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There's something about the turning of the calendar, about the weather turning cold and wet, that has us counting our pennies a little bit more carefully. Once again, The Oregonian/OregonLive has taken this season of tighter budgets to seek out and celebrate the Portland area's best inexpensive restaurants.



As usual, we looked for restaurants with a significant number of dishes priced at $12 or less. Many of the restaurants below are even less expensive. As always, this guide is devoted to brick-and-mortar restaurants. Food carts, typically among the city's least expensive eating options, get their own spotlight later in the year.



We tightened our own belt a bit this year, going from 50 restaurants in 2018 down to 40, mostly by sticking to our budget a little more carefully. In other words, that fantastic Japanese spot that happens to serve an austere vegetarian ramen for $10, but where most options run $14-$16, didn't make the cut. We also said goodbye to some of the city's best inexpensive restaurants -- and some of our favorite restaurants, period -- after The Big Egg, ChickPeaDX and El Inka called it quits.



If that $12 price ceiling is still too rich for you, you're in luck. After throwing down with 20 of our favorite under-$5 dishes in 2018, we doubled down our coverage of some of Portland's least expensive restaurants this year, visiting, reviewing and ranking all of the city's bargain buffets. You're welcome.

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Apna Chat Bhavan

One part grocery store, one part restaurant, with a gleaming case of Indian desserts front and center, Apna Chat Bhavan draws crowds away from Intel and Washington County’s other major employers for its seriously inexpensive lunch. Most are here for good dosas ($8), goat and chicken curries ($13), biryani ($8 and up) and a filling thali ($8-$9), a metal plate loaded up with both paratha and chapati for scooping or dipping into a half-dozen small cups of rice, sauces, soups and curries (your choice of either strictly vegetarian or a veg-meat mix). Leaving without at least a glance at the dessert case would be a mistake.

1815 N.W. 169th Place, #6020, Beaverton; 503-718-7841;

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Apna Chat Bhavan (Photos by Michael Russell unless otherwise noted)

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Basilisk

To eat Portland’s best fried-chicken sandwich, crank your jaw open 90 degrees, squeeze the buttered buns together like a pair of sponges and chomp into this tower of crunch at Basilisk. Originally born from the Vietnamese-ish food cart Rua, the tiny restaurant at The Zipper complex found its stride after focusing its attention narrowly on fried-chicken sandwiches ($9). At first bite, buttermilk trapped inside the crunchy skin cuts through the rich chicken and buttered bun like a knife straight to the adrenal cortex, the griddled Pearl Bakery bun bringing an extra dose of crunch to the party.

820 N.E. 27th Ave., 503-234-7151,

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Basilisk (The Oregonian/file)

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Bernstein’s Bagels

Portland’s latest bagel savior emerged from a cramped St. Johns storefront in 2017, quickly expanding with a second location in an Albina space once home to the pioneering cocktail bar Mint/820. Bernstein’s boiled and baked bagels ($2 each) are exactly what you’ve been looking for, crackly crust, chewy inside, still warm in the bag if you time your visit right. The bagel lineup sticks to the classics -- a weekend-only pumpernickel is about as wild as things get -- though Bernstein’s will experiment with their cream cheese ($5 plain; $6 flavored), including a regular schmear blended with Mama Lil’s peppers and a chimichurri-whipped special, each balanced and fun. Sides of good lox ($4) and prosciutto ($3) can turn a weekend bagel run into a proper brunch.

816 N. Russell St., 8408 N. Lombard St.,

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Bernstein's Bagels (Mark Graves)

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Binh Minh

Binh Minh's "Store #2" is found in an out-of-the-way stretch of Northeast Broadway behind a Vietnamese supermarket, next to a hair salon and pot shop and across from a sprawling apartment complex with climbing vines and large brick chimneys. It doesn't look like much, but the inexpensive sandwich ($3) -- also available at Binh Minh's Southeast Powell Boulevard storefront -- won our recent blind taste test behind its pâte heat, a balanced ratio of meat and other fillings and its light, crispy bread.



7821 S.E. Powell Blvd., 503-777-2245

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Binh Minh

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Bless Your Heart

John Gorham knows burgers, with bistro creations at Toro Bravo and Tasty N Alder that have been topping best burger lists for more than a decade. So it makes sense that his burger-specific kiosk at Pine Street Market, Bless Your Heart Burgers, would be a winner, with quality fast-food-style burgers, McDonald-esque fries ($2.95 small) and a cola-friendly cocktail list. The namesake “Carolina burger” ($6.95) comes with a Duke’s mayo coleslaw, while the classic, either single ($6.95) or double ($9.95), has loose, crisp-edged patties sizzling under melted American cheese, shredded lettuce and house-made pickles.

126 S.W. Second Ave., 503-719-4221,

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Bless Your Heart (Mark Graves)

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Bun Bo Hue Restaurant

Are there better bowls of bun bo Hue in Portland? Maybe. Ha VL has a good one. Or you might prefer the streamlined look and clean flavors at Portland’s other bun bo Hue-focused restaurant, Teo Bun Bo Hue. But there’s something about this signature soup of Hue in Central Vietnam that just feels right in the soup shacks and Heineken-soaked karaoke dens of Southeast 82nd Avenue. Come to this edge-of-Lents restaurant for its cheery, mismatched decor and Portland’s best-known bowl of “BBH” ($9.50 small/$11.50 large), a bowl of spicy beef broth filled with pork loaf slices, congealed blood cubes and a bouquet-sized garnish of rau ram, banana blossom, bean sprouts and lime.

7002 S.E. 82nd Ave., 503-771-1141,

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Bun Bo Hue Restaurant

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Checkerboard Pizza

When this Pine Street Market counter opened as Trifecta Annex in 2016, it was a convenient spot to pick up good bread and creative pastries from James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and baker Ken Forkish. Two years and a name change later, Checkerboard remains just that while also offering Portland’s best pizza by the slice. Forkish, who also owns Ken’s Artisan Pizza, serves a very New York-style pie in some six daily varieties, including a cheeseless marinara and a seasonal option or two (generally $3.50-$4). The plain ($3) shows off a thin, crunchy crust sturdy enough to hold the lightly applied sauce and cheese. The end crust tastes better than many local baguettes.

126 S.W. Second Ave., 503-299-2000,

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Checkerboard Pizza

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Chepe’s

Among east Multnomah County’s many Salvadoran restaurants, Chepe’s is surely the only one with a quartet of full-sized beach volleyball courts in the back. Oh, and they make a mean pupusa, the cheese-stuffed masa Frisbees that get a proper browning on the flattop, cracking at the edge just enough to release a strand or two of melted queso. The menu meanders to other Central American cuisines, most notably Mexican-style tacos and their plus-sized Honduran cousin, the baleada, but the specialties from El Salvador are most interesting. Those include a variety of pupusas ($3 and up) from chicken to mushrooms to loroco, an edible flower, as well as a churrasco Salvadoreño, a mixed meat platter with steak and chorizo links in a tangle of grilled onions and red bell pepper served on a sizzling skillet with sides of rice and beans, grilled cheese, sliced avocado, fried plantains, tortillas and salad for $15.95.

17539 S.E. Stark St., Gresham; 503-960-6198,

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Chepe's

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Chennai Masala

If you know anything about Hillsboro’s robust, ever-evolving Indian restaurant scene, it’s probably this decade-old standard bearer, which still draws lines at both dinner and lunch. Though prices for the excellent dosas and other Southern Indian-influenced dishes creep above cheap eats range (they’re worth it) at dinner, Chennai Masala offers a best-in-class Indian buffet at lunch ($11). Depending on which day you visit, you might find some of those southern dishes making their way onto the buffet line, including sand dollar-sized uttapam, the soft pancakes made from dosa batter, stacked in their tray like so many flapjacks at a free hotel breakfast, and the battered and deep-fried chilies called cut mirchi that weren’t as spicy as the sign warned.

2088 N.E. Stucki Ave., Hillsboro, 503-531-9500,

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Chennai Masala (file)

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Darsalam Lazurdi

Like the blue and gold mural of Babylon’s Ishtar Gate painted on its wall, this downtown Portland location of Portland’s sole brick-and-mortar Iraqi restaurant should be a gateway to this wonderful, underrepresented cuisine. Weekdays at lunch, Darsalam Lazurdi downtown offers a quality buffet with vegetarian stews, good hummus, yellow-spiced chicken, coconut shrimp (that would be shrimp in a mellow coconut sauce, not the deep-fried Applebee’s appetizer) and flatbread brought to order. It doesn’t touch the diversity and complexity you can find on the a la carte menu here or at its charming sister restaurant on Northeast Alberta Street, but it might be the most inexpensive sit-down Middle Eastern meal in the city.

320 S.W. Alder St., 503-444-7813,

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Darsalam Lazurdi (file)

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Dockside Saloon & Restaurant

Dockside, a nautically themed dive all but swallowed up by northwest-creeping Pearl District development, might be best known these days for its role in the downfall of Oregon figure skating legend Tonya Harding – garbage found dumped behind the restaurant indicated that Harding, despite earlier denials, knew of and helped plan the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. Another claim to fame? The golden hashbrowns that come with half the meals on the bridge-themed menu. One thick buttermilk pancake and a pair of sausage links or bacon strips will set you back $5.95. For a few bucks more, corned beef hash ($11.95) features a flat slab of minced beef and shredded potato seared to a deep, crunchy brown with two eggs, choice of toast, biscuit or English muffin and a possibly redundant rectangle of crunchy potato hashbrowns.

2047 N.W. Front Ave., 503-241-6433,

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Dockside Saloon & Restaurant

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Du Kuh Bee

With its skinny dining rooms, (relatively) late hours and ever-present heads of cabbage threatening to overflow the tiny kitchen, Du Kuh Bee is the wellspring for much of what Portland knows about hand-pulled noodles. Originally owned and operated by Frank Fong and Ying Jun Gao of Frank's Noodle House fame, a Chinese immigrant who added a roster of Korean dishes to appease his Beaverton clientele, the restaurant has retained that hybrid menu under new owners Se Ko and Kyung Min. Here, Chinese-style hand-pulled noodles ($10-$15) are tossed in a Korean-style gochujang sauce six nights a week, and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. And little touches, like the basil leaves tossed in with the stir-fried squid noodles, or the noticeable tartness to that gochujang, continue to set Du Kuh Bee apart.



12590 S.W. First St., Beaverton; 503-643-5388

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Du Kuh Bee (file)

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Du’s Grill

The signature Korean-American teriyaki joint of the Pacific Northwest,

, Du’s is beloved by all walks of life, with students and cops and construction workers all squeezed into its squat building on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. Tune in to the kitchen to hear as many as three languages ringing out while you wait for your yakisoba ($9), chip-thin teriyaki beef ($11.50) or juicy chicken thighs ($9.75). The teriyaki comes well-sauced on an oversized plate with white rice and crisp iceberg lettuce covered in lemony miso-poppyseed dressing. And good news for teriyaki fans in Washington County: Last year, Du’s launched a second location in Hillsboro.

5365 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland, 503-284-1773; 1249 NW 185th Ave, Hillsboro, 503-746-7373,

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Du's Grill

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Enat Kitchen

Portland's best Ethiopian restaurant is also one of its least expensive. Enat Kitchen sits inside a shallow storefront decorated with travel posters from Harar and Addis Ababa just a few blocks from Portland Community College’s Cascade campus. The wildly good buffet is gone, but you can still sit at the red-and-silver booths and scoop up individual wats or tibs using torn-off pieces of injera, the tangy, teff-based flatbread served both underneath the stews and in individual rolls. Or consider bringing friends or family to split a combo platter meant for three (but that can feed four or more), with your choice of dishes including split peas, spiced beef or crispy pieces of fish for $30.

300 N. Killingsworth St., 503-285-4867,

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Enat Kitchen (Beth Nakamura)

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Fried Egg I'm In Love

This pun-happy cart

recently graduated to a full restaurant

at the heart of Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard’s shopping district. With the move, Fried Egg I’m In Love can make a credible claim as Portland’s signature breakfast sandwich shop. The new restaurant is clean, bright and smartly designed, from the graphics on the menu to the layout of the high tables to the temptingly hip T-shirts on the wall. Here, over-medium egg sandwiches still come on well-toasted sourdough from Portland French Bakery. The Yolko Ono ($7.50) still has its schmear of fresh pesto, grated Parmesan and a juicy sausage patty. But the ‘Rito Suave breakfast burrito ($8.75) now has fresh-made pico de gallo, and fast-food-style hash browns ($2) arrive crunchy and warm in a “FEIIL”-branded paper sleeve.

3549 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-610-3447,

(the original cart has closed, but a second location at Pioneer Courthouse Square remains open)

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Fried Egg I'm In Love

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Fuller's Coffee Shop

Praise Fuller's, the best of Portland's classic diners, with its neon clock and meandering counter and plain silverware laid out on paper napkins. From its corner perch at the Pearl District's southeastern border, Fuller's serves an all-day breakfast with French toast on housemade bread ($8), cheesy omelets with hashbrowns and toast ($9.75) and hearty plates of corned beef hash ($10.75) or country fried steak ($10.75), each large enough, if you pace yourself, to leave you with leftovers. At lunch, regulars perch on low, swiveling stools, hands clasped around double decker cheeseburgers (a hard-to-beat $5.50) that drip melted American cheese from their sesame seed buns.



136 N.W. Ninth Ave., 503-222-5608

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Fuller's Coffee Shop

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Giraffe

If all Giraffe did were make it easier for Portlanders to get bread and pastries from Beaverton’s excellent Oyatsupan bakery, it would still feel essential. But this Japanese market and deli, opened by a pair of Biwa vets inside Southeast Portland’s eclectic Cargo store, goes further, with onigiri, bento boxes and leveled-up Japanese convenience store-style egg salad and pork katsu sandwiches ($5-$6) built on Oyatsupan’s fluffy milk bread. Does it fill the hole left when Portland’s beloved, century-old Japanese market Anzen closed in 2014? Not quite, but it’s a start.

81 S.E. Yamhill St., 503-449-8346,

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Giraffe (Mark Graves)

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Güero

Portland’s home for outrageously good tortas built on layer after layer of flavor and crunch. Before opening this plant-filled brick-and-mortar, co-owners Megan Sanchez and Alec Morrison ran Güero out of a Silver Streak trailer parked just a few blocks south. Somehow the prices have remained mostly steady since the move indoors. Visit for the sloppy-good Mexican-style hamburguesa with its disc of crispy American cheese, the breakfast torta dripping braised beef juices and the torta ahogada, a traditional Jaliscan “drowned” sandwich stuffed with tender carnitas and habanero slaw and doused in an achiote-tomato sauce (all $11). Give the cart a bigger kitchen, and they'll throw in the kitchen sink.

200 N.E. 28th Ave., 503-887-9258,

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Güero (file)

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Ha VL and Rose VL

These sister restaurants serve two Vietnamese soups a day, six days a week, including one or two you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in America. Visit on a Saturday, when Ha VL rolls out its peppery pork ball soup and spicy bun bo hue as Rose VL serves its bright orange mi quang noodles, turmeric-laced chicken curry and a subtly sweet noodle and pork dish called cao lau (most soups $11). The original restaurant, Ha VL, is still a destination, but I like coming to Rose VL to chat with founders Christina Luu and William Vuong. Beyond soups, you’ll find occasional specials, iced coffee and tea, tropical smoothies — including a pungent durian — and, after they disappeared for a spell last year, banh mi ($5 and up).

Ha: 2738 S.E. 82nd Ave. #102, 503-772-0103. Rose: 6424 S.E. Powell Blvd., 503-206-4344,

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Rose VL (file)

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Helvetia Tavern

Every Portland burger lover must, at some point, make a pilgrimage to Helvetia Tavern, a rustic burger bar and restaurant (minors are allowed in the dining room and on the patio) in a pastoral setting north of U.S. 26. There's not much to think about. Grab a seat underneath ceilings pinned with countless ball caps and order a cheeseburger ($6.05), with its thin patty, cheddar cheese and special sauce, plus an order of onion rings ($4.75/$7.97) or french fries ($3.50/$5.85). With Stanich's out of the picture since last winter, Helvetia Tavern might be the best loved classic burger within 30 miles of Portland.



10275 N.W. Helvetia Road, Helvetia; 503-647-5286

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Helvetia Tavern (file)

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HK Cafe

If there’s one rule I’ve learned in a decade-plus eating around Portland and Beaverton’s dim sum options, it’s to arrive early, or risk running into steamer trays of gummy shrimp dumplings and clammy chicken feet. Visit HK Cafe at primetime, say, 10 a.m. on a Sunday, and you’re guaranteed a good forcemeat fix, with juicy dumplings, beef and shrimp noodle wraps and shiny golden barbecue pork buns flying off the carts (generally $3.50-$4 and up). Part of the appeal here is the carnival vibe, complete with a man making balloon animals for the kids. If you care more about the food than the show, Pure Spice (see below) still makes Portland’s best dim sum, sans carts.

4410 S.E. 82nd Ave., 503-771-8866,

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HK Cafe (file)

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Justa Pasta

Given the streamlined dining room filled with a Portland dressy clientele, this might not look the part of an affordable restaurant. Yet as we learned when researching our guide to Portland’s best pasta in 2017, Justa Pasta is just-a that, particularly at lunch, when the build-your-own menu includes a dozen or more good, inexpensive pasta options. More elaborate specials can stretch from $11 into the $17 range, but a three-cheese ravioli in fresh pesto is $12, tagliatelle in garlic chile oil is $9 and a simple spinach bucatini in marinara sauce can be had for $8. Scope out the low, semi-hidden fridge to the left of the ordering counter for sauces and fresh pasta to-go to make an even more affordable meal at home.

1326 N.W. 19th Ave., 503-243-2249,

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Justa Pasta

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Kargi Gogo

The small box of a restaurant space at the eastern edge of Northeast Alberta Street’s shopping corridor has long offered an easy step up for great Portland food carts, serving as a first brick-and-mortar home for The Sugar Cube, The Big Egg and now Kargi Gogo. The former food cart, which specialized in a handful of easily accessible Georgian staples, expanded on that menu at the new restaurant, serving several types of the cheesy bread known as khachapuri, including the boat-shaped, egg-topped acharuli khachapuri ($12), as well khinkali, the fat, nobbed dumplings filled with minced beef and pork and spices (three for $8).

3039 N.E. Alberta St., 503-764-9552,

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Laurelhurst Market deli

Hear us out. Laurelhurst Market the restaurant, though inexpensive by steakhouse standards, certainly wouldn’t qualify as a cheap eat. But the butcher shop deli, which serves some of Portland’s best sandwiches seven days a week, does. Most sandwiches sell for $10.95, expensive compared to classic spots such as Taste Tickler (1704 N.E. 14th Ave.) or Beaverton Sub Station (12448 S.W. Broadway St., Beaverton), but here the meats are mostly smoked and cured in-house and the ciabatta comes from Fleur de Lis Bakery. Try the top seller, an excellent ham and salami combo that has existed in some form since the Laurelhurst Market team ran Viande Meats. For my money, it's the best Italian-style sandwich in town.

3155 E. Burnside St., 503-206-3097,

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Laurelhurst Market

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Lonchería Mitzil

House favorites at this homestyle Mexican restaurant up the hill from Oregon City's cliffside downtown include quesadillas ($5.75), small burritos called "burros" (three for $6.75) and Cuban-ish tortas packed with pork, ham and American cheese ($4.75-$5.25). Meals can begin with made-to-order guacamole ($3.75) or the gently fried, potato-stuffed corn turnovers called molotes ($8.95). Keep an eye out for the traditional specials including pork cooked in green salsa or a big carnitas plate rounded out with fluffy white rice, refried beans and a trio of warm and pliable tortillas. Eating here can feel like eating at your own family dinner table.



212 Molalla Ave., Oregon City; 503-655-7197

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Lonchería Mitzil

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Love Belizean

For those looking to eat well on a budget anywhere near Portland State University, knowing about Love Belizean is like a secret password. Tiffany Love's restaurant, which started life as a food cart, specializes in this garlic- and achiote-rubbed chicken roasted until the meat turns tender and the skin turns a gorgeous shade of brown. Each beautiful piece ($8) comes with beans, coconut rice, Caribbean salsa, arugula salad, fresh lime and your pick from a rainbow of Marie Sharp's Belizean hot sauces. Obsessed with the chicken, I was slow to find the tri tip ($10) or the beer-braised pork ($12), but now each is firmly in the rotation.



1503 S.W. Broadway, 503-421-5599

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Love Belizean

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Master Kong

The menu at Master Kong, printed on laminated-photo flip cards at the table, mostly hails from two regions: Tianjin, the port city near Beijing where chef-owner Kang Zhu worked for more than a decade, and Taishan, the much smaller city west of Hong Kong where he and his family were born. Both sides of Master Kong's menu have their merits. From Taishan comes a silky congee floating with ghostly grains of rice and a rich wonton soup with fresh noodles, an almost buttery broth and pork-shrimp-mushroom dumplings with thin skin wrapped tighter than Spanx. Around here, the Tianjin menu might be more novel, particularly the goubuli, steamed buns that resemble rustic xiaolongbao. Kang Zhu is one of Portland's greatest chef chameleons. In addition to Master Kong, he owns Pot N Spicy (8230 S.E. Harrison St., #345), the dry Sichuan hot pot and skewer restaurant in the same restaurant complex as Teo Bun Bo Hue.



8435 S.E. Division St., 971-373-8248

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Master Kong

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Nong's Khao Man Gai

What more needs to be said about Nong’s Khao Man Gai? The restaurant, which closed its destination food cart last year to make way for -- what else -- a boutique hotel, specializes in a sort of ideal version of poached chicken and jasmine rice ($11), a dish credited to the southern Chinese island of Hainan but popular throughout the region, including in owner Nong Poonsukwattana’s native Thailand. If you only visit one of the two remaining brick-and-mortar restaurants, make it the the Southeast shop, which offers cocktails and desserts, including a lemongrass- and pandan-flavored coconut milk soft serve that you can order dipped in roast coconut shavings or as an affogato drowned in Stumptown coffee or Thai iced tea.

609 S.E. Ankeny St., 503-740-2907; 417 S.W. 13th Ave., 503-208-2402;

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Nong's Khao Man Gai (file)

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Noodle Man

Happy Valley’s 2-year-old Noodle Man, a local offshoot of a Las Vegas restaurant, is the first Portland-area noodle shop to truly embrace a sense of the dramatic when it comes to Lanzhou-style hand-pulled noodles. Walk inside to find a cook standing inside a glass-walled kitchen swinging long ropes of well-kneaded dough into the air, catching both ends in one hand and then bringing them together in a simple braid, whipping them out into a cat’s cradle of pencil-thick noodle strands then chucking them in a large pot of boiling water. Those noodles find their way into a dozen different soups and stir fries ($10-$12), including a spicy chongqing version, a simple off-menu zha jiang mian hidden under cucumber slivers and a chunky pork and black bean sauce.

15888 S.E. Happy Valley Town Center Drive, Happy Valley, 503-878-5086,

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Noodle Man

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Otto's Sausage Kitchen

To find Portland’s best hot dog, head to Southeast Woodstock Boulevard and look for the guy (it’s usually a guy) grilling sausages out front of an Alpine-themed deli. He’ll have some pork links and beer sausages on the grill, but since you’re really on a budget, ask for an old-fashioned weiner ($4), a sublimely juicy hot dog with subtle smokiness and the perfect snap. Round out the meal with a scoop of salad from the deli counter, a soda from the fridge or one of the good beers poured on draft. Winner winner hot dog dinner.

4138 S.E. Woodstock Blvd., 503-771-6714,

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Otto's Sausage Kitchen (Mark Graves)

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Pho Nguyen

Found behind the Raleigh Hills Fred Meyer, just down the road from Jesuit High School, Pho Nguyen is a true hidden gem. Like most local Vietnamese restaurants, Pho Nguyen specializes in pho bo, or beef noodle soup, serving an excellent bowl that hits the table lighting fast with fatty brisket, bouncy meatballs and still-rare slices of steak, good noodles and a broth scented with clove and star anise. But it's not the only thing they do well: On a recent visit, the banh xeo, a turmeric-stained rice batter crepe that looks like a giant eggless omelet, was as impressive as the pho, with crispy tapered edges and a juicy center stuffed with bean sprouts and shrimp.



4795 S.W. 77th Ave., Beaverton; 503-297-3389

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Pho Nguyen

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Pho Oregon

Pho Oregon, a cavernous Vietnamese restaurant in the dip between I-84 and Madison High School, is Portland’s weekend morning workhorse, a busy restaurant with the vibe of a big-city pho house. Bowls ($10.95-$11.95) arrive quickly and piping hot, with well-cooked noodles, tender brisket and a rustic-yet-elegant broth that has a strong hint of cloves and lots of caramel flavor from the roast beef bones. The menu is long enough to reward repeat visits, including the usual over-rice (com) and over-rice noodle (bun) dishes, a spicy bun bo hue ($11.95), plus their own good banh xeo ($13.95).

2518 N.E. 82nd Ave., 503-262-8816,

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Pho Oregon (file)

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Pollo Norte

This Portland spin on Mexico City-style rotisserie chicken, with its golden birds slowly dripping fat onto a bed of soft cabbage as they cook, once looked poised to dominate the city’s roast chicken game. Instead, the restaurant closed its original Northeast 42nd Avenue location in 2017, consolidating operations to a central restaurant on Northeast Glisan Street. Unlike the early days, when Pollo Norte would sell out of chicken by 5:30 p.m., there are plenty of birds to go around at the new restaurant, not to mention a lineup of margaritas and other cocktails for those who choose to dine-in. A whole roast chicken with tortillas and large sides of tomato rice and black beans ($29) can feed three or four people.

2935 N.E. Glisan St., 503-719-6039,

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Pollo Norte (file)

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Pure Spice

For some, rolling carts loaded with tasty delights are an essential part of the dim sum experience. If all you care about is getting the freshest possible dumplings, head to Pure Spice, which cooks their dim sum favorites (most $3.25) to order. Though the restaurant changed ownership in 2018, pork siu mai and shrimp har gow still arrive in their baskets, piping hot, while fried, meat-stuffed seaweed-and-chive wraps stays crisp under a teaspoon of chili oil. In the afternoon, Cantonese classics appear, including an excellent salted fish and duck fried rice. But go in the morning to find Portland’s best dim sum. Who needs carts, anyway?

2446 S.E. 87th Ave., Suite 101; 503-772-1808;

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Pure Spice (file)

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Reel M Inn

Beloved by Portlanders of all stripes, this unassuming dive serves Portland's most famous fried chicken and jojos (just ask Lady Gaga, who visited the bar while recording in Portland in 2017). A wait is all but guaranteed, but there's good news: The friendly bartenders will use a pencil and paper to sketch out how much room is left in the next batch they plan to drop in the pressure-sealed broaster, or perhaps in the batch after that (around $12 for a four-piece basket). Go during a Blazer game and your food should show up right around Lillard Time.



2430 S.E. Division St., 503-231-3880

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Reel M Inn (Beth Nakamura)

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Scottie's Pizza Parlor

Scott Rivera's slender pizzeria has many of the themes found at pizzerias throughout the city -- pizza box artwork, a passion for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a throwback RC Cola soda fountain among them. But look closer and you'll see those pizza boxes come from some of America's most beloved pizzerias, including coal-fired New York City pillars Patsy's and John's. And some are even signed by the owners, like beloved baseball cards. Plain slices ($2.50) hit the table quickly, with a remarkably thin, almost translucent crust, some well-considered char, a little brown freckling on the chewy mozzarella and a beautifully bright, chunky tomato sauce.

2128 S.E. Division St., 971-544-7878,

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Scottie's Pizza Parlor (Beth Nakamura)

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Spring

Make your way down an aisle filled with dried seaweed or instant ramen, head up the wooden stairs at the left of the butcher counter and you'll find yourself at Spring, a friendly, low-frills restaurant overlooking G Mart, the Beaverton supermarket. The specialties here are soups and stews, particularly the stainless steel bowls of naengmyeon ($11.95), a cucumber-scented beef and buckwheat noodle soup, that seem to dot every table in summertime. Each order comes with a half-dozen banchan, the small plates of mostly pickled things that can turn a simple sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew, $10.95) into a proper feast.



3975 S.W. 114th Ave., Beaverton; 503-641-3670

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Spring (file)

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Tienda Santa Cruz

Among Portland’s great grocery store restaurants (see also: Spring, Apna Chat Bhavan), this tucked-away taqueria hides behind a case filled with Mexican baked goods, pinatas hanging above. Walk into the brightly lit back room, painted with a mural of a boy hurling a stone at a hawk, and order a plate of spicy shrimp a la diabla ($11), some super-rich carnitas ($11) or the longtime go-to for St. Johns vegetarian crowd: an avocado-stuffed burrito ($6). Best enjoyed before or after a movie at the St. Johns Twin Cinema one block away, Tienda Santa Cruz consistently exceeds expectations.

8630 N. Lombard St., 503-286-7302,

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Tienda Santa Cruz (file)

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Tortilleria y Tienda de Leon’s

The main attraction at this mini tortilla plant and store isn’t the hot Cheetos and other snack foods lining the aisles, or the tortilla press working overtime in the back. Instead, it’s the long deli case up front filled with guisados, or stewed meats and veggies, each bubbling in their metal trays. Order, in Spanish if you can, or by pointing through the glass toward the pork, chicken and beef simmering in a ruddy rainbow of sauces from soft green to burnt red. Each meat, from the familiar pork in chile verde to the mound of bronzed pig skin, can be made into a sopping taco or an inexpensive plate with yellow rice and larded refried beans.

16223 N.E. Glisan St., 503-255-4356,

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Tortilleria y Tienda de Leon’s (file)

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XLB

In hindsight, we didn’t need to worry so much about Din Tai Fung coming to town. During a recent lunch, crowds stuffed XLB’s small front area, sipping hot tea near black walls painted with gold zodiac characters as they waited for a table. Yes, it was Dumpling Week, The Oregonian/OregonLive’s annual dumpling celebration. It was also a Monday. And Jasper Shen’s 2-year-old North Portland restaurant has earned its crowds, having dialed in nearly everything on its lightbox menu, from the sauteed greens to the supple eggplant and tofu to the beef chow fun. These days, the namesake xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings, sag but don’t break under the weight of their hot broth. On a good day, they set the bar other soup dumpling merchants will have to leap.

4090 N. Williams Ave., 503-841-5373,

-- Michael Russell

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Got a little extra dough to spend? Don't miss our 2018 guide to Portland's best restaurants, period.