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

Heart

Coava

Good 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

Buoy breweries

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