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Portland Dining Month 2016 Picks

Use these menu picks to navigate the 120+ restaurants participating this March.

Presented by February 19, 2016

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Image by Nolan Calisch

In a city like Portland, cuisine options never run dry — and thanks to Portland Dining Month, wallets don’t either. For the entire month of March, more than 120 of the city’s top-tier restaurants (the most ever!) will be offering three-course meals for just $29. Returning for its seventh year starting March 1, 2016, Dining Month will offer 31 whole days to chew your way down your restaurant bucket list — whether it’s revisiting a Portland classic or sampling something new. Here are a few to try.

Culinary Classics

There’s a reason some of city’s oldest restaurants remain food-lover favorites: Their tried-and-true menus and old-school service gave Portland its start as a culinary destination. Huber’s Café, the city’s oldest restaurant (open since 1897!), is returning this Dining Month with their famous tableside meal service. Enjoy a classic Caesar salad with a 6-ounce New York steak entrée, topped with creamy gorgonzola and port wine demi-glace.

Or take a trip back to the ‘70s at Cassidy’s Restaurant and Bar, where the menus are anything but vintage. Select from options like grilled asparagus with burrata and prosciutto, pan-roasted ling cod with herb risotto or grilled pork porterhouse with polenta, roasted peppers and onions in brown butter.

Ready for dessert? Head to Papa Haydn East and West locations, which has been satisfying Portland’s sweet tooth for nearly four decades. For your third course, take your pick from their lauded dessert menu, which includes decadent banana coconut cream pie, peanut butter mousse cake and raspberry gateau.

Noteworthy Newcomers

Every year, the Dining Month restaurant roster gets bigger and better — and this year’s lineup is no exception, with some of the hottest chefs on the block debuting mouthwatering menus. Experience traditional old Russia at Kachka, with menu options like beef tongue stroganoff, followed by lingonberry jam-covered apple ponchiki donuts.

Then head to Le Vieux, where rustic, old world cuisine reigns supreme. Tuck in to an entrée like grilled leg of lamb and spicy lamb sausage with braised greens, saffron rice and herbed yogurt, followed by Moroccan rice pudding with last summer’s strawberry preserves for dessert.

Looking for something you’ve never tried? Get the locally sourced yak burger entrée at The Groaning Board, which comes with roasted red pepper aioli, Portobello mushrooms and sweet potato fries (plus dessert of house-made gelato to sweeten the deal).

Global Gourmands

During Dining Month, globetrotting menus make it possible to travel the world, one forkful at a time. Visit Spain-inspired Ataula, where courses include octopus carpaccio with sun-dried tomato, Spanish tortilla with aged iberico ham and black pasta with toasted noodles, calamari, squid ink and harissa aioli.

Then head over to Germany at Stammtisch, where authentic lagers accompany a menu of warm asparagus salad with bacon and Lyonnaise dressing, sausage soup and sauerkraut- and mustard-coated bratwursts.

End your journey in Asia at famed rooftop restaurant Departure, where celebrity chef Gregory Gourdet serves up entrées like Szechuan mussels with ginger, chili and eggplant, or beef short rib with galangal, kaffir lime and chili. End the meal with a dessert option like carrot spice cake topped with cashew cream cheese and carrot citrus sorbet.

Visit PortlandDiningMonth.com for the full list of participating restaurants and their complete menus.

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