fishwife-best-seafood-fish-chips-restaurant_Mike-novak_copy_pqtdsi Portland’s Best Seafood Restaurants | Portland Monthly — A combo dinner and chowder at Fishwife.

If Portlanders know how to cook one thing, it’s seafood. Our proximity to the Pacific Ocean and rivers like the Columbia and Willamette means we are spoiled for choice and bounty when it comes to salmon, oysters, Dungeness crab, albacore, and trout. People have fished the local waters for millennia, with salmon in particular playing a crucial role in the diets and cultures of the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk, Cowlitz, Umatilla, and other tribal communities. Today, many still hold salmon festivals and other celebrations, while maintaining fights for fishing rights and sovereignty throughout the Northwest.

It’s hard to find a bar or restaurant in Portland that doesn’t sear, steam, or slice some kind of seafood, with raw oysters appearing on the menu of most upscale restaurants and craft cocktail bars in town. But a handful of places go all in on aquatic dining: family-owned fish and chips shops, seafood markets with attached bars, and sleek bistros serving bouillabaisse and Dungeness crab pasta (also, sushi restaurants, which get their own list). Let’s dive in.

Cabezon

Rose city park

A wedge-shaped building just off NE Sandy Boulevard, Cabezon lacks some of the buzz that other Portland restaurants attract. Nevertheless, it’s earned a dedicated following for its wood-fired meats and fish. The cozy bistro works directly with local fishers, bringing in product daily for its oft-changing menu. But one constant, and a crowd favorite, is the cioppino: An Italian American seafood stew, Cabezon’s version is built on an aromatic fish stock spiked with white wine, less tomatoey than others, with extra savory depth. It’s especially worth an order in the winter or spring, when hunks of Dungeness crab meat swim with mussels, clams, calamari, and various cuts of fish. Beyond the stew and rotating fish specials, Cabezon wraps shrimp with bacon, tops blinis with trout caviar, and shucks the requisite Pacific oysters, all served under colorful jellyfish lamps dangling around the dining room.

Dan & Louis Oyster Bar

old town

Festooned in nautical art and enough decorative plates to fill grandma’s house, Dan and Louis Oyster Bar has been stirring pots of oyster stew and steaming shellfish for more than a century. Still owned by the Wachsmuth family that founded the shop in 1907, the restaurant leans into that retro, Northwestern style of eclectic seafood menu, where fried cod tacos share the page with smoky seafood gumbo and cioppino, clam and mussel shells peeking from the broth. Time-tested dishes like oysters Rockefeller, shrimp cocktail (here served on iceberg lettuce), and all manner of fried fish—including a novel smoked salmon fry—attract every generation of Portlander, often dining together as a family tradition.

EaT: An Oyster Bar

Boise

Over the last few years, Portland has lost quite of few of its already sparse selection of Southern restaurants, with places like Acadia, Yonder, the Waiting Room, and Irving Street Kitchen closing their doors within the last five years. But EaT: An Oyster Bar is keeping the bon temps rolling on N Williams with its own seafood-focused take on Cajun fare. Grab a seat at the tiled bar or wooden bistro chairs and start with an order of the eponymous shellfish, whether it’s raw on the half shell, baked, fried, or dressed up and served as a shooter. EaT works directly with oyster farmers and purveyors, getting them fresh daily; the bulk come from oyster farms around the Pacific Northwest, but some are sourced as far as France. Once you’ve had your fill, try the seafood gumbo, redolent with smoky tasso and dark brown roux, or the gooey mac and cheese with bits of crawfish tail mixed in. EaT is also one of the few places in town serving BBQ shrimp, a misnomer of a dish where shrimp splash in a veritable sea of spiced butter, begging for crusty bread to sop it all up.

Fishwife Restaurant

University park

St. Johns and University Park residents have been keeping this diner to themselves for years, crowding into its red leather seats and tables four nights a week for seafood. Unconcerned with chasing trends, the unassuming Fishwife maintains its diehard regulars by offering a little taste of everything: indulgently rich clam chowder topped with bay shrimp, beer-battered clams, or panko-fried scallops with waffle fries is a smart opener for dinner. For the main course, it’s all about linguine, tossed simply in olive oil and white wine or in a creamy garlic sauce topped with scallops, prawns, or both. Whatever your choice, it comes with a side of green salad and bread for that old-school charm.

flying-fish-best-seafood-steelhead_Mike-novak_dw6qia Portland’s Best Seafood Restaurants | Portland Monthly — Sustainably raised Washington Steelhead makes a killer sandwich at Flying Fish.

Flying Fish Company

kerns

After stints as a food cart and a fish counter within Providore Fine Foods, this hybrid restaurant and market may be one of the city’s best spots for sustainably sourced seafood, whether you’re eating it there or taking it home. Visitors flock to its covered and heated patio on East Burnside, as well as its small indoor bar where people snack on poke and oysters while knocking back glasses of pink bubbles. Everything here is bright and playful, whether it’s panko-breaded rockfish sandwiches, salmon burgers, shrimp tacos, or the accompanying vegetable dishes and salads. Owner Lyf Gildersleeve taps into his decades of experience as a second-generation fishmonger, working directly with purveyors with an eye to carbon- and pollution-reducing fishing practices. Before you leave, be sure to grab whatever fresh fish was brought in that day for some home cooking.

king-tide-best-seafood-restaurant_kphyx4 Portland’s Best Seafood Restaurants | Portland Monthly — A whole grilled fish at King Tide Fish & Shell.

King Tide Fish & Shell

downtown

It’s hard to think of a better setting for a Portland seafood restaurant than a perch over the Willamette River. Primarily serving as the restaurant for the Kimpton Riverplace Hotel, the elegant King Tide Fish & Shell goes big with multiple dining rooms and patios, their tables packed with raw bar standards, chilled seafood towers, and a variety of seafood pastas. Most of the menu consists of familiar, crowd-pleasing favorites, but King Tide is at its best when chef Alexander Diestra’s Peruvian background shines through. You can find South American touches popping up in spots throughout the menu, like the super creamy and peppery aji-spiced clam chowder or the ahi ceviche topped with fried plantains and calamari.

Katy Jane’s

mt. Tabor

The owners of Coquine, married couple Katy Millard and Ksandek Podbielski, were playing around with the concept behind Coquine Market last winter. A specialty market and café during the day with a limited dinner menu, the concept wasn’t quite working for them. Then they decided to switch the evening service into a martini and shellfish bar, at first just through the winter. Now, Katy Jane’s is sticking around, with ice-cold gin and snacky seafood dishes hitting tables Tuesday through Saturday. Shrimp tartare as rich as its beefy equivalent is energized with fresh kumquat and spicy fermented espelette, buttery crawfish dip comes with crunchy housemade crackers, and a Manila clam pasta with guanciale transports diners to an Italian coastal village. Pair it all with wafer-thin chickpea socca and one (or more) of Podbielski’s thoughtfully curated wines.

Jacqueline

hosford-abernethy

Jacqueline didn’t miss a beat when it moved into the old La Moule space on SE Clinton. The dining room is still cheerful and airy, providing the ideal backdrop for the meal about to unfold under the watchful gaze of a Steve Zissou portrait. The menus still change regularly, reflecting the seasonality of both produce and catches, but they always feature a mix of raw, cooked, and cured fish. And chef-owner Derek Hanson and his talented culinary team are ever innovating, blending the familiar and novel. Dinners at Jaqueline should open with oysters, either raw on the half shell or cooked, like baked oysters in kimchi butter that expertly balance the cutting heat of spiced cabbage with the richness of butter and crispy fried shallots. Follow it up with some kind of citrusy crudo, bolstered with cherry tomatoes in summer or pickled pineapple in winter. Whole roasted fish works well for groups and date nights, while solo diners should help themselves to an order of the Dungeness crab toast. One of Jacqueline’s long running dishes, the latter is served on fluffy brioche and draped in velvety bechamel, made even better when paired with a minerally white wine or one of the bar’s austere, fish-friendly cocktails.

Normandie

kerns

With its jellyfish and seahorse wallpapers and nautical insignias, Normandie is clear about its focus. It draws inspiration from the French coastal region it’s loosely named for and Pacific Northwestern cuisine, but it isn’t afraid to source flavors globally. A dish like hamachi crudo exemplifies this worldly approach, topping thick, meaty slices of yellowtail with cilantro crema, Thai basil, shiso, and pineapple nước chấm. While the menu changes throughout the year, you can usually find crab beignets—fluffy and tender with bits of meat, they’re a great start to any meal, especially when enjoyed alongside an apple brandy cocktail. King salmon, charred octopus, and plump prawns appear frequently; chef and co-owner Heather Kintler tops them with a garden’s worth of fresh herbs and colorful, aromatic vegetables like radish and carrot, so that each dish is as bold and lively as the bistro itself.

Portland Fish Market

woodstock

A seafood market sourcing fresh, locally caught fish, Portland Fish Market also slings some of the best fish and chips in town through a streetside window. The dredge—made from a blend of garbanzo, fava bean, cornstarch, tapioca, and other entirely gluten-free flours—manages to be remarkably thin and crisp while still providing some good craggily bits for crunch. It gives way easily to flaky, tender white fish like cod or halibut, impressively plump shrimp, or hearty salmon. If it’s too rainy or too hot to stand around outside waiting, diners can order their fish and chips inside, where they can also find plenty of fresh seafood and fish-friendly wines to take home.

SeaSweets

Richmond

For a hot minute in the late twenty-teens, poke–a Hawaiian dish of diced raw fish mixed with onions and sauces like chile oil and soy–was having its moment in Portland. That dropped off a bit, especially during the height of the pandemic, but a few places remain. One exemplar is SeaSweets on SE Hawthorne, which also has locations in Beaverton and Clackamas. Co-owner and chef Ian Hung, who previously worked under the legendary Hawaiian chef Alan Wong, opened SeaSweets as a casual counter-service restaurant with a build-your-own-bowl model. Poke bowls begin with a base of rice or kale, with a plethora of raw (or occasionally cooked) fish styles to choose from: think sweet shoyu ahi, albacore in a spicy chile oil, salmon in garlicky fish sauce, and cooked shrimp in a cumin-lime dressing. Sides are no afterthought, including a peppery “krab” salad and a tangy and vibrant purple cabbage slaw. Top it all with a choice of sauces, including spicy mayo and miso-sesame, and take it to go. SeaSweets also sells its poke by the pound, perfect for dinner parties and events.

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