Where to eat near the Moda Center: A local food writer’s guide to 10 Portland gems

Chicken souvlaki, lemon basmati rice and fresh-chopped Greek salad from Souvlaki Queen, a freight-elevator-sized restaurant in downtown Portland.

When it debuted in 1995, the Rose Garden Arena was pitched to Portlanders as a sports and entertainment hub, its developers — including former Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen — envisioning a nightlife district packed with restaurants and bars.

Reality has looked a little different. Though the project originally included a pilot brewery and a flashy Italian restaurant with an Italian bicycle racing theme, the area immediately around the arena — now called the Moda Center — has been a dining desert for the better part of two decades.

But this being Portland, you don’t have to venture far to find good food. Fans visiting the Moda Center for this week’s men’s NCAA basketball tournament can find some of Portland’s very best restaurants just a short walk or public transit ride away. And you might even be able to park for free.

Here are 10 options for eating well within a mile of the Moda Center and its surrounding Rose Quarter district, from tasting menus to the iconic teriyaki sandwiches at Taste Tickler and everything in between.

Canard

Find creative takes on bistro dishes, a petite (yet lively) bar and arguably Portland’s most famous burger at our 2018 Restaurant of the Year. The restaurant and wine bar from chef Gabriel Rucker and sommelier Andy Fortgang has been in expansion mode, opening a third location in Beaverton last year, but the original remains the most intimate, and therefore the most charming. If you have extra time, the tasting menu at sister restaurant Le Pigeon next door remains a signature Portland dining experience. 734 E. Burnside St.

Nong's signature khao man gai.

Dimo’s Apizza

The New Haven-inspired pies at this pizzeria down East Burnside Street from Canard get their intense char from a pair of jury-rigged ovens (one electric, one wood-burning). Between its trellised front patio and large back dining room, there’s plenty of room for fans to grab a pizza or bowl of pasta (quietly some of Portland’s best) before a show or game. Like Canard, Dimo’s also has a sister restaurant next door, the supper club-style Dimo’s Italian Specialties. 701 E. Burnside St.

Frank’s Noodle House

Customers dine at Stoopid Burger, which opened in the Lloyd Center about five months ago, in the space that used to hold Billy Heartbeats, a 1950s style diner that closed in 2016.

The chair legs are still capped with tennis balls to prevent scuffing and the noodles are still hand-pulled every day but Sunday at this converted Northeast Broadway home. Still going strong after nearly 20 years, Frank’s Noodle House carries the torch for the hand-pulled noodles owners Frank Fong and Ying Jun Gao first introduced locally at Beaverton’s since-closed Du Kuh Bee, serving plates of noodles either boiled and smothered in a pork-rich black bean sauce or wok-fried with veggies and a choice of pork belly or squid. 822 N.E. Broadway

Lilia Comedor

Chef Juan Gomez doesn’t like to sit still. Whether it’s citrus-cured Columbia River chinook scattered with borage flowers or a show-stopping blue corn tlacoyo stuffed with pommes aligot, chances are what you see one week will be gone the next. But the restaurant — ranked No. 13 on our guide to Portland’s best restaurants — remains in top form, with vibrant colors, good technique and an attached cocktail bar on the North Park Blocks just across the river from the Moda Center. 422 N.W. Eighth Ave.

New Haven-inspired pizza from Dimo's Apizza.

Lloyd Center

When’s the last time you ate at the Lloyd Center food court? The mall and its beloved ice rink are set to be demolished later this year, but for now, a handful of small food businesses continue to operate inside, including Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Joe Brown’s Caramel Corn, the undying Chicken Connection and kiosk locations for two Black-owned former food carts, LoRell’s Chicken Shack and Stoopid Burger. 2201 Lloyd Center

Machetes @ Hey Love

This Mexico City-inspired pop-up from Diego and McKenna Palacios recently found a new home, bringing its namesake dish to the award-winning Hey Love bar. Those machetes — long, blade-shaped quesadillas — are stuffed here with grilled cactus, chicken tinga or house chorizo and new potatoes, and served alongside Hey Love’s house plants and tropical cocktails with a longer menu that includes ceviche and the outstanding carne asada platter that the Palacios served at their previous residency at OK Omens. 920 E. Burnside St.

A six-pack of steam burgers from Canard.

Nong’s Khao Man Gai

An exterior shot of the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter in Northeast Portland on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025.

Starting with a downtown food cart in 2009, chef Nong Poonsukwattana built a mini empire centered on a single dish, khao man gai, a Thai street food specialty of poached chicken, aromatic rice and ginger-garlic sauce. Accolades followed, as did a pair of brick-and-mortar restaurants, including the Southeast Portland headquarters, which sits cheek-by-jowl with sandwich shop Snappy’s and ramen spot Kinboshi. 609 S.E. Ankeny St.

Ox

Reservations aren’t easy to come by at this Argentine steak house from James Beard Award winners Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, though you might have luck scoring a bar seat late, say, after No. 3 seed Gonzaga puts the hurt on No. 14 Kennesaw State on Thursday evening. Celebrate the win (or lament the loss) with bone marrow clam chowder, sizzling steaks and one of Ox’s playful desserts, particularly the hazelnut brown butter torte. 2225 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Souvlaki Queen

This new downtown Greek restaurant, with its tight menu of souvlaki, salads, pita and baklava, opened last year in the tiny storefront once home to Hillbilly Bento. From 11:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, chef-owner Alexandra Jones overcomes the bounds of Souvlaki Queen’s small space, getting the details right with gently seasoned chicken skewers, a lush tzatziki under a dusting of paprika and a super-fresh Greek salad often chopped to order. 211 S.W. Sixth Ave.

Taste Tickler

Want to eat like a real Portlander? Head to this sunken sub shop for a teriyaki chicken sandwich, a Japanese-Korean-Portlandian mashup of sweet marinated chicken and classic deli sandwich trimmings (lettuce, tomato, etc.) stuffed inside a squishy roll. And consider grabbing some merch. A Taste Tickler T-shirt is nearly as meaningful to the Rose City as an “I ❤️ New York” shirt is to the Big Apple. 1704 N.E. 14th Ave.

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