The American Local

This is the best restaurant in Portland; hands down. The chef brings taste to a new level, blending local, fresh, and healthy ingredients in creative and stunning ways. What distinguishes The American Local from some of the other exceptional restaurants in Portland is that they work so beautifully with vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, and fruit in a way that balances fish, meat, and other proteins. The staff are highly consistent in the execution of each meal – fun to sit at the bar and watch the symphony. I generally do not order drinks but theirs are worth it. As is dessert.

What a delicious and fun restaurant. The wine list was pretty expansive and really well priced. The food was fresh and very flavorful. I would recommend the salads the most. The sticks were not my favorite. Good, but small portions. You don’t need to order a Ron of plates. The food is filling.

Really good food. Small plates so you can order many different dishes. Loved the skewers and the tuna. Good food and good service. Great place to take the wife.

Portions aren’t too great considering the price. My party of four bill totaled $ 105 and we each got a main dish, three drinks, and two «vegetable» plates. When we finished eating here, we ended up going to another restaurant and we all ate a bowl of ramen each. No, we were not high. No, we aren’t chubby pigs. We are normal people with normal appetites who left the restaurant still hungry.
That being said, the food tasted amazing! Only thing I will stay away from next time is the octopus skewer. I love seafood but the octopus was quite gooey.
Probably won’t come back but I would recommend everyone to try this place at least once!

The food truly was delicious and it was a good spot to introduce someone from out of town to NW flavors. The server was attentive and accommodated our big group well. The only drawback was the prices seemed a little high for the size of the plates – but when you saw the quality and freshness of ingredients and the sophisticated flavors it was completely understandable. I left feeling fulfilled and like we had chosen a good spot to host our welcome dinner for an international speaker visiting Portland for the first time. We liked the beet salad as well as the pear salad and all the skewers were perfectly cooked and seasoned.

Yes! Everything was AMAZING! Drinks, service desert, FOOD. Omg the food… I doubt you could order anything you wouldn’t love here… Enjoy!

One of my favorite places to go for shared plates. Everything is flavorful. One of my favorite dishes is the beets with the ricotta. I think the only thing I’m not a big fan of is the dish with the grit cakes. The cakes are just too heavy and overpower the rest of the ingredients. The service has always been on point.

My stomach is turning just thinking of this place. The food was so gross and RAW. We asked our waiter 3 times to cook our skewer well done and it came back raw each time!!! (Not the waiter’s fault). This restaurant is so confusing. I don’t understand the concept AT ALL. The American Local? They have a wide range of cuisines. They’re served tapas style. Very small portions for a big price. Not worth it at all. Very disappointed coming here. I’m a foodie but I couldn’t even eat the food. None of us could. And their fries are sooooooo salty I couldn’t even eat them. What a mess! Not coming here ever again.

We LOVED this place! It is a great asian/​gastropub mix and the food is on target. I’m a chef who opened one of the first gastropubs in San Francisco and I love what the chef does with the mix of asian food which is married to traditional American fare. The menu changes frequently and I won’t go into what we had but everything we ordered nailed what we were looking for. Great service and the drinks were awesome to. We will be back.

Great atmosphere. Creative and well executed menu of skewers and small plates. Broad drinks selection, including wine and sake «on tap». Highly professional and friendly staff. Winner all around!
The food was fantastic. Highlights included Brussel sprouts, radish salad, and chicken meatball skewer. The server (Jerred) was great about making adjustments to accommodate dietary restrictions. And at the end, Jerred even brought separate checks for our party, since it was a bit difficult to share dishes between the couples as we were sitting at the bar (which by the way was really cool to see the action in the kitchen!).
Great spot — can’t wait to be back!

Excellent food, great staff, and a beautiful space.
We came kind of late and weren’t even hungry but ended up ordering a bunch of dishes to share just so we could try a variety of the food. Highly recommended!

Went here while visiting Portland with some friends, and I have to say the positive reviews don’t lie. I can’t think of anything to complain about here at all.
I’m a stranger to this type of operation (where they bring things out and people pass them around) and to a lot of things that are on the menu (like salmon skin crisps) but I’m nothing if not adventurous. I was rewarded handsomely for everything I tried. They have a great bar as well, with selections for the uninitiated as well as the picky drinker.
Not a complaint but a bit of a suggestion – they could do a bit better of a job explaining how things come out and what to expect. I caught on, but one poor guy at our table is a very picky eater and he looked perplexed and annoyed that his skewers got passed around. The server reacted well by bringing out another one. I’m not sure his would be a 5-​star review because it didn’t seem he was connecting with the concept. Not for everyone, I suppose.
Glad I visited Portland, and glad I came to American Local!

An update for here. Now I never do this on the same trip. But it had to be done — I had to come back on and bring my friend from Sonoma to experience the awesomeness I had earlier this week.
I didn’t think was possible but we ordered the skewered pork belly again and it was even more delectable then before. My friend was amazed at the flavors just as I was the first time. Seriously it took much consideration and discipline not to order at least three more.
What didn’t take as much discipline was ordering (possibly begging) Anthony to give us the beingets again as well as the jarred banana cake with the cream and hazelnut crumble, something I didn’t experience last time. Anthony even made sure that he offered some of that delicious coffee which was the perfect balance for the palette with the orgasmically delicious banana cake.
Again with the amazingly hand crafted cocktails that came out so vibrant and tasty and spot on, we had a fabulous time and experience I was able to share with my friend without hesitancy. Anthony helping myself with my friend was even more awesome because he’s just damn charming and on his game as ever and is the man. I’m sorry we missed seeing you, Jenny (this was my friend from her Sonoma ranch I told you about! She loved your place and promises to come back too!!)
You guys rock. Take care again!

One of the most memorable meals I’ve had on my trip to Portland. We were originally going to try Pok Pok, but with the two hour wait, we opted to find another place to eat. Luckily, we found this place, and we don’t regret it. My mom, sister, and I were really impressed!
Melon cucumber salad: So fresh and so good! This dish was light and refreshing. It was the perfect dish to start off with.
Fried potato/​corn/​pepper: That sauce tasted like crack! Wish they drenched the whole thing with that sauce. I’m usually not a person who likes a ton of sauce, but that sauce was so good! The potatoes were perfectly cooked and the corn was amazing!
Chicken meatball: This was probably my least favorite skewer, but it was still very tasty. The soy-​egg dip was very interesting!
Skirt steak with horseradish cream: This meat was pretty fatty (which the server warned us about), but I still enjoyed it.
My two favorite…
Wagyu with spicy avocado & the Pork belly skewer. These two definitely topped the charts. Both were perfectly cooked and seasoned perfectly. I regret not ordering more!
Drink: I tried the lemon lime soda (since we asked for Sprite), and this soda was even better than Sprite! It tasted more fresh and flavorful.
I liked the concept of this restaurant with the open kitchen and bar. It was such a cool spot, and there was no wait!

Had I not eaten a light dinner prior to coming here at 8pm, I would’ve been really really hungry. Hungry or broke. Either/​or. Unfortunately, although the food is pretty darn good and the prices seem cheap, the small portion sizes make the American Local quite spendy.
As for the food, I highly recommend the flank steak skewer (cooked medium rare) and the fried macaroni & cheese. My boyfriend was also a fan of the raw albacore but I found that the spicy miso sauce was way too overpowering. While the texture of the fish was really good, I couldn’t taste the fish at all. I also didn’t really like the fried square of rice cake that came with the dish because it felt gummy and stuck to my teeth and it didn’t add anything to the dish for me.
Now I will tell a story of the only other thing (besides cost) that turned me off. Our party of 3 sat at the bar overlooking the kitchen. We took a while to decide what to order and I watched a bowl of green beans go out and come back to the chef twice. I guess those tables had already gotten the dish. I joked with my friend who was planning on ordering the green beans «What if you get that bowl?» And what do you know, that’s the bowl the chef handed to us. I’m absolutely not saying that it should have gone to waste… but the green beans were cold and we had the dish sitting in front of us for at least 20 minutes before we got anything else. I guess I was the only one bothered by it though because my friend who ordered them really liked it.

We go out to dinner with our friends pretty often and like to try new places all the time. Going with others to a tapas-​style restaurant is always a good move because you can try way more food that way. American Local did good! We ordered 11 dishes for the 4 of us and there was pretty much nothing left on the plates, but no one felt overly full. The dishes had enough food for us each to try a good portion of it — they weren’t skimpy portions!
I won’t list out all the dishes we tried, but will mention that I liked the 3 vegetarian dishes the most. The cumin roasted carrots were great, and the green beans w/​peppers had a nice bright flavor and texture, but the potato/​broccoli/​Romanesco sauce was my favorite — it was loaded with flavor and I’d get that again. The fried chicken was pretty tasty — temperature-​hot and slightly sweet. My least favorite (and it was good, just not AS good as the rest) was the Thai beef stuffed rice ball — very little beef, mostly rice that was a bit crispy. Total bill for eleven dishes and two iced teas was $ 101. Not bad at all!
Our server was great, very attentive and helpful. The staff brought out each dish as it was ready so while our table was full of plates, it was never too much at one time. The noise level was on the loud side — I found it difficult to hear my friends across our table/​. I noticed a couple large tables, presumably for communal seating or some really huge groups, but they were not all filled. If they were, the noise would be pretty tough to take. I have to take a star off for the sound/​acoustics, unfortunately. But, I’ll be back. I still have another 15 or so dishes to try!

It’s weird for me to leave a review since I’ve not yet actually eaten at The American Local, but I recently had to arrange dinner for a corporate guest on very short notice and without any pre-​established business account/​relationship. Jenny went above and beyond in the level of service provided. She really went the extra mile I can’t say enough about how impressed I am based on this encounter!
My guest said the food was great. I’ll add an update once I get the chance to go try for myself, but since the guest was a self-​described «foodie», I am confident in her assessment.

Patio seating, I love you so. Great place to people watch as it’s right on Division.
The food was overly salted, but when I took my leftovers home and threw them in a pan with extra veggies, it made an excellent dish.
Basically I’m here to tell you that if you see the Sea Bream with Sea Bean item on the menu – GET IT. It was amazing (see photos).

The BEST place in Portland.
American Local deserves an award, every time I come in. Which means they need 7 awards because that’s many times I’ve been in, in the 4 weeks that I’ve been in Portland.
First off, Jenny, the owner of the place is AMAZING. Super nice, warm and welcoming. It almost feels like going home. Her and her husband moved here to start this baby up, and it didn’t disappoint. The whole staff is awesome as well, from the bartender to the waiter/​waitresses.
May I just start out by saying, the drinks here are on point. I usually go for the Cock drink thing, with bourbon, and it’s beyond satisfying. I usually also never get one drink, so rounding off with an Old Fashion is just as good.
The food is meant for sharing, and the portions aren’t too small — yet isn’t too big. My suggestions?
Albacore is a MUST try.
Literally everything on the veggies portion is good. But if I had to choose, give me the asparagus and the brussel sprouts (when in season) every time.
The flank steak skewer + pork belly is to die for. I can go on and on, because I’ve probably tried everything, but that’s only because everything is THAT good.
The wait is never too long, parking is decent for a busy street, and oh, the sake that is on tap? C’mon. What more can you ask for?
If you come to Portland and are looking for a recommendation — which is probably why you’re on here. COME HERE. Because wow.
Cheers!

Came here a second time. I think this and Pono Farms are the two places I would recommend where I would eat in Portland. From the last time we came, I think the portions got a little bigger, so much that we definitely ordered too much and had to take some home.
Rice ball — think more grilled onigiri than aranchini, but the thai pork center with the coconut sauce were so good.
Watermelon radish salad — reminded me of papaya salad with watermelon radish that gave it a sweet, mildly peppery flavor.
Fried little fish (smelt?) — perfectly fried in what seemed like corn grits that gave it an amazing cripsy texture on the outside while melt in your mouth on the inside — Loved this
Beef skewer — pricey, but can’t go wrong
Shiitakes/​wild mushrooms/​fregola/​wild nettle pesto/​ground ham — nettle pesto was really subtle and plated in a way that you scraped a little from the side of the bowl with every spoonful. Overall a good dish but not mind blowing like the others.
Olive oil cake with kumquats and ricotta — Even though we were full, I saw this on their Instagram and had to have it. It lived up to the hype.
Service was very prompt and attentive.