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

Last Update January 19, 2018 4 Comments

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. It’s probably because I want to gage my appetitive capacity to decide if I’ll save room for a sweet, or … [Read more...] about Review: Olympia Provisions – Westside

One Dish at the Heathman by Roger Porter

Last Update January 18, 2018 5 Comments

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. Such was a recent experience at dinner at The Heathman, and it once again reminded me how all the clichés … [Read more...] about One Dish at the Heathman by Roger Porter

Review: St. Jack

Last Update April 30, 2019 18 Comments

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. Within a month of each other two French bistros have opened in Portland—Little Bird downtown and St. Jack, in the Hosford-Abernethy … [Read more...] about Review: St. Jack

Review: Gilda’s Italian Restaurant

Last Update January 15, 2018 37 Comments

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. Understandably there is little here to compare with the Chinese food palaces of San Francisco or Vancouver, B.C., … [Read more...] about Review: Gilda’s Italian Restaurant

Review: Kin

Last Update May 20, 2016 14 Comments

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. Fleishman, an art collector, buys a painting much admired by his … [Read more...] about Review: Kin

Roger Porter Visits Momofuku Ko In New York City

Last Update April 20, 2018 10 Comments

Roger Porter scores a reservation and travels to New York's Momofuko Ko Restaurant My contributions to this website have so far been reviews of local restaurants, and I assume this will continue to be my main interest. But during a recent trip to New York, largely to eat and to expand my gastronomical horizons (at the … [Read more...] about Roger Porter Visits Momofuku Ko In New York City

Review: Ate-Oh-Ate Restaurant

Last Update December 18, 2017 29 Comments

Nostalgia can do odd things to people. It can turn strong men weepy, and make normally sensible folks act with puzzlingly sentimental yearnings. The word “nostalgia” literally means a sickness for home, and when Ben Dyer set out to re-create the food (no one ever accused it of being a “cuisine”) of his native Hawaii, … [Read more...] about Review: Ate-Oh-Ate Restaurant

Review: Fin

Last Update May 20, 2016 20 Comments

NOTE: FIN HAS NOW CLOSED. If you’ve ever gazed longingly on the sumptuous food images in coffee table cook books, you may have thought the dishes came to the photographer straight from the stove; but no, they were doubtless doctored, sculpted, and re-assembled by a professional food stylist. Such people work not … [Read more...] about Review: Fin