If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it one thousand times… brunch is by far my favorite meal of any day. Heavy, filling, and unabashedly obvious in its ability to set any day straight (especially when accompanied by a good cup of coffee). Living in a town like Portland, there’s no shortage of places to grab a mid-morning bite, but that’s probably what surprised me most when Meredith suggested that we try the brunch at Pai Men Miyake one morning a few weeks back.

Don’t get me wrong, Meredith and I are huge fans of Pai Men – its lunch is hands-down one of the tastiest deals in town and its beer list and cocktail menu are very far from wanting – it had just never occurred to me that their hardly-advertised brunch could live up to the lofty bar set by their other specialties.

Brunch at Pai Men Miyake is far from your typical pancake and egg pick me up. They have them, just with enough Miyake flair to make you forget that you’re sticking with an old-fashioned staple. The Okono Miyake – Japanese egg pancakes with Miyake farm pork, cabbage, scallions, ginger, fried egg, and topped with kewpie mayo and tonkatsu sauce – was deliciously flavorful. Every bite was a savory surprise, playing tricks on my traditional pancake-trained mind. Meredith loved her fried rice with bok choy, chinese chives, ginger, and a Miyake farm poached egg, and after we added a cup of always-amazing Tandem coffee, brunch at Miyake had easily been cemented in our minds as a new Portland brunch must.