Roger Porter

About Roger Porter

Roger Porter is a Professor of English at Reed College. He is the co-author of "A Food Lover's Companion to Portland," of "Self-Same
Songs: Autobiographical Performances and Reflections," and the forthcoming "Bureau of Missing Persons: Writing the Secret Lives of Fathers" (Cornell University Press). He has been a food writer and restaurant critic for Willamette Week and The Oregonian for 20 years, and was nominated for a James Beard award for best restaurant reviewing in the U.S.

Review: Olympia Provisions – Westside

By Roger Porter Last Update January 19, 2018

A review of Olympia Provisions, By Roger Porter

Like impatient readers who sneak a look at the last page of a novel, I have a tendency to scan the dessert selections on a menu before checking out anything else.… Read the rest

One Dish at the Heathman by Roger Porter

By Roger Porter Last Update January 18, 2018

Every so often a dish comes along so transcendent that even though you inevitably expect great things from the restaurant the preparation looms as a huge surprise, a boon to everything that precedes and follows.… Read the rest

Review: St. Jack

By Roger Porter Last Update April 30, 2019

A Review of St. Jack Restaurant by Roger Porter

Liberté, Egalité, Gastromie! The French Revolution has come to town, and the only guillotine in sight is a chef’s cleaver hacking at a pig.… Read the rest

Review: Gilda’s Italian Restaurant

By Roger Porter Last Update January 15, 2018

A review of Gilda’s Italian Restaurant in Portland Oregon

by Roger Porter

You hear all the time that one of the lamentable gaps in Portland’s culinary scene is the absence of great Chinese restaurants.… Read the rest

Review: Kin

By Roger Porter Last Update May 20, 2016

10/17/2012 – This restaurant is now closed.

There’s a wonderful Yiddish word, “ongepotchket.” meaning something that is excessive or overly baroque. In his “relaxed lexicon” of Yiddish, Leo Rosten tells a joke which perfectly illustrates the word.… Read the rest