Portland 2016: Food in the City of Roses

Being in a new city for an entire week meant lots of eating out and trying new places. I didn't mind eating and trying a new place everyday, though, because I certainly didn't travel 2,000 miles to eat the same old food I could have back home in Illinois.

Mamma Mia Trattoria

This Italian restaurant was the first place I ate in Portland. It was where my class had its welcome dinner.

All 24 students and our two instructors sat at the back of the restaurant and enjoyed a family-style feast. We all shared fettucine alfredo, spaghetti, chicken parmesan, cheesecake, cannolis and more. It was all really good and reminded me of Maggiano's, only it was smaller and more intimate. I would definitely go there again and try the normal menu if I ever go back to Portland.

Voodoo Doughnut

Before the trip, when I was looking up places to go/eat in Portland, Voodoo was everywhere. In fact, I actually knew of Voodoo before I even knew I'd be going to Portland. I'd heard about it on social media and knew I needed to try it if I ever went.

A bunch of people from my class actually went to Voodoo after we ate at Mamma Mia since it wasn't too far. Even though it was around 7 p.m. on a Sunday, there was still a line going out the door. It wasn't too long, though, and it went by pretty quickly! I love the glittery brick wall outside and the fun decor inside. I had no clue they sold shirts!

(L-R, top to bottom: Dirt Doughnut aka Oreo, Marshall Mathers aka M&M's, Homer Simpson, double chocolate)

My sister and I got four doughnuts and split each of them. All four of them were delicious ― though a few in my class said they were too sweet but I have a major sweet tooth ― and I wish I had the time and money to try all of the ones I wanted. I definitely have to go back to try more.

Also, I love the pink boxes! I definitely agree and think good things come in pink boxes.

Pieology

Make-your-own pizza places have been growing over the past few years, and I really like them. I've tried a few in Illinois, but I hadn't seen a Pieology until I got to Portland. My sister and I love pizza (who doesn't?) so we decided to try Pieology downtown for lunch.

I knew I'd be eating out (and therefore not very healthy) during this trip, so I opted for a healthier pizza when I went. Instead of opting for the normal red sauce, lots of red meat and no veggies, my pizza had pesto, mozzarella, chicken, sausage, and spinach. It was a good pizza. I don't find any of the DIY pizza places spectacular or anything, but it was good.

I also really like the decor in the restaurant, especially all the quotes on the wall. As an avid reader and writer, I love words and quotes.

Burgerville

My sister, roommate, and I came across Burgerville while we were walking two miles to the other side of town. Our roommate felt like having a burger for dinner, so when we saw this place, we decided to check it out.

Burgerville has this cool diner feel to it that I really liked. The furniture and everything made it feel like a diner, although the outside didn't really look like a diner.

Despite being at a place with burger in the name, I did not have a burger. I just had chicken strips because I wasn't in the mood for a burger and knew I was probably going to have one the next day, and I love chicken tenders/fingers/strips. They were small but good. I thought they were going to come with fries, but they didn't. So if you ever go to Burgerville, don't expect fries to come with whatever you order.

TILT

TILT is where we had our alumni networking reception event. It's definitely a cool place and restaurant. It definitely has a hip bar feel to it, but I didn't like it for a networking event. It seemed far too casual, especially since we were there during happy hour.

In terms of the food, their fries, which are seasoned fries, are really good. We ordered a bunch of fries as appetizers for the class and everyone to snack on, and I could've just had those as a meal. But I didn't. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, which was good, but it was big. I also didn't realize it came with some sort of mayo or sauce on it, and I'm a pretty picky eater, so I didn't like that, but I managed.

TartBerry

My sister and I were in the mood for some fro-yo or ice cream when we in Portland, but the ice cream place we wanted to try was pretty far from our hotel, so we opted for fro-yo instead.

TartBerry is a cute little fro-yo place that is a bit too childish looking for my taste, but it's still a neat place. The walls are brightly colored and there are cartoon drawings and stuff everywhere. I did, however, think their bicycle barstools were awesome! They are hard to get on and off of, though.

There's also a magnetic board sort of thing that goes around part of the place where people can attach messages to. They have little squares of paper and pens out on all of the tables for people. I really like that.

Anyway, the fro-yo was good, but nothing special. I had chocolate fro-yo with pretzel sticks and white chocolate chips. They didn't have a lot of flavors or a large variety of toppings, so I was a bit upset by that. There were maybe eight flavors of fro-yo or custard. I usually get almonds in my fro-yo, but they didn't have any, which I was surprised by. My favorite fro-yo place is Orange Leaf where they have a bunch of different flavors every day and a ton of toppings, so maybe I've just been spoiled?

Coco Donuts

There are a lot of local doughnut places in Portland, but I'm upset I didn't get to try them all. I wanted to try Blue Star, but unlike Coco Donuts, it was not close to our hotel.

Coco Donuts are not as sweet as Voodoo, but they're still good. They have the more traditional and simpler kinds of doughnuts, like glazed, chocolate cake, and chocolate with sprinkles.I had the chocolate cake doughnut and split a cinnamon sugar twist with my sister. Why can't we have good doughnut places like this in Illinois? I'd much rather go to Coco Donuts than Dunkin' Donuts.

Joe's Burgers

Even though my sister and I already had burgers the week we were in Portland, we came to the conclusion that we were probably going to have them multiple times while we were there.

Joe's is in downtown, so it wasn't too far from our hotel. We heard about their burgers and milkshakes, so we wanted to try them. I, however, made the mistake of thinking their BLT burger actually had a burger in it. It doesn't. It's literally four pieces of bacon with lettuce and tomato on a bun. I felt dumb for not realizing that before, but it was good considering it was just bacon and lettuce on bread. I wouldn't order it again, though, because it was too salty for me considering it had a lot of bacon. The fries helped cut that back, though!

I got the Oreo milkshake with my burger and fries and thought it was nice and thick. I was trying to eat and drink in a limited time frame though, so I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I'd like. I would definitely go back and try an actual burger, though.

Yard House

As we got further into the week, my sister and I wanted to go out and actually sit down for a bit for dinner, so we looked up restaurants in the area and found a nice sit-down restaurant that was like a fancier sports bar. We'd never heard of Yard House before coming to Portland, but apparently there are locations all over the country, including Illinois.

I figured I should have some sort of seafood while being in the Pacific Northwest, so I had the fish and chips. They were some of the biggest fish and chips I've ever had, and they were good. The fish was nice and flaky while the outside was crispy, and it came with a good amount of fries, which I really liked because I love fries.

Pastini Pastaria

The last restaurant my sister and I tried while in Portland was Pastini Pastaria, which ― what else? ― serves pasta and Italian food.

It's a nice sit-down restaurant, but the food came more quickly than it normally would for a sit-down place. Though, we were there at 2 p.m. on a Saturday, so maybe it just wasn't as crowded as it normally would be?

Anyway, my go-to pasta is usually carbonara, but since I had so much bacon at Joe's, I knew I shouldn't have more bacon, so I had the linguine pesto pollo. It was a lot of pasta, and it filled me up. It was surprising because the pesto was sort of creamy, which isn't usually the case for pesto, but it was really good.

Also, the pasta came with some really good bread that was nice and soft. I love bread, so that was awesome. 

Saint Cupcake Galore

We tried to go to the famous ice cream place, Salt and Straw, people and websites said we should go to, but it didn't work out, so we decided to try the cupcake shop instead. My sister and I love cupcakes, so we decided it was alright if we missed out on the ice cream for the cupcakes.

Saint Cupcake has a lot of options for cupcakes, and they even sell mini and regular size versions of each. My sister and I were going to split whatever we got so we could each try them, so we knew the mini ones were a no-go. We wanted to try most of the cupcakes, but since it was our last full day there, we knew we could realistically only get a few.

We had the vanilla cupcake with chocolate ganache, the red velvet, chocolate with vanilla buttercream, and the Big Top (chocolate chip cupcake with cream cheese frosting). All of them were really good. I really enjoyed the Big Top because I'd never had anything like it before. I also liked the chocolate ganache because most cupcakes have heavy buttercream on them, so it was a nice change.

Portland 2016 blogs:
Portland 2016: Sportlandia Part 1
Portland 2016: Sportlandia Part 2
Portland 2016: A Glance at the City of Roses
Portland 2016: Shopping Haul