The Best Dishes Eater Portland Ate in January, 2025

Welcome to The Best Dishes the Eater Portland Team Ate This Week. Every Friday, the Portland-based Eater team shares Portland-area dishes each of us ate this week that we can’t stop thinking about.

Eggs cooked with figs at Family Cafe

Erin DeJesus

The recent meal I can’t stop thinking about was also maybe my simplest. On a clouded weekend morning (emotionally, if not literally), I stopped into Beaverton’s Family Cafe for breakfast: Owned by a family hailing from Iraq, it describes itself as an American and Arabic restaurant, serving Turkish coffees and Iraqi tea alongside smoothies and an egg-heavy menu. I ordered something I’ve never seen before — eggs cooked with figs — and the sweet round of omelet that emerged was delightfully unexpected (add the housemade hot sauce for a sharp acid contrast, mop it all up with warm pita). Paired with the chicken sausage, mushroom, and tomato pastry — which tasted like the best version of a Hot Pocket that one could imagine, I mean this as a true compliment — it was the exact kind of experience that brought a moment of cheer to a grey day. — Erin DeJesus, Executive Editor

Hot Dog Hamburger at Sure Shot

Jill Dehnert

Late last year, Eater writer Jaya Saxena fairly asked if the year of the smash burger is a good thing for American dining. So I suppose I should be slightly embarrassed to say, I can’t help but love the trend. And perhaps no one does it better in Portland than Sure Shot, the well-branded food truck parked outside of Oakshire on NE 42nd. I’m a regular and very easily persuaded to go anytime they have a burger special, which brings me to the best thing I ate this week. The Hot Dog Hamburger could easily be perceived as going a little far with the smashburger experimentation trend, but is a legitimately delicious meal. A double patty smashed with fried hot dog and topped with poppyseed mustard, relish, sauerkraut, and sport pepper all on a perfect potato bun. Not sure where you can go wrong, but if following a trend makes me wrong, maybe I don’t want to be right. — Jill Dehnert, Group Publisher

I regret to inform you that it took me until January to finally visit Eater Portland’s 2024 Best New Restaurant Bauman’s on Oak, but it was definitely worth the wait. Erin DeJesus and I arrived during happy hour and naturally went for the $5 snack section, which offers delightfully filling complements to the ciders on hand — Ruffles with bleu cheese dip, crusty slices of sourdough with butter, and smoked salmon rolls. I could have probably been sated stopping there but I’m glad we stuck it out for another round of tart loganberry cider with plump chicken cappalletti swimming in broth and the robust, heaping chicory salad. It was difficult to pick a favorite, I’m a sucker for seafood so I suppose it had to be the crab roll. Similar to the smoked salmon during happy hour, Bauman’s stuffs a beautifully lacquered potato roll with lump Dungeness crab meat tossed with just the right amount of miso mayo for an added umami hit and dimpled with chives. If the cider wasn’t so good, it would steal the show. — Brenna Houck, Cities Manager