Casa Italia — Restaurant in Portland

In 2012 I traveled from Venice to Sicily stopping in Milan, Florence and Rome along the way. Casa Italia strongly resembled the delicious dinners in between visits to stunning Renaissance art pieces.

Nestled on a small but busy street corner beyond downtown Portland, Casa Italia is a charming "hole in the wall" serving authentic Italian dinners. The walk to the restaurant had a cozy feel. The sidewalks and surrounding shops were on the edge of being overgrown with various urban plants. There was definitely limited parking so I would reccomend parking a distance away and enjoying the electric scenery on the walk to the restaurant.

The interior decor was warm and charming: a perfect spot for a casual but romantic date (probably second or third, but perhaps first of one wanted to make a strong first impression). The candlelight was natural and the menu offered the full range of a true Italian dinner from the appetizer (anti-pasti) to dessert (dolce). It offered indoor and outdoor seating buy 0robanly totaled 15 tables. At times it was quite loud indoors but it ebbed and flowed with which patrons happened to be indoors at the time.

A couple of notes, I'm not a huge wine drinker and I didn't order any alcoholic beverages. They offered an average range of reds, whites and consumer beers, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

They were woefully understaffed but still managed to get us food quickly once our order was submitted and it tasted amazing. They were specifically missing wait staff (covid I'd imagine) so it took a while for our order to be taken but it was probably there in less than 15 minutes after that, so I'll interpret that as a mark of character and strength in normal circumstances.

My husband and I ordered the Bolognese and a latte. Their basic pasta tasted very fresh and the latte was smooth and delicious.

If I had the chance to go again I would fast the preceding breakfast and lunch to make room for the full italian dinner. It had a reasonable price range so, a full 4 course would likely cost 50-70 not including alcohol.

All in all 4/5, an authentic, warm and delicious Italian eatery in a...

Worst restaurant!

Disrespectful. Inconsiderate. Poor restaurant management.

Strike #1: After calling this restaurant days in advance to make a 6:30 PM dinner reservation, we walked away with no dinner. After waiting for about an hour, at 7:20.

The reason for bringing up the reservation is that “walk-ups” were coming in after us asking if a reservation was needed to be seated, and servers said, “no reservation needed.” However, their website says “reservation recommended.” It's Valentine's Day, and it will be a busy dinner. The smart decision would be to make a reservation in advance. Obviously, if you can't serve your customers in an orderly time, you should not be accepting walk-ups. I know all customers are valuable, but the customers who initiate making a reservation and showing up on time should be the main priority.

Strike #2: Immediately after they sat down, they were served bread and water, and within 20 minutes, they received their dinner. Two parties that were “walk-ups” were served before my table, being that we arrived 30+ minutes before them. After the first table was served, we thought their order must have been easy to make. For the second table to be served before us was a HUGE SLAP IN THE FACE, basically saying, “you don't matter.”

My table did not receive bread or water until 15+ minutes after being sat. My order was the pesto pasta dish, and the gnocchi pasta dish, after 50+ minutes, was never served.

Strike #3: After waiting for about an hour, in the meantime, the server did not even check on us to see if we wanted more wine, more bread, or even be so considerate as to apologize and keep us updated on our wait time. As I was leaving asked, “Can I get you guys more bread?”

No, I did not want more bread after waiting for an hour. May I mention that their bread was hard and not an appetizing texture. I wanted to enjoy a warm meal at a nice restaurant on Valentine's Day. Obviously, it was not a good restaurant experience, and therefore do not have intentions to come back...

Made reservations for 1700 for 2. They sat us in the back table by the kitchen doors while a 2 person table was available by the window (yes, I could've asked but I wanted to see how they treat people) stayed vacant till we left. Order placed by 1715 with 3 other customers in. Drinks and starters served 1748 and we were done with it by 1800. By 1810 I asked for our main course to be to go since I had to be out of the restaurant by 1820 with no sign of the food being ready.

Customer Service: The only time our waitress checked on us was to take our oder. Again, we were seated by the kitchen doors so they can see what we needed or to check on us since we finished our bread, drinks then later on starters. We had to ask for every little thing.

Food: Made by order. It was hot even after driving 15min to get to where I needed to be. I order Pasta Aglio with mushroom and cheese but when I opened the box there were no cheese. My husband ordered Pesto Gnocchi (house special to 02/19) it was good but it was not traditional pesto where there's basil (if there was we couldn't taste/smell it). Pear Salad was okay, something that would be good if its something I made at home, the pear was not cut up to be mixed in with the salad but used as a pretty display on top (we just cut it ourselves). We had difficulty modifying the drink when we asked to switch it with an ingredient that was on the menu (diff drink). Overall the food was good.

Service: Waitress never checked on us after getting our orders in, it wasn't busy till about 1800. Seating choice for reservations terrible.

We visited this place back in 2017 during lunch and we had a completely different experience and way better food. I don't think I'll be...