Many Portland restaurants make pasta in house; few truly make it by hand, without extruders. At this St. Johns restaurant, in the former Gracie’s Apizza space, Chase Dopson rolls out dough with a plain-old pin, cutting tagliatelle and stamping out anolini for bowls of beautiful pasta. Pastifico d’Oro has a strong handle on the sophisticated simplicity of Italian food — dishes that may seem unadorned, but rely on hours of simmering, proofing, sweating, kneading, growing. Start with Maggie’s salad, the brainchild of co-owner Maggie Irwin. Beyond that, any visit may involve squash-stuffed tortelli tossed in cultured butter and sage, ribbons of pasta dressed in ragú, or pillowy-not-gummy gnocchi with Castelmagno cheese sauce and hazelnuts, depending on the chef’s whim. Grab a glass of wine from the restaurant, or pop by the Garrison next door for a cocktail.

The team behind this St. Johns Korean restaurant has both a creativity and tenderness to its approach to the food served, plating everything carefully on a tray with little bowls of doenjang soup on the side. The quality of the ingredients is apparent in each dish, in particular a flavorful cold-smoked culotte served with a dish of ganjang jus for dunking. A gochugaru-rubbed salmon is another standout, with the spice complementing (not overpowering) the fish’s buttery flavor. The corn cheese, finished with a surprising drizzle of mint butter, is a fun twist on a classic.

This Northeast Portland pop-up has settled into its own space, once inhabited by Seastar Bakery and Handsome Pizza. Those are big shoes to fill, but Gabriella Casabianca and Anthony Siccardi are clearly up for the task. At tables with mismatched chairs, plates of kale leaves hidden under a pile of snowy Parmesan precede gorgeous, wood-fired pizzas. Forgoing gimmicks and cliches, these pies come topped with truly inventive combinations of flavors: cauliflower and pickled celery, green garlic and cantal. It takes a lot to open a Portland pizzeria that stands out anymore. This one stands out.

Chef Luna Contreras and Sweet Creature’s Gabriella Martinez take over the kitchen at Killingsworth’s cerulean-toned, wine-centric restaurant and collaborative culinary collective Mondays through Wednesdays, serving dishes like braised short rib tamalitos and albacore aguachile. For those who have been to past Chelo pop-ups, Contreras stays true-to-form with produce-laden, multifaceted Mexican fare reliant on deliberate layers of flavor: A rich, sweet mole blankets a super tender duck leg, which diners pick and load into fluffy tortillas. A mound of Brussels sprouts and crispy sunchokes balance on super-comforting chicken enchiladas, drenched in a delicate mole amarillo. And for dessert, Martinez delivers impeccably executed desserts, like churros with scoops of silky dulce de leche ice cream and salty-sweet-savory bone marrow caramel.

Watching former Republica chef Lauro Romero chop, stir, and sear within the kitchen of the former Beast space — one of the great restaurants in the city’s history, now gone — feels right. Now a shapeshifting chef residency hall from the people behind Dame, the space is intimate, and Romero’s on-again, off-again pop-up has landed here indefinitely; it’s a worthy successor to Beast and Ripe. He’s in his element here, serving thoughtful and nuanced salsas and tostadas topped with buttery tuna and guava puree. The pork quesadilla here — like the quesadilla at his former restaurant — is a remarkable feat in its simplicity, featuring hunks of carnitas aged in its fat for a full week. The resulting pork is achingly tender and profoundly flavorful, zapped with live flame for a crunchy, lightly smoky char. But even beyond the pork, the tortilla itself is worth pinching off and eating on its own, a master class in masa.

The candle-lit and boisterous dining room of this Broadway restaurant evokes memories of Barcelona wine bars, glasses of wine held in one hand while another swipes a potato chip through a cloud of aerated Camembert. Heavenly Creatures comes from chef Aaron Barnett and sommelier Joel Gunderson, the opening team at Eater 38 stalwart St. Jack; Barnett seems looser and more relaxed here, serving casual, sometimes rustic, primally tasty dishes. A fat slab of crusty bread slathered in tonnato with capers and yellowtail is a Bizarro World bagel with lox and schmear. That and the Camembert are must-orders.

Don’t get too confused by the setup at this Northwest Portland Jewish deli; while dine-in is off the table for now, it’s still open for delivery and takeout orders of next-level pickles and cured meats. Owner Noah Jacob spent time at California deli Wise Sons before opening this catering-company-turned-restaurant, where he now serves super dilly matzo ball soups with the tiniest hint of ginger alongside a knockout Reuben with plenty of house kraut and pastrami. We mean it, though — don’t leave without a quart of pickles, especially half-sours when available.

Arriving just under the wire, this Pearl District pan-Asian spot could be one of the best restaurants to open in 2022. The space is stunning, all soft tones and low lighting with a sprawling cherry tree at the center of the dining room. Steak tartare appears flashy, petals of shaved black truffle showing off. The truffle flavor in the final dish is subtle, with a real elegance; onions marinated in paprika oil round out the dish, giving it a strong base note of allium. Short ribs, tucked in folded bao buns, are simultaneously juicy and silky, with a brightness provided by shiso. And the restaurant’s triumphant Peking duck, arriving at the table with steamer basket of chun bing, is all about its skin, potato-chip-crispness giving way to a ribbon of luscious rendered fat.

Vegan diners have watched chef Aaron Adams transition from creative fine dining to casual vegan deli fare over the last five years; the through line was inventive and compelling fermentation, in the form of house dairy-free cheeses, kombuchas, and tempeh. At Workshop, his new cocktail bar, he walks the line between the two: Visitors can snack on tempeh picadillo-filled empanadas and sweet peppers stuffed with house cashew cheese, or opt for gorgeous plates of lightly smoky, sweet beet tartare or koji-cured vegetables in the style of charcuterie. The grand finale should be the restaurant’s astounding seaweed caviar service, served with cashew-kefir creme fraiche and house MSG biscuits one could easily eat by the handful.

This strip mall Vietnamese restaurant, from the owners of a similarly named bubble tea shop in Foster-Powell, is packed with families on weekday nights, children munching on skewers of grilled meat while parents inhale bowls of mi quang or hu tieu. Start with the pickle-y, sweet lotus salad, topped with skewers of plump grilled shrimp, followed by celebratory, meticulously arranged plates of bun dau Hanoi and broken rice. The bun dau Hanoi — also known as bun dau mam tom or Hanoi noodles — arrives with little savory, crispy cakes of fried ground pork and green sticky rice, as well as thick slices of pork and fluffy tofu. On the side, a cup of a shrimp paste sauce adds a satisfying funk to each bite, if you choose to dunk (you should). The broken rice here is an event, a platter of rice accompanied by a lacquered slice of pork and medallions of sausage, a pile of salty seasoned pork skin, a fried egg, and a nice version of chả trứng hấp, a sort of frittata-esque egg pie with pork and noodles. Those looking for something a little less involved should head straight for the tender bo luc lac.

At this spot from the team behind República, Pacific Northwestern cuisine is filtered through a Mexican American lens, translating into dishes like trout crudo nestled in a sweetly acidic Concord grape aguachile, or a chanterelle enchilada draped with silky guajillo adobo. Dishes here are highly seasonal, which means the hazelnut crumble perched atop a corn crème brûlée one week might be seen in a different dessert the next. Seats at the bustling chef’s counter are often open for walk-ins, giving diners the chance to see the heart of Juan Gomez’s domain — the restaurant is named after the former República sous chef’s late mother.

In a little glass-lined space on 13th Avenue in Sellwood, this small sushi counter is sparsely adorned but low-lit and intimate. Chefs Izumi and Shinji Uehara have spent time at sushi restaurants around the world — from Amsterdam to Fukuoka, Japan — and impart their experience on pieces of fish flown in from the famed Toyosu fish market, with specials rotating frequently. Even so, the restaurant’s non-sushi dishes are exquisite, like a custardy-in-the-center agedashi tofu with a golden fry not unlike a perfect marshmallow. Another winner: Thinly sliced roasted duck breast, rich with just a slight, silky ribbon of fat, comes with a beautiful, piquant yuzu-kosho.