Skip to main content3155 E Burnside St., 206-3097, laurelhurstmarket.com.
[ALL THE BEEF] There are restaurants that serve steak, there are steak houses and then there is Laurelhurst Market. The facade and interior decorations make WW's 2009 Restaurant of the Year runner-up indistinguishable from many other relaxed cafes about the city, save for the butcher window at the entrance. Predominantly a la carte, Laurelhurst Market offers a number of hearty sides to accompany your slab of meat, from grilled green beans to Mom's Baked Beans, which luckily taste quite a bit better than my mom's terribly saccharine beans. The fried lemon wedges in the Caesar salad provide a welcome, refreshing break from the otherwise savory offerings. But enough about the sides: Nearly every part of the cow is on the menu, prepared in a dizzying variety of ways. Mild tapenade and zucchini give flat iron steak a Mediterranean vibe, while the barbecue sauce-soaked brisket tastes straight out of the Ozarks. The side dishes don't leave much of an impression, but picking the small shards of brisket from your teeth afterward makes Laurelhurst Market awfully hard to forget.
Ideal Meal: Little Gems Caesar ($7), baked beans ($5), 12-hour-smoked Wagyu brisket ($25).
Best Deal: At $21, the steak and local salad greens combo is cheaper than all the a la carte steaks.
Pro tip: Market Run is a saison specially brewed by Commons Brewery for Laurelhurst Market. It's not too shabby, either.
5-10 pm daily. $$$.
WWeek 2015