This family-run restaurant nails the well-priced, fast-casual corner of the Beaverton Indian food scene. Popular dishes include the many-plated thali platters, the complex curries, snacky chaat, and lacy dosas. Visitors should be prepared for a fast-food atmosphere—Apna Chat Bhavan is part counter-service restaurant and part grocery store.

India Sweets & Spices has much in common with Apna Chat Bhavan due to its grocery store/counter-service restaurant hybrid model. They both also serve chaats and thalis, as well as bature, a fried puffy bread served with chickpea curry. But India Sweets & Spices is not the spot to go looking for dosas and other South Indian specialties here; this place is Punjabi-owned. What they do have is mithai, those often syrup soaked, sometimes colorful, fudgy Indian sweets that aren’t often found in the Portland area. Treats like burfi, rasgulla, ladoo, and kajoo rolls are available by the pound. 

Taste of Sichuan, a sprawling restaurant with numerous round tables topped with lazy susans for large groups, balances Americanized and more traditional Chinese plates. The fantastic soup dumplings or chow mein with hand-shaved noodles are always reliable, but those feeling adventurous can order from The Wild Side menu. The popcorn chicken-like chong qing hot chicken offers the tongue-numbing power of sichuan peppers, while other Wild Side staples include sour and spicy jelly fish, chili sauce-marinated fu chi beef, and Sichuan-style crab, made with live crab.

Syun gets a fair amount of westside attention, but that’s Hillsboro — Ikenohana is Beaverton’s sushi. Minimal with wood paneling and a wood-slat ceiling, Ikenohana straddles the line between traditional Japanese decor and 1970s rec room. The restaurant offers the classic tick-the-sushi-boxes ordering style and beautiful presentations, and offers bento boxes and izakaya plates, from tonkatsu to udon noodles.

The Pacific Northwest isn’t exactly a hotbed of Caribbean cuisine, but if the urge for tostones or arroz con pollo hits and El Coquí is inaccessible, there’s always Borikén, a casual restaurant that transmits the tropics with its lime green and sunny orange palette. The mofongo is a standout, a dish of fried plantains mashed with chicharrones, often formed into a softball-sized orb, and topped with meat or seafood. Here, it is served in a traditional pilón de madera (wooden pestle) and fillings of choice are piled in. It’s best with a few dashes of mojo de ajo added.

Decarlil is the area’s go-to fine-dining restaurant, and it delivers the candles, brass chandeliers, and refined service, with classic Italian antipasti, pastas, and secondi. For a low-key pit stop, Decarli also has a happy hour every day of the week (and all-day Sunday) with discounted cocktails, pizzettas, meatballs, polenta fries, calamari, and more. 

Nak Won has been running since 2001 with huge variety of Korean staples, including an incredible seafood pancake. The menu is accessible with dishes named like When Miss Piggy Met Hot Potato and Ice Ice Babe and includes everything from dumplings to kimchi stew to table-top Korean barbecue. The room is a little dark (the ceiling is low and painted black) but it never feels cramped and is brightened by K-pop videos playing on wall-mounted TV screens. 

Often with lines to prove it, Du Kuh Bee stands out among Beaverton’s concentration of high-quality Korean restaurants for its hand-pulled noodles — it’s a dish worth ordering again and again without it getting tired. Spice-fiends, will love it here, as they can any dish as hot as they like it. The restaurant is a little narrow and cramped, so make like a local and get on the list for a table.

Kizuki Ramen and Ramen Ryoma are worthy places to get a Japanese noodle fix in Beaverton, but Yuzu with its counter seating and slightly hidden location, an unremarkable storefront with dark windows and no obvious signage next to a video lottery parlor, feels the most like visiting Japan. A few izakaya starters are available, as well as multiple styles of ramen. The signature is the Kakuni ramen with a rich tonkotsu base, bamboo shoots, pickled ginger, wakame, a slice of chasu, plus stewed chunks of pork belly if that wasn’t enough.