han oak ditched its critically acclaimed brunch in

 10 best new restaurants of 2017
In the year of the vegetable, when restaurants across the city began to emulate Ava Gene's raw focus and flat packed plating and Coquine's French inspired passion for Oregon produce, we fell in love with Portland pedigreed sausages, ramen imported from Japan and a carnitas sandwich drenched in fiery red salsa. Are we contrarians? No. We had some of our favorite meals while grazing salads and grain bowls at Tusk, Ava Gene's gorgeous, mildly Middle Eastern spinoff. But we also appreciated the talented chefs and artisans raising the bar for modern Mexican food, neighborhood seafood restaurants and Shanghai style soup dumplings, all while giving us one heck of a Tuesday hangover.
Below, find our 10 favorite new restaurants of 2017, presented in alphabetical order.
high quality designer replica handbags They came for the water. When this respected ramen chain announced plans to open its first American location in Portland, the restaurant claimed it was for the Bull Run Watershed water that any local can tell you is just the best. In Japan, Afuri has about a dozen ramen shops serving delicate chicken broth noodle soups often cut with yuzu, the aromatic East Asian citrus. But this isn't some slender, 10 seat ramen shop. Instead, Afuri opened something far more grand, a tall ceiling restaurant with blond wood and a gorgeous open kitchen built around a vertical coal stack called an irori. You might have tried the yuzu shio, a salt broth ramen so subtle (and, with bowls running to $20, relatively expensive) that some Portlanders seem to have turned against it. Come back for the tsukemen, a ramen style where noodles come separate, meant for dipping into a more intense broth. Dig deeper and you'll find housemade tofu, "winged" gyoza with crispy webbing between each dumpling and fish and meat cooked over coals or around that irori, including a lovely miso black cod. We only hoped for ramen. Instead, Afuri built Portland's most ambitious izakaya.
Before it opened, co owners Johnny Leach (Clyde Common, briefly) and Dave Haddow (Xico) weren sure how to describe their new North Portland restaurant. Would it be "inspired by Mexico," "inauthentically" Mexican, or influenced by the internationally recognized, globally minded food scene found in Mexico City? That confusion carries over to the menu, where it not always clear which influences are the canvas and which mere accent paint. Fried chicken is fried chicken, only with an brick red annatto rub; pozole looks a lot like ramen, only with a less insistent broth. But Leach is a serious talent, skilled enough to run celebrity chef David Chang upper midscale Ma Peche in Manhattan. And so, at Chalino, Leach Christmas y landscape of firm halibut cheap replica handbags ceviche polka dotted with bitter orange, watermelon radish and strips of shiso in a shallow habanero pool has become a destination worthy signature. Tortilla chips with fresh guac and bright tomatillo and Thai basil or peanut ancho salsas are summer biggest smash. Tostadas have struggled to find their balance of salt and texture, but the ideas are fun, like the spread to the edges beef tartare or fish sauce spiked strands of "carnitas Vietnamitas." And desserts, made in collaboration with Le Pigeon pastry chef Helen Jo, are a must, especially the roast pineapple ice cream with mezcal dulce de leche. Some of the faces have changed, most notably co owner Dana Frank and opening chef Eli Dahlin, but there's still lots to love, including the Designer Louis Vuitton Replica Handbags inky blue wallpaper, the Discount Replica Louis Vuitton Bags menu of fish and fishy snacks and that natural wine list wines made using old methods and no added chemicals overseen by remaining owner Jane Smith. On our first visit, Dahlin's menu had an Eastern European streak, with cabbage rolls sharing space with raw oysters, replica louis vuitton plus little fish on rustic crackers and a smoky soft salmon roe spread on crusty house made levain. Those broad strokes remained in place during a meal a few months later, after Tyler Jaskey had taken over the menu. Along the way, we found ourselves sipping a crisp, jasmine scented white from Bosnia Herzegovina after crunching through crispy halibut skins with baubles of creme fraiche and roe and sipping a delicate French gamay alongside beef tartare dusted in Parmesan and rye breadcrumbs. Make no mistake, this is a wine bar, and it might be the most exciting one in town.
For four years, Megan Sanchez and Alec Morrison made great tortas from a petite Silver Streak trailer parked off Southeast 28th Avenue. At their cheap louis vuitton bags from china new home, three aaa replica designer handbags blocks north, they have room to experiment. The result is the torta ahogada, a traditional Jaliscan "drowned" sandwich stuffed with tender carnitas and habanero slaw and doused in an achiote tomato sauce. Give the cart a bigger kitchen, and they throw in the kitchen sink. Snacks and sides have grown with the restaurant. The irresistible esquites, a paper cup packed with creamy corn kernels, cotija cheese and specks of ancho chile, has been joined by a crunchy tostada slathered with guacamole and piled with ribbons of pickled carrot. Don miss the Yucatecan sik pak, a grainy pumpkin seed dip served with tostada and jicama wedges for dipping. The new desayuno sandwich is a merry mess of salty braised beef, fried egg, pickled jalapeo and an oblong replica louis vuitton bags disc of griddled cheddar cheese. And Guero reverse translation on the Mexican street hamburguesa has melted American cheese above its charred patty and a crispy circle of cheddar below. The new restaurant is clean and bright, with fresh cut lilies near the ordering station, glinting mezcal bottles behind the bar and hand painted signage in the windows. Somehow, tortas and the ever popular bowls are only a dollar or two more than they were at the cart, and the portions remain generous.
St. Jack has been a tough act to follow. For years after the candlelit French restaurant left its tumble down Southeast Clinton Street building for shinier digs across the river, the space struggled to find a worthy successor. First came Renard, a French inspired follow up that wasn meant to be. Now, the stripped down space is home to Jacqueline, named for a somewhat obscure reference in a Wes Anderson film. Here, owner Derek Hanson (Laurelhurst Market) and his team balance a cast of crudos, shellfish, fish and fish stews with some role playing seasonal veggies in an upscale reboot of the seafood shack. Most visitors will zero in on the cioppino San Francisco famous Italian inspired seafood stew and rightly so. Jacqueline version has an elegant tomato broth sometimes sown with crab claws, smoked oysters, clams, mussels, halibut and salmon, all adorned with dill flowers and served with a demi baguette from Little T. Elsewhere, an heirloom lettuce salad comes with mountain rose apples, hazelnuts and replica louis vuitton bags from china a smear of Briar Rose chevre, and a good chicken liver mousse with apples and candied hazelnut crumble. With the restaurant recently discontinuing its popular brunch, the best reason to visit Jacqueline remains the oysters. happy hour, they only $1 each.
Not a restaurant, but a day of the week, a day when fine dining restaurants let down their hair and some of Portland best bartenders come out to play. While you in bed resting up for the workweek, the city transforms into a playground of accessible, affordable, delicious food from some of Portland best chefs, all served a la carte and paired with inventive cocktails. Adam Robinson kicked things off last year, returning from a sabbatical in Taiwan to open the Monday only Deadshot with a drinks menu that included sesame, seaweed, bitter melon and other suitably globe trotting ingredients. Even better? Holdfast Dining chefs Will Preisch and Joel Stocks swap their ticketed tasting menu for a menu of elevated bar snacks such as Buffalo style squab wings, nachos built on crispy chicken skins and sticky sweet, deep fried prawn heads with spicy mayo. At PaaDee, the street food restaurant hiding Thai tasting menu spot Langbaan, owner Akkapong "Earl" Ninsom recently rolled out a funky, fiery Issan Thai menu including chile spiked larb and whole fried fish on Mondays and Tuesdays. Han Oak ditched its critically acclaimed brunch in favor of a Sunday Monday Korean noodle and dumpling night that draws lines before they even open. Maya Lovelace serves a stripped down version of her BYOB Appalachian suppers on Mondays. And once a month, Laurelhurst Market bartender Eric Steven Nelson unleashes island y cocktails and high class takes on dive bar seafood at locations throughout the city. Who needs sleep? Monday is now Portland best night to hit the town.
Creative hot dogs had a brief, shining moment two years ago, then vanished into the ether. So let pause to say farewell to Stray Dogs (RIP), Hop Dog (RIP), Clutch Sausagery (RIP) and all the other chef driven hot dog shops that opened and closed in and around 2015, if only because they helped pave the way for OP Wurst, the greatest of them all. Second Ave.), then as a sausage window at Oregon City Brewing (1401 Washington St.), the restaurant found its fullest expression in the former home of Honky Tonk Tacos, the Southeast Division Street taqueria also co owned by Nate Tilden. The Pok Pok Dog features a lemongrass scented Thai sausage topped with pickled green papaya high quality replica handbags china and red curry ketchup, and the Portland Dog, as you might have already guessed, comes with pork belly and braised kale. None of this works if Olympia Provisions didn make some of America best hot dogs and sausages, which, lucky for us, they do.
Q Restaurant, the transplanted home for the staff of Portland beloved VQ, wouldn have been our first guess for our favorite new downtown Portland restaurant. Not with Vitaly Paley and San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino opening headlining hotel restaurants on Southwest Broadway. But while Headwaters and Jackrabbit haven quite found their form, Q knows exactly what it is, down to the classic look of the fake designer bags rosewood paneled bar designed by local interiors firm Osmose Design, a fitting tribute to the old VQ. Inside this low slung, modern building, chef Annie Cuggino and her team have built a power lunch destination with good soups, burgers and panzanella salads full of bright tomatoes and chunks of Oregon albacore. A handful of stowaway starters feel right at home, including duck confit spring rolls, bacon wrapped dates and grilled pizza with black mission figs. The salad nicoise might have come out of a replica louis vuitton textbook. At night, Q is a refined, relaxed dinner option for straightforward, pretty plates of fish, steak or lasagna wide spinach pasta "rags" gently cooked with tomato, basil and toasted pine nuts. Yes, some dishes feel dated an earthy tortilla soup is straight out of the 1990s playbook. Then again, it a very good tortilla soup.
Stop thinking of Tusk as a Middle Eastern restaurant. Sure, there hummus and flatbread, Syrian spice and a pair of cooks (including chef Sam Smith) who spent time at Zahav, the influential Philadelphia Israeli restaurant. But this second restaurant from Submarine Hospitality Luke Dirks and Joshua McFadden (Ava Gene is far more Portland than Jerusalem, with a new age farm to table approach that seeks to highlight Oregon farms through a series of salads, both cooked and raw, that care far more about the origins of the produce than those of the cuisine. That being said, Tusk creamy hummus, set under a shower of lightly pickled celery, saffron, crunchy peanuts and earthy dill, is a worthy centerpiece for the menu, and the one dish you have to order, every time. A torn off piece of the whole grain flatbread, dragged through the hummus garden then drizzled with a few drops of intensely floral Aleppo chili oil might be Tusk best bite. Elsewhere on the menu, Ayer Creek green wheat with pluots, fenugreek and fresh cheese balance the chewy, crunchy grain with pops of sweetness and cream. Meat is meant to be downplayed, and often feels like an afterthought. Bring a modest appetite and an appreciation for vegetables and you walk away feeling fine.

Early on, when Portland food fans who think nothing of driving to Seattle for a trip to dumpling destination Din Tai Fung were lining up out the door, XLB struggled with the deceptively simple, traditional Chinese dishes that, for some, evoke specific, intense childhood memories. It didn't help that the namesake dish, xiaolongbao, the Shanghai style soup dumplings, weren't totally dialed in. But chef Jasper Shen is skilled, having spent time at New York's Jean Georges and helped to open Portland's Aviary, where XLB started as a traditional Chinese pop up. Perhaps more important, he and his team are persistent. The dining room is still hip, with its old school lightboard menu and black walls painted with gold animals like a Louis Vuitton approved zodiac. But now the seafood noodles, pork and duck bao and garlic sauteed vegetables have balanced out their salt. And the soup dumplings are much improved, with super thin, stretchy skins trapping rich broth made from pork aspic that melts as the dumplings steam. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. 

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