Voodoo Doughnut Too (Portland Road Trip 2016)

As I’ve mentioned before, donuts is pretty much synonymous with Portland and nothing screams donuts more than Voodoo Doughnuts.

Besaw’s (Portland Road Trip 2016) – Croque Madame

Besaw’s, tracing their humble roots back to a beer parlor and gambling hall in 1903, has seen many iterations over the years. We headed to Besaw’s for breakfast on the last day of our Portland road trip but quickly got lost. As it turned out, Besaw’s had recently moved from their 112-year home to a new location a couple of blocks away and our GPS still had their old address.

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Pambiche (Portland Road Trip 2016) – Old School Havana

If you were looking for Cuban food in Vancouver, you’d be sorely out of luck. While we were in Portland, we managed to visit Pambiche in the Kerns area of NE Portland and were quite impressed by the cuisine.

Blue Star Donuts (Portland Road Trip 2016) – Passion Fruit Cocoa Nib Donut

Ok people, let’s talk about donuts! Having been to Voodoo Doughnuts on our last Portland road trip, I knew that I wanted to try Blue Star on this go around. While Voodoo is known for their novelty donuts, Blue Star goes for the quality donut aficionado market. Their classic brioche recipe takes 18 hours for the dough to be made and all of their glazes and fillings are made fresh daily.

Nong’s Khao Man Gai (Portland Road Trip 2016) – Chicken Rice

I’ve noticed that Thai food seems to be fairly prominent in Portland’s restaurant scene (Pok Pok anyone?). While you can’t think of Portland without thinking about food trucks, we actually didn’t stop by any food trucks on this particular road trip. We did, however, stop by Nong’s Kaho Man Gai on SE Ankeny Street. Nong’s has a couple of food cart locations but this particular location is a full sit-down restaurant. It’s similar to a cafeteria where you order at the counter and then find a seat where they’ll bring your food out to you.

Tonallis Doughnuts & Cream (Portland Road Trip 2016)

When you mention the words “Portland” and “donuts”, most people immediately think of Voodoo Doughnuts or Blue Star Donuts. But there are other donut shops in Portland. Take, for example, Tonallis Doughnuts & Cream located in the Alberta area of NE Portland. It’s actually just a few blocks away from Pine State Biscuits so we decided to pick up a few before our trip to the waterfalls.

Pine State Biscuits (Portland Road Trip 2016) – Biscuit Heaven

They say that necessity is the mother of invention… so it’s no surprise that when three southern boys from North Carolina moved to Portland and couldn’t find the perfect homemade biscuit, they decided to make their own and then shared it with their new home.

Pok Pok (Portland Road Trip 2016) – Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings

Portland is usually known for one kind of food… donuts! But they also have a good selection of Thai restaurants… and you can’t think of Thai food in Portland without mentioning Pok Pok. Pok Pok is to Portland Thai restaurants like Phnom Penh is to Vancouver Vietnamese restaurants.

Sweedeedee (Portland Road Trip 2016) – Hipster Heaven

It’s difficult to imagine a city more hipster than Vancouver… but if there was one… that place would be Portland. Wanting to take a trip down to the coast, we stopped by Sweedeedee for an early morning breakfast in Portland.

Le Bistro Montage (Portland Road Trip 2016)

Our 6 hour drive down from Vancouver, BC to Portland turned into a 9 hour trip due to a major accident on the I5 as well as numerous traffic snarl-ups. Since we wanted to get some shopping done, we decided to stop off for some dinner first. We were originally going to try Screen Door but it was so busy that we wound up at Le Bistro Montage instead.

Voodoo Doughnut Too (Portland) – Do You Voodoo Too?

If the original location of Voodoo Doughnut is too busy, you can always try their second location (appropriately named Voodoo Doughnut Too) located at NE Davis St. This spot is also open 24 hours a day and happens to have an ample parking lot.

Voodoo Doughnut (Portland) – Mango Tango and Voodoo Doll

Vancouver saw a surge in unique donut shops a couple of years ago (and I’m not talking about Tim Hortons). I’m sure that the popularity of the unusual doughnuts that made Voodoo Doughnut famous inspired many of the donuterie shops that we’ve seen pop up in Vancouver.