Michael Russell

Portland

Restaurant Reporter and Critic at Oregon Live (The Oregonian)

Chef de Cuisine, Buffalo Wild Wings

Articles

Filipino-American bakery Balong holds grand opening; Berlu delayed

6 days ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

Brave the Southeast 82nd Avenue construction outside Fubonn Shopping Center, lock up your bike and walk down the central corridor a ways to find Portland’s most exciting new bakery. Balong, the former Filipino-American breakfast sandwich pop-up, will hold the grand opening for its little cafe-bakery in the former Meianna Bakery, 2850 S.E. 82nd Ave., this weekend.
Portland’s best pizza pop-up is back, now once a week

1 week ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

You can eat well at Bauman’s on Oak, but you already knew that. Visit today, and the tiny kitchen at this Southeast Portland cider maker might be dishing out house potato rolls stuffed with creamy bay shrimp, thick-cut slabs of pork schnitzel or Catalonian black rice with tender rings of squid nearly tasty enough to make us forget the version at Ataula (RIP). Did we undersell Bauman’s everyday menu while praising its monthly pizza pop-ups in our 2024 review? Yes and no.
When is Jollibee opening its first Oregon restaurant?

1 week ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

Jollibee isn’t quite as tight-lipped with the public as other fast food franchises (“cough...In-N-Out...cough”). Still, when it comes to its long-awaited first Oregon location, the Filipino fast food favorite has been slow to share much in the way of a timeline.
Inside Printemps, the luxe French retailer that lured Portland’s top chef to New York

1 week ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

My jaw didn’t drop entering Printemps, each set of doors opened by a separate doorman. It stayed in place while scanning the emerald-green circus canopy above Café Jalu, chef Gregory Gourdet’s new cafe just inside the luxe Paris retailer, its tables already mobbed with French tourists and their small dogs.
Portland’s top chef just opened his first New York restaurant. Our critic flew out to try it (review)

1 week ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

Gregory Gourdet is unhappy with the French fries. It‘s Friday, April 18, opening night at Maison Passerelle, the longtime Portland chef‘s New York debut, and despite a year’s worth of recipe testing, Gourdet thinks the fries going out to the full dining room are “too dry.”Few restaurants open without flaws.
Portland’s best new brunches of 2025

2 weeks ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell |Veronica Nocera

Veronica Nocera and Michael Russell undertook the difficult task of hand-selecting, personally visiting and then writing about these four new Portland brunch restaurants, each of which puts a special spin on the city’s favorite meal. Not so long ago, Portland was synonymous with brunch, a time when 20-somethings rolled out of bed after 10 a.m. on a Wednesday for mugs of hot coffee, plates of fried chicken and waffles and Mason jars filled to the brim with mimosas or Bloody Marys.
When will RingSide Steakhouse reopen? It could be sooner than you think

2 weeks ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

Northwest Portland’s 81-year-old RingSide Steakhouse could reopen as soon as July, barring any unforeseen hurdles at the fire-damaged restaurant, according to co-owner Craig Peterson. “We’ve still got an area of the restaurant where the fire broke out under lockdown,” Peterson told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Portland’s best brunch is back at Fair Weather

3 weeks ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

Fair Weather’s shrimp and grits begin with a mystery — there are no shrimp or grits to be seen. Instead, a poached egg rises from a swirl of greens, an alabaster island at the center of a stormy sea. Now, this might not be the best dish at Fair Weather, the recently returned brunch spot inside the old Jacqueline space. But it might be the coolest.
Portland survey: Food scene ranks as third most appealing feature

3 weeks ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

The days when Portland was a national media darling, its chefs celebrated in glossy magazines, its food scene named the best in America, might be over. Nevertheless, for locals, the food scene remains one of the best reasons to stick around.
Mémoire Cà Phê - small yet mighty, with one memorable dish (review)

4 weeks ago | oregonlive.com | Michael Russell

Did your mom ever make you shrimp omelets growing up? If she did, I hope they tasted like the ones at Mémoire Cà Phê. Blended with a little coconut milk, splashed with fish sauce and sprinkled with fried garlic crisps, the eggs — which have that silky texture you can usually only get by mixing in a little corn starch — float like a fluffy blanket around juicy shrimp and cherry tomatoes. Served over rice with ribbons of scallion, it’s about as delicious a shrimp omelet as you can imagine.