Nomad made Portland Monthly’s Restaurant of the Year list in 2015, and we’ve been trying to figure out how to make it happen ever since. Turns out it was worth the wait.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2016 challenge. Here’s the full list.

When you first enter, it seems more like an under-construction coffee shop than a fancy restaurant, but the food transcends the decor. We shared our plain table with a party of four we’d never met before, and the dissonance between the decor and the cuisine left us all feeling a bit strange.

But it all makes sense in hindsight. You’re supposed to be taken out of your comfort zone, and the non-restauranty feel of the place just sets the tone in your mind — you haven’t had anything quite like this before.

Truth be told, we definitely saw echoes of Holdfast in the style of food here, down to the explode-in-your-mouth “rocks” we had for the final dessert course. But I’d hardly call it derivative; this is very much its own thing. Expensive, but worth it.