Restaurant in Portland, United States
Portland's most consistent casual American. Book ahead.
Screen Door is one of Portland's most consistently recognised casual American restaurants, holding a Pearl Recommended designation and Opinionated About Dining Casual North America ranking for multiple consecutive years. First-timers should prioritise weekend brunch and book ahead. Dinner is more accessible, and the food travels well enough to make takeout a practical option when a sit-down isn't possible.
Screen Door on East Burnside has been one of Portland's most consistently recognised casual dining destinations for well over a decade. It holds a Pearl Recommended designation for 2025, and Opinionated About Dining ranks it among the leading casual restaurants in North America — currently sitting at #277 for 2025, up from #287 in 2024, and as high as #141 in 2023. With a 4.7-star rating across more than 7,300 Google reviews, this is a restaurant that delivers reliably for first-timers. The price range isn't published, but the Regional American positioning and casual format suggest mid-range spend. Come for Southern-influenced comfort food with the kind of track record that makes it worth planning around.
Screen Door serves Regional American food at 2337 E Burnside St in Portland's inner east side. Chef Dan Grill leads the kitchen, and the format runs breakfast and lunch service through 2 pm daily, with dinner beginning at 4:30 pm. Fridays and Saturdays extend to 10 pm; all other evenings close at 9:30 pm. If you're visiting Portland for the first time and want a single meal that represents the city's casual dining strength, this is a reasonable anchor around which to plan a morning or evening.
For first-timers, the key practical question is timing. Screen Door has a strong local following, and the OAD ranking signals that this isn't a secret. Breakfast and brunch draw the most foot traffic, particularly on weekends. If you're arriving without a reservation during peak weekend morning hours, expect a wait. Dinner tends to be more accessible, and the split-shift hours (closing at 2 pm before reopening at 4:30 pm) mean you can plan accordingly rather than arrive mid-afternoon expecting service.
Screen Door's Regional American menu is built around the kind of comfort-forward cooking that translates well off-premise. Southern-influenced dishes — the format that has defined Screen Door's reputation in Portland , tend to hold better in transit than more delicate preparations, which makes takeout a genuinely useful option here. If you're staying nearby, ordering to your accommodation is worth considering, particularly for breakfast or a casual dinner when a full sit-down isn't the priority. That said, the full experience of a well-established room with good local energy is worth the sit-down at least once, especially for a first visit. Takeout is a practical fallback, not a substitute for the real thing when you have time.
Screen Door's consistency across more than 7,000 reviews suggests the kitchen doesn't rely on atmosphere to carry the experience. That's a meaningful signal for off-premise quality: restaurants that perform well in a casual room, with high-volume output, typically produce food that travels better than fine-dining kitchens where plating and immediate service are load-bearing elements of the experience.
Screen Door has been in the OAD North America Casual rankings across multiple consecutive years, a relatively rare sign of sustained quality in a city with a dynamic food scene. Portland restaurants can rise and fall quickly, but Screen Door has held its position long enough that first-timers can book with confidence rather than gambling on a newer opening. That longevity matters when you're visiting from out of town and have limited meals to spend.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy. Reservations are advisable for weekend brunch specifically, but dinner most nights should be accessible with shorter notice. Walk-ins are more feasible at dinner than at peak weekend breakfast. No dress code applies at this casual format. The East Burnside address puts it in a walkable part of inner east Portland, accessible from most central accommodation.
| Detail | Screen Door | Kann | Nostrana |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuisine | Regional American | Haitian | Italian |
| Booking Difficulty | Easy | Moderate | Moderate |
| OAD Recognition | #277 Casual NA (2025) | Ranked | Ranked |
| Hours (Dinner Close) | 9:30–10 pm | Varies | Varies |
| Leading For | Breakfast, brunch, comfort dinner | Destination dinner | Pizza and Italian dinner |
Screen Door fits into a broader Portland dining scene worth planning around. For other directions from the same city, consider Kann for Haitian cooking that has become one of Portland's most-discussed destination dinners, Langbaan for Thai, or Berlu for Vietnamese. If you want to extend beyond restaurants, see our full Portland bars guide, our full Portland hotels guide, our full Portland wineries guide, and our full Portland experiences guide. The full picture is in our complete Portland restaurants guide.
For Regional American cooking in other cities, Big Jones in Chicago and Corson Building in Seattle offer useful comparisons at a similar tier. If you're calibrating Screen Door against fine-dining benchmarks elsewhere, the gap to something like The French Laundry in Napa or Alinea in Chicago is significant , but that's not what Screen Door is for. It competes in the casual comfort category, and in that lane, its sustained OAD presence puts it ahead of most.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy overall, but weekend brunch is the exception. For Saturday or Sunday morning, book at least a week out or arrive early and expect a wait. Dinner most nights is more manageable with 2–3 days' notice, and weekday lunch is the easiest of all to walk into. The OAD ranking means this draws visitors, not just locals, so weekends compress availability faster than the Easy rating implies for every time slot.
Group dining is possible here, though specific private dining or large-table policies aren't confirmed in available data. For parties of 6 or more, call ahead , the East Burnside location has the footprint of a well-established full-service restaurant, which suggests group seating is feasible, but confirm availability before assuming. Large weekend brunch groups are the trickiest to place; dinner gives more flexibility.
For a different direction entirely, Kann is the more ambitious dinner option in Portland right now, with Haitian cooking that has attracted national attention. For something lower-stakes and faster, Ken's Artisan Pizza is a reliable casual dinner. Nostrana covers similar casual-but-serious ground in Italian. If you specifically want Southern-influenced Regional American and Screen Door is fully booked, Big Jones in Chicago is the closest comparable in the region, though that requires a different trip entirely.
Bar seating specifics aren't confirmed in available data. As a well-established casual restaurant on East Burnside, bar or counter seating is plausible, but verify directly before making it your plan. If solo bar dining is your priority, call ahead rather than arriving and hoping.
It depends on what kind of occasion. Screen Door's Pearl Recommended status and OAD ranking make it a credible choice for a low-key celebration , a birthday brunch or a casual anniversary dinner works well here. For a formal special occasion where the setting and service register as event-level, it's not that kind of room. In Portland, Kann or Langbaan read more as destination-dinner venues if you want the occasion to feel more refined in format.
For a first visit, breakfast or brunch is what Screen Door is most known for. The morning and midday service (8:30 am–2 pm daily) represents the restaurant at its most distinctive. Dinner is solid and extends later on Fridays and Saturdays, but if your schedule allows, prioritise the daytime visit. The Regional American format shows leading in the morning.
Yes. Casual Regional American restaurants with counter or bar seating are generally well-suited to solo diners, and Screen Door's format supports it. Weekday lunch or an early weekday dinner are the lowest-friction options. The 4.7 Google rating across 7,300+ reviews reflects a consistent, repeatable experience rather than a room that depends on group energy to work.
No dress code. This is a casual restaurant on East Burnside, and the Regional American, comfort-food positioning means anything from smart-casual to everyday clothes is appropriate. There is no expectation of dressing up, and overdressing would be out of place. Come as you are.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen Door | Regional American | Easy | |
| Kann | Hatian, Haitian | Unknown | |
| Ken’s Artisan Pizza | Pizzeria | Unknown | |
| Nostrana | Italian | Unknown | |
| Apizza Scholls | Pizzeria | Unknown | |
| Blue Star Donuts | Doughnuts | Unknown |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
For weekend brunch, book at least a week in advance — it's the highest-demand slot and lines form without a reservation. Weeknight dinners are more forgiving and often accessible with a day or two of notice. The restaurant is open seven days a week, so there's flexibility if your dates shift. OAD has ranked Screen Door in its North America Casual list four consecutive years, which means demand stays steady year-round.
Screen Door can handle groups, but call ahead rather than assuming walk-in capacity for parties of six or more. Weekend brunch is the tightest window for larger tables, so if you're coordinating a group, target a weeknight dinner instead. Dinner service runs until 9:30 pm most nights and 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, giving more scheduling room.
For a change of cuisine, Kann offers Haitian cooking and is one of Portland's more talked-about recent additions. If you want pizza rather than Southern-influenced comfort food, Nostrana and Apizza Scholls are both Pearl-listed options on the east side. Ken's Artisan Pizza is another strong pizza alternative with a loyal local following.
Bar seating availability isn't documented in our current data for Screen Door, so confirm directly when you call or book. Given the format — a Pearl Recommended casual American restaurant with consistent OAD recognition — walk-in bar seating is plausible on quieter weeknights, but don't rely on it for weekend brunch.
Screen Door works well for a relaxed celebration rather than a formal one. It's a Pearl Recommended, OAD-ranked casual restaurant, so the setting is comfortable and the food is reliable, but it isn't a tasting-menu or white-tablecloth experience. If your occasion calls for something more formal, look elsewhere in Portland; if it calls for genuinely good food in an easy environment, Screen Door delivers.
Brunch and lunch (service runs 8:30 am to 2 pm daily) is what Screen Door is best known for, and the competition for those tables reflects that. Dinner is a lower-friction booking and runs until 9:30 or 10 pm depending on the night. If you want the full Screen Door experience and can handle the booking effort, go for brunch; if you want a quieter visit with easier access, dinner is the call.
Solo dining here is practical — the format is casual American, not a group-feast concept, so eating alone isn't awkward. Bar seating, if available, is the natural solo spot; otherwise a small table works fine. Weeknight dinners are the lowest-pressure option for solo visits given lighter booking demand.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
