
- General
A week in Portland + the Oregon Coast
We’ve spent the last week in Oregon, a place I’ve wanted to visit for a really long time, mainly because I’ve wanted to visit Portland and get into its incredible food scene and general creative spirit.
Portland has everything packed into it’s streets – some of the best coffee spots going and a wealth vegan and vegetarian places as well as more breweries than you could ever visit. We ate so well in this city and we were welcomed by so many genuinely relaxed faces – people couldn’t have been friendlier or kinder.

The city is the perfect size too, you can get a sense of it in a few days, it’s easy to walk around from neighbourhood to neighbourhood and it is, of course, surrounded by an incredible coastline and insane mountains.
PORTLAND
EATING
Tusk – new Middle Eastern inspired
Canteen – vegetarian heaven, incredible bowls

Dame – brand new, amazing wines
Luce – my dream restaurant new age Italian, super relaxed
Sweedeedee – brunch perfection

Ava Genes – Italian, amazing veg
LangBaan – unbeatable Thai
Han Oak – for Korean brunch

Clyde Common – ingredient led interesting cooking, best for dinner
Wolf and Bear – food truck falafel
Salt and Straw – ice cream dreams
COFFEE

SHOPPING
Farmers Markets (we visited the one at PSU)


Frances May
BREWERIES
There are literally hundreds of breweries in Portland. Each has a list as long as your arm for beers to try. Our favourites were:
The Amber Ale from Widmer brothers

Anything from Double Mountain Breweries
COAST
The entire Oregon coast is stunning and a drive along it will bring you through all sorts of coastal towns to explore. We stopped overnight in the old time faded seaside town of Astoria, and the imposing and more polished Cannon beach, both of which we loved.

The food here isn’t as diverse as Portland but we found a few good spots. Both are within an hour and a half drive of Portland. We swam in the sea in September and got some funny looks but we thought it was quite warm!
ASTORIA

14th Street café – brunch, good coffee incredible pastries
Fort George Brewery – great beer and diner food
Albatross and Co – forward thinking cooking and great drink
CANNON BEACH
Pelican Brewing – beers and decent new American
There are some decent ice cream places on the main street serving Oregon-made ice creams, too.

MOUNTAINS AND BEYOND
We didn’t quite make it to the mountains but these are the places I have on my list for my next visit:
OTHER GREAT GUIDES TO PORTLAND
Eater Portland – check out their “heat maps” for brunch, top 38 restaurants, vegan and veg spots
101 cookbooks – Heidi on point as usual
Kinfolk – Portland based with great taste – here are their favourite spots
Thanks to amazing photographer Laura Dart for her tips

Images: Anna Jones/ John Dale
With thanks to Visit USA for sponsoring this post.
Comments
Posted by jo at 12:15 on the 23.09.16
Thanks for the guide. I really want to go now! x