Portland’s best new brunches of 2026

A fluffy, souffle-like pancake with maple syrup, lemon glaze, berry compote and hazelnut butter at Northeast Portland's Xiao Ye.

Peak brunch might be a thing of Portland’s past. But that hasn’t stopped local chefs from tweaking the morning meal with globe-spanning twists on pancakes, bacon and eggs. The following trio of new Portland brunches weave flavors from East Asia to the American Southwest onto menus as delicious as they are difficult to pin down. The thread tying them all together? Tasty food (and mimosas).

Pamana

From a square-footage standpoint, few Portland restaurants have expanded as much, as quickly, as Baon Kainan, the former food cart that now serves its comforting Filipino dishes throughout much of The Hoxton hotel’s sprawling Chinatown lobby.

Rechristened Pamana, after the Tagalog word for heritage, Ethan and Geri Leung’s ongoing residency has largely benefited guests at the hip London-based hotel and those looking for a creative brunch downtown. Over the past six months, I’ve popped in for a corned beef and garlic rice silog ($21), a BLT made with the sweet cured pork belly called tocino ($15) and French toast topped with slivers of jackfruit and brûléed banana inspired by the dessert lumpia turon ($15).

Those were all good, as were the sides of delightfully smashed potatoes and the pandesal buns from Balong bakery spread with coffee butter. But the big draw remains the golden, mochi-like pancakes and their intensely purple ube crème anglaise ($17), which pours from its syrup dispenser like so much Grimace blood. Before licking their plates, my kids, hanging with dad on a bonus day off courtesy of Portland Public Schools, called them “the best pancakes in the world.” Yours might agree.

Chicken-fried steak, chorizo gravy, finely diced potatoes, sunny side up eggs and toast and jam from the new brunch menu at Rhinestone.

Rhinestone

Considering he ran the kitchen at the German restaurant and beer bar Stammtisch for more than a decade, it’s safe to say Graham Chaney knows a thing or two about schnitzel. So my eyes went straight to the chicken-fried steak on the brunch menu at Chaney’s new “cow-punk” venture with bartender Trevor Thorpe, a different but no less delicious take on breaded-and-fried meat.

Here in the Southeast Clinton Street space once home to the Night Light Lounge, Chaney and Thorpe channel Las Vegas, cowboy shirts and late-night fast food into a neighborhood bar full of creative cocktails and sliders packed with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-crusted SPAM. (I’m told the bar sells more smoked chili beef Crunch Wraps at dinner than it does Pabst Blue Ribbon — which is saying something.)

I’ll confess, I’ve been a little nervous about the potential aftereffects of diving too deep into Rhinestone’s fried chicken chalupas and Dr Pepper-braised pulled pork and cheese flautas. And yes, those craving something sweet for brunch might wish for other options besides the little churro waffles doused in Mexican chocolate sauce ($14). But the surprisingly deft chicken-fried steak — a complete meal with its blanket of chorizo gravy, finely diced potatoes, two eggs, toast and jam for $21 — has me looking forward to my next visit, SPAM sliders and all.

Springy, mochi-esque pancakes topped with deep purple ube crème anglaise.

Xiao Ye

With the sun streaming in through the pale yellow curtains and a fluffy pancake with lemon glaze on the table, you might think this Hollywood neighborhood restaurant was built with mornings in mind. And perhaps that’s not entirely wrong. Though the dinner menu landed Xiao Ye on our guide to Portland’s 40 best restaurants, the brunch might be even better.

Most days — though not Mother’s Day, which is already booked — you can drop by Jolyn Chen and Louis Lin’s charming restaurant for a cup of Push x Pull coffee and a good cinnamon roll generously spackled with creamy frosting. Though not strictly a bakery, pastries ($3-$6) seem to be a sneaky specialty, from the griddled slices of banana bread crusted with crunchy millet to the wonderfully flaky Chinese sausage and cheddar biscuits.

The two sugar-fueled gremlins at my table gobbled up the kaya brick toast ($13) before I could have a bite, but the few leftover crumbs I managed to dip in soy-cured egg yolk were coconut-y and delicious. I did manage to reserve some of the souffle-like pancake ($10), which is accompanied by palm sugar butter and maple syrup by default, with little ramekins of lemon glaze, berry compote and hazelnut butter available for a dollar or two more. I had the silky scallion eggs draped over sourdough toast from Cafe Olli ($13) all to myself.

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