Portland Outdoor Dining

One of my favorite things about living in Portland, Oregon is the food. Portland is a big foodie city - between restaurants, breweries, and food carts, you will never find a shortage of great eats. The pandemic has sadly taken its toll on many beloved Portland dining spots. I work part-time at Hot Lips Pizza and have seen firsthand how hard local eateries are working to stay open. Throughout the pandemic, my mom and I have consciously tried to order takeout at least once a week to support local restaurants.

Now almost a year into the pandemic, many restaurants have also established outdoor dining to boost business. As a way to both support these restaurants as well as spend time together, my mom and I have started doing weekly lunches where we go out to lunch somewhere with safe, outdoor seating. Here are some of the best Portland outdoor dining spots that we've found! (We also do takeout sometimes, but that's another post)

Kayo's Ramen Bar

3808 N. Williams Ave, Portland OR - takeout, delivery, outdoor dining (heated and covered)

The Setup

My mom found Kayo's Ramen Bar in North Portland through a news article on outdoor patio seating and I jumped at the opportunity. I had been craving ramen for the entirety of the pandemic. I usually eat ramen at least once a month. The combination of steaming broth and savory noodles is such a good comfort food, especially on a cold, winter day. However, ramen doesn't really translate well to takeout so I hadn't eaten it in months.

The restaurant patio is all set up with a high covered roof and strategically placed heat lamps. The tables are set a good distance apart and when we went on a Tuesday at ~1pm, it wasn't too busy so we sat off to the side and didn't feel like we were too close to anyone. While it was quite chilly that day (it started snowing slightly while we were eating!), between the heat lamps, our jackets, and the hot bowl of ramen, we were both perfectly warm.

The Food

Mmmm thank you Kayo's Ramen for satisfying my long-held ramen craving!! This truly hit the spot for both of us. My mom ordered the pineapple ginger ramen with spinach and pork. It had a delicious, almost refreshing broth, while still being nice and hearty. As a ginger lover, my mom definitely enjoyed it. I ordered their most popular menu item, the TanTan ramen. This one is a Japanese version of Sichuan DanDan Mian. I had mine at a medium spicy level which ended up being the perfect amount of spice for me - like my nose was running slightly but in a good way?! The broth was super creamy and yummy, bursting with flavor. I ordered my bowl with ground pork (sooo good) and an egg (the only time I like boiled eggs is in ramen).

Kayo's makes their own broth every day, as well as their own handmade noodles. I would highly recommend Kayo's Ramen both for the outdoor dining and for the quality of the food. I am definitely going back again!

Farmhouse Thai

3354 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland OR (also a location on 121 NW 9th Ave.) - takeout, delivery outdoor dining (heated and covered)

The Setup

I have passed by the SE Hawthorne location of Farmhouse Thai probably almost a thousand times in my life, but I had never eaten there before this year. However, when my friend Sarah and I were looking for a place with outdoor seating to grab lunch, I remembered seeing that this place had an outdoor patio. So we went in trustingly to try it.

It ended up being great, and I later brought my mom there for mother/daughter lunch. Farmhouse has a fairly large outdoor patio that wraps around the corner. There are big heat lamps which makes it nice and toasty. Both times I sat near the entrance so there was decent air flow despite the plastic covering. Both times when I went for lunch (on a weekday), it wasn't very busy and there was plenty of space between us and the next party.

The Food

Thai food can be found everywhere it seems, but Farmhouse Thai sticks out as not your run-of-the-mill Thai place. The menu is extensive (like 13 pages long), and they have funky specialties like the "Volcano Noodle" which comes in a Cup Noodles container and has bone-in beef short rib and pan fried ramen noodles. The place kind of reminds me of Pok Pok (r.i.p.) in its unique, street-food type of Thai food.

The first time I went with Sarah we both ordered curries. I ordered the red curry with chicken, a generous serving which was delicious. The rice they serve is blue oddly enough, but tastes just like regular rice. The second time with my mom we ordered their chicken wings that are buttermilk battered and come in a plum sauce. These were great, and reminded me a bit of orange chicken with the sweet plum sauce.

I also ordered the Tom Kha soup, which comes aflame. The broth was surprisingly sour, and as a vegetarian soup it felt like a lighter meal.

Farmhouse Thai is definitely a lot of fun. We've gotten takeout Pad Thai from them which has been great and I'm eager to go back and try some of the more specialty menu items (the crab fried rice looks amazing). Some of the specialty dishes can be a bit expensive so keep that in mind, but there are many solid, mid-range dishes on the menu too.

Flying Fish

3004 East Burnside St, Portland OR - takeout, outdoor dining (heated and covered), grocery delivery

The Setup

Lyf, the owner!

Photos taken from Flying Fish's Facebook page

Flying Fish has been many eateries over the years. I pass by this spot often and I think I've seen it go through at least three or four different restaurants. For some reason none of them stuck. However, I think Flying Fish is here to stay. Flying Fish is a seafood restaurant and grocery store, focusing on sustainable and local fishing practices. Flying Fish has thrived where its predecessors have failed in having good branding/marketing, a great outdoor setup, and the combination of an appealing menu for dine-in as well as being a retail fish market.

I can't say this for certain, but I think the pandemic and its need for outdoor dining might have helped Flying Fish establish itself as a great Portland eatery. For the summer season, Flying Fish already had a great patio set up for outdoor dining. Once the winter season set in, they transitioned beautifully adding in a tent for overhead coverings as well as heaters and fireplaces to keep it toasty. Burnside is a busy street and I suspect many people, (myself included), saw it driving by and leaped at the chance to "eat out" again when options were so few. The outdoor dining setup is great and has only helped Flying Fish's reputation.

The Food

I have only been to Flying Fish once for lunch with my mom, but I am already eager to go back and try more of their menu items!

I ordered the sesame-soy tuna poke with coconut jasmine rice. No one else in my household enjoys eating raw fish, so I always jump at the opportunity to order it when I'm eating out. Poke as a raw dish relies heavily on the quality of the fish meat, and the poke at Flying Fish was excellent. There was also a surprisingly large amount of it in one serving (even though the picture makes it look like not much food). Paired with the rice and greens, it was definitely a full meal.

My mom ordered the cioppino. Cioppino is a favorite of mine - an Italian, tomato-based seafood stew. It's a very comforting and warming dish, without being heavy. I tried a bite of my mom's and you could definitely taste the freshness of the seafood. The broth was well seasoned and flavorful - a winning dish.

Other menu items that I am eager to try when I inevitably return here are the clam chowder, the fish tacos, and the seared scallops. Flying Fish also sells oysters, so if that's your thing, you know where to go!

Laurelhurst Market

3155 East Burnside St., Portland OR - takeout, outdoor dining (heated and covered), butcher shop pickup

The Setup

Photos taken from Laurelhurst Market's Facebook page and Yelp

Just across the street from the Flying Fish is another great restaurant/marketplace - Laurelhurst Market. While Flying Fish reigns over seafood, Laurelhurst Market is amazing with meat. You can come here for lunch (mainly sandwiches), dinner (largely steaks), or to the butcher shop to bring home cuts of meat.

I have been to Laurelhurst Market a couple times pre-pandemic, but eaten indoors. The restaurant has always had a huge parking lot outside, so they simply turned most of the parking lot into a huge outdoor deck. During the summertime, they simply set out tables and chairs on the deck. For winter, they've surrounded the whole deck with a tent, (while still keeping sides open for air flow), and added heaters all over.

I went to dinner here with my mom and Will on possibly the stormiest night imaginable. The rain was seriously coming down so hard that it was hard to hear anything, and severe wind gusts blew the rain droplets sideways. We were seated near to the opening of the tent and the weather was intense. Between the noise from the street and the deafening sound of the rain, we had to nearly shout to hear each other and the waiter. We also mostly kept our jackets on to protect us from the mist that kept being blown our way.

However, despite it all, I would still say that Laurelhurst Market has a good outdoor setup. The tables are spaced apart well, it's not too cold with the heaters, and it was only because of the crazy weather that it was so difficult to hear. If we could have a good time in a near monsoon, you'll be fine!

The Food

I am not a huge steak person - or at least I thought I wasn't until I had steak at Laurelhurst Market. I think up until that point I had truly just not had good steak before. And Laurelhurst Market steak is not just good - it's fantastic. The best steak I've ever had. It's almost to the point that I don't really want to eat steak anywhere else because the steak here is so good.

I like to order the Snake River Farms Teres Major. I am a fan of leaner, less fatty steaks, and the Teres Major is great for that. I get mine medium rare (and it would honestly be a crime to order it any more than medium). The meat is so full of flavor and almost melts in your mouth?! if steak can do that?! This one also comes with broccolini and the most AMAZING garlic/lemon/tahini sauce. This sauce makes the dish; I could eat spoonfuls of it on its own.

We also ordered brussels sprouts as a starter which had a great sweet vinaigrette with sesame seeds and dates. My mom ordered the Bavette steak with greens which is also excellent, and I included a picture of the Bavette with fries from their website because the fries just look soooo yummy. 😋

I don't eat a ton of red meat, so steak for me is a once or twice a year thing, and only at a really high quality place where it's really worth it. Laurelhurst Market is this place. Do yourself a favor and make a reservation at Laurelhurst Market so you can get in on this amazing steak action.

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The pandemic has certainly made eating out more challenging, but there are definitely still some awesome restaurants out there that have fantastic food and do the outdoor dining thing safely. That's why I wanted to write this blog post, to shine a light on some of these great eateries. I'm always trying new Portland restaurants so I'm sure I'll do another one of these posts (maybe for takeout next time?)

Until then, these restaurants could really use your support right now, so wherever you are, I hope you eat at or at least order takeout from a local restaurant when you can!

- Evan