Situated on a peak in Forest Park, this drive-in has been serving American diner favorites since 1935. With its red vinyl booths and wood-paneled walls, Skyline is Portland at its most Twin Peaks, with customers old and young enjoying quarter-pound cheeseburgers, chili cheese fries, and a wide variety of flavored milkshakes, like butterscotch, hot fudge, and cherry pie.

This fourth-generation nursery has been a destination for Portland’s plant-buyers for more than thirty years. Recently, part of what’s made the shopping experience so special has been the addition of a farmhouse brunch, including daily quiches and eggs Benedict with arugula on cheddar-onion biscuits. Start, or finish, with some of the house-made baked goods, like cinnamon sugar doughnut holes or marionberry galettes.

For more than 30 years, the Vista Spring Cafe has been one of Portland’s great hidden gems. Here, families enjoy fresh-baked focaccia, hand-spun milkshakes, and pizzas topped with sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, and goat cheese before heading up to take in the views at nearby Council Crest Park.

The bento and sandwich cart that expanded into a downtown favorite offers most of the same menu items as its brick-and-mortar counterpart, including the Mr. Miyagi, a crisp fried chicken sandwich with avocado and lime aioli. Vegans will find the vegan bento satisfyingly filling, loaded with avocado, zucchini, crisp tofu, and topped with gochujang.

Sasquatch Brewing’s location in Hillsdale sells the company’s lauded beers and ciders on a rotating tap list, or in cans to go, from a 1920s-era commercial building. The substantial food menu includes mac and cheese made with a hazy IPA sauce and a BLT on house-made focaccia.

For more than 20 years, Seasons & Regions has been serving fresh local seafood and produce from Heirloom Ridge Farm to plates on Southwest Capitol Highway. The menu changes regularly, but current offerings include wild Monterey calamari with fried okra, applewood smoked salmon with creamy dill sauce, and Oregon hazelnut-crusted pork loin with pear brandy demiglace. The restaurant recently reopened for onsite dining, with new covered patio seating.

What started as a series of pizza pop-ups at farmers markets and other arenas across town ended up as a cozy pizzeria in Multnomah Village. In addition to the thin, crispy pizzas dotted with char from the wood-fired oven (which are available for takeout, Thursday through Saturday), Tastebud now offers some serious bagels; the Montreal-style bagels are boiled and then baked in the wood fired oven, and are available on a monthly basis.

Located in downtown Multnomah Village, this restaurant from Sesame Collective is a mix of Eastern European and Mediterranean cuisines, featuring meze like warm olives, hummus with burnt beef ends, and falafel alongside house-smoked pastrami and schmaltz cornbread with bourbon glaze and honeycomb butter. Desserts like burnt Basque cheesecake, citrus olive oil cake with whipped feta, and chocolate chip tahini cookies are worth the visit alone.

Located in Multnomah Village’s popular French Quarter food cart pod, the Big Elephant serves Fijian and Indian dishes in an à la carte format, allowing customers to pick up to three entrees from a rotating list of house-made meat, vegetarian, and vegan stews and curries. All plates come with fresh roti, rice, lentils, and salad. It’s worth getting a side of samosas as well.

Although not a restaurant in its own right, this grocery store and market’s deli counter serves some of the best Lebanese food in the area, perfect for a weekend picnic or a quick bite in between Zoom meetings. House baked or grilled pita can be wrapped into a lamb shawarma or falafel to order or dipped into za’atar hummus or olive tapenade. The deli also serves pizza and sandwiches, both pre-made and made-to-order.

Among a slew of positive notices and the recent opening of a brick-and-mortar location in Swan Island, Titos Taquitos, one of the breakout food carts of the past two years, is still going strong on Beaverton Hillsdale Highway. Hand-rolled yellow masa taquitos are filled with potatoes and fillings like birria-style braised beef and Cuban style citrus pork, then served with avocado sauce and a mix of fresh and pickled veggies. The tres leches cake is worth an order, if available.