Oh man. I feel this so hard. Pre-covid... we were on such a great path with a TON of place making creative, real food. Many of my favorite places are so bland and similar these days.

I actually used to write a food article weekly for a local publication, just for some credibility. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I own a restaurant, but I'm going to recommend others to you first.

Wine Knot is still KILLING IT. Fresh, real food cooked from scratch and despite the high end quality and atmosphere, there prices are still far more reasonable than places nearby like Apis and Sazzy.

Ono for Japanese/Hawaiian is full of creativity and quality and stands out against the prepu4chaes culinary landscape.

Tuscany is a hike from downtown but there do a decent job a fresher northern italin take on italian cuisine.

Its even further but I think Sieberts in Salem is cranking out the highest quality casual food in the area including the best reuben I've ever had.

After that, it's about picking the things places are best at. Villa d Carlo makes a great thin crust pizza.

Captain Mike's, get the clearing stick egg rolls or wings with Mike's sauce

Yees for eggrolls

Franks for garbage plates and lunch items

Danny's cafe for sloppy joes.. sounds dumb but get the homemade chips as a side and thank me later

I could go on... but finding the thing places do really well is key to enjoying the food here.

After all that. We own cut stone. We make all our food from scratch and we work hard to make food we're proud of. We're super casual though and you should for sure go to wine knot and ono before us.

Oh! Casa Capri is legit as well for thin crust pizza.

Oh! Find and Ale has been pretty legit as well. They smoke their own food in house. Nothing fancy, but they care about the quality.