James Beard Rising Chef winner Gabe Rucker rocks his East Burnside hole-in-the-wall with an open kitchen, a short menu, and a firm handle on how to make inventive but mostly accessible food. This is where you’ll find pickled onions on your burger and foie gras in your profiterole, but it’s also where you’ll find some killer fried green tomatoes on your pork belly and a really good namesake chicken-under-a-brick. If you're looking for a "special occasion" meal, invest in the chef's tasting menu.

Husband-and-wife team Greg and Gabrielle Quiñonez Denton have lit up Portland's dining scene with the opening of their Argentine-inspired restaurant Ox, a spot where wood-grilled simplicity meets evil-genius concoctions like sweetbread "croutons" and house-made blood sausage. Though meat hitting the grill is the main focus (skirt steak and lamb chops are tops), both veggies and seafood represent well in homey dishes like hominy stew and braised octopus. It's best to get in line early, though dinner wait times can be nursed at the neighboring Whey Bar.

Chef Johanna Ware brings a New York sensibility to her NE spot Smallwares, serving unapologetically "inauthentic" Asian small plates with a late-night, rock 'n' roll attitude (the spot's bright red-and-black color scheme adds to the mood). But each dish is elegantly composed — dashi poached eggs with roe, lobster mushrooms served with a walnut puree, a super-spicy somen noodle — and Ware even manages to put a spin on the ever-ubiquitous kale: by deep-frying it and serving with a minty fish sauce.

No opening in recent memory has created a fervor quite like Ava Gene's, the polished Italian restaurant by Stumptown's Duane Sorenson and NYC transplant Joshua McFadden (just ask Bon Appetit's Andrew Knowlton, who named the spot the #5 restaurant in the country in 2013). The room itself provides Division's must-visit see-and-be-seen spot, but McFadden's dishes — especially toothsome pastas and expertly executed vegetables — prove this book should be judged beyond its cover.

If Alvar aalto and Betty Crocker had a love child, it would be this Southeast Clinton Scandinavian place, and it would arrive on small wooden boards accompanied by lingonberry jam, pickled vegetables, and smoked fish. In a town where brunch is king, Broder's menu — from Swedish hash to aebleskiver with lemon curd — is the most inventive in Portland. Coming up soon: a new outpost of Broder in N. Portland's former Gotham Tavern, complete with a grab-and-go section and mini-Scandinavian market.

Toro Bravo is about as Spanish as the French revolution (have you ever seen a pulled pork sandwich in a restaurant in Madrid?) but regardless of nationality, this is damn good food, and stays true to the trifecta of Spanish cuisine: garlic, paprika, and religion. Get there right when it opens — at five — and be ready to fight for your spot.

St. Jack, Eater's 2011 Restaurant of the Year, creates the ultimate bouchon experience in this darling SE Division bistro. Embrace "Non, je ne regrette rein" as your official dining motto and sit back and relax with a few whiskey cocktails, plates of rich escargot gratin and roasted bone marrow. When specials are available, snatch them up, particularly the pied de cochon and stuffed duck neck. And don't forget the patisserie: it serves up one of Portland's best under-the-radar lunches.

Classically trained chef Andy Ricker moves to Thailand, learns to cook Thai food better than the locals, and serves up enough Vietnamese chicken wings, boar collar, and noodle soups to snag himself a James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest. Ricker's now a certified empire-builder, but it's worth a trip to the mothership if you want to never look at Thai food the same way again.

It's best known for its meaty goodness — Olympic Provisions famously boasts Oregon’s first USDA certified meat-curing facility — but venture past the charcuterie plate into an omnivore paradise, with chef Alex Yoder's rustic takes on shaved Brussels sprouts, marinated anchovies, and roasted cod. Weekend brunch is one of the city's most underrated. [Photo]

Janis Martin's underground drinking den (don't call it a restaurant) now occupies a larger space on SE Stark, but the charms from its old NW spot remain: Japanese zombie flicks, stupidly affordable happy hour, and lots and lots of sake. Invest in the chef's omakase (seafood's the focus here) and watch as a pile of inventive plates arrive to the table: think spiced duck hearts, oysters with kimchi shaved ice, and hamachi.

Chef Aaron Woo gives Portland vegetarians what they've long been craving: an upscale dining experience featuring all-veggie — and mostly vegan and gluten-free — options. Woo presents diners with truly inventive and unexpected dishes based on what's available at the market that particular week, and the $40, four-course prix fixe is one of the best deals in town.

Chef Trent Pierce resurrects his creative approach to seafood at the back-room, reservation-only Roe, where the multi-course tasting menu offers inspired takes on fresh fish and foraged greens. Hidden in the rear of Pierce's more casual seafood restaurant Block + Tackle, Roe offers a conceptual opposite, combining modernist technique with vaguely Asian flavors.

The Country Cat is all about American food, prepared by a chef, Adam Sappington, who understands and executes the nuances of old world cuisine. You might be ordering chicken and dumplings, but what you're getting is chicken and dumplings in a sauce so complicated and complex you might think you're in Paris. The fried chicken here is out of control, and Sappington's the guy who made in-house butchery cool.

The second restaurant owned by Le Pigeon chef/Beard Award-winner Gabriel Rucker, Little Bird provides the more classic (yet surprisingly casual) counterpart to Rucker's now-famously bold take on French cooking. Chef Erik Van Kley serves expertly prepared takes on Parisian bistro favorites like crispy veal sweetbreads, chicken liver mousse, and cassoulet; pastry chef Nora Antene's desserts are tops.

At SE Division's Portobello, chef Aaron Adams turns the idea of vegan cooking on its head, delivering a rustic, soulful take on Northwest Italian food — that just happens to be meat- and dairy-free. Standouts on the always-changing menu include stuffed pastas and Adams' pillowy, crisp gnocchi; the arribata pizza features an impressive sausage substitute that'll fool even the most avowed meat-lover.

It's a splurge, but Portland's most high-profile chef, James Beard finalist (and Top Chef Master) Naomi Pomeroy, rocks the kitchen at Beast — where each intimate, prix-fixe seating is like a dinner party gone carnivorously crazy. Charcuterie plates explode with terrine, gelee, tartare, mousse; braised duck, pork shoulder, and beef cheeks make common appearances on the rotating menu.

Thin-crust East Coast/New Haven-style pizza (their website’s all about the pizzaiolo), this southeast joint closes when they out of dough, which they stick in a 650- to 900-degree oven and char the daylights out of. In a very close race with Ken's Artisan Pizza, Scholls stills emerges as the town's best pie, and the switch to a (limited) reservation system earns bonus points for shortening wait times.

Why head south to CA for authentic Mexican flavors when you can drive north to St. Johns? The cafeteria-style Tienda Santa Cruz 2 flies under-the-radar in the back of a neighborhood grocery store, but reveals huge flavors in its ridiculously cheap tacos and burritos. The spot's practically made for shameless gorging: Go for a half-dozen tacos of the lengua, al pastor, and chorizo; they're addictive and will cost you under $10. [Photo]

Local-sourced and southern-fried, everything on this menu — from the pimento cheese scramble in the AM to the evening’s brined bird — keeps the locals lining up for seconds, thirds, and fourths of this south-surveying menu, which covers Carolina low-country cuisine, soul food, and the refinement of New Orleans. [Photo]

One part ramen den, one part izakaya, two parts modernista basement bunker, this late-night chefs' hangout is run by the most improbable Japanese chef in town: a white guy from Michigan. But don't be distracted by Gabe Rosen’s provenance: this man can noodle and kimchi with the best of them, and the Biwa burger — only available during late night — has become legendary.

Scott Snyder's Arabesque restaurant Levant is one of 2013's most auspicious openings, where the chef's enthusiasm and excitement often results in surprising spice combinations and earthy, flame-kissed proteins. Skip the snacks and go straight for the grilled sardine and whatever lamb dish is on offer; save room for desserts, where the hearth shows up in (again!) unexpected places.

Chris Israel's Alpine-influenced Gruner ushers in the West End neighborhood (especially with the recent debut of its accompanying bar Kask, already known for its inventive cocktail list). Though Israel's expertly executed menu takes inspiration from the Black Forest to the Black Sea (complete with bratwurst, ja?), it deserves highest marks for its burger, hands-down one of the town's best (and definitely its juiciest).

NE's beloved (arguably under-the-radar) neighborhood spot Firehouse brings warmth literally and figuratively, with its wood-fired oven, comforting room, and plates of Italian comfort. Chef Matthew Busetto has stepped up his game of late, embracing pairing dinners and special events that emphasize accessibility and simplicity.

Who says that too many cooks spoil the broth? At Aviary, three recent NYC transplants — Sarah Pliner, Jasper Shen, and Kat Whitehead — present an eclectic menu that actually delivers, with unique plates that reflect the trio's variety of influences; a hint of French here, Asian flair there. Heartier dishes get higher marks: go for the goat curry, four-cup chicken, and what's easily the spot's signature dish: Crispy pig ear served over coconut rice.

Portland's "green" ethos is no more obvious than at Bamboo — the world's first certified-sustainable sushi restaurant — where always-fresh catch plays nicely with unexpected flavor combinations (scallops, meet juniper olive oil and red miso dust). Momentum has shifted from the SE flagship to the NW 23rd location, which ups the kitchen offerings to include seafood "charcuterie," featuring bites like uni custard and tuna prosciutto.

Intensely regional Italian food, wood-fired oven pizza, and a totally accessible menu make Cathy Whims one of the the most renowned female chefs in Portland (and the PNW: she's been nominated for Beard four times). A barrel-vaulted exposed wood ceiling, tons of windows, and just enough chatter to brighten things up make Nostrana the most renowned casual-ish place in town.

Podnah’s hits the lowest common denominator of what makes food satisfying: there’s salt, sweetness, fat, and Rodney Muirhead’s sauce has the perfect acidity. The brisket is perfectly smoked, the meat’s some of the best in the city (fanatics fight to the death for the smoke prime rib specials), but what makes Podnah’s the greatest is its total lack of pretension. Breakfast service is one of the city's best under-the-radar options.