[Updated 10/10/09 – Hot Pot City continues to give the same level of quality and service as we discussed in the original review we did here in 2007. However, the restaurant seems to have been “discovered”. There are often long waits, especially for counter seating and during prime lunch hours (12-1:30pm). Weekends often fare a bit better. Service can be brisk or completely overwhelmed.]
Review: Biwa
Reader Survey Best Restaurants in Portland 2012 #16. New review 10/15/12 A lot has changed about Portland since my review of Biwa in 2008. Sure, Portland still isn’t much of a sushi town as compared to Seattle, Vancouver BC, or San Francisco. Yet good ramen and izakaya style dining were still a rarity in Portland in ’08, – Read more…
Portland Loses a Great Teacher, Mentor, Food Lover and Friend
Chef Robert Reynolds, who passed away this morning after a struggle with cancer, was known to many affectionately as “Row-Bear”. Over the years, he touched almost everybody in Portland’s food scene. We can thank Robert for his part in pushing Portland into becoming a stronger and more professional food city. From his work running his – Read more…
Coffee Guide: Café Velo
Coffee and Bicycling are close cultural twins in Portland. The city has a reputation near and far for being an epicenter of both. Add to this equation Portland’s passion for food carts, and Café Velo appears to be the natural evolution in the Portland coffee scene. What started as a single pedal-powered coffee cart in 2008, – Read more…
Coffee Guide: Water Avenue
A newcomer on the Portland coffee scene, Water Avenue Coffee started as a pop-up shop named Temporary Coffee during construction of their permanent space in 2009. They officially opened in 2010, in the up and coming Central Eastside Industrial District, on, you guessed it, SE Water Avenue, next to Clive Coffee in a complex that – Read more…
Coffee Guide: Spella Caffe
Spella Caffe has their own unique rhythm in Portland’s crowded café world. If there’s any proof that Portland roasters and cafes are highly individualized, then Spella is it. Master Roaster and owner Andrea Spella has been in the coffee business for decades, but has a different approach to café ownership, design and roasting than his – Read more…
Coffee Guide: Red E Café
Located in a retail pocket in North Portland near an I-5 freeway exit and Portland Community College, Red E Café can be easy to miss. But it’s worth the hunt, as an example of how simple but thoughtful execution can create an exceptional neighborhood café and in-house roaster worthy of national notice. Indeed, Red E has – Read more…
Coffee Guide: Ristretto Roasters
Din Johnson is a risk taker. When Ristretto Roasters first opened in late 2005, in a tiny slice of a spot on very un-hip NE 42nd Ave near Fremont St, there were whispers of, “Who are these outsiders who aren’t from the Portland coffee scene? They’ll never make it in THAT location. They are insane – Read more…