MagoGuide : travel guide, restaurant guide

Broder: hygge or tråkig?
The Broder business model consists of the three b's: breakfast, brunch, and booze. Now all of those things are very close to the hearts and stomachs of TeamMago, but unfortunately we just do not get it. It's not that the food is bad, but there is a big difference between subtle and boring.
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Featured Post Portland Restaurants
The MagoGuide Pantelleria Mobile App Is Now Available
We love the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria: the dammusi, the rocky beaches, the hikes, the history, and the wild solitude. We love Pantelleria so much that we've built an entire iPhone/iPad app just to show off what we know about it.
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Best of MagoGuide Featured Post Pantelleria
La Moule Has Brunch Devine
La Moule is now serving brunch on both Saturdays and Sundays... and this is a really good thing. Their brunch menu is interesting and delicious. Plus, there's no line right now either early or late. Go and eat one of the best brunches that Portland has to offer.
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Featured Post Restaurants Southeast
No More Brunch at Accanto – So Let’s Do Dinner
Although we are gong to miss that killer brunch, Team Mago is here to tell you that no matter how Van Kley and Accanto evolve, you should grab the chance to watch a maestro plying his art at the chefs counter. The food at Accanto, Italian or not, neighborhoody or not, Van Kleyish enough or not, is outstanding.
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Featured Post Restaurants Southeast
The MagoGuide Barcelona Mobile App Is Now Available
We believe that Barcelona is one of the very best cities to visit not only in Spain, but in all of Europe. We find ourselves drawn back there year after year to enjoy the history, the architecture, the beach, and of course the wonderful food. We love Barcelona so much that we've built an entire iPhone/iPad app just to show off what we know about it.
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Barcelona Best of MagoGuide Featured Post

The Canadian: Luxury with a Purpose

February 12, 2017 Morgan Hart 1

Unlike most luxury train voyages, which are essentially rail cruises for well-heeled tourists, Via Rail’s Canadian provides genuine luxury for travelers on a year-round scheduled route between Vancouver and Toronto. Team Mago was surprised and delighted to find that Via’s Prestige class lived up to the hype and then some.

Amtrak Can Suck, But Not Nearly as Bad as Flying

July 15, 2016 Morgan Hart 0

Night Trains I Have Known

August 30, 2014 Morgan Hart 1

A NOLA Dust-Up: MagoGuide vs. Saveur in the Big Easy

March 9, 2013 Morgan Hart 0

MagoGuide Map of NW Montana

February 2, 2018 Patti Hart 0

We’ve been in NW Montana for decades and have found all sorts of places that we want to share. Now all of our favorite restaurants, markets, and hikes from Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, Bigfork, Missoula and the North Fork are listed on this map. They are also provided in an alphabetical list below map.

MagoGuide Map of Portland

January 24, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map of Rome

January 23, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map for Hadrian’s Wall

January 23, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map of Pantelleria

January 1, 2016 Patti Hart 0

MagoGuide Map for the UK

January 1, 2016 Patti Hart 0

Smokehouse Tavern
Sep 2, 2018
Chef BJ Smith likes to smoke Q. All four of his current restaurants are built around the concept of rubbing spice into meat and non-meat ingredients followed by exposure to the vapors of smoldering white oak, and then serving the results up with a choice of sauces, as well as a few judiciously chosen and […]
Smallwares
Sep 2, 2018
It is the pan-Asian post-modern fusion concept that just will not die. Acclaimed Chef Johanna Ware must be channeling Jodie Whittaker (she’s the latest Dr Who, Philistines!), and her latest regeneration is, in MagoGuide’s humble opinion, the best so far. But the new Smallwares is much more than a culinary three times lucky. Everyone is raving […]
Broder
Sep 1, 2018
Broder is a Portland-based nordic comfort food micro-chain with outposts in three Rip City quadrants and Hood River. All locations are popular with the original Broder Cafe on SE Clinton insanely so. The Broder business model consists of the three b’s: breakfast, brunch, and booze. Now all of those things are very close to the […]
Deadshot
Sep 1, 2018
I love it when chefs open a bar right next to their flagship restaurants for which reservations are difficult to impossible within any reasonable amount of time. Ostensibly these establishments are bleeder valves for their white hot culinary destinations, but for TeamMago they very often become a more accessible place to enjoy some of the […]
Canard
Sep 1, 2018
I love eating at Gabriel Rucker’s restaurants, but I hate writing reviews about them. Everyone has reviewed them and only idiots on social media do not like them. So fuck it, MagoGuide is duly impressed with every element of Chef Rucker’s vertically integrated gastro system: cafe, bistro, and restaurant. But, at least since our recent […]
Cibo
Sep 1, 2018
When chef/owner Marco Frattaroli of Bastas Trattoria (now Carina Lounge) opened Cibo on SE Division Street some six years ago reviewers swooned, or tried to. These days Cibo has ditched almost all the adventuresome dishes that Willamette Week, The Portland Mercury, and Portland Monthly loved or really, really wanted to love (MagoGuide supplied translation: they either sucked […]
Community Plate
Sep 1, 2018
Community Plate in McMinnville is a very nice breakfast and lunch place in the middle of the Willamette Valley’s wine country. The rustic dining space has the usual ductage, pendants, and wood that one comes to expect from PNW small town cafes. But the big draw, as far as TeamMago is concerned ,is a very […]
Blackheart
Sep 1, 2018
In what is surely a sign of the end times, MagoGuide agrees with a Willamette Week restaurant review. Blackheart is indeed a great addition to what Pete Cottell styles Rose City’s “scumbag breakfast” dive bars. TeamMago would, however, go even further and declare that there is nothing quite like a dive bar before it gets divey. Blackheart’s […]
64 Taphouse and Growler Station
Aug 6, 2018
Hood River’s first growler fill station is a nice venue with thirty taps, four of them cider and the rest beer. The venue is tricked out primarily in reclaimed wood with both indoor and outdoor seating. It’s a good stop on a Hood River craft beer crawl or to fill a growler for a picnic […]
Bottle Rocket
Aug 6, 2018
When the owners of the Chicken and Guns and Potato Champion added Bottle Rocket to the Cartopia food cart pod, they wittingly cast future patrons upon the horns of a delicious trilemma involving killer chicken, fantastic fries, or bitchin’ burgers. At Bottle Rocket they give great flat top and fryolator. Burgers are the heart of […]

MagoGuide Travel Guide

Broder: hygge or tråkig?

The MagoGuide Pantelleria Mobile App Is Now Available

La Moule Has Brunch Devine

No More Brunch at Accanto – So Let’s Do Dinner

The MagoGuide Barcelona Mobile App Is Now Available

The MagoGuide Pantelleria Mobile App Is Now Available

The MagoGuide Barcelona Mobile App Is Now Available

MagoGuide Portland Has New Places!

MagoGuide Mobile Apps – We Just Keep Getting Better All The Time

MagoGuide UK iPhone/iPad App has been Released!

MagoGuide’s Travel Compatibility Quiz Actually Works!

Broder: hygge or tråkig?

La Moule Has Brunch Devine

No More Brunch at Accanto – So Let’s Do Dinner

The Best Spots For A Night Out In Montréal

Nimblefish: Love the Sushi, Hate the Staff

Accanto: The Next Act for Erik Van Kley

Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant: Mine’s a Pint

Newport’s Cnapan Restaurant with Rooms: Sadly but Understandably Downshifting to a B&B

Hotel Le Bleu: Great Location but Otherwise Mediocre

The Archer Hotel: Superior Staff but a Small, Spendy Room

Hotel Gault: Luxury by Design

Our Worst B&B Experience Ever

Mago Tip: Plan ferries to and from Sicily carefully

Mago Tip: Weather experience on the Seabourn Quest

Traveling by freighter

Seabourn Quest: Crossing with Cruisers

Nanci Brooks – travel agent extraordinaire

Crystal Serenity