Biwa (late night)

Biwa is a fantastic Japanese restaurant in SE Portland. It specializes in yakitori and ramen, not sushi, and does it well. The interior has a classy SE “industrial” aesthetic, but the atmosphere is more relaxed than many of your comparable fancy restaurants.

Prices can get high on the main dinner at Biwa, but it’s worth it, and they have a great happy hour and late night menu. We went for a late dinner last night after the opera. Sadly they’d stopped serving ramen at 10pm, but we were still able to get lots of tasty treats at happy hour prices: Kim chi (they make it with several types of pickled things, not just cabbage), miso soup (stuffed full of tofu, clearly their own miso paste), and delectable beef burgers with a patty of pork on top that is apparently a new addition to the menu. We also got a carafe of Jinro, which is reminiscent of Pim’s, but not. It’s Sho Chu (a Japanese and Korean distilled liquor often made from potatoes or barley – like Asian vodka) in a carafe with ice and lemon and cucumber slices. Refreshing, light, and tasty.