Ate-Oh-Ate

Description

Ate-Oh-Ate is a small Hawaiian restaurant chain with three locations in the Portland area: two in Portland and one in Beaverton. The original spot on East Burnside Street seats 40 and has high ceilings, skylights, exposed wood, a 50-foot mural, and various island-themed knickknacks. The Woodstock outpost is 600 square feet and holds 48 people. The menu features an Aina burger topped with crispy pork belly, spicy mayo, and kimchi relish, plus Spam musubi, beef short ribs, katsu chicken, and hekka.

Vegan choices include curry bowls and teriyaki grilled tofu, which comes with white rice and either a green salad with sesame dressing or macaroni salad. Drinks include cocktails, beer, and shaved ice. For the 2019 Nacho Week, they served tarochos—taro chips with Kalua pig, Longboard kimchi queso, green onion, and shaved radish. During the pandemic, takeout offered rice bowls and sandwiches with banana-leaf-slow-roasted pork shoulder, Korean short ribs, grilled Korean chicken, or grilled tofu.

History

Benjamin Dyer opened the original Ate-Oh-Ate on September 11, 2010, after a planned August launch, running it from 11 am to 8 pm with a grand opening party on October 19. In October 2016, Dyer, David Kreifels, and Jason Owens opened a second, slightly smaller-menu location in Woodstock. By May 2020, the restaurant offered takeout and delivery during the pandemic. Late that year, it sold branded golf discs through a Nemo Design partnership to raise funds. A third location, in the former Big's Chicken space, started in Beaverton on April 15, 2024.

Reception

Ate-Oh-Ate has earned a steady stream of praise since 2014, when The Oregonian ranked its Aina burger sixth among the city's best burgers. The following year, the restaurant placed 87th on the same paper's list of Portland's 101 best restaurants, and its Spam musubi was featured in a cheap eats guide of 99 dishes under $10. In 2015, Thrillist highlighted both the restaurant's chicken wings among Portland's top ten and the Aina burger among the city's eleven best pork belly dishes.

Willamette Week's Jay Horton noted in 2016 that while the storefront's island kitsch might evoke a third-grade luau, the kitchen aims higher, bringing sophistication to a cuisine often associated with Spam. He credited chef Ben Dyer with treating his homeland's food with seriousness while still embracing surfer lounge whimsy like boozy shave ice and strong mai tais. That same year, Ate-Oh-Ate was a runner-up in Willamette Week's readers' poll for Best Teriyaki.

In 2018, the paper's Pete Cottell included the Spam musubi in a list of eight essential munchies for when you're stoned and starving. The Portland Mercury's 2019 happy hour overview called the menu an absolute steal. In 2020, Eater Portland named Ate-Oh-Ate among thirteen spots for heavenly Hawaiian food and thirteen for standout vegetarian meals, while Ron Scott of the same site included the kalua pig sandwich in a roundup of the city's most epic hangover cures.