Restaurants near Portland Institute for Contemporary Art

Decent meal. Decent service. Good experience. Nothing too special but certainly not bad. A nice middle ground in the Portland restaurant scene.

We had the Peking duck experience, as December is Duck Month at Departure. The duck was beautifully presented before the final stage of cooking to crisp the skin and apply the final layer of glaze. The meal consisted of duck bone broth, the Peking duck with thin pancakes, cucumbers, green onions, hoisin sauce, pickled cumquats, duck fried rice, and duck fat ice cream with sesame brittle and berry sauce. The meal was delicious. There is a huge sale list, but we opted for the Lillet All Day and 75-ish cocktails. A glass of Domaine du Petit Bonhomme went perfectly with the duck. Our server, Hailey, was great.

Jake's Famous Crawfish is one of our go-to restaurants in Portland. It's been there forever (actually, more than 100 years) and retains its old-world ambiance and service. Servers all wear short, white jackets and are schooled well, so even the younger ones thrive, and there are several true veterans. The food is prepared perfectly and arrives quickly. It's great for a special occasion or with a special friend. It tends to be busy on weekends, so make a reservation.

Janken was such an incredible experience. The atmosphere was incredible, the service was excellent, and above all, the food was amazing. I can say with certainty that I've never had better sushi. The quality of ingredients, the unique elements and the taste of everything was beyond any other sushi I've had before. The dynamite roll and the seared salmon nagiri were incredible. The cocktails were amazing, the tartare was amazing, frankly everything was amazing. But the stand out was most certainly the black cod. I'm used to cod being a fairly common, mediocre fish. But this dish was, in a word, sublime. A tremendous bomb of umami flavor, and yet as delicate and pleasing as any high quality halibut. My wife and I were beyond impressed, and this is now in my top 3 restaurants of all time. We will be back.

Great food and fantastic service tonight at the Screen Door. Had the deviled eggs, house salad, fried chicken and cranberry crumble dessert. Everything was so good. Our server was super fun and nice. Great experience.