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Portland restaurants you miss the most

PDXtoday readers shared which local restaurants + meals spark deep nostalgia — and we think you’ll agree.

The Original Taco House on Southeast Powell Boulevard.

The Original Taco House was a local chain started in 1960. Its last two locations closed on New Year’s Eve 2017.

Photo by @pdxploration

Earlier this month, we asked: Which restaurant or meal do you wish were still around?

Piece of cake, right? PDXtoday readers sent us food for thought — let’s stroll down memory lane because we love a moment of local nostalgia.

Macheezmo Mouse
Many of you lamented the loss of this Portland-based fast food chain known for healthy Mexican fare which closed its last location in 2003. Twenty-one years can’t erase the memory of the Mouse’s black bean enchiladas for reader Kelly G.

Rose’s
Oh my, those giant cinnamon rolls! Laura S. loved starting a Sunday morning over one of this New York-style delicatessen’s pastries, a carafe of coffee, and a print copy of The Oregonian.

A bar with a red brick backdrop, gold framed mirrors, and a wood counter.

After closing, the Brasserie Montmartre space became the home of Park Avenue Fine Wines + Bardot — both have since shuttered.

Photo by Another Believer

Brasserie Montmartre
Happy hour frog legs and live jazz music became a hard-to-find combo when this long-running French restaurant folded in 2015. It’s the croissant sandwich, though, that haunts reader Eleni O.’s dreams: “A friend took me for lunch one day. I thought, until then, that I hated ham. But that was only because I had never eaten their ham and cheese croissant. I was transported.”

The Original Taco House
This decades-old family affair which claimed to have introduced Portland to Mexican cuisine was, for Sarah M., an “East Portland staple.” Even though it won’t go down in history for serving what most would consider authentic dishes, it was still “yummy in its own right.”

A person's hand holds a utensil as it hovers over a small cup in a saucer, holding a jammy egg yolk with cream and caviar.

Behold: Tercet’s jammy and oh-so-missed egg dish.

Photo by Judiaann Woo

Tercet
“The ingenuity, the closeness to the chefs, the amazing alcohol pairings… I tear up thinking I will never have their egg dish again.” Reader Bristol K. grieves this downtown prix fixe establishment that closed less than a year ago. But we aren’t giving up hope for a reboot based on the restaurant’s final Instagram post.

Henry Thiele
Known as a landmark on Portland’s dining map from the 1930s to the 1990s, all that remains today is a small plaque outside the Thiele Square shopping center — and memories for folks like Molly B. of a “vast menu” (the giant German pancakes are at the top of our list).

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