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A walking bridge flanked by trees in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Orenco Woods Nature Park in Hillsboro.
Yanqiang Dai/Shutterstock

17 Horizon-Expanding Restaurants in Hillsboro

Head far west for tacos, dosas, burgers, and more

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Orenco Woods Nature Park in Hillsboro.
| Yanqiang Dai/Shutterstock

When Portlanders ask where all the good Mexican and Indian food is, they’re often directed towards Hillsboro, the city’s western suburb. There’s some truth in that, considering Hillsboro’s population is roughly one-quarter Latinx, and the city is home to a dense concentration of Indian markets and restaurants. However, Hillsboro is also home to exceptional Lebanese, Japanese, and Vietnamese restaurants, along with old school diners, delis, and taverns. And of course, the city is abundant with cross-cultural creativity, ranging from Mexican sushi to Indian pizza.

Like much of the west side, Hillsboro has become a place where established Portland carts and restaurants have multiplied. Top Burmese and 808 Grinds have already set up shop, while the Sudra, Sizzle Pie, and more are on the way. For more west side representation, check out our Beaverton map.

Note: Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Helvetia Tavern

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With its ceiling covered in baseball caps, farmland feel, and a legendary burger, Helvetia Tavern is a popular pit stop off of Cornelius Pass. The jumbo burger is true to its name, which means circumference rather than height; diners who prefer more meat per bite can order a regular burger as a double. Burgers come with a bag of Tim’s potato chips, though the real move is to get a half-and-half order of fries and onion rings to share (or hoard).

The Meating Place

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A butcher shop with a cafe attached, this casual lunch spot with a touch of country flair serves a solid roster of sandwiches and burgers, including a stellar Reuben with house-smoked pastrami on marbled rye. The shop’s elk burger is another strong choice, arriving topped with provolone and chipotle aioli to stand up to the flavor of the meat. Daily specials feature a Friday cheesesteak slathered in jalapeno cheese sauce and Thursday’s mushroom beef melt with au jus on the side for dipping.

ABV Public House

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Local beers are easy to find in Hillsboro, and ABV might be the city’s most popular brewpub. Here, the food has equal importance to the regional beers on tap, including Hillsboro-based options like Vertigo’s raspberry wheat and Helvetia Cider’s Son of a Peach. Bar food includes a Nashville chicken sandwich, as well Italian Dirty Fries topped with bacon, Mama Lil’s peppers, and rosemary aioli.

Oasis Lebanese Cuisine | Hillsboro

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While diners will find staples of Lebanese fare such as baba ghanoush, lamb shawarma, and gyros here, the Oasis menu also boasts dishes like whole roasted hen and chicken musakhan, which is widely considered to be the national dish of Palestine. On any entree served with basmati rice, the restaurant’s flavorful spicy mango rice can be subbed in for a surcharge. Desserts are a necessary end to the meal, particularly the kenafeh, a cheese-filled kataifi pastry, or the Oasis Specialty, a rose water-and-pistachio-topped cheese-and-cream confection, both of which arrive fresh out of the oven.

Chennai Masala

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This elegant strip mall restaurant is the destination for Southern Indian food, which means many of Chennai Masala’s tables are covered by massive paper-thin dosas, served with coconut chutney and sambar, fried vadas, and steamed idlys. Pre-pandemic, the lunch buffet full of steam table curries and pans of tandoori chicken might’ve been Chennai Masala’s biggest draw, but the popular all-you-can-eat deal has yet to return. 

Vivi's Vietnamese Noodle House

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Vivi’s is Hillsboro’s solid Vietnamese choice, with classics like beef pho and crispy spring rolls covered. Unusually, tripe and tendon is nowhere to be found, though here the dac biet features chicken breast, beef, chicken, and shrimp balls, in addition to the usual flank steak. Juicy and char-streaked grilled meats come with rice and nuoc cham, unless they’re rolled in rice paper with herbs and cucumbers. However you order, it’s hard to go wrong.

Salam Restaurant

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Lebanese and Persian fare share space at this casual Orenco Station restaurant. Considering both cuisines have kabobs and basmati rice in common, this pairing isn’t all that incongruous. It also means diners can mix and match; there’s no reason why pita, hummus, and tabbouleh can’t be interspersed with fesenjoon, stewed chicken with pomegranate molasses and walnut, or ghormeh sabzi, a thick kidney bean stew green with mixed herbs — it comes with mast-o-khiar instead of tzatziki on the side.

Umma Korean restaurant

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Staying true to the name “umma,” which translates to mother, this airport-adjacent restaurant serves homestyle Korean food from a mother-daughter team. Banchan, or small side dishes, arrive alongside plates of steamed or fried mandu, sizzling platters of squid and pork belly bulgogi, and bubbling bowls of jjigae, soups that contain kimchi, spicy fish roe, or beef brisket and soybean paste for ultra umami. In the summer, Umma’s selection of naengmyun variants are a fun way to cool off.

A sizzling dish of spicy pork next to small side dishes.
Banchan and spicy pork from Umma.
Janey Wong/Eater Portland

Curry & Crust Indian Cuisine Desi Pizza

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Curry & Crust could just rely on the novelty of its most famous dish: pizzas topped with Indian dishes like palak paneer or tandoori chicken. However, the restaurant’s straight-up Indian menu has its own roster of devotees, thanks to its gently spiced butter chicken and chef’s choice thali. If Curry & Crust has some of its mithai — or sweets — on the menu, they’re worth an order.

Syun Izakaya

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With its substantial sake selection and ever-changing list of white board specials, Syun Izakaya is a big draw for Japanese food aficionados. Just off Main Street, this sprawling restaurant — filled with paper lanterns, plants, and fishing nets — feels more Hokkaido than Hillsboro. Nigiri and specialty rolls (sometimes featuring local seafood) are a big attraction at the carved wood sushi bar, though the comprehensive menu features fried dishes, noodles (both stir-fried and in soups), and izakaya staples like chicken yakitori, grilled mackerel, and okonomiyaki.

Collective Market

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Next to sister bakery Decadent Creations, Collective Market is a fine food grocer that sells local goods like Marion Acres meats and Grand Central bread. The shop’s bagels, made fresh daily, can be purchased as a single, by the dozen, or as a bagel sandwich or pizza bagel. The Angry Bird, a pecorino-habanero sesame bagel, delivers medium heat and a satisfying crunch.

Decadent Creations

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This sweet bakery in a renovated Hillsboro home is the place to be for pastel-hued macarons, doughnuts coated in inventive rotating glazes, and tall layer cakes. Those seeking something savory can also order breakfast and lunch sandwiches, including ones on flaky house biscuits, which are served all day.

Amelia's Exquisite Mexican Dining

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A local favorite, downtown Hillsboro’s Amelia’s, aka Amelia’s Exquisite Mexican Food, has been serving traditional fare from regions across Mexico since 2007. The family-run restaurant with cheery brick red and saffron walls offers a legendary loco burrito, a two-pound behemoth bursting at the seams and drenched in mild green tomatillo salsa. The menu has been pared down since the pandemic started, but visitors will still find tostadas topped with stewed tinga, vegetarian huaraches, and ever-popular quesabirria, as well as more substantial dishes like Yucatecan cochinita pibil, mole poblano, and multiple dishes featuring flatiron steak.

Taqueria Hermanos Ochoa's

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Ochoa’s is a popular counter service restaurant housed in a burnt orange building with a welcoming hand-painted sign on the facade. Taqueria is in the name, and there’s certainly a lot of fillings to choose from, though before deciding what to order, make sure to give the huge wall menu with individually framed photos of dishes a skim. That’s where diners will find entrees like fried fish, pork chops, and roast chicken served with beans and rice, as well as seafood cocktails and caldos.

Supermercados Mexico

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It’s not scientifically proven, but taquerias embedded in supermarkets are often sure bets. At least that theory holds for Supermercados Mexico, where the tacos teeming with juicy al pastor and wonderful lengua beat any typical taco truck. And tacos are just a small portion of the menu, which covers most of the Mexican all-stars. As an added bonus, the taqueria’s well-stocked salsa bar provides a standout green avocado sauce, ideal for smothering burritos. For immediate gratification, Supermercados Mexico has a handful of decoratively tiled tables near the counter for dining in.

Los Chapines Restaurant

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While Mexican cuisine reigns in Hillsboro, food from nearby Latin American countries also thrives in the suburb. One of the few full-on Guatemalan restaurants in the Portland area, Los Chapines is the go-to source for hearty soups and stews like jocon, with a green tomatillo-based broth; hilachas, shredded beef braised with tomatoes; and sopa de res, a weekend-only beef soup. This strip mall business also functions as a bakery and small grocery store.

Antojitos House

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Antojitos are typically refers to snacks in Mexico, but Hillsboro’s Antojitos House hopscotches around Central America, with a selection of Salvadoran pupusas, Honduran baleadas, and Venezuelan arepas and patacones. The patacones are particularly special at Antojitos House: two flattened, fried green plantains stand in for bread, sandwiched around choice of meat with shredded cabbage and dressing.

Helvetia Tavern

With its ceiling covered in baseball caps, farmland feel, and a legendary burger, Helvetia Tavern is a popular pit stop off of Cornelius Pass. The jumbo burger is true to its name, which means circumference rather than height; diners who prefer more meat per bite can order a regular burger as a double. Burgers come with a bag of Tim’s potato chips, though the real move is to get a half-and-half order of fries and onion rings to share (or hoard).

The Meating Place

A butcher shop with a cafe attached, this casual lunch spot with a touch of country flair serves a solid roster of sandwiches and burgers, including a stellar Reuben with house-smoked pastrami on marbled rye. The shop’s elk burger is another strong choice, arriving topped with provolone and chipotle aioli to stand up to the flavor of the meat. Daily specials feature a Friday cheesesteak slathered in jalapeno cheese sauce and Thursday’s mushroom beef melt with au jus on the side for dipping.

ABV Public House

Local beers are easy to find in Hillsboro, and ABV might be the city’s most popular brewpub. Here, the food has equal importance to the regional beers on tap, including Hillsboro-based options like Vertigo’s raspberry wheat and Helvetia Cider’s Son of a Peach. Bar food includes a Nashville chicken sandwich, as well Italian Dirty Fries topped with bacon, Mama Lil’s peppers, and rosemary aioli.

Oasis Lebanese Cuisine | Hillsboro

While diners will find staples of Lebanese fare such as baba ghanoush, lamb shawarma, and gyros here, the Oasis menu also boasts dishes like whole roasted hen and chicken musakhan, which is widely considered to be the national dish of Palestine. On any entree served with basmati rice, the restaurant’s flavorful spicy mango rice can be subbed in for a surcharge. Desserts are a necessary end to the meal, particularly the kenafeh, a cheese-filled kataifi pastry, or the Oasis Specialty, a rose water-and-pistachio-topped cheese-and-cream confection, both of which arrive fresh out of the oven.

Chennai Masala

This elegant strip mall restaurant is the destination for Southern Indian food, which means many of Chennai Masala’s tables are covered by massive paper-thin dosas, served with coconut chutney and sambar, fried vadas, and steamed idlys. Pre-pandemic, the lunch buffet full of steam table curries and pans of tandoori chicken might’ve been Chennai Masala’s biggest draw, but the popular all-you-can-eat deal has yet to return. 

Vivi's Vietnamese Noodle House

Vivi’s is Hillsboro’s solid Vietnamese choice, with classics like beef pho and crispy spring rolls covered. Unusually, tripe and tendon is nowhere to be found, though here the dac biet features chicken breast, beef, chicken, and shrimp balls, in addition to the usual flank steak. Juicy and char-streaked grilled meats come with rice and nuoc cham, unless they’re rolled in rice paper with herbs and cucumbers. However you order, it’s hard to go wrong.

Salam Restaurant

Lebanese and Persian fare share space at this casual Orenco Station restaurant. Considering both cuisines have kabobs and basmati rice in common, this pairing isn’t all that incongruous. It also means diners can mix and match; there’s no reason why pita, hummus, and tabbouleh can’t be interspersed with fesenjoon, stewed chicken with pomegranate molasses and walnut, or ghormeh sabzi, a thick kidney bean stew green with mixed herbs — it comes with mast-o-khiar instead of tzatziki on the side.

Umma Korean restaurant

Staying true to the name “umma,” which translates to mother, this airport-adjacent restaurant serves homestyle Korean food from a mother-daughter team. Banchan, or small side dishes, arrive alongside plates of steamed or fried mandu, sizzling platters of squid and pork belly bulgogi, and bubbling bowls of jjigae, soups that contain kimchi, spicy fish roe, or beef brisket and soybean paste for ultra umami. In the summer, Umma’s selection of naengmyun variants are a fun way to cool off.

A sizzling dish of spicy pork next to small side dishes.
Banchan and spicy pork from Umma.
Janey Wong/Eater Portland

Curry & Crust Indian Cuisine Desi Pizza

Curry & Crust could just rely on the novelty of its most famous dish: pizzas topped with Indian dishes like palak paneer or tandoori chicken. However, the restaurant’s straight-up Indian menu has its own roster of devotees, thanks to its gently spiced butter chicken and chef’s choice thali. If Curry & Crust has some of its mithai — or sweets — on the menu, they’re worth an order.

Syun Izakaya

With its substantial sake selection and ever-changing list of white board specials, Syun Izakaya is a big draw for Japanese food aficionados. Just off Main Street, this sprawling restaurant — filled with paper lanterns, plants, and fishing nets — feels more Hokkaido than Hillsboro. Nigiri and specialty rolls (sometimes featuring local seafood) are a big attraction at the carved wood sushi bar, though the comprehensive menu features fried dishes, noodles (both stir-fried and in soups), and izakaya staples like chicken yakitori, grilled mackerel, and okonomiyaki.

Collective Market

Next to sister bakery Decadent Creations, Collective Market is a fine food grocer that sells local goods like Marion Acres meats and Grand Central bread. The shop’s bagels, made fresh daily, can be purchased as a single, by the dozen, or as a bagel sandwich or pizza bagel. The Angry Bird, a pecorino-habanero sesame bagel, delivers medium heat and a satisfying crunch.

Decadent Creations

This sweet bakery in a renovated Hillsboro home is the place to be for pastel-hued macarons, doughnuts coated in inventive rotating glazes, and tall layer cakes. Those seeking something savory can also order breakfast and lunch sandwiches, including ones on flaky house biscuits, which are served all day.

Amelia's Exquisite Mexican Dining

A local favorite, downtown Hillsboro’s Amelia’s, aka Amelia’s Exquisite Mexican Food, has been serving traditional fare from regions across Mexico since 2007. The family-run restaurant with cheery brick red and saffron walls offers a legendary loco burrito, a two-pound behemoth bursting at the seams and drenched in mild green tomatillo salsa. The menu has been pared down since the pandemic started, but visitors will still find tostadas topped with stewed tinga, vegetarian huaraches, and ever-popular quesabirria, as well as more substantial dishes like Yucatecan cochinita pibil, mole poblano, and multiple dishes featuring flatiron steak.

Taqueria Hermanos Ochoa's

Ochoa’s is a popular counter service restaurant housed in a burnt orange building with a welcoming hand-painted sign on the facade. Taqueria is in the name, and there’s certainly a lot of fillings to choose from, though before deciding what to order, make sure to give the huge wall menu with individually framed photos of dishes a skim. That’s where diners will find entrees like fried fish, pork chops, and roast chicken served with beans and rice, as well as seafood cocktails and caldos.

Supermercados Mexico

It’s not scientifically proven, but taquerias embedded in supermarkets are often sure bets. At least that theory holds for Supermercados Mexico, where the tacos teeming with juicy al pastor and wonderful lengua beat any typical taco truck. And tacos are just a small portion of the menu, which covers most of the Mexican all-stars. As an added bonus, the taqueria’s well-stocked salsa bar provides a standout green avocado sauce, ideal for smothering burritos. For immediate gratification, Supermercados Mexico has a handful of decoratively tiled tables near the counter for dining in.

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Los Chapines Restaurant

While Mexican cuisine reigns in Hillsboro, food from nearby Latin American countries also thrives in the suburb. One of the few full-on Guatemalan restaurants in the Portland area, Los Chapines is the go-to source for hearty soups and stews like jocon, with a green tomatillo-based broth; hilachas, shredded beef braised with tomatoes; and sopa de res, a weekend-only beef soup. This strip mall business also functions as a bakery and small grocery store.

Antojitos House

Antojitos are typically refers to snacks in Mexico, but Hillsboro’s Antojitos House hopscotches around Central America, with a selection of Salvadoran pupusas, Honduran baleadas, and Venezuelan arepas and patacones. The patacones are particularly special at Antojitos House: two flattened, fried green plantains stand in for bread, sandwiched around choice of meat with shredded cabbage and dressing.

Related Maps