I was checking out friends' reviews on Yelp, and came across a review of Chef Agir Restaurant Bar…read more My friend gave a glowing review and I zoomed in on a couple of pictures. On a picture of the menu, I saw that there were quite a few items that were vegan. The description of the food sounded delicious! I instantly wanted to check this Turkish restaurant out! I also immediately thought of friends that lived in the neighborhood! I messaged my friends telling them I wanted to try this place out. Now, most of my friends have busy schedules, so it takes quite a while to coordinate. As luck would have it, 3 of us were available this very day! We arranged to meet at 1:15ish. While waiting for my friends, I got some complimentary Turkish tea, it was quite good. Then I put in an order for the appetizer sampler plate. The order arrived just as my friends did. They actually walked to the restaurant. The appetizer sampler consisted of Ezme, Tarator, Muhammara and Eggplant salad. Three of the four items were vegan the Tarator contained yogurt. My favorite was the Muhammara. My friends enjoyed the shared appetizer. It came with pita bread, and when the basket was emptied, we were asked if we wanted more. For my entree, I ordered the vegan Tantuni wrap with oyster mushrooms. The flavor was outstanding! My friends were both loving what they ordered. A friend also got the turnip juice. Said it was an interesting flavor, was not expecting that. The ambiance was casual but inviting. The service was quick and friendly. Food was delicious! I definitely plan on coming back again!

As a 40-year Portland resident and urban photographer, I am always on the lookout for businesses…read morethat enhance the walkable character of our neighborhoods. I recently stopped into Chef Agir for an early dinner, and it was a fantastic experience from a pedestrian's perspective. This spot first caught my eye because of the vibrant mural by Christa Grimm on the west wall, which was recently highlighted in a City Cast Portland newsletter. It is a wonderful visual landmark for anyone walking along NE 13th. Inside, the atmosphere is welcoming and the service is exceptionally attentive. I had a great conversation with the staff about the restaurant's growth since opening six months ago. While I usually view the city through a lens rather than a menu, the food was excellent and the space feels like a true community gem. Highly recommended for those exploring the neighborhood on foot.

The salads are customizable, made fresh and huge portions! Dressing on the side which I loved!…read more The staff was fast and friendly. Attentive but also let us have room to really decide what we wanted to eat but always close enough to answer questions when I had them. The open air was so nice on the warm but breezy day! All around it was a great meal in a great setting! My only cons are a little pricey for salad about $15-20 per person and parking is lacking as most places in the area.

I would definitely recommend trying Crisp if you haven't already. The salad and ingredients were…read morefresh and delicious. I had the design your own, with a bowl of potato soup and my spouse had the Greek salad. The price was fair as well. The service was great, both servers were friendly and patient. It was a nice and sunny afternoon so they had the doors open and the fresh air coming in was fantastic. I'm looking forward to going back soon to try some of the preselected options that they have on the menu.

I feel like this place doesn't get the same attention as some other Portland GF spots and can't…read moreguess why, except maybe it not being central to the city center. I think the prices are very comparable and it has some offerings that others don't quite have, like a BBQ soy curls sandwich (as a vegetarian with celiac, BBQ anything is hard to find!). I've also tried their lemon sugar cookie and really enjoyed.

I've mostly gotten the non-dairy "cheese" cakes from here. And I gotta' say, they're worth every…read morepenny. Absolutely delicious. The service is always on-point, and the in-house ambience is great for what it is. They also helped me last year when I needed to order a whole cake last-minute for my partner's surprise birthday. I highly recommend them!

I'm not much one for sandwiches, but a friend recommended this shop to me. One a day my stomach…read morewent on crazy growling mode, I paid Lottie a visit. Entering the shop, you will be greeted by loud music. Be ready for that. You will have the option to dine outside, if the weather provides it and the seats are empty. The hosts are wonderful and very accepting with a positive attitude. Smiles and all. I ordered the Jim because it was the only sandwich I could eat. The majority of the sandwiches contain meat, so I would not recommend this for vegans or pescatarians. Jim was delicious and I consumed both halves of Jim flawlessly. Either hunger overruled me, or the sandwich was that satisfying. I do recommend the shop, but with limited options for non-meat eaters, I truthfully would rate Lottie and Zulas, 4.5. Yet, I don't believe the spot was "good."

My tastes are likely just different as the reviews for this place speak for themselves. We had the…read moreJimmy (as a salad). It was too smokier than I imagined but tasty. We also had the Vinny which was fine, a bit spicier than I thought it would be, but I'm a wimp. The service was fine, not overly friendly but adequate. The food is 4 stars, the service 3 starts, but the real bummer was all the plastic. Plastic container, plastic cups and we were eating in. They asked if it was to go and we said no, but everything came in plastic anyway. The ambiance is quintessential Portland, right up until they bring all your food in plastic with plastic silverware to boot.

Mamma Khouri's is a "hidden gem" in Portland! This restaurant serves Middle Eastern food, which I…read morehad never tried before visiting here. Some of the food was similar to Indian food, like the rice and lentil dishes. My friends and I tried the falafel sandwich, tabouleh, mujadra, and lentil soup. Everything was delicious, and I particularly enjoyed the falafel, which was not try at all, and the lentil soup, which was flavorful and perfect for a chilly day. The owner was super sweet, and he was happy to recommend dishes based on everybody's preferences / interests. Our food came out quickly because the restaurant was not very busy. My friends and I are already planning another trip here so we can try even more of their foods. I would recommend trying this restaurant with a large group of people so you can taste many different dishes!

A cozy small restaurant in N Portland serving middle eastern food…read more Tried their combo plate as well as the lamb skewers plate. Lamb was flavorful the skewers had 3 pieces of lamb per skewer. Price/portion size was decent for lamb. Kabobs were all flavorful. Rice was also seasoned with something. Plates run in the $2x range Overall it is a nice meal

The OG (pastrami + bahn mi) is the best sandwich I have ever had in my life. You order on a kiosk…read moreand they bring it out to you- easy, no worries, no confusion. Great music, great vibes, lovely interior. Please come here.

I've been wanting to visit Pasture PDX for a long time, but the limited lunch-only hours made it…read moredifficult to eat here during my previous visits to Portland over the years. This time around, we happened to be shopping nearby before lunch and were able to make it in. This was at around noon on Saturday and it wasn't too busy at all even with the great sunny weather. We were only a bit peckish at the time, since we had just eaten three pints of fresh Hood strawberries, so we opted to share one sandwich. I quickly placed the order at the single kiosk (only kiosk ordering is available) and the sandwich arrived soon afterwards. Interestingly enough the chef somehow knew we were sharing the sandwich and had it split into two wrapped packages instead of a single one. Really nice gesture and shows how attentive he is. Now the sandwich quality, unfortunately, didn't meet my expectations. The O.G. ($17) - The sandwich first starts with a nice and crusty Ciabatta roll bun from Dos Hermanos. It's served slightly toasted warm and has plenty of chewy developed flavor inside. The bottom bun is slathered with some mayo. For this sandwich, putting the mayo on the bottom is actually really important and done correctly. This allows the creaminess of the mayo to dampen some (but not enough, as will be described later) of the slaw on top of the pastrami. I tried eating the sandwich both right-side-up and upside-down and it's a totally different eating experience due to the sandwich construction. On top of the mayo are probably ten thinly shaved slices of pastrami. It's smoky and seasoned well with plenty of peppery flavor, but it doesn't stand out very much especially due to the onslaught of slaw. To identify the pastrami flavors at all, I had to remove pieces from the sandwich to eat individually. By far the most numerous element of the sandwich is the banh mi inspired slaw. It basically consists of a tiny amount of small cubed carrots, pickled to give a little acidity and extra crunch, a bit of red onion, tiny pieces of cucumber and an overwhelming amount of crunchy cabbage. Think of a real banh mi - the large sticks of cucumber and the julienned carrot and daikon, all distinct and delicious. That's not this slaw. In this slaw, everything is all mixed together into a blend that muddles the ingredients together into a mess. The slaw is dressed in a ton of hazelnut chili crisp. I actually couldn't identify the flavor as hazelnut, instead thinking it was peanut. It's smoky and only slightly spicy, but it's also really acidic, really overpowering. It's a ridiculously strong flavor that completely dominates everything else in the sandwich. As I stated before, I literally couldn't taste the pastrami at all over the acidic chili crisp and slaw. The meat gets completely lost. I'm really wondering if the chef only read the Acid section of Samin Nosrat's seminal book? I'm not a fan of this sandwich at all. It's lopsided in construction, way too much chili crisp and slaw, muddling all of the flavors underneath the slaw. There was so much chili oil that it made a large puddle underneath my sandwich and I had to reorganize and fold the butcher paper to prevent the oil from running out and staining the table. I had to do this several times while eating, balancing the paper after every couple of bites. The slaw pooled out of the sandwich, falling onto the paper, yet it was so runny I had to use to fork to pick up the pieces, lest I cover my hands in spicy oil. Looking around, I wasn't the only one to run into this issue. If I have to use a fork to eat a sandwich, yet still have a mess on my hands, well this shop has lost the plot. I'm also confused how exactly is this sandwich is "banh mi" inspired. The only overlap is the pitiful amount of pickled carrots. Nothing else here goes in banh mi. It's their take on it, but fails to capture the essence. (2/5) I like sandwiches that have good flavor and balanced construction. The sandwich I received at Pasture PDX was anything but. It was honestly one of the worst sandwiches I've eaten in recent memory. Bathrooms - Single unisex room

Friday late morning early afternoon looking for a a little lunch maybe coffee. I see Bennett bites…read more Nice parking open spaces I step in with caught. My intention. Was Ruben on the window. It was greeted by some of the guests as well as the owner. I looked in his deli. He told me of the potato cake which is an old Jewish deli recipe from the 80s. Some nice ambient music, piano music. Friendly atmosphere. I take the last potato cake and a regular coffee sit down by my table. The places, nice spacious clean, comfortable big windows. Potato cake did not disappoint. I have to try the Reuben next.

It's always fun to find a small local-owned place to stop and have a bite and Bennett's Best Bites…read moredid not disappoint. Looking for some lunch, I meet up with my son and we ordered some sandwiches, as well as a Vietnamese coffee for him and an iced Americano for me. The espresso shots were perfectly pulled by Matt, the owner, who is charming and personable. His smile is radiant! My sandwich was the BLTA on sourdough - the sandwich was delicious in every way! Sourdough bread toasted just right, bacon tasty and not so crispy it broke apart trying to eat it (in other words - perfect!), and completed with avocado, lettuce and tomatoes. The star of the show is the house-made potato chips! I could have just eaten those for lunch. My son ordered a breakfast sandwich with turkey (Matt cheerfully agreed to this alteration to the regular breakfast sando) which he said was fabulous and his Vietnamese coffee hit the spot. Bennett's has plenty of parking in the adjacent parking lot as well as some street parking nearby. The clean dining room had half a dozen or so tables with chairs, the restroom was clean and stocked, the plethora of large windows make for a bright space even when it's grey out, and being Saturday afternoon, the pastry case was empty (good sign that the pastries are delicious!). Matt makes it all in-house so it might be a bit of a wait but I think it's definitely worth it. Can't wait till I can get back there and try some of those pastries and knishes!

Delicious and fresh tortas! I ordered delivery for tortas for my office and everything was on time…read moreand the tortas were intact and not soggy. I got the masa y papa torta. I loved the creative vegetarian option and it was piled high with veggies and flavorful sauces that brought everything together. The bread itself was on the thinner side, which I appreciated since it allowed everything inside to be focus of the sandwich. I also loved the carrot habanero hot sauce that came neatly packed on the side. Others in my office raved about the carnitas torta being amazing as well.

My dad was craving tortas and I knew that Güero was going to be the perfect spot for him to enjoy a…read moregood torta. The staff is always so kind and helpful with recommendations. The food itself it's super tasty and although there are not too many vegan options, the vegan options that are available tasty amazing. This time around I ended up with the Masa and Papa torta and my dad got the carnitas - both were great. Super , decent size and just what a good torta should be. The ambiance definitely reminds me of Mexico City, Roma Norte or La Condesa vibes and I mean that in such a wonderful way.