Portland, OR / Vancouver WA dinner / beer recs

Wife has stayed there twice for work conferences. Nice place, weird location.

We went across the river and had dinner at Masu Sushi and drinks at the Green Room in downtown PDX.

You could hit Prost and grab some Matts BBQ or Desi's Indian (both food trucks in the same pod with Prost). Nearby breweries are Ecliptic, Ex-Novo and Upright. Great Notion isnt too far away either. Ken's Artisan Pizza is really good and a nice atmos.

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For Vancouver breweries, I like Fortside, Loowit, and Heathen.

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The best Vancouver brewery imo is Trap Door. Thai food cart adjacent and the largest volume marijuana store in the state across the street.

All I can say is avoid any of the McMenamins family of restaurants, the atmosphere in most of them is cool/nice but the food is just not good

Ruse Crust Collective in Vancouver is great especially if you’re a craft beer fan. Pizza was solid too.

Portland eats I’d recommend are Khao Man Gai and Apizza Scholls. Though when my wife and I visited in May, Scholls was to-go only. Make sure to ask for the chilis on the side if you stop at Khao Man Gai. I fricking love that place. I get it every time I visit.

Afuri

I was going to recommend The Grant House (Eatery at Grant House) in Fort Vancouver, but I see it closed permanently as a result of covid lockdown. Very sad to hear this.

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Or Apizza Scholls. Both considered the best pizza in the city.

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Yes! Scholes is bomb.

Also if you want to kill a day, McMenamins Edgefield is fun.

I like Izakaya Shigezo for late dinner, japanese pub food.

Salty's on the Columbia has a great patio, the river is a like a clean version of the Mississippi with great views.

So I ended up being a LOT busier than I thought which cut down on my time to go out and eat / explore. So here is a quick-ish summary.

Mt. St Helens was a very interesting place. We went to two different centers. We first went to the Forest Learning Center - some nice views of the area and distant views of the mountain. Learned a lot about the replanting of trees. Nice little picnic area as we had brought a lunch with us.

We then went to the Johnson Ridge Observatory. It's just amazing - for a southern boy like me - to stare into the side of the mountain. Learned a lot about the eruption (I was 1 month old when it happened). I had no idea that FAR greater damage was done from the landslides and explosion than from lava / ash. Some rivers and lakes were buried under 300 feet of material in minutes.

As far as dining there was a Shari's right down from our hotel so I walked there for breakfast one morning (63 degrees at 7 am... amazing!) and the pancakes were good. Ate at Hudson's twice... both times were for work events. Food was great both times. First night there I was tired of traveling so I went to Burgerville as it was close... it was fine. Nothing amazing.

Last night we had a group go to the Waterfront Taphouse. Views were great... food was good.

Beers I tried... in order of my fav to least favorite

Breakside IPA
Ft. George 3-way IPA
Boneyard RPM IPA
Tricerahops IPA
Prismatic Juicy IPA
Total Domination Northwest IPA

Finally, we ventured over to Portland one night to see the Sistine Chapel exhibit. We intended to go there and eat somewhere downtown after. Well... we park in a garage, go down to street level... and in the two minute walk to the mall where the exhibit was... witness a store being robbed. In broad daylight. So we did the exhibit (we already had tickets) and just left after.