6 Best Restaurants in Eastern Oregon, Oregon

This Main Street mainstay is best known for its amazing sweet treats in the bakery case, but there are plenty of savory delights on the menu, too, including several grilled egg sandwiches, avocado toast, and quinoa bowls for breakfast and five creative variations of grilled cheese sandwiches at lunch. Soups and salads are also popular. If you didn't save room for dessert, be sure and get some of the tasty scones, cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and other treats to go.

A large downtown complex of western-style brick and log cabin buildings holds a steak house, café, and saloon, and captures Pendleton's cowboy heritage with its ornate interior. The swanky steak house is open for dinner only, the saloon serves a lighter bar menu, and the café serves breakfast and lunch. Peppercorn-crusted top sirloin, slow roasted prime rib, burgers, and fire-roasted salmon are among the favorites.

This cute spot opened in 2021 next to the historic Liberty Theatre, which is actively being restored, and quickly earned a loyal following for its great coffee and short but innovative menu of breakfast and lunch offerings. Tourists find it a welcome stop, too, whether to grab the revered breakfast sandwich "The Betty" (egg souffle, ham, creamed local spinach, Havarti, and dijon on a potato bun) for takeout or to stay for a more leisurely lunch, like curried chicken salad on sourdough or the messy-but-delicious grilled peanut butter and homemade jam on challah.

The Outpost occupies one of the sleekest spaces in town: a large building with a log-cabin exterior, a vast entry lobby, and a bright, spacious, high-ceilinged dining room. The kitchen serves creative pizzas and has a lengthy menu of standard entrées including burgers, steak, seafood, salads, and quesadillas.

A downtown institution since 1883, this historic saloon hasn’t changed much in more than a hundred years. Locals donning cowboy hats and leather boots still belly up to the bar seven days a week for no-frills breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Rainbow chicken, a half chicken coated in batter then pressure cooked, is a signature item.

Like many of the best establishments in Joseph, the Blythe Cricket was launched by talented locals—longtime friends Rachel Nutter and Margaret Lamm, who share a love for baking and for providing the community with tasty food and a comfortable, attractive place to gather over breakfast or lunch, both inside and outside. Start the day with an espresso drink featuring direct trade coffee roasted by Nosse Familia Coffee in Portland, or an artisan hot tea made with Metolius Tea from Bend. The breakfast menu includes such filling choices as a daily frittata, two breakfast burritos, baked oatmeal, and savory corn cakes that are gluten-free and filled with black beans and peppers. At lunch, choose from salads, soup, and tasty sandwiches like the Italian muffuletta, turkey pear panino, falafels on flatbread, and grilled cheese. The bakery case is filled with yummy treats that are known to sell out before closing time (2 pm). In summer, enjoy eating outside on picnic tables.