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There’s no time like the present to start eating better, and breakfast really is the start of a better day and diet. Starting the morning off with even a small meal can help regulate hunger and digestion better throughout the day. In that spirit, visit the gluten-free Japanese bakery chain Kirari West’s new Northwest Portland outpost on Northwest 23rd Avenue at Savier Street, which opened at the end of October. Kirari West’s bread is available as loaves and in cafe sandwiches and paninis for breakfast and lunch.
Kirari West is the American offshoot of owner Hiro Saito’s family-owned bakery, Kirari, in Fukushima, Japan. After opening two locations in California, the bakery made Portland its third location and the first for the gluten-averse Pacific Northwest. A sweet pastry rack serves ready-to-go desserts, while the juice and smoothie bar might offer diners the strange, euphoric rush that some people reportedly experience after drinking fresh-squeezed green juices. Salads, quinoa and berry bowls and fresh vegan soups all offer quick jump starts to a nutritious day, along with baked goods like cookies and cinnamon rolls.
If you haven’t tried it, Japanese bread is less cakey and far sturdier than the bread most Americans get from the grocery store. A couple of slices go farther as a meal, especially meshed with fresh ingredients. The tuna avocado sandwich ($14.35) makes for a filling lunch light on ocean salt and filled with fresh veggies like mixed greens and the white albacore’s typical blend of celery, dill and pickled onions. But a little more late-in-the-day zest could come from paninis with cilantro lime chicken or turkey and avo with garlic aioli ($14.50 each).
If juices and smoothies are more your speed, Kirari West’s menu boasts verdant blends as well as fruit-forward options bursting with berries. On the smoothie side, the Amazon Violet ($8.25) stays sweet with acai, banana, strawberry, spinach, honey and your choice of dairy or oat milk. The juice bar, meanwhile, blends bushels of spinach, apple, lime, ginger, kale, cucumber, celery, orange, carrots and spinach between six mixes, roughly $8 each, or $6.50 for a simple apple or OJ.
Anyone chasing a coffee or energy drink alternative might find something they like on Kirari West’s tea shelf. Tea lattes like masala chai, vanilla rooibos and jasmine honey or English honey stay under $6, but the strawberry matcha latte is pretty enough to make a splurge ($6.25). Another picturesque option is the Blueberry Mist cold brew iced tea ($5.50), which accents butterfly pea flower tea with fresh blueberry and lime for an extra azure effect.
Maybe your relationship to breakfast is perfectly fine, or maybe you’ve accepted that a dish like Kirari West’s tahini avocado toast ($12.98) is the only reason you’re a renter. But if you’re still shaking off any bad habits from last year and quickly need something both flavorful and healthful, you could really do a lot worse. After all, isn’t good nutrition an investment in yourself?
EAT: Kirari West, 1668 NW 23rd Ave., Suite 1, 971-346-2635, kiraricrust.com. 9 am–6 pm Sunday–Saturday.