The salads are super fresh and brightly colored.

If you cannot decide between the beef, the chicken or the cheese ones – then order all three and split them with a friend! This is because they are homemade with leaf lard and I will tell you, they are surely worth the wait. The menu informs you empanadas will take about fifteen minutes. So What Should I Order at Pambiche – a Slice of Old Havana? It is like a tropical form of Spanish, think tropical roots like yuca and taro. It is not common knowledge that Cuban food is more closely related to Creole and Puerto Rican and Spanish cuisine, than Mexican cuisine. Eating al fresco is definitely reminiscent of my travels to Latin America. However, in the warmer months, seating is expanded with outdoor tables under a sidewalk arcade. In fact, it’s not unusual to need to wait to get a seat at the cozy restaurant. It’s also almost always bustling with people, which is generally a reliable sign of good food. And why I include it in our Portland food tours. This is part of what makes it such a fun restaurant to eat in Portland, Oregon. With the dreary winter days, it is very inviting to sit inside Pambiche and immediately be transported to Havana. The inside is very bright and cheery as well. Pambiche is on the ground floor of a three story building and the entire building is painted in bright purple, green, yellow, and pink, with a mural depicting Cuban life on the east side of the Apamicho buildling. And yet, each country develops its own customs of preparing food, creating a sense of national identity.

Countries in those regions are geographically small, therefore the overlapping of food crops that thrive there is to be expected. So Pambiche, touts itself as Cuban food, which I believe you will find to be very similar to other food from the Caribbean and Central America. And how terrific that on a rainy Oregon day, I can slip into Pambiche – a slice of old Havana with Cuban hospitality. Although I did not purposely move a few blocks from it to be nearby, it’s certainly an added benefit of living in the Kerns. It came to me through word of mouth in one of those classic “where are the fun restaurants in Portland” conversations. I discovered this gem years before I moved to Portland.

Old havana foods