Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I recently moved back to Portland and have yet to find a breakfast spot that I'm really excited about. I love breakfast, it's one of my three favorite meals, and sometimes I like it when someone else cooks it for me.
So what are y'all's favorite spots?

PS
Who makes the best bloody mary?

Some places we frequent, we don't have a clear favorite:

Junior's (Small retro place with a wait on weekends,try the Superhero Scramble or the Fennel Hash with Tofu added)
Vita Cafe (Casual cafe that serves booze, try the Faux-Turkey Florentine or Chick'n Fried Steak)
Hungry Tiger Too (Massive scrambles in a restaurant section of a bar, Try the Portland scramble with nooch sauce or the Greek Scramble)

I'm less helpful with the Bloody Mary sitch, but one time I went to Holman's and did the "build your own" which was nice cause I could leave out the fishy sauce without a fuss.However the vegan options are limited there.
And one time I had a good one at Vita Cafe but I'm no connoisseur.

What Muffin-Tuffin said!

If you have some dough, check out Blossoming Lotus Sunday brunch - I've never had anything I didn't like and their breakfast cocktails rule.

If you like spicy, go for a Bloody Mary at Bye & Bye - not a brunch place, but a place you should get to know quickly nonetheless.

Also check out Jam on Hawthorne for lots of great vegan options. I hear Dots does brunch now too, but have yet to check it out.

If you're down with super limited vegan options, check out the Greek Tofu Scramble with Vegan Cheese and the SUPER GIANT HASHBROWNS at Gravy. Mmmmmmmm.

Oh, and if you're down with savory, non-breakfasty food, a slice of Drugs Benedict and a mini-bloody mary at Sizzle Pie will start your day right.

Sunday brunch at Sweet Pea! And I love the Tin Shed on Alberta - only a few vegan options, but I always order the same thing. The Tim Curry is a scrambly tofu/sweet potato/other veggie thing with curry sauce, avocado and raisins and hash browns, so yummy and total superfood!

sunday brunch at sweetpea, it's worth the hour and a half drive from albany just for that gravy
and bye and bye bloody marys with the weeping tiger sandwhich just about makes my life

I don't like a lot of Blood Marys, but I like the ones at Hungry Tiger Too (especially whatever the spicy & short version is) and at the Bye and Bye - if only for the many vegetables.

For brunch, I like Vita (the sloppy biscuit sandwich is crazy good), Hungry Tiger Too if I'm only with 1 friend and can sit at the bar and get quicker service, Paradox, Junior's and Jam.

i like Hungry Tiger Too's cheap, huge biscuits and gravy ($4 for the smaller portion and, unless they changed it, it's a lot). Their huge pancake for $3 is indeed huge and fluffy and yum. i also like their tempeh bacon. their Portland Scramble is good, the last time there was too much cheezy sauce for my tastes so i may ask for it on the side next time. i don't drink the coffee there...and i don't drink Bloody Mary's but they do have vegan ones there. also, note that on the weekends they don't open until 11am.

Jam's Blueberry Chai pancakes are yum, as are their shredded hashbrowns. they are hella busy most of the time, so expect a wait.

i love Vita's biscuits. their Sloppy Biscuit sandwich is yum.

i work at Paradox (Vita's former sister cafe. different owners but they still share a few menu items, but they're done a little differently now.). i think our breakfast potatoes totally own, when it comes to nonshredded potatoes. they are occasionally lukewarm if not recently made...i love our corncakes with the addition of chocolate chips and bananas. the Country Comfort is a pretty tasty plate of brownness. we don't serve any alcohol however. the owner is sober and had a lot of family members that were alcoholics so she doesn't want to be a part of it. what's also super tasty is the Banana Coconut smoothie, it tastes like a banana blizzard from Dairy Queen. we also carry two types of vegan sausage: Gardein patties and Field Roast's Smoked Apple Sage. it's nice to have more than one option...

Ooh I have been meaning to try Paradox, thanks for the info! Also, there should totally be a PPK brunch potluck once a month so I don't spend all my monies eating out.(Hard to do in PDX with all the yummy options!)

Paradox has let me own so much lately. The tofu benedict is really the only I like there any more.

Amazing, thank you all for the responses.
First off, paradox was wonderful. I love eating out with my sweetheart, because we always split what we order, so we can try two things off the menu. Country comfort and their benedict... Yum! Will definitely go back. Very fortunate of you to be working there, I'm envious.
I haven't made it to hungry tiger or blossoming lotus for breakfast (BL this Sunday for my bday brunch, yay) but both places for lunch and dinner, and enjoyed them both. Bye and bye, best place for a drink, in the world.
I'm very eager to check out some of the other suggestions, just a matter of time. Just wanted to thank everyone for their input.
Off topic, portabello, dc vegetarian, home grown smoker - I love you. Portland, thank you for being amazing.

sunday brunch at blossoming lotus is by far my most favorite. and bloody mary's are one of my favorites, and i am happy to report that the bye and bye makes fabulous ones with pickled green beans and olives ta boot. not as good as the pickled okra that i miss, but pickled veggies are great. the good thing about getting this drink at a vegan bar is you know they are making the mix from scratch since the commercial ones are never vegan. very very very tasty. and just as an fyi, they have great white russians, too.

xo
kittee

JUNIORS! TIN SHED!

I assume you meant *down*, which I have to say I heartily agree, I will never eat there again, sorry procrastinatingcook... But yeah I mean they're breakfasts are fine I suppose, just I recommend never going there for dinner. It's sad really, I used to really like it there years ago.

I recently tried Hungry Tiger Too's Bloody Mary, it's amazing.

Yeah, I can't type sometimes.

Blossoming Lotus is great.

Also, Dovetail has amazing baked goods (of course), but on the weekends they also have biscuits and gravy with tempeh sausage for $5 and it's soooo good!

Now I need to check out Junior's and Tin Shed.

definitely blossoming lotus. the maple seitan and the scrambles and those pancakes--all good things.
juniors for diner food.
jam on hawthorne too.
and prasad. yum.

I am no longer there, I'm not at Blossoming Lotus (Yay!). But yeah, I know the food can be pretty blah there. I feel like it depends on who's cooking as to how big your portions are (one corn cake for almost $4 can be pretty small...it's sad) and how tasty it ends up being. Stuff is very hit or miss. I always like the Reuben though.

for me, it's a tie between hungry tiger too and vita cafe. i love the biscuits and gravy at both restaurants, even though they're quite different. also, the vegan chicken and waffles at HTT are off the chain! a half order is enough to fill up one person.

This is the most amazing thing I have had ever.

I looove HTT biscuits and gravy.

Proper Eats now has biscuits and gravy on the menu (used to be an occasional special). They are so forking good! A huge asparagus plate of greens topped with roasted potatoes topped with biscuits and smothered in mushroom gravy. They have lots of good food, but this is the only thing I ever order now.

I liked Vita Cafe's breakfast. When I visited last week, I got the spelt biscuits and gravy, and the platter with tofu (they gave me tempeh by accident, it was still good), sausage patties (I'm pretty sure they use the kind from a tube. But they deep fry it, so it was delicious enough for me not to care), and corn cakes with hazelnuts. The biscuits and gravy were excellent.

Blossoming Lotus Sunday brunch was good and healthy. I love kale for breakfast. I got the benedict (because I wanted biscuit and to try their homemade sausage), it was good, but definitely my least favorite biscuit that I tried in PDX. I got the cashew "yogurt" parfait to take on the plane ride home, but the stinking TSA confiscated it. The guy said "well, this isn't quite liquid, but I'll have to take it anyway" boo. It looked great, too.

I didn't eat a formal meal at Sweet Pea, but I went in for a $.25 biscuit....SOO GOOD, best biscuit ever!

If you are into non-traditional breakfast, Los Gorditos is awwwwesome and they open at 9am-ish. I had the second best burrito ever with tofu and soy curls, yummm! Second best after that burrito truck in Oakland, CA - La Pinata. Arm length burritos - yeah!

I really love breakfast. Next time I visit, I have to try Paradox, Juniors, and Jam on Hawthorne. Supercarrot recommended I try Laurelthirst because they have great pancakes. Looking at the menu now, I wish I went.

Jam is ok, I only ate there once and was not impressed. The chai blueberry pancakes are dense and a little weird. I prefer a regular pancake like at the Hungry Tiger. My fave breakfast place is either Sweetpea Sunday brunch or Vita.

The hash browns at Jam are where it's at.

Oh I forgot to mention Juniors in this. That's where I go every morning when my parents are in town. :P I really love the staff there, they are so sweet! Also, basically everything on the menu they are happy to make vegan, and they don't just take out the non-vegan stuff and call it good, they totally substitute! I saw this breakfast special once and it not only was an egg thing but also a cheesy thing, but I really wanted it, I figured they'd sub the egg for tofu and just leave the cheese off, but they put this vegan creamy sauce thing instead of cheese and it was so amazing.