Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

On the casual side: Fire on the Mountain, a great wing place in N Portland, with half a dozen or so flavors of wings, fabulous fries served in Frisbees, and a variety of microbrews on draft and in bottles. Very cheap.

The gelato place opposite the north side of Powell's Books downtown is great.

While being a resident of Portland and reading that others think the real estate market here is "cheap" made me double over laughing, I do feel we are very spoiled with the great selection we have of restaurants at the moment. Some places not mentioned above or in the NYT article:

Lovely Hula Hands on N. Mississippi - Chef Troy has a pedigree inclusive of a stint at Chez Panisse but his place feels more comfortable, his combinations of flavors are impeccable. The menu reads as though things are very basic, but the manner in which they are combined is surprisingly more upscale.

Savoy/Broder- Two great spaces next door to each other on SE Clinton. Savoy is a bar on one side with a nicer dining area adjacent (but I always like to sit in the bar.) Wood panelling, nice bourbon selection, dim lit, known for a really good burger but don't overlook the rest of the specials as they are often the best thing going as opposed to a way to get rid of extras.

Broder- sleeker and brighter this space has scandinavian food in mind, currently only breakfast (aebleskivvers!) Once the OLCC lets them get their liquor on, dinner should follow.

Brand Spanking New Places (just this last year) that already seem off to a solid start:
1. Toro Bravo - yes it's a spanish tapas place, but no, it's not a pale imitation. http://www.torobravopdx.com/

2. Little Red Bike Cafe- This one is in deep North Portland, barely open a couple of weeks. Bike Thru window, great breakfast specials, Courier Coffee (ludicrously small batch produced by a guy who usually bikes his coffee in jars and places it on doorsteps,) a wide spectrum of milkshakes.
http://blog.littleredbikecafe.com/

3. Nutshell- vegan food, but less crunchy more classy.
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/2007/08/nutshell.php

4. Biwa- Ramen and yakitori place that makes their noodles in house and gets their tofu from mere blocks away at Ota Tofu. They have a rotating nabe pot special every Monday. http://www.biwarestaurant.com/

http://www.extramsg.com/ is a great site as well, check out his tip sheet. This guy, & his other site, http://www.portlandfood.org/ checks out more pedestrian places as well… the ones that introduced me to the beauty of PokPok.

I’ll second the note on Gotham Building Tavern, the 3 chefs that worked there when it was under the ripe umbrella have each moved on as head chefs of their own fantastic, unique shops. Le Pigeon (Gabe), Clyde Common (Jason) & Meriwethers (Tommy)…all 3 are regular stops in our rotation. The only other place not covered that deserves mention is Simpatica, simply the best brunch in town.

Meriwether's is a must. They use seasonal ingredients so while the menu may change, the service and food are consistently fantastic. I've never had a bad experience here and make it a point to stop in for a meal whenever I'm travelling from Seattle.
http://www.meriwethersnw.com/

Out favorite find in Portland is the sunningly fabulous Cuban food at Pambiche:
Little bit of sol: Portland's Pambiche

A gem on N. Lombard in the St. John's neighborhood is Ladybug, a coffee and pastry place that has a few sandwiches on the menu, too. The sandwiches are okay, but Ladybug is the place for dessert. It's all made in-house by a wonderful chef who uses only organic ingredients. In terms of quality, the pastries are better than the ones at Pix, but at substantially lower prices. Lots of space and free wifi, too, and incredibly good coffee.

A few blocks further west down Lombard is Marie's which I haven't been to in a while but while I was going there regularly I found it to be extremely good and reasonably priced. They try to use as much locally grown produce as they can (they have, or at least they had, a special deal with Sauvie Island Organics.) And the atmosphere is delightful. Used to be a really skanky strip joint but you wouldn't know it now!