The Black Sheep

Long before Jamie Tran captured the hearts of America on "Top Chef: Portland," she almost single-handedly made the Rhodes Ranch neighborhood a foodie destination for locals in-the-know. At The Black Sheep, she takes the Vietnamese comfort-food recipes she learned from her parents and tweaks them with the French fine-dining chops she picked up working for legends like Charlie Palmer and Daniel Boulud. So it’s no surprise to find The Black Sheep was named as the favorite Vietnamese restaurant of a wide variety of local experts, including a French-born celebrity chef, a restaurant critic and a marketing guru.

“Tran's menu is inventive without being twee, and everything is delicious,” says Allied Global Marketing’s Arlene Wszelak, pointing to the salmon skin tacos as an example before offering a shoutout to the restaurant’s “fantastic bar program.”

And while there is plenty of meat on the menu, the quality of the plant-based options (particularly the scallion pancakes) has made it a favorite of VegansBaby.com creator Diana Edelman.