This Pearl District Spanish restaurant serves dishes like crab croquettes with caper-saffron aioli and Yukon Gold patatas bravas in an open, airy space, paired with cocktails incorporating sherry and house syrups. Can Font also specializes in paella, with six varieties including squid ink with shellfish and chanterelles with saffron stock. Sunday brunches involve classics like tortilla Española, Benedicts with jamon serrano, and paella loaded with chorizo and poached eggs.

Walking into Via Delizia, the first thing that greets diners is a looming faux olive tree and walls depicting a rambling street in Italy. Via Delizia started as a cafe focused on gelato and pastries, and later expanded to a full restaurant serving fresh pastas and salads. In the mornings, locals flock to the trattoria for Italian-style espressos and the black pearl Benedict with apple balsamic creme sauce. And it’s impossible to leave without at least one scoop of the restaurant’s gelato, which has held the neighborhood’s attention for more than 15 years.

Located within Lovejoy’s Below by Botanist, Hapa Barkada is a collaboration between chef Melvin Trinidad and Hapa Howie’s owner Kiaha Kurek, offering a menu of Filipino and Hawaiian plates and bar snacks. Trinidad marinates chicken in adobo before giving it a deep fry, while Kurek stuffs inari with tuna poke. The best sampling of both chefs’ work is via the rice plates, which come with a choice of protein (shoyu chicken, tofu sisig), a choice of rice (herby chimichurri rice, garlic rice), a light cabbage slaw, and a scoop of mac salad.

One of the rare spots in town where Portlanders can hear the lilt of Italian spoken at tables around them, Piazza Italia transports in the most magical way. With football jerseys hanging from the ceiling, Piazza Italia is casual enough to wander in on a whim for a game played on the restaurant’s many TVs; still, its vast wine offerings and heaping plates of house-made pappardelle make it an impressive choice for first dates. That pappardelle is the one pasta made in house, and while it’s only featured on one wild boar ragu dish on the menu, it can (and should) be subbed out on any other pasta entree for a small charge.

This Northwest Johnson Japanese restaurant is best known for its sushi, including an extensive selection of fish from the famed Toyosu fish market, a wide range of omakase options, and intricate maki including favorites like rainbow rolls. The kitchen, however, churns out quite a few hot snacks, including deep-fried squid tentacles, grilled yellowtail collar, Snake River Farms kobe beef skewers, and brown sugar short ribs. The bar specializes in sake, including flights.

In this restaurant and bar space off the Park Blocks, two concepts: On one side, at De Noche, chef Dani Morales serves a beautiful evening menu, showcasing seasonal treats like butternut squash or Dungeness crab in a shifting cast of moles and tamales, respectively. On the other, at Bar Comala, shelves remain stocked with 85 different mezcals, often featuring rare bottles from small-production distilleries. Both are available for reservations via OpenTable.

This Park Blocks bar is one of those spots where there’s always something going on: a drag show, live jazz, open mics, trivia. In an intimate brick-lined space, couples chat over coupe glasses filled with ruby-hued whiskey drinks made with house bitters or shrubs; on nights when the bar gets crowded, park-side outdoor tables provide a little respite, especially on warm days.

Longstanding Portland chef Erik Van Kley runs the kitchen at this wine bar and restaurant, serving dishes at the same caliber as the ones he served at the late, great Taylor Railworks. Van Kley dots gorgeous plates of burrata with rotating accompaniments, tosses tagliatelle with clams and ramen brown butter, and pairs bavette steaks with preserved black bean Yorkshire pudding. The wine list, of course, is similarly special, with some of the prettiest wines coming out of France and the Willamette Valley.

MEC, as its known, is arguably the crown jewel of the Sesame Collective restaurant group, roasting coffee-rubbed sweet potatoes and shawarma-spiced cauliflower in its 700-degree oven. Begin with an assortment of meze, like crispy-lamb-topped hummus, house-made labneh, or beef bacon-wrapped dates; from there, pick a few grilled items — chermoula-rubbed shrimp, hawaij-spiced carrots — to complement dishes from the oven. Smaller groups can enjoy food and drinks in the sleek subway tiled bar, with bare Edison lights dripping from the ceiling.

Teardrop is a bar that could be easy to miss on its sleepy block, and though it doesn’t particularly call attention to itself, it’s one of Portland’s most influential cocktail lounges: The dramatic horseshoe-shaped bar, a whole lot of mood, and some of Portland’s top bartenders can be found inside. The menu breaks down the drinks into categories, like Supple and Herbal, Arid and Aromatic, and Rich and Robust, making it easy for even the most indecisive of cocktail drinkers to land on the ideal beverage.

From Nostrana’s James Beard-nominated founder, Cathy Whims, Oven and Shaker serves wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas made using a decades-old sourdough starter. Years of trips to Italy yielded a menu stacked with Italian street food and libations, like saffron arancini, kale salad with grapefruit and poppyseed fricco, and pizzas topped with pistachio pesto, pork belly, and maple. Don’t sleep on the cocktails, which often incorporate Italian amari, fortified wines, and liqueurs; the nonalcoholic menu is also extensive.

Bartenders at this neon-lit, stylish cocktail lounge slide tequila cocktails and slushies across the brass counter, while 20 and 30somethings dunk fried chicken in kimchi ranch. Here, brandy is infused with butternut squash, rum gets coconut-washed, and beverages come decked out in peacock colors with many-shaped ice. The wonton nachos, topped with pork curry and cheddar chili, are a particular standout.

This dark and romantic cocktail bar next door to sibling bar Pink Rabbit similarly uses culinary elements in its cocktails, whether that’s toasted rice or pink peppercorn. Horchata, miso, and zero-proof gin make for a riff on clarified milk punch that’s one of the most sophisticated nonalcoholic beverages in town. The food menu shines too: Passionfruit granita arrives on oysters and potato skins get fussy with salmon roe; dole whip with tahini fluff is a fun finish to any visit.

Portland is limited when it comes to Greek restaurants, but Eleni’s has served its flaming saganaki and comforting moussaka on Northwest 9th for the better part of two decades. Visitors can expect standards like tzatziki, dolmas, and horiatiki (Greek salad), as well as a surprising selection of pastas. Lamb dishes are often a smart choice, particularly the phyllo-wrapped parcel of braised Kokkinisto-style lamb and Greek cheeses.

This tasting menu restaurant has existed in several different iterations under a number of different chefs in its tenure, but its current setup, under chef Jose “Lalo” Camarena, has introduced an exciting new era for República. On past visits, a reinterpretation of higado encebollado, or liver and onions, painted rich veal liver over brioche checkers, brightened with serrano gel and pickled onion. Parcels of fish told the story of the Battle of Puebla, incorporating French and Mexican culinary traditions, as an alternative to the deterritorialized margaritas and tacos eaten on Cinco de Mayo. Menus change often, but a through line true of República since its opening date: Every dish arrives with context, be it historical, agricultural, or personal.