Ask a longtime Lake Oswego resident what's new in the city's restaurant scene and they'll list restaurants like they're reciting a grocery order. Ramen here. Birria there. A sushi counter that wasn't there in the spring. The specifics of who's moving into which storefront offer a snapshot of Lake Oswego's restaurant scene in 2026.
Five restaurants, one calendar year
Start with the timeline, because the dates matter more than the menus.
Neko Ramen opened near the New Seasons Market at 3 Monroe Parkway in late January, run by owner Sirapob Chaiprathum, who learned to make ramen in Tokyo after a long career in the restaurant industry. Three months later, OG Birrieria Lake Oswego held its soft opening on April 22 at 15840 Boones Ferry Road, taking over the space long occupied by Giant Drive-In, which closed in 2023. Owner Richard Hurtado had been working toward that opening for two years. OG Birrieria first applied for a business license in 2024 and slowly remodeled the space into a Mexican restaurant over the past two years.
Downtown moved at the same pace. Sushi M, offering fresh sushi and sake, opened at 440 5th St. and welcomed customers for the first time in early May, with owner Hiroyuki Makino relocating his sushi concept from Marin County. A month after that, KIN's co-owner Thanaphorn "Fair" Khusawangsri, who previously ran a Japanese food cart near the South Waterfront, decided to open a brick and mortar izakaya downtown after seeing an opening in Lake Oswego, built around the idea that the neighborhood didn't already have one.
Then, in mid July, owners Valentin and Rocio Soltero announced plans to open Mezcal Mexican Restaurant by the end of August at 15630 Southwest Boones Ferry Road, Suite 2, in a space that most recently held Ivy's Pho & Grill.
| Restaurant | Opened / Opening | Location | What it replaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neko Ramen | January 2026 | 3 Monroe Parkway | New concept, adjacent to New Seasons Market |
| OG Birrieria | April 2026 | 15840 Boones Ferry Rd | Giant Drive-In (closed 2023) |
| Sushi M | May 2026 | 440 5th St, downtown | New concept |
| KIN izakaya | Summer 2026 | Downtown | New concept |
| Mezcal Mexican Restaurant | Planned by end of August 2026 | 15630 SW Boones Ferry Rd | Ivy's Pho & Grill |
Five businesses, five separate decisions, all in Lake Oswego in the same calendar year. Taken together, they offer a snapshot of the city's restaurant activity.
The closure that didn't go to another restaurant
Here's where the pattern gets interesting, and where a simple "look what's new" post would stop too soon.
The Mezcal team isn't new to Lake Oswego. Valentin and Rocio Soltero spent a decade running Corona Mexican Restaurant two blocks from their new location. The married couple formerly owned the shuttered Corona Mexican Restaurant two blocks away for a decade, the first restaurant they opened, before Summit Orthopedics purchased the former Corona site to expand its footprint and services.
The available account does not explain why the Solteros chose a different location.
That's one part of Lake Oswego's restaurant story this year. What fills a former restaurant space isn't always another restaurant. As Rocio Soltero told the Lake Oswego Review, "People already know us. Some customers are asking when we are coming back." Mezcal is planned for a different space, two blocks from the former Corona location.
Other activity around Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego has activity beyond its restaurant scene. The Lake Oswego Farmers' Market is marking 25 years at Millennium Plaza Park, running Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. through October 31. The market started in 2001 when Millennium Plaza Park opened as a way to bring residents to the new community center and to local businesses, and has become a popular mainstay now celebrating its 25-year anniversary. Market manager Shelley Burgess put it simply: "Saturday mornings and afternoons at the market are a community gathering space."
At Luscher Farm, the summer calendar included a Saturday garden tour. On Saturday, August 8, the Lake Oswego Public Library and the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection planned a guided tour of the garden and its 960-plus kinds of clematis, along with hundreds of other perennials, shrubs, and trees grown to support the collection.
None of these three threads, the restaurant changes, the market's anniversary season, or a single Saturday garden tour, were planned around each other. They occur at different locations around Lake Oswego and across several months.
What it means if you already live here
You don't need any of this to buy or sell a house. You need it because it explains something you've probably already half noticed: what fills an empty storefront isn't always the same kind of business that left. A restaurant closes and a physical therapy clinic or an orthopedic group can be the one writing the check for the space. That's worth knowing the next time a favorite spot closes and you're wondering whether something similar will take its place.
If you're the kind of person who tracks these things because you're weighing how Lake Oswego is changing, or you're simply curious what local commercial activity can mean for residential values nearby, the team at ELEETE Real Estate has been watching the city's market closely. Request a complimentary market valuation and we'll walk you through what activity like this can signal for neighborhoods around Lake Oswego.
