Nonna

The tall, dark and Sicilian (drink) is amazing! I want five more right now.
This place has great atmosphere, friendly barkeeps, and some tasty snacks.

I really wanted to like this place, awesome decore and promising menu. BUT worst service I’ve ever had in Portland. And while a few dishes were great, an equal number missed the mark. For the money, definitely better dining experiences to be had.

Absolutely horrible and a complete disappointment! My boyfriend and I were trying to get a table at the DOC next door they were booked up so they suggested their «sister» restaurant next door: Nonna. So I did go into the situation with no research or knowledge of what kind of food and service they had.
We sat at the little tables in front of the bar. Took us 20 min just to get drinks (just iced tea and 7-​up)
Ordered the Baby carrots salad and it was tossed in oil based dressing but they had either let it sit too long in the oil dressing or their lettuce was wilted to begin with because the oil just consumed the leafy greens of the salad and made it limp and not crisp like salad should be.
My boyfriend ordered the oysters and he seemed happy with them but I thought they were way small. (I don’t eat raw oysters so I don’t know really)
Ok this is what really pissed me off: it took us at LEAST an hour to get our main entrée the Chinook Salmon and it was UNDERCOOKED by A LOT!!! It was also a VERY SMALL portion (3×3″ and 1“thick: we were told it was going to be enough to feed two people! There is NO WAY that was true!) I cook/​bake salmon at home all the time so I know the cooking time of salmon and there is NO WAY they cooked that dish for more than 7min! It almost completely raw and we were NOT HAPPY.
They were not that busy either. Not for our food to be an hour late and undercooked like it was.
I know you must be thinking why didn’t we say anything… well my boyfriend is the exact opposite of me when it comes to confrontation. I wanted to say something but it was his idea to go out to eat and I thought it was super sweet. Didn’t want to ruin our night because of this crappy dinner. BUT I will Unilocal about it for sure and let everyone know it was NOT worth the $ 56.70 we spent… and after all that we left still very hungry.

Upon hearing that Nonna was good for families, it was on my list of places to check out for brunch with my wife and 10-​month-​old. We went at 10 on a Saturday, expecting to find a packed house. Surprisingly, we had the place to ourselves at first.
The staff was great — our server advised us on the way the menu works, was attentive to refilling excellent coffee into thimble-​sized coffee cups, and served brunch in a way that kept it out of reach from our kid.
We had one «Gusti,» a fava bean dish with ham that was a surprisingly good way to start the day — fresh strawberries and some vinegar made for a great flavor combination.
And we had the chicken and waffle, because that is what one must do. It did not disappoint, with a perky fermented waffle under two generous and perfectly juicy chicken thighs.
The «two your way» was less exciting — the sausage was dry, the eggs over medium were rubbery and undersalted, the toast boring. While the potatoes and aioli were OK, they weren’t great.
Lastly, Nonna is a Portland restaurant that adds a 5% health care charge to the bill. This amounted to roughly $ 2 on a $ 40 bill. While I respect that health care is being provided to employees, it seems that this should be part of the overhead on meal costs, not tacked on as an «added charge.»

Atmosphere = quaint, Service = Very Good, Taste = OK but I’m thinking «Nonna» must mean «nano» in Italian reflecting the microscopic sized portions of their menu selections. C’mon, there’s a million great restaurants in PDX; why did I have to come home hungry after $ 30 PP and look to see what was still left in the refrigerator? There’s other choices around town and I won’t be back for a (long) while.

Our group of 3 shared several items: olives and nuts, kale caesar salad, roasted carrots, bowtie pasta with beef bacon (amazing!), scallops and beef shoulder. The quality and taste of each dish was fantastic. We had previously dined at DOC and loved it, and found the quality at Nonna to be as good! If I lived nearby I’d be dining at Nonna at least once a week.
Our server was helpful in suggesting, unprompted, how many items would be right for our party and that the concept was to share. We enjoy that. If I returned on my own, I’d probably order one vegetable dish and one pasta or meat/​seafood. But if you want less, you could probably make a nice small meal of just a pasta. Their vegetables dishes alone are worth the trip.
I had the Tall, Dark and Stormy Sicilian cocktail and it was delicious.
We went early on a Tuesday (5:15) and I think we were the only people there. Then by 7 the place was packed! Going early you are likely to get the best service and no wait. They take reservations. Even as it filled up, we could still have a conversation without a high noise level. We were in the window seat next to the door.

Italian tapas. Excellent description. Only problem was waitress forgot to serve the ordered glass of wine. Of corse they did not charge us. Tonight was birthday celebration for my partner. Everything was perfect. Great time.

I should have cringed the moment the server suggested that this was a «small, shareable plates» restaurant. That, to me, is second only to hearing the term «tapas». If I have to worry about going to Jack n The Box on the way home, or microwaving a burrito, I normally turn on my heels and jet.
However, I was already seated. Cocktail in hand. No turning back.
I’ve always thought that wine is a rip-​off at restaurants, so I of course ordered the least expensive glass ($ 10). To my surprise it was great! Of course, my eyes drifted 2 inches down the menu, to the $ 8 Manhattan, and I immediately regretted my wine decision. Well, only for the moment. In an alarmingly few minutes I had downed the wine and ordered the Manhattan, which was also excellent.
Food-​wise, I was demoralized to learn that they were out of the sea urchin pasta. Unfortunate, but out of my control. Thanks, uncontrollable weather patterns, or bacteria, elves, or something. I ended up ordering the beef carpaccio, which was lovely and tender, and of surprising size.
For a main, I ordered the orecchiette. Then the tears came. Various forces had promised portions of reasonable size. After all, this is Italian food, right? Abundant, seasonal, flavorful. Sadly this dish was just ok, and consisted of maybe 1.5 cups of cooked pasta. As someone who is physically incapable of making the entire box of pasta, my tiny reptilian brain had a difficult time coming to terms with this unfortunate turn of events.
As I spiraled into oblivion, and by that I mean «caved and ordered desert», something which I never do, I was surprised to find that the vanilla gelato was both of mammoth flavor and volume. I think we ended up pouring our leftover olive oil on it, which I am sure no staff saw.
Our server, who was the type of adorable personality that you would want in a super sweet, really accessible big sister, was fantastic! She and the drinks were almost the true highlight.
I suppose the bottom line, something which I was fairly convinced of beforehand, is that: really great Italian cuisine is best made at home. It is rarely worth paying exorbitant amounts for pasta (and I would not call Nonna’s prices exorbitant, but the price to size ratio was off-​putting). Despite this, I still had a great night with friends, due to great libations, service, and conversation.

We had reservations for 4 at 7:00 pm on a Saturday night. While the menu is very limited (only 4 entrees and no special) they were already out of pasta when we sat down! How do you do that? I ordered a Bombay Sapphire martini when we were seated. After waiting 10 minutes i flagged down our waiter to ask where my drink was. He then replied, «oh, yeah, I was supposed to tell you we don’t have Bombay Sapphire». Really???
We ordered appetizers and beet salads, which were interesting and palatable. Our entries were delivered by another staff member. Our regular waiter, or anyone else for that matter never once checked in with us to see if everything was okay. We had to flag him down again after our water glasses were completely empty.
When the check came we noticed an additional charge at the bottom which was equivalent to 2% of the $ 160 total. So, essentially an $ 8 surcharge. So again we flagged down our waiter to get an explanation of this charge. He told us that this charge was to help pay for the staff’s health care costs, but it was optional. Of course they don’t bother to tell you about it beforehand. They just add it to your bill and hope you don’t say anything. We basically are paying for the employer’s Obamacare costs. What a crock!
We paid the fee to avoid any hassle and then fled the restaurant to go next door to Authentica Mexican restaurant and order some Obamacare free dessert.

After having the worst date of my life, where the dude left me at the table, I called my BFF to go get comfort food on me. I had read the menu had changed. And boy had it! No longer simple homemade meatballs and tomato butter sauce for a reasonable price, every pasta dish was $ 17. Ok, fine, I had a 2:1 Chinook coupon. The pastas sounded exotic, with the likes of rabbit and black sea urchin, we settled on the rabbit tagliatelle and sausage olio.
1. Each dish was tiny, a half cup of pasta
2. The protein swam through it, kind of like those cup of noodle soups
3. and like those cup of noodle soups, and I like salt and so does my BFF, never in my life had I had such an over-​salting revolting dish, not only one dish, but both.
The waiter was nice and the drinks were good. We ventured to tell him about the salt factor, he said he’d let the chef know. We never saw him again that eve.
Also, we ordered the Caesar salad, so fishy and not romaine as yester yore, wilty field greens. So disappointed and we ordered a large.
Come back, come back my Nonna !

The furnace was broke so it was a bit chilly but the warm and cozy atmosphere helped.
Ordered an extremely bland cauliflower risottoish dish. Salt and pepper on the table would have been of some assistance but could not rescue the really boring dish.
The wide noodle pork meatball dish was much more flavorful and appreciated. The butter tomato sauce was wonderful.
Don’t bother with the cheese plate. Really!
The service was fine. Nothing memorable or special.
Overall = Meh.

The food was ok.
But the point of this review is unfortunately about the terrible service.
It took 10 minutes to get water and 20 for bread that was cold.
Also I noticed, all the (white) older folks got their service immediately,
and the younger folks sat and waited for ages. no pun intended.
Also when I asked the server to explain a dish he looked at my white boyfriend the entire time and did not once even look at me, a colored female.
I regret ever spending my money and time there.
If I’m going to pay a lot for small dishes I expect great service, this was a bad visit and ruined my night.
Overall, I consider this place to be agist, and sexist.

We visited Nonna’s on the recommendation of our hosts. Looking forward to a plate of comfort food” we eagerly ordered our pasta, only to sit and wait, and wait some more.
The hostess/​waitress was as nice as can be, but service was poor.
Food was good but not great, no salt or pepper unless you ask– and wait, and nothing like bread for the table.
The kicker was when we received another tables check instead of our check. Just another example of careless oversight. They could be great but that will take some work!

I’ve been here twice now, wait staff isn’t very polite and once asked if my friend and I had a reservation while we were literally the only patrons. There also are a lot of flies, which is kind of gross and annoying.
I do like their food though. I may return because of it’s location but will have low expectations.

Great food! The service was questionable… Bartender/​host did not know what the house white or red were then proceeded to read the label of white to me when asked. When I inquired about the house red all she could tell me was it was an organic wine. The prawns were great! We both ordered the ravioli which was excellent and prepared with pine nut pesto. However, the waitress thought we ordered one to share when we each ordered our own. To their credit they gave us the second entrée complimentary.

We came to Nonna with our hosts while visiting from Dallas.
The food was very good, but the service was lacking in basic attention. Having to ask for water repeatedly for a table of four is silly – when we are all paying for multiple cocktails and wine.
The apps we shared were caprese salad, the spicy broccoli, and the octopus. These were all delicious. The broccoli whatever was very nice and spicy. The octopus was delicious, super tender, served in a nice tomato broth… which was the majority of it. This should include bread, because the majority of it is delicious liquid.
Our plates were great The pesto on the raviolis was yummy, if a touch too salty. My spaghetti and meatballs was amazing! The meatballs were average to really good… but the actual pasta was incredible. Cooked perfectly, salted, with a very well made sauce on top.
The tiramisu we all shared was good, but not great. Nothing to complain about.
My issue was the wine. The house wine was the dregs… full of sediment. By full, I mean FULL. The bartender made all sorts of beautiful cocktails for the table, then basically shit on us with the wine. Unbelievable actually.
I also take issue with the 5% Health and Wellness tax – on top of suggesting a 25% gratuity. I work several jobs very hard for my money, yet still cannot afford insurance. I think it’s great, but roll it into the cost of the menu items. I understand the social statement, and I get it. A $ 135 meal + 5%+20%. Really nice meal, but really pretentious… even for PDX.

I give Nonna a 3.5. I’ve been there twice and while the ambience, drinks, and food were definitely good and return worthy, I was really hoping that the odd service and timing at our first visit was just a fluke or a bad evening. Unfortunately upon returning a 2^nd time we had equally strange and inattentive service.
*If you’re interested in an explanation of the service issues we experienced to judge for yourself:*
On our first visit, we ordered some beverages, then appetizers, then a pasta dish. All went by smoothly. We then ordered one more dish, and sat and waited for a very long time. I drank an entire glass of wine in this time (I’m not a heavy or fast drinker) and no one ever came and checked on us. After about a ½ hour the waiter stopped by and apologized that he had forgotten to put our order in and double checked what we had ordered again. The food finally came and they kindly and appropriately offered a free desert due to the problem… which they then proceeded to charge us for when the bill came and we had to awkwardly bring it up. There were also some discrepancies in 2 servers both coming to our table and not communicating.
On the second visit, we waited a very long time after putting in our order, and when our food finally came they brought the appetizers and the salads together, which seemed odd timing especially considering the Italian «primi» and «secondi» etc. flow of the menu. No one checked on us during the long wait. When they brought this stuff out they didn’t ask about re-​upping our drinks which were all empty from waiting that time. Our main courses came really fast after that so it seemed like all our food was made together at the same time and they just took a long time to start making it (there wasn’t hardly anyone else in the restaurant and I believe I saw one of the cooks drinking or eating at the bar for awhile when we were first there.)
So again, just some oddness in the timing and service that at this level of restaurant just really felt a little annoying and if it had been more professional would have elevated our whole dining experience significantly. It also would make me much more apt to go back, which after experiencing some strange service a couple times in a row makes me more tentative.
*Good food, Ambience, Bad Desert*
The ambience is really nice, dark and sort of romantic, not too loud. Cute back patio. Seats by the window to watch the street and trees outside.
The wines I’ve tried were really great and unusual, we enjoyed all the food we ate except for desert which was really not great, it felt like they weren’t really trying with desert at all, it was about 20% the quality of the food on the menu.
Our favorite dishes were the ragu pasta, I loved a really well cooked full trout, and we really enjoyed all of the chichetties including white prawns with chimichurri and a broiled green of some kind that wrapped a pancetta I believe. One of us really loved the mushroom crostini as well (appetizer) as well as a grilled romaine caesar. A simple green salad tasted very fresh.

Nonna consistently fails at the basic but important stuff. I’ve been here three times over the past couple years, and other than the pleasant back patio, nice wood interior and generally friendly service, it just doesn’t work at all. It was also nearly empty mid-​evening on a recent Friday that saw all the surrounding restaurants packed.
The salads are particularly disappointing– odd combos of less than fresh items dressed poorly. The caprese included a tiny handful of thin unripe tomato slices languishing amid a few basil shreds in various states of decay, dolloped with some bland balsamic vinegar. A caprese, even an average caprese, is a drool-​inducing concoction of a few simple fresh ingredients, partnered in time-​tested fashion that explodes in your mouth making you a very happy person. This caprese makes you feel sad.
Service tends towards pretty friendly if you’re able to flag someone down. If your glass of wine is corked like mine was the other night, it will probably languish on the table for awhile while you wait, wishing you could get the bad taste out of your mouth. You’ll likely sit for quite some time before and after ordering– don’t come hungry or plan to leave satiated. Its likely your server won’t know who ordered which main, won’t be adept at basic multi-​tasking and won’t manage a comfortable tempo with the meal. Your departure will likely not be noticed as you walk out the front door of a less than busy main dining room.
Some of Nonna’s many failings could potentially be overlooked if it had recently opened, was crazy popular, was in Alaska or an airport, or was super affordable. It is none of those things.

Just went for Brunch, which is new at Nonna. Would probably never go for brunch again. The portions were quite small, and the coffee (unlisted on the menu), was $ 5 per mug. WTF.
Décor is awesome, though.

Nonna looks beautiful with its vintage lights, dark wood, and the kind of beautiful bar that I imagine would be in an elegant speakeasy. The low lighting gives it an intimacy that makes it a nice place to go on a date or a good conversation over dinner with friends.
The food is Italian and comforting. The portions are perfect. The flavors burst in your mouth. We had a trio of bruschetta for our appetizer. There was one topped with a sautéed mushroom concoction on something creamy. It had a nice chili kick to it that might be too spicy for some people but it totally satisfied my craving for spice. The second one was smoked salmon, also really delicious. The third one was topped with thinly shaved pancetta. It was so good. I could eat 20 of them. I would have been perfectly satisfied having just this for dinner.
This was followed with a steak for him and a ragu bolognese (not written in those words exactly, it was much longer and very Italian). The sauce was flavorful and the meat is tender. It was a little too much sauce for me. The steak for him was cooked perfectly to his specifications (rare) and the sauce they spread over it has a nice creamy taste to it and still light. There was grilled asparagus and a bread salad. We learned from one of the cooks that this bread salad was what the Italians ate during WWII when certain foods were scarce. This salad was mixed with greens and had a refreshing crispiness that helped cleanse the palate.
The tiramisu here is creamy with some pockets of crunchiness. I am not a huge fan of tiramisu but I really liked this one. All in all, it was satisfying meal. I would have to say that the food was the star in this experience. I would come back for that.