Food & Drinks

• Huber's Cafe 411 SW 3rd Ave. (503) 228-5686. Historic Oregon restaurant and bar. Check out their signature Spanish Coffee.
• Mother's Bistro & Bar 212 SW Stark St. (503) 464-1122. Gourmet comfort food!
• Veritable Quandary 1220 SW 1st Ave. (503) 227-7342. Trendy Pacific Northwest cuisine.
• Bijou cafe 132 SW 3rd Ave. (503) 222-3187. Makes pretty good breakfast!
• Blue Plate 308 SW Washington St. (503) 295-2583. Amazing old timey soda shoppe with incredible milk shakes, sodas and sandwiches.
• Al-Amir 223 SW Stark St. (503) 274-0010. Good Lebanese/Mediterranean food.
• Rovente's 512 SW 4th Ave. (503) 224-9408. If you're in the mood for pizza, this place has great take-out specials.
• Murata 200 SW Market St. #P105 (503) 227-0080. Japanese restaurant with some of the best sushi in Portland, but a bit pricey.
• Portland City Grill 111 SW 5th Ave. #3000 (503) 450-0030. Nice restaurant with all kinds of foods. Most importantly, it's on the 30th floor, and has FANTASTIC views of Portland.
• Stumptown 128 SW 3rd Ave. (503) 295-6144. Portland's coffee roasters. #1 thing Portlanders miss when they go elsewhere. If you like coffee, you should definitely try some Stumptown.
• Food Carts Most are gathered around SW 3rd Ave. & Washington St. and SW 10th Ave. & Alder St. These are really popular here, and tend to have surprisingly good food.
• Public Domain 603 SW Broadway. (503) 243-6374. Expensive, hand drip brewed cups of coffee for pure coffee lovers.
• Cacao 712 SW Salmon St. (503) 274-9510. For those who love chocolate...

• Clyde Common 1014 SW Stark St. (503) 228-3333. Delicious food and drinks. Mixologist Jeffrey Morgenthaler runs the bar. And after visiting here, you can go through the lobby for a coffee at Stumptown.
• Kenny and Zukes Delicatessen 1038 SW Stark St. (503) 222-3354. For those who crave mounds of pastrami and other life-shortening savories.
• The Leaky Roof 16th & SW Jefferson St. (503) 222-3745. Seasonal Irish food, local favorite.
• McMenamin's Northwest brewers with good food. Each McMenamins pub is covered from ceiling beams to floorboards with art created by local artists. There are a bunch of McMenamin'ses on Burnside, underneath the Crystal Ballroom at 1332 W. Burnside and at Ringler's Annex, 1223 SW Stark. Click for a map of all in the Portland area.
• Hamburger Mary's 19 NW 5th Ave. (503) 688-1200. Gay and straight-friendly restaurant that serves hamburgers, sandwiches, and other roadhouse style food.
• Oba's 555 NW 12th Ave. (503) 228-6161. Nuevo Latino cuisine, drawing influences from the Caribbean, Cuba, South and Central America, and the American Southwest.
• Park Kitchen 422 NW 8th Ave. (503) 223-7275. Local, seasonal ingredients in a constantly changing menu. Try the sampler mode for tapas-style dining.
• Jimmy Mak's 221 NW 10th Ave. (Between Davis and Everett.) (503) 295-6542. Awesome jazz club with great cocktails and good food. Fun place to stop in and listen to some local jazz. Usually has a cover between $5 and $10.
• Andina 1314 NW Glisan St. (503) 228-9535. Fancy Peruvian cuisine, and it even has a gluten-free menu!
• The Montage 301 SE Morrison St. (503) 234-1324. This is a weird place hidden under the Morrison bridge. You can get alligator here! So if you're in the market for that sort of adventurous eating, here's a place to go. Also, they have amazing macaroni and cheese. And don't be afraid to take home tons of leftovers, they wrap them in aluminum animal sculptures.
• The Farm 10 SE 7th Ave. (503) 736-3276. Snug and cozy restaurant with great drinks and yummy food, using produce from regional farms and catches from local fisherman.
• Il Piatto 2348 SE Ankeny St. (503) 236-4997. Creative Italian cuisine in a cozy setting. Focus on fresh, locally grown produce. SO DELICIOUS!

Walking around

• Smallest park in the world (Mill Ends Park) -- This is just a couple blocks north of the Waterfront Marriott, so you'll probably pass it. See that median strip on SW Naito Parkway, just before SW Taylor St., with a little tree thing in it? There you go, world's smallest park!
• NW Portland -- One of the best places to walk around near downtown Portland is the NW Pearl District, up to 14th St., as well as the adjoining Nob Hill neighborhood on NW 21st and NW 23rd Streets, both just north of Burnside. Several of the best restaurants are in the Pearl District, or go down 21st for a host of delicious restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and a movie theater, or down 23rd for shopping at quirky shops.
• SE Hawthorne -- Go west down Hawthorne from SE 39th to check out the Hawthorne district, which has tons of thrift shops and boutiques and a few antique stores. And good places to eat, of course.
• N Mississippi Ave. -- A bit hard to get to, but a fun place to walk around and find food and drinks and music.
• Washington Park -- Nice family place for walking, picnics, and sports, with disabled access. Includes a Holocaust Memorial.
• Forest Park -- An amazing natural park with over 5000 acres (2000 hectares) of conserved land, just NW of downtown.
• Portland Walking Tours -- A host of walking tours to choose from, including the sub-cultural Underground Portland tour and the Epicurean Excursion culinary tour.
• Michael Graves Building -- 1120 SW 5th Ave. Famous Postmodern architecture building. Also has the statue of Portlandia, which is apparently the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States. Wow!

Music

• The Crystal Ballroom
• The Roseland
• Doug Fir lounge
• Aladdin Theater
• Portland Center for the Performing Arts
• CC Slaughters and Boxxes/Red Cap for gay bars and danceclubs (also straight-friendly).

Movies

• The Bagdad Theater and The Laurelhurst are great theaters to watch a second-run movie (plus you can drink there!)
• Clinton St. Theatre in the Clinton neighborhood features some weird and local stuff.
• Cinema 21 is the best art cinema house in the city. NW 21st between Hoyt and Irving.

Activities

• Powell's -- With more than a million volumes, this is the nation's largest independent bookstore (it occupies an entire city block). Both used and new books. Often hosts talks by authors. Definitely worth a visit if you have the time.
• Breweries -- Oregonians love beer, especially the local microbrewed beers. You can check out BridgePort Brewing Co., Oregon's first craft brewery, the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company, or Full Sail Brewing Co. at RiverPlace, which has one of the best views of the Willamette River waterway. Also Rogue, Deschutes, Tugboat, and Widmer all have places nearby, pretty close to the Max line.
• Voodoo Donuts -- The infamous weird donut place. Stuff like...bacon donuts.
  Note: We've been told the downtown location is closed for renovation, but there is another across the river. Details on the downtown location's door.
• Portland Walking Tours -- A host of walking tours to choose from, including the sub-cultural Underground Portland tour and the Epicurean Excursion culinary tour.
• The International Rose Test Garden -- Free admission. Rare, unique, beautiful roses. Right near the zoo.
• The Japanese Gardens -- Also in the same area as the zoo. 5.5 acres (2.2 hectares) of Japanese-style gardens.
• The Chinese Garden -- Beautiful Chinese-style garden. They also have a nice tea house and sometimes live music.
• Pittock Mansion -- Worth it just for the view of Portland below. One of Portland's oldest houses, and a great snapshot of what life looked like here in the early 1900s...if you lived in a mansion.
• OMSI -- Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Excitingly nerdy exhibits, plus a planetarium (open late). Also has daily tours of the U.S. Navy's last non-nuclear, fast-attack submarine. AND there's an IMAX (giant screen) theater.
• Oregon Zoo -- It's the zoo! Committed to conservation of endangered species and their habitats.
• Portland Art Museum -- The art museum! And it's right downtown.
• Portland Spirit Tour -- Cruise the Willamette River.
• Ground Kontrol -- Now that you're in Portland, what better thing to do than play CLASSIC VIDEO GAMES!! We're talking pinball, pacman, mario, q*bert...ah, yes. 21+ after 5:00pm.
• Saturday Market -- Centered in Portland's historic Old Town, the Market is one of the most popular shopping destinations for local handcrafted goods.
• Saturday Farmer's Market -- On the Portland State University campus, the Farmer's Market has live music, fresh produce, and deliciously prepared food.
• Dancing -- Schedule for all kinds of social dancing (ballroom, contra, country, salsa, and more!). For tango, we recommend Norse Hall's Wednesday Nuevo Tango, PPAA's Monday evening milongas, Tango Berretin's Saturday evening milongas, and Moonlight Milongas on first Sundays. For salsa, we recommend Aztec Willie's. There's also a good west coast swing scene in Portland.