While many fine dining restaurants in Portland try to couch their seriousness with a party atmosphere, this small, quiet sake bar with neighborhood izakaya vibes exudes a focus and professionalism, allowing the food and drink to speak for themselves. Oregon-grown wasabi roots sit in a bowl of water, stems tangled; chefs swirl wasabi against a flat grater to form a light, delicate paste, served alongside nigiri from around the world. Fourteen-day-aged sea bream arrives with yuzu-Thai chile kosho and house soy sauce, providing a lovely floral note, while 21-day dry-aged Ora King salmon comes paired with blood orange-serrano kosho, buttery with a satisfying sweetness and acidity from the citrus. And for a grand finale, ribbons of rice noodle swirl among chanterelles in a yuzu-kosho compound butter — an elegant finish to an unassuming, refined omakase. The dinner is $95 per person; reservations are available via Tock.

Just off Sandy in the Hollywood District, this Southeast Asian restaurant wrapped in shellfish-adorned wallpaper offers something the team calls its rice table, a play on the Dutch-Indonesian rijsttafel service. For $85 per person, a flurry of dishes like pea-puree-filled panipuri, chicken satay in terasi peanut sauce, and Chinese sausage and shrimp shu mai precede a feast of curries, stews, and braises, covering the table with an accompanying bowl of chef Thomas Pisha-Duffly’s grandmother’s clove-scented rice. Highlights include the blistered tomato curry and flaky roti canai. Make a reservation on Resy.

One of Portland’s hottest dinners, don’t expect to get a seat at Langbaan without some effort; regardless, it’s worth it. Located at a chef’s counter within owner Akkapong Earl Ninsom’s Northwest Portland Thai restaurant, Phuket Cafe, dishes here are complex and nuanced, without shying away from loud and profound flavors. Past menus included a pickled mussel salad with a satisfyingly bright acidity, tossed a thin dressing verdant green with mint, the crunch of lotus stem juxtaposed with charred fresh figs. A fermented fish curry has a lingering, delicate funk and sweetness, with a pristine piece of steamed halibut at its center. Menus generally shift monthly, but every meal starts with miang som, a betel-leaf-wrapped bite of plump shrimp and citrus, and kanom krok, a crispy rice cup filled with a pool of coconut-cream-coated scallops. Reservations are available on Resy. Menus start at $125.

Throughout the pandemic, Han Oak has shape-shifted, offering takeout meals, hosting pop-ups and brunches, and eventually settling into seasonal tasting menu service in its hidden gem of a restaurant. Behind a barely marked turquoise door, a courtyard reminiscent of a friend’s lawn opens onto a warm, bustling space, where servers drop glasses of Portuguese orange wine and Korean lemon-lime soda Chilsung at tables. Starting November 11, Han Oak will resume its hot pot service: Meals start with marbled, thin slices of rib-eye, mushrooms, and other meats and vegetables, cooked shabu-shabu-style in a pot of house bone broth on a tableside hot plate; servers pour teapots of stock into the bubbling cauldron as the broth cooks down. Once it starts to reduce, a plate of noodles and plump dumplings arrive, turning the stock into more of a soup; finally, the addition of rice and house-cured ikura transforms the remaining stock into a briny, luscious juk. The full meal starts at $75, with optional add ons; reservations are available via Resy.

The family-style, four-course tasting menu at this striking Pearl District restaurant changes often, but with chef Erik Van Kley in the kitchen, any visit will likely dazzle. Past dinners have incorporated chanterelle mushroom and potato pierogi with ricotta and truffles, platters of duck with crepes and ‘nduja brown butter, and butter-poached halibut in a pool of beautiful harissa broth. The tasting menu is $70 with a $45 wine pairing; make a reservation via the website.

Up a flight of stairs within the historic Morgan building downtown, a door leads to a small parlor, where diners wait with coupe glasses full of chamomile-steeped vermouth. Tercet, the second life of what was once Roe, is less fish-focused, but there is still plenty of beautiful seafood to be had: Menus change seasonally, but past menus have included oysters dotted with caviar, sous vide-poached salmon over a spring sorrel fumet, and choux pastry filled with black cod. Some of the loveliest dishes on the menu do venture away from the ocean, however; a particular stunner featured morels, beef tartare, and hollandaise, served with spring onion crepes for little bite-sized wraps. The tasting menu starts at $150; reservations can be made on Tock.

This Morrison Italian restaurant’s white tablecloths, sultry decor, and impeccable service makes it a favorite for romantic dinners and anniversaries. The menu here includes a lot of stalwarts, including a gorgeous seared scallop with saffron gel and shallot relish, as well as house-made pastas, like mushroom and ricotta-filled tortelli. Reservations are available at Resy.

For stunning, minimalist fine dining, the Vietnamese-inflected Berlu is making dishes unique to this serene, intimate Belmont restaurant, with test-tubes full of sauces and soups and craggy rice crackers like mountain ranges dusted with shrimp powder snow. Any given visit may involve custard accompanied by durian and geoduck, or springy meatballs in a sweet broth with melt-in-your-mouth tendon and golden globes of squash. For dessert, look for savory-sweet mashups like shallot cake with turmeric hot chocolate or grilled bánh bò nướng with smoked, fig-leaf-flavored coconut cream and sturgeon caviar. A bonus: The full meal happens to be gluten- and dairy-free. Dinner starts at $145 per guest, with beverage pairings available; reservations are available via Tock.

Considering the quality of food that arrives at the table, Malka’s $60 three-course meal feels criminally inexpensive. Twentysomethings in sweaters and rain jackets sit under globe lights drinking wine out of goblets, in an eccentrically decorated converted house that reflects chefs Jessie Aron and Colin McArthur’s maximalist culinary style. Mushroomy potato sourdough toast gets a slather of herbed chevre and miso-creamed kale, with maple candied squash and white cheddar. Sticky tamarind ribs and avocado salad with passionfruit-pineapple hot sauce come with toasted buttery Hawaiian rolls, available to make DIY sandwiches. And for dessert, a scoop of tropical, summery sorbet, in stark contrast with the rain outside. Reservations are available on Resy.

For a taste of the Pacific Northwest — both its vegetables and its seafood — this Southeast Clinton restaurant doesn’t miss. The meal starts with raw dishes like juniper-cured salmon with green tomatoes and hamachi crudo swimming in a shallow pool of mam nem, followed by salads that show off the best of the current season, be it tomatoes and peaches with burrata or pears, radicchio, and fennel with Roquefort. From there, meals can head in a variety of directions, finishing off with a bowl of clams, crispy-fried pork ribs, or anything in between. Meals are $90 each, served family style. Make a reservation on Resy.

Tables through the long, narrow dining room at this Southeast Clinton restaurant regularly support plates of caviar-topped eggs and pork belly ssam, glasses of sparkling wine still bubbling. Chef Ryley Eckersley is unafraid of incorporating a wide range of ingredients in any given dish, be it a piece of albacore covered in house ponzu with elderflower blossoms and green oil or beef tartare with jalapeno, sesame, mustard seed, egg yolk, gouda, and peanut. Tasting menus start at $105 with a number of tiers, including beverage pairings and add-ons like uni. Reservations are available on Opentable.