces ferret out the restaurants, food carts, and maverick thinkers defining Portland's food voice. In 2017, Karen won one of the food world's most prestigious titles: the James Beard Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviewer Award. She's penned nine books on food and drink, and in 2020 guest-starred on Hulu's food series, Eater's Guide to the World 

FOOD & WINE EVENTS

Chef Studio Dinners

Food school is open, with four nights of collaborative dinners and demos at Robert Reynolds’s celebrated cooking school.

11/08/2011 By Karen Brooks

BREAKING FOOD NEWS

Nong’s Khao Man Gai Grows

Portland’s prominent food cart plans a late November expansion with a second cart at the PSU pod and a sauce line.

11/04/2011 By Karen Brooks

SNEAK PEEK

Noisette

Next week, former Portland star chef Anthony Demes unveils his anticipated new restaurant Noisette in Northwest Portland. Here’s our field report on what to expect.

11/02/2011 By Karen Brooks

Best Restaurants 2011

Best Restaurants 2011

Eat, Play, Love: 35 Divine Dining Experiences.

10/19/2011 Edited by Rachel Ritchie and Karen Brooks

Best Restaurants 2011

Best Restaurants 2011: Amped Up

Grain & Gristle, Beaker & Flask, Skin & Bone; local restaurateurs have discovered that the secret ingredient to success seems to be the ampersand. Here are a few more we’re hoping to see soon.

10/14/2011 Edited by Rachel Ritchie and Karen Brooks

Best Restaurants 2011

Best Restaurants 2011: The Best of the Rest

Still hungry? We’ve culled the 30 restaurants that should remain in any food lover’s regular rotation. Be it artisan pizza, sustainable sushi, or Spain-meets-Oregon tapas, these places deliver every time.

10/14/2011 Edited by Rachel Ritchie and Karen Brooks

Best Restaurants 2011

Best Restaurants 2011: The Comforts

Everyone's got a go-to comfort food that they simply must have. Check out our favorites and add them to your list.

10/14/2011 By Kasey Cordell, Karen Brooks, and Benjamin Tepler

Best Restaurants 2011

Best Restaurants 2011: The Ultimate Feast

48 Hours in P-Town: The perfect weekend itinerary of local eating.

10/14/2011 By Karen Brooks

Best Restaurants 2011

Best Restaurants 2011: Best New Restaurants

New places, new chefs, and reimagined kitchens.

10/14/2011 By Karen Brooks

EAT HERE NOW

The New Nuvrei

The Pearl District’s Nuvrei Patisserie and Café brings breakfast and lunch upstairs.

10/12/2011 By Benjamin Tepler

FOOD CART WATCH

Garden State’s Last Stand

The pioneering food cart will close out its stellar four-year food run this Sunday at Mississippi Marketplace

10/05/2011 By Karen Brooks

EAT HERE NOW

Café Velo + Lauretta Jean’s = Pie Heaven

Coffee-loving Café Velo reopens with another farmers market star at the oven. Say hello to Portland’s best pie, biscuits, and quiche.

09/14/2011 By Eat Beat Team

BREAKING FOOD NEWS

Boke Bowl to Open a Restaurant

The roving ramen sensation has a new home next to Bunk Bar on the industrial East Side.

08/22/2011 By Karen Brooks

Expansion Plans

Little Big Burger in SE!

Micah Camden’s rapidly expanding edible empire hits SE Division

08/10/2011 By Karen Brooks

Review

Field Studies

Some of the city's best chefs gather for a new kind of farm fest.

07/22/2011 By Karen Brooks

BREAKING FOOD NEWS

Castagna’s Matt Lightner Moving to New York

Portland’s modernist pioneer, the first to rethink local cuisine since the farm-to-table movement in the 1990s, will open a restaurant in Tribeca this fall.

07/01/2011 By Karen Brooks

INTRODUCING

Wild Goose Farm: Hot Homestead Feasts

An architect and designer open up their Sauvie Island home to a new kind of farm-to-table supper club featuring a delicious lineup off-the-radar chefs.

06/22/2011 By Karen Brooks

BREAKING FOOD NEWS

Bluehour Hires Spago Alum Thomas Boyce

Bruce Carey’s Pearl District charmer adds a missing ingredient: a power player in the kitchen.

06/22/2011 By Karen Brooks

BREAKING FOOD NEWS

Cathy Whims and ChefStable Team Up at New Oven & Shaker

Nostrana’s Cathy Whims, Aviation Gin’s Ryan Magarian, and ChefStable’s Kurt Huffman head to the Pearl with a powerhouse plan for pizza and drinks.

06/13/2011 By Karen Brooks