Lovely Hula Hands [Portland]

The restaurant, which seats no more than 25 people, is housed in a pink house off of industrial Mississippi street. The warmly decorated dining room draws on vintage Victorian touches that make your experience here feel like home sweet home.

The night starts with a retro cocktail menu that lets you pretend you're at a kitschy tiki bar from the 70s. From there, you will be met with generous portions, cuisine with tropical influences, and ingredients locally sourced from organic farmers. Our crab cakes were decadent and served alongside a pickled cabbage relish that did well to balance out the heavier notes in the dish.

Our entrees included the ground chuck burger w/Tilamook cheddar and bacon, as well as the pumpkin rice w/coconut curry, lime-chili green beans, fried plantains, and grilled prawns. Both of the dishes were very generously portioned and robustly flavored.

We opted to skip out on desserts since the rest of meal was so filling. That night, they had a molten lava cake, praline creme brulee, and espresso panna cotta.

The restaurant doesn't take reservations and the tables filled up around 6:30 on Sunday night. By 7pm, the first seating started to clear out and there were no more people waiting when we left at 7:30.

Lovely Hula Hands is a restaurant that I would frequent time and again for the homemade touches that extend beyond the food to the service and space. I hear they've since moved to a more spacious location, so my pictures may be out of date.

Lovely Hula Hands
4057 N Mississippi Ave
Portland, OR 97227
(503) 445-9910

Daily Cafe [Portland]

Daily Cafe is located in the trendy Pearl district of Portland, which is one of those revived warehouse areas a la NYC's Meatpacking district. The modern space is painted in vibrant oranges and reds and is a dose of sunshine waiting for you on a Sunday morning. Not too busy or noisy, it is a good place to bring the family on a warm weekend.

Sunday brunch at the Daily Cafe involves a three-course prix fixe at an affordable $12.95. We started with a basket of pastries that included a cranberry scone, banana nut muffin, and cheddar cheese biscuit--all of which were fairly generic and dry.

Our appetizers came after our entrees and weren't memorable interpretations of apple cobbler or granola. The standouts were our entrees of baked Portuguese eggs with choricou and kale and smoked salmon omelette. In both case, our eggs were cooked to perfection and well seasoned.


Daily Cafe in the Pearl
902 NW 13th Ave
Portland OR 97209
(503) 242-1916

Voodoo Doughnut [Portland]

This was probably the most hyped up I got over any eating establishment that we planned to visit in Portland. Voodoo is one of those late-night cult favorites that you make sure to hit after a long night out. It has an underground urban vibe and the dark emo kids sitting outside only help to complete the vibe. It is as much an icon of Portland as is the its greenness and for the novelty alone, you must make a stop here on any trip to the area.

There seems to be an endless selection to choose from and all with whimsical names for your ordering. There are no pretenses here. If you order the "Cock-n-Balls," you're going to get a triple-cream, chocolate covered doughnut that indeed looks a like a cock with a pair of balls. The doughnuts are baked in bulk, which means that when you come in at midnight, the cocoa puffs on your Triple Chocolate Penetration are gonna be stale. The raised donuts aren't as fluffy and light and the cake donuts, a bit dry for my taste. The confections are achingly sweet, so make sure you grab a cup of coffee to dip yours in. I recommend the ODB

The store also holds monthly events, but I wasn't around in the Spring to check out the annual cockfest. " Hey boys!! How many doughnuts can you stack on your dick?? Enter the Annual Cockfest to find out. " Tasty indeed.

Voodoo Doughnut
22 SW 3rd Ave
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 241-4704