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Start a Top 5 for SouthernEditor’s picks
Press picks, until locals rank their own Top 5s. Sourced from the local food press. As seen in Food & Wine, Willamette Week, and Portland Monthly. Updated August 2026.
Pine State Biscuits | Division · Southeast Portland
Founded by North Carolina transplants who missed real Southern biscuits, Pine State started as a farmers market stall in 2006 and grew into four Portland locations. The Reggie, a buttermilk biscuit stacked with fried chicken, bacon, gravy, and Tillamook cheddar, is the order that made it known.
EaT: An Oyster Bar · Boise
A Louisiana inspired Cajun and Creole oyster bar on N Williams, built as one of Portland's early direct from the farm and sea seafood spots. Baked oysters, fried oyster po'boys, and a New Orleans leaning menu set it apart from the city's other Southern kitchens.
Basilisk · Kerns
An early adopter of Nashville style hot chicken in Portland, Basilisk drenches its fried chicken in a cayenne forward sauce and serves it on a thick slab of Texas toast from the nearby Franz Bakery, an unusually literal nod to its Southern reference point.
Big's Chicken · North Tabor
Built around Alabama style barbecue chicken, marinated in Fresno chile before being smoked and then fried, a two step process that gives the crust a deeper, smokier flavor than a standard buttermilk fry, in North Tabor. The result sits somewhere between barbecue and fried chicken.
Reel M Inn · Southeast Division
A classic dive bar fried chicken joint turning out bone in pieces with what Portland Monthly describes as bubbly, rippled waves of tawny batter. It is the unpretentious, bar stool version of Southern fried chicken, cheap and consistent rather than composed or plated for a photo.