The Columbia River Gorge is famous for top-notch berries, pears, apples, and salmon, and its most refined restaurant, Celilo, offers these local ingredients through a Mediterranean lens, with pastas, paellas, and more. Chef Ben Stenn works with local farmers and ranchers no matter the season. A recent risotto featured foraged mushrooms, mirepoix vegetables, and fennel, topped with fennel-chive oil, micro sprouts, and grana padano cheese.

Located at 6,000-feet elevation, the Timberline’s finest restaurant has overhauled its sourcing philosophy, and the kitchen now does whole-cow butchery through a partnership with ranchers whose herds munch on grass just a 45-minute drive away. Find unique cuts and roasts of beef alongside chef Jason Stoller Smith’s other offerings, which often take inspiration from Alpine cooking and always use local ingredients, from oysters to morels.

Is it the best chicken and dumplings in Oregon? Definitely not. Is it as Oregon as The Goonies? Yes. Step into the state’s long history of countryside drives with this summertime road trip classic on the Sandy River, just outside Troutdale.

Revealing the lesser-known East Willamette Valley’s ingredients, like huckleberries from the Cascade foothills, chef Jeff Nizlek approaches seasonal cooking with pin-point precision, as well as an appreciation for classic cooking techniques and global cuisines, so don’t be surprised to find a nod toward Indian flavors mingling among Oregon “classics,” like a sturgeon filet. Make sure to stay for dessert.

Working with fertile farmlands, chef Matt Bennett, a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef Northwest, holds it down in the mid Willamette Valley, with a beautiful restaurant — including a fireplace that roars in the winter — in a historic building in quiet Albany. Come to see traditional Oregon ingredients transformed in surprising ways, like a queso fundido featuring Oregon shrimp and made with local Ochoa cheese and Jacob's Pasilla de Oaxaca salsa seca. Don’t miss the charcuterie. This is also a top spot for Oregon truffles during the winter season.

A shining example of onsite winery dining, the King Estate Restaurant serves lunch and dinner daily, featuring produce and products from the winery’s garden, bee hives, flower gardens, and orchards, all located on the 30-acre estate. Chef Sean Winder makes food designed to draw out the flavors of wines, with recent dishes including crab and leek tart, pan-roasted pork chop with cinnamon and apple compote, and family-style bowls of seafood gumbo.

Particularly beloved for its Louisiana-style barbecue shrimp, Zydeco is probably the most poppin’ spot in Bend for lunch and dinner. Chef Steve Helt cooks with an eye toward dietary preferences and restrictions, with an entire gluten-free menu available, and keeps to a Southern-inspired repertoire.

A casual dining room plays host to the most exciting South American- and Southeast Asian-inspired menus in Central Oregon. Having transitioned from a 1960s-era Airstream into a brick and mortar in 2013, chef-owner Jeff Hunt serves deeply satisfying plates like Korean barbecue short ribs slathered in gochujang and refreshing Thai steak salads with a tamarind dressing. The best part? Prices hover around $10 for the most part.

Since 2009, Restaurant Beck has delivered the ocean views and food of two-time James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef Northwest Justin Wills. Wills employs wild, coastal edibles like spring onions, miners lettuce, and oxalis to serve an upscale menu where pork belly, foie gras, halibut, hamachi, and duck confit also make common appearances.

On Siletz Bay, The Bay House takes fine dining seriously, including an exceptional wine list with over 2000 bottles. Chef Kevin Ryan has served plates like crab cakes with burned-tomato-corn salsa and salmon bolstered by sea beans, with well-priced five-course tasting menus, since 2012. The building itself harks back to 1937.

As Portland-native James Beard showed the world, food doesn’t have to be fancy to be good, and some of Oregon’s best bites can actually be plucked right from the countryside — or bay. Don’t be turned off by the RV park: This dockside spot is one of several old-school options for a traditional crab boil or eating fresh oysters along the Oregon coast. Pull up, choose your seafood, and have the staff clean and cook (or simply shuck) some of the freshest Oregon seafood you’ll ever have, replete with terrific views.