Portland’s Best Brunch Restaurants | Portland Monthly
Cafe Olli’s wood-fired brunch is one of the best in the city.
The only duo more iconic than Portlanders and brunch is Portlanders and complaining about brunch lines. And yet the countless restaurants, bars, and cafés across town demonstrate the simple truth: The city loves its morning meals, lines or not, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. But a plethora of options comes with its own problems, as weekend mornings grind to a halt over arguments on where to go. Do you visit the reliable old-school diner around the corner, or the trendy new spot that will certainly have a line? Or is it a day for shumai and har gow at a dim sum spot? Anyone have dietary restrictions? (We know the answer is yes.) Whatever the case, we’ve got the bases covered.
Crunchy But Craveable
Bastion is a gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free dining destination.
Bastion
sellwood-moreland
Boasting its aversion to gluten, dairy, soy, refined sugars, gums, preservatives, and corn, the tiny brunch hot spot on SE Milwaukie risks veering into wellness culture parody. But the queues of stylish zoomers lining up at the door aren’t here for empty hype: Owned by a chef and a nutritionist, Bastion turns crunchy culture into something special, offering heaping quinoa bowls and potato hashes laden with colorful greens and ripe avocado, coconut milk lattes, and date-sweetened smoothies loaded with fruits and herbs. The signature dish may be its sweet potato waffles—pleasantly nutty and naturally sweet, they come out of the iron as crispy as any Belgian waffle should, and are best paired with the café’s crackling fried chicken and cashew-based pimento cheese. You’ll need to place an order before you find a seat at one of the few tables in the crowded dining room, but things tend to move quickly and you won’t be left standing long. —Alex Frane
East Side Old-School
Chicken-fried pork chops with gravy are pure comfort food at Bertie Lou’s.
Bertie Lou’s
sellwood-moreland
If you’re heading to Bertie Lou’s on a weekend day, better get there early. By noon, half of Sellwood is attempting to squeeze into the 20-something seat diner to grab a bar stool or nab a table. Once seated, chipper families dig into cinnamon roll French toast and eggs Benedict topped with silky hollandaise, while hungover young couples split the mammoth breakfast burrito, loaded up with eggs, peppers, onion, cheese, sausage and bacon, sour cream, and guacamole. Breakfast is never fussy and doesn’t change to reflect seasonality or chef whims; instead, it’s consistently, reliably satisfying and well-executed. And it’s no wonder: Bertie Lou’s has been at it for nearly 90 years, demonstrated by the framed napkin art hanging on its walls, the works of past diners going back decades. —AF
Portland Brunch Legend
The storefront that launched 1,000 brunch lines (and then some).
Broder
multiple locations
Would Portland have the same thriving brunch culture it enjoys today if not for this transformative Scandinavian hot spot? Probably, but it wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Peter Bro opened the first Broder in a narrow café on SE Clinton Street back in 2007, wowing locals and travelers with brunch items that transcended the familiar. Square-cut baked eggs topped potato hash, served in sizzling cast-iron pans with rye spelt bread. Swedish meatballs with sherry cream sauce far outshone Ikea’s version. Bloody marys substituted aquavit for vodka as the Nordic spirit was arriving in Oregon, adding an herbaceous depth to the classic brunch cocktail. And there were the æbleskivers, decadent little spheres of griddled dough topped with powdered sugar and served with crave-worthy lingonberry jam and lemon curd. Today, Broder has become something of a micro chain, with outposts throughout the city and even in Astoria and Hood River, but the menu, and crowds, remain constant. —AF
Wood-Fired Breakfast
The sun-soaked dining room of Cafe Olli.
Cafe Olli
King
Worker-owned Cafe Olli can do it all: romantic pizza and wine dinners, bistro lunches, and, from 9am to 2pm on weekends, brunch. Twentysomethings on midmorning dates bump elbows with multigeneration families on banquettes as servers greet first-timers with a well-practiced spiel, informing them that Cafe Olli is “hyper seasonal and hyper local farm-to-table,” sourcing produce from as nearby as the backyard garden. Soon, diners are sipping espresso tonics and funky natural wines while scooping housemade preserves onto freshly baked sourdough toast. The menu’s fluffy frittatas studded with sliced fingerling potatoes on pillowy milk buns, heaping piles of delicate spring greens and poached eggs sprinkled with house-cured bacon, pink salmon on hearty toast, garnished with even pinker pickled daikon. The Cure and Jimmy Eat World play overhead as diners fill the breezy space with convivial chatter up to its vaulted ceilings. It’s all bright and lively and exemplifies modern Portland brunching. —AF
The Dim Sum Destination
Excellent Cuisine
montavilla
Toddlers gnaw on bao buns and parents sip tea around the numerous tables at Excellent Cuisine, the newest contender vying for Portland’s dim sum crown—and from our perspective, it’s the clear winner. Well-stocked carts circulate with intimidatingly large siu mai and plump har gow, heaping piles of chow mein and saucy rice noodle rolls, sesame balls and jiggling mango puddings shaped like ducklings. But on the weekends, eagle eyes search for the red rice shrimp rolls, tubes of snappy dumpling wrapper filled with juicy fried shrimp, or fried shrimp balls, lollipopped around a piece of sugarcane to dunk in sweet and sour sauce. The under-sung chiu chow dumplings, almost bursting with fried alliums and peanuts, are worth a deliberate order if they’re not rolling around the room that day. —Brooke Jackson-Glidden
Diner Royalty
Fuller’s Coffee Shop
Pearl District
With its horseshoe counters and vintage red leather stools, the 80-year-old Fuller’s is as old-school as they come, even after a fire tried to shut it down for good. The vintage charm extends to its menu, too, hitting all the classic diner staples with nary a modern twist to be seen. Weekday mornings, you’ll find downtown workers grabbing pre-shift coffee and omelets and retirees working through stacks of buttermilk pancakes, while on weekends shoppers file in for French toast and hash browns with eggs prepared a dozen ways. And, unlike many true-to-form diners, Fuller’s pours mimosas and marys for brunches every day of the week. —AF
The Hip New Kid on the Alberta Block
Fish sauce bacon and egg cream coffees set Mémoire Cà Phê apart in a sea of brunch spots.
Mémoire Cà Phê
Vernon
There was no shortage of media buzz when Mémoire Cà Phê opened its doors less than a year ago. It was for good reason. A dream team of talent—Richard Le, of the Vietnamese American cart turned pop-up Matta; Kim Dam, of the Vietnamese coffee shop Portland Cà Phê; and Lisa Nguyen, of the now-closed rice flour pastry emporium HeyDay—came together to open this café inspired by American fast food as much as traditional Vietnamese cooking. Scallion and shrimp omelets, an homage to Le’s mom, appear at tables next to purple-hued ube waffles. Fish sauce punches up the umami of thick-cut bacon, which land in rice and hash brown bowls or fluffy milk bun breakfast sandos. Others come with housemade sausage patties or curried mushrooms rich with funk. And cofounder Kim Dam brings her salt cream and egg cream coffee drinks, the perfect caffeinated accompaniment to breakfast. Though admittedly trendy, it’s hard to picture Mémoire Cà Phê ever slowing down. —AF
Build-Your-Own Brunch
Navarre
kerns
Shelves stacked with jars of preserves and bottles of wine line the walls at Navarre, fooling entrants into thinking they’ve stumbled through a portal to a bucolic European bistro. Opened in 2001, the restaurant was foundational in bringing the small plates style of dining to Portland; almost 25 years later, its minimalist menu and impressive array of imported wines still amaze. At the weekends-only brunch service, wine glasses clink as diners build their meals from a selection of simply titled items, ticking boxes on paper menus for egg orders, breads with olive oils and French butter, and seasonal vegetables. Daily menus list specials like chard and parmesan scrambles, clams in white wine and herbed butter, pork loin Benedicts, or whatever the kitchen whips up with the day’s farm-fresh CSA order. Each item comes as a single order or family-size plate, making it ideal for groups of all sizes. —AF
For the Vegans and Veggies
Bacon, waffles, scrambles, and breakfast burritos, all sans meat and dairy at Off the Griddle.
Off the Griddle
foster-powell
There was a time when vegan and vegetarian restaurants practically defined Portland’s culinary identity. While today the city still embraces meat-free diets, many of its brunch spots still center pork sausage and bacon. Off the Griddle, a cheerful café of sky-blue walls, booths made from reclaimed church pews, and a bar top carved from a bowling lane, does not. An entirely meat-free menu makes it a breeze for veg-heads to enjoy beloved staples without having to request “no bacon.” Even sans pork, dishes here veer hearty, like breakfast burritos, waffles stuffed with hash browns and veggie sausage, and the brunch wrap supreme, a play on the fast-food classic with soy-based chorizo, fluffy herbed tofu scramble, and a house “cheese” sauce folded into a tortilla and grilled crisp. Still somehow hungry? Add a side of tempeh bacon or a slice of walnut-based “meatloaf.” And while the dishes are by default vegan, often made with scrambled tofu, you can always swap it out for scrambled eggs for $2 more. —AF
For the Noodleheads
The cao lau stars at pho hot spot Rose VL.
Rose VL Deli
Foster-powell
The Vuong-Luu family is responsible for some of the city’s finest Vietnamese food, spanning three restaurants specializing in daily rotating soups. Any of the family’s restaurants—the grande dame Ha VL, the up-and-comer Annam VL—will execute some profoundly flavorful broths abundant with noodles, cuts of meat, crunchy bits, and fresh herbs, served each morning alongside eye-wateringly strong Vietnamese iced coffee. For a Saturday morning breakfast, however, it would be hard to surpass Rose VL, the family’s cheery Powell soup spot. It’s the strongest lineup of the week: A craggy rice cracker perches over Vietnamese ham, shrimp, shrimp cakes, pork ribs, and sliced pork in the house mì Quảng, turmeric yellow noodles swirling underneath. The mild-mannered, lemongrass-scented yellow chicken curry is straight comfort food, loaded with potatoes and carrots. But you’re here for the cao lầu, a dish from Vietnam’s Quảng Nam province in which springy tapioca noodles sit in a rich, gravy-like broth, supporting a fan of char siu pork, marinated chicken thigh, and a hearty handful of herbs and lettuce. Order a quart of the pristine broth served on the side to keep in your freezer; it’s a godsend on sick days. —BJG
Aesthetic Simplicity With Serious Pastries
Corn cakes, bacon, and eggs at Sweedeedee.
Sweedeedee
humboldt
Pretty food—Alison Roman–coded salads with parsley leaves arranged just so, mascarpone-frosted honey cake adorned with edible flowers—is not always delicious food. Not so at Sweedeedee, Albina’s record-spinning, European-vibed café just around the corner from Mississippi Records. Groups serve themselves cups of coffee and peruse the shelves of fancy olive oils and pastas while they await corn cakes tie-dyed with griddle marks, a picturesque pat of butter sliding as it melts. Or maybe it’s a textbook tortilla Española, camouflaged under a seasonal green salad. Desserts and pastries from the case are nonnegotiable, particularly cakes and clafoutis studded with seasonal fruit. —BJG
Family Friendly and Worth the Hype
Weekend wait times are long at Tin Shed, but worth it.
Tin Shed Garden Cafe
king
While this long-standing Alberta brunch spot offers a few simple dishes—like a classic build-your-own breakfast plate of eggs, protein, and sides—its main draws are in the elaborate hashes, Benedicts, and famed stacked scrambles, layered over latke-like potato cakes or cheesy grits. Lines start early on the weekends, but the vibe outside the restaurant is warm and friendly, with neighborhood locals pulling one of the mismatched mugs off the shelf to serve themselves coffee while they wait. When families finally nab a table within the eclectically decorated dining room or out on the covered patio, parents can split hearty hashes and house-baked biscuits with tart and sweet raspberry jam, and the kids can snack on eggs with biscuits or gooey grilled cheese sandwiches. Even Fido has his own dedicated section of the menu—Tin Shed may be the most pooch-friendly café in town. —AF
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