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ISSUE #33.49 • SPECIAL SECTION • RESTAURANT GUIDE

Restaurant Guide 2007



IMAGE: tom oliver

BY BYRON BECK | bbeck at wweek dot com

[October 17th, 2007]

A week ago, a local restaurateur asked me this question: “Can you make us Restaurant of the Year?” My one-word answer: “No.”

If it were that easy, there wouldn’t be any reason at all to put out a guide to Portland’s most enjoyable—and recently much- lauded—kitchens. Truth is, no matter how fun it may sound, eating for this guide is hard work. First you have narrow what adds up to around 1,000 local restaurants down to a mere 130 or so, visit each one and hope that the final 100 you’ve picked live up to the standards you’ve set for the guide. Then, consider: What if one of your favorites is having an off night? Or what if the entrée you’ve totally fallen in love with isn’t going to be on the menu by the time the guide comes out?

Or…well…it’s enough to give one gas.

It’s much easier to explain how we put together what you are holding in your hands. Then it’s up to you to decide if we did a good job or not. That’s the funny thing about food—everyone’s a critic. This is just our critical take on what we see as one of the most fascinating scenes in Portland—a list of our 100 favorite fine dining restaurants in town. Now, that doesn’t mean these places are perfect. This year’s guide comes with a healthy dose of tough love for some of the city’s most well-known dining rooms.

RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR: It’s been a good year for foodies. For the first time since 2004 we picked one single restaurant over all the others. A team of eating experts gathered at the WW office and came up with a place that met our stringent criteria for this honor. Check out Heidi Yorkshire’s explanation of why we say “Bravo” to one Northeast Portland restaurant.

LISTINGS: Unlike other city guides, we’ve decided to keep an alphabetical format to our guide. On top of that, each listing is based on the following five criteria: taste, ambience, service, space and innovation. We also included Signature Dish, Standouts and Regrets, for those who want to get straight to the point.

HIGH FIVE: We did this last year, and we liked it so much we brought it back. In these short features, five of our best contributors recognize restaurants that pull double-duty and should be recognized as such. That includes hotel eateries, steakhouses, dessert and wine joints, and our favorite from last year: specialty-food vendors or markets.

NO-SHOWS: If you don’t see your favorite place, it might be in our Cheap Eats guide (it comes out next spring). Or perhaps we didn’t like it. Tell us about your must-visit eatery by emailing bbeck@wweek.com or posting a comment on wweek.com. We’ve indicated the places that have opened since our last guide with [NEW]. The key for restaurant costs as rated in this guide is:

$$ Moderate : most entrees under $20
$$$ Expensive : most entrees under $30
$$$$ Very expensive : most entrees more than $30

And make sure to check hours and days, as restaurants’ hours can change as quickly as the chefs at Roux.

Enjoy,
Byron Beck, Editor


EDITOR
Byron Beck

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Ben Waterhouse

CONTRIBUTORS
Kevin Allman, Byron Beck, Sue L. Ceswick, Kelly Clarke, Shoshanna Cohen, Liz Crain, Ian Gillingham, Kat Hyatt, Casey Jarman, Jessica Machado, Amy G. McCullough, Aaron W. Mesh, Joanna Miller, Kerry Newberry, Becky Ohlsen, Brian Panganiban, James Pitkin, Nancy Rommelman, Laura Shinn, Beth Slovic, Ethan Smith, Hank Stern, Mike Thelin, Miriam Wolf, Ben Waterhouse, Heidi Yorkshire, Mark Zusman

COPY EDITORS
Kat Hyatt, Ian Gillingham, Hanna Neuschwander, Matt Buckingham

ART DIRECTOR
Thomas Cobb

DESIGN&PRODUCTION
Laura Atkinson, Erik Blad, Brian Brown, Maggie Gardner, Soma Honkanen, Tom Humphrey, Ben Mollica, Cari Vander Yacht, Christie Wright

PHOTOGRAPHY
Jenna Biggs, Darryl James, Brian Lee, Tom Oliver, Amy Ouellette, David L. Reamer, Chris Ryan, Matt Wong

PUBLISHER
Shawna McKeown














Comment on this article

Carl Hitt  writes on Oct 22nd, 2007 1:20pm

That review of Nostrana in your restaurant guide was horrible. I have to question whether the person(s) who wrote the review even ate at the same restaurant that we've been eating at for the past two years. Every time we have gone--usually at least twice a month--every item has been spot on. Very mean spirited review. Some sort of personal vendetta?

RJ  writes on Nov 17th, 2007 11:19am

Considering how many places you gave very half-hearted endorsements, I'm surprised you didn't include Iorio on Hawthorne. Good Italian food, nice space, reasonable prices, and most importantly, everyone there seems to actually care that you enjoy your dining experience. I eat out pretty often, and have worked in the restaurant business for years, and I'm continually amazed at the restaurants that get tons of press despite less than stellar reviews (i.e. Rocket, Ten01, etc...), and the ones such as Iorio that are dependably solid and one never hears about.

corey  writes on Jan 9th, 2008 8:16am

Corey writes on Dec 19th, 2007 9:10amComment 6 | Respond

Hey JimG ever read WW past reviews on Ten-01 and The Rocket? Let me ask you this. How does the WW go from giving these 2 restaurants probably the worst reviews and 6 months later both restaurants made their top 100 best restaurants. How do you put trust in that? Since then WW has lost all credibilty with me.

Ben Waterhouse writes on Dec 19th, 2007 12:58pmComment 7 | Respond

The fact is, Corey, a negative review in WW can carry enough weight to get a restaurant to change things. Both Ten-01 and Rocket were re-reviewed for our restaurant guide, and we found that both restaurants had made major changes. I think it would be a greater blow to our credibility to permanently write off a restaurant that's willing to improve.

Corey writes on Dec 26th, 2007 10:41amComment 8 | Respond

The issue isn't to permanently write off anyone, but how long before you re-review them.

In the 15+ years I have read this magazine I've never seen 2 restaurants revisited so quickly (within 6 months if that). I know new restaurants that have had to wait much longer then that to get their 1st review because they were told "not enough staff and to many restaurants to review". That's why I find it so odd how WW went out of their way to go back and re-review them as quickly as they did. To you it may not sound like a deal, but to the reader and other restauranturs who didn't make your top 100 looks alot like favoritism.

Ben Waterhouse  writes on Jan 9th, 2008 10:08am

Not to split hairs, corey, but it is a list of our "100 favorite" restaurants. Our reviewers liked some aspect of the restaurants enough that, when we heard they'd changed, we went back. They were two of the most anticipated openings in the city in years, and two of the most popular dining destinations in the Northwest. Not all restaurants are created equal. Had they not improved, they would not have made it into Restaurant Guide. Every year, several restaurants get revisited that have not improved enough to meet our standards, and are cut from the list.

cynthia wiancko  writes on Apr 21st, 2008 12:06pm

Can I get two copies of this issue? P.O. box 246 corbett , ore. 97019

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