Caro Amico Italian Cafe — Restaurant in Portland

Ho-Hum. When I saw just 3.5 stars, I had some concerns. But with nary a decent, home-style Italian restaurant in a town infamous for its culinary delights, I decided to give Caro Amico a shot.

Having lived and traveled extensively in Italy and being married to an Italian, I am used to great, authentic Italian food and Neapolitan pizza at extremely reasonable prices. This has not been the case in Portland in the year we have lived here. With pasta dishes at $20+, individual "Neapolitan" pizzas, and I use that term loosely, in the same price range, and veal entrees (no soup/salad, bread, or both) at $25 and up (when you can find veal), I have found Italian food in Portland and surrounds expensive and subpar. Caro Amico was no exception.

We were herded into the dark bar at 5:20PM even though there were several tables in the restaurant available. The bartender seemed a bit grouchy, not understanding my wife's inquiry about sauce options for her pizza (she's allergic to tomatoes) and stating "whatever" rather than taking the time to understand or explain.

Their "Happy Hour" menu is a joke, with drink prices basically the same as regular prices as far as I could tell and half orders of menu dishes at half-price. Where is the value in that? Being our first visit, we decided to order of the regular menu.

Instead of getting an 6.5 inch "small" one-topping pizza/snack for $11.50, my wife ordered a large pizza "Milano Style", which turned out to be "olive oil and sweet basil" (aka "pesto"), with mushrooms ($18.50) so we could take home the leftovers, a much better value. Having lived in Naples, Italy most of her life, she is a bit of a pizza snob, claiming that the size was "OK" and the sauce, cheese and mushrooms somewhat flavorful, but the crust rather chewy and "blah".

I went with my "American" favorite, Veal Parmigiana (which you would never find in Italy - there is no such thing as meat with tomato sauce and cheese on top), my go-to dish and a telltale sign of a restaurant's quality and value. At $24.75, the "veal" was not bad, but a bit too thick (could have been pounded more) and a little tough. The sauteed veggies were rather flavorless, a mixture on broccolini, zucchini, onions and peppers and mixed in with the pasta (penne) that did not have enough sauce on it. The sauce was fair, not bad, but nothing special. Either the penne or veggies had not been drained well enough because there was a pool of water under the pasta, an unforgivable faux pas and pet peeve of mine.

If you are paying $25 for an à la carte entrée, they could at least drain the pasta and put enough sauce on it so you do not have to eat plain, watery penne ... barf! They also do not serve bread with your meal, something expected at the vast majority Italian restaurants stateside and at ALL restaurants in Italy. There was not even bread on the menu, except for the $7 garlic bread that costs exactly the same on both the regular and happy hour menus.

The numerous "5-star" reviews indicate that they have obviously never been to Italy, having likely eaten only in Portland's dearth of decent Italian restaurants, so Caro Amico's 3.5 -star Yelp average seems a bit high to me. I give them deductions for a lukewarm reception, shoving us into the dark and dingy bar with a grumpy bartender, lack of bread with our meal, a lousy happy hour menu, watery pasta, and not so cheap à la carte menu. Based on this, our first visit, we will not be returning anytime soon ... not impressed in the least.

CombatCritic Gives Caro Amico 4 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More...

Where to begin? My partner has lived in this neighborhood for 8 years and mentioned that she’d never been to the restaurant, so we decided to give it a go before moving to north Portland. Seeing as it was a beautiful March evening we decided to walk to the restaurant. Arriving at the Barbur Blvd entrance we see a beautiful albeit empty dining room with a tremendous view east over Portland… and a sign informing us to use the door on the parking lot side of the building. As we meander our way down we pass another door (the bar entrance?) also informing us to keep on moving. Finally we come upon a door that will grant us entry. Upon entering we are greeted be a nice young person that proceeds to stare at us until we say we are indeed just two people dining this evening. We were seated on the lower level of the restaurant amongst the other diners with a beautiful view of the patio furniture locked up on the disused patio. No matter, we peruse the menu and settle on a regular cheese pizza (I like an even playing field to judge a pizza on), their “wild” mushroom ravioli in a white wine cream sauce, and a bottle of Italian white wine to round off the meal. In short order our gracious server Sara(h?) brought the food, the pizza was square(ish) and cut into 8 rectangles. Though I’m not a geometry wiz, I’m certain there is better ways to do this. I would describe the crust as having all the flavor of a packet of saltine crackers, but that would be unfair to the crackers, as they are actually a wee bit flavorful. The sauce was far from the “zesty marinara” the menu boasts and more similar to a grocery store ragu. The crust was stale flaky, and left a distinct layer of regret on my mouth. At least there was cheese on it? Moving on the the ravioli. The only thing wild about the mushrooms was liberty in which they use the word wild. I’m no mycologist, but if those weren’t crimini, I’ll, well… I’ll correct this post. There were five ravioli on the plate which brings the cost to about $4.80 per ravioli. Not a horrible price for what was advertised, but an atrocity for what was delivered. The white wine sauce lacked any sort of depth to put it lightly and almost certainly came from a large can marked “Sysco Alfredo style sauce”, and was garnished with healthy handful of wilted spinach, conveniently not mentioned on the menu but was simultaneously also completely void of the garlic or shallot that was mentioned.

Suffice it to say, I will not be returning. There is plenty of more authentic Italian food in Portland, like Gabiano’s, Pastificio d’Oro, or...

My family and I had a lovely meal at Caro Amico this evening. There were a couple hiccups with a drink order and an appetizer, but they immediately made it right and ended up comping the drink. Our waiter was very friendly and responsive and the food was fresh and very good.

However, one waiter soured the experience a bit. We had just gotten our appetizers served but our waiter hadn't taken entree orders yet, so we still had our menus. There wasn't a lot of extra room on the table, so I had stashed my menu under the plate on which I had the appetizer. I will grant you, it was a saucy appetizer, so could a spill have happened? Sure. Even so, what happened next seemed completely unwarranted.

A waiter (not ours, who was lovely) who was serving other tables in the vicinity seemed to think that my menu was in imminent danger and took it upon herself to come over and remove it from under my plate, announcing tersely that they only had a limited amount of menus and didn't want this one to be damaged. And I can understand that. I don't want to wantonly destroy the restaurant's property with an accidental spill. Unlikely, since I'm not a toddler, but possible. Things cost money. I get that. I'm all about preserving resources. But this person's attitude is what really made it an unfortunate interaction. She reacted to my menu being under my plate in much the same way she might have reacted to someone holding a lighter to the corner of a rare and precious manuscript: with disgust that anyone could be so careless and deliberately destructive.

C'mon.

If you want to approach me and be like, "Hey, so sorry to interrupt, but could I ask you to move your menu to the side of the table? We're a little short with copies and we'd have to toss that one if it were spilled on. Thanks so much!" I might have thought it was a little weird to be that protective, but I would have complied with a smile and not given it a second thought. However, this sour-faced person chastising me like a child was unnecessary and, frankly, rude. No thanks.

Check the attitude and treat people with consideration, and hopefully they'll...