This cozy spot on Southeast Holgate serves standard Japanese fare including tempura and ramen, but has become an East Portland mainstay for its sushi. Surrounded by tchotchkes brought from Japan by original owner Seiji Takahashi, sushi chefs cut and assemble ingredients for nigiri, vegetarian sushi, and signature rolls like the avocado-topped “Cholesteroll.” The restaurant’s weekly specials often showcase the whims of the sushi chefs, with things like salmon-and-tuna maki wrapped in mango.

Out on 105th since 1946, Sayler’s is one of the city’s classic restaurants. The steakhouse suffered a fire and was rebuilt in the late ‘70s, and it shows — charmingly, of course. Sayler’s is known for its hefty t-bone and old-school flourishes, a huge part of the experience, including the relish tray with carrot sticks and canned black olives. Each meal ends with a gratis scoop of ice cream after dinner.

Across the street from the Parkrose Grocery Outlet, Fork and Spoon House — simply decorated with a Philippine flag, folk art, and TV tuned to a Filipino station — is the place to go for homestyle sisig, bicol express, and the occasional special of sweet Pinoy-style spaghetti with chopped up hotdogs mixed in. Filipino breakfast dishes, “silogs,” with garlic rice, a fried egg, and choice of meat are the move during the day.

This no-frills restaurant, stocked with video lottery games, is a Korean-Chinese specialist in disguise. Pros know to skip the chow mein and kung pao chicken, instead opting for dishes that feature chewy, hand-pulled noodles like the zha jiang mian black bean seafood noodles or “chow ma” spicy seafood noodle soup. Taipei Noodle Haus is generally a takeout standby, but those who wish to can sit with a Hite and dine onsite.

Nearby Mill Park residents are lucky enough to snag La Osita’s Mexican breakfast fare and a cup of Proyecto Diaz coffee in the morning, though the food cart stays open until late lunch. Co-owner Elizabeth Guerrero — who moved to Portland from Puebla, Mexico when she was four — serves her memorable brunch tacos with a hard-fried egg, sauteed peppers, and slice of thick-cut bacon, topped with pink pickled onions and default mild green salsa. Along with Jet Black Coffee, this small cart in a strip mall parking lot is one of the few businesses offering explicitly vegan menu options east of 205.

Compared to other East African cuisines like Eritrean and Ethiopian, Somali food is less commonly found in Portland restaurants. For a plate of suqaar (stewed beef, peppers, and onions) or kaykay (stir-fried strips of chicken and sabayad, flaky paratha, served with a lime-heavy, spicy green sauce), head out to Salama International Bazaar, a restaurant with comfortable chairs and patterned silk tablecloths, next to a Somali mini-mall. Most entrees are served with a choice of buttery rice, spaghetti and marinara, or anjeero, a spongy flatbread traditionally made with sorghum flour.

This Sandy Boulevard food cart en route to Costco opened during the pandemic, with some of the city’s strongest soul food. Instead of a sprawling roster of classics, owner and cook Selena Taylor specializes in three things: fried fish (salmon or basa, a type of catfish) served with house-made tartar sauce, crawfish étouffée, and comforting desserts like caramel pudding. Diners can order a sampler to try all of the above, which also comes with braised mustard greens enriched with smoked turkey and cornbread. Be on the lookout for creamy mac and cheese and peach cobbler, which are frequent specials.

Formerly Ringside East, Von Ebert Brewing took over the midcentury clubhouse restaurant at the Glendoveer golf course in 2018. The well-preserved restaurant with vaulted ceilings and globe light fixtures still serves Ringside’s famous steak bites and horseradish sauce, as well as house-smoked wings, smoked brisket sandwiches, and a roster of pizzas. The varied tap list includes seasonal lagers, fermented sours, and wild farmhouse ales.

This sprawling family-friendly brewery in an industrial patch where Costco is the lone nearby landmark serves everything from popular hazy IPAs to saisons made with plum and tamarind. Food is available from a number of carts outside, including sourdough pizza from Barley Sprout and even oysters on the half-shell from Tidal Boar Foods. There are a few bar-height tables and chairs inside and picnic tables on the covered patio.

In downtown Rockwood, diners at La Villa tuck into traditional Mexican dishes such as Jalisco-style pozole rojo and chiles en nogada, as well as a sizable selection of seafood. The mariscos on the menu include tacos gobernador and shrimp or octopus prepared “zarandeado” style. The mariscada grande — a show-stopping seafood sampler platter with salmon, octopus, and four types of shrimp — is ideal for a celebratory group dinner.

Specializing in Lao food, Kasoy is a food cart pod standout next to a self-storage operation that’s easily missable if buzzing down Burnside. Those who stop will be rewarded with the namesake soup, kasoy: a large bowl of bone broth filled with fresh wide rice noodles, topped with minced pork sauce, cherry tomatoes, quail eggs, and beef meatballs. Some of the menu leans Thai (and even Korean), but the tham mak hoong, a Laotian-style papaya salad made with fermented crab, or the fried milk fish served with spicy Laotian dipping sauce jeow som, are both standouts.

Gresham might be a taco-lovers paradise, but tamale fanatics can find a stunning array at a strip mall on the border of Troutdale. “Food To Go” lettered on the side of the shop hints at the simple wooden tables and chairs within, though even if the cutlery is disposable, the plates are not. It’s hard to go wrong at Tamale Factory, whether customers order the restaurant’s corn husk tamales, like the pork in red sauce, or the Oaxacan-style chicken mole tamales wrapped and steamed in aromatic banana leaves.

Gresham’s Imm Dee also functions as a sports bar, so it’s entirely possible to enjoy a few skewers of happy hour satay with a vodka-spiked Thai iced tea or a full table-service meal while keeping an eye on the game. The menu doesn’t stray too far from standards, but read between the lines and it gets more interesting. A dish simply called Bangkok seafood appears to be a rendition of Thai curry crab, made from curry powder and evaporated milk (half and half is used here), and Thai pho with beef meatballs closely resembles boat noodles, minus the liver and pig’s blood. Perfectionists can adjust seasonings to taste, using the ground chile powder or chile-infused fish sauce in the caddies on the wooden tables.