Dove Vivi — Restaurant in Portland

Despite the four stars, I do recommend this place.

I tried Dove Vivi (Doe-vay vee-vee?) on a coworker's suggestion. This was exquisite pizza. I hadn't had cornmeal crust like this before and it easily delivered on deliciousness. Do I like their crust better than Blind Onion's, which I've previously lauded as best in town? Well, I like it differently, because they are different.

They (Dove) have quite a good-looking menu. I got the sausage and peppers and it was fully loaded (though not overwhelmingly so like a Flying Pie pizza), well baked, and quite excellent. Service was great: I appreciate the precautions they're taking with the pandemic, and they made sure to check in with me with updates when I arrived way before my pizza was ready (my fault, I'd been told an hour but I left early anyway thinking it would be quicker and it was a closer walk than I'd anticipated).

But the elephant in the room: the cost. Is it worth $25+ for a 12" pizza? It was really, really good, and I'm sure a lot of work went into preparing it. Even when I was recommended the place, one of the first things I was told was "it's a little pricey". That's not a good sign, if you're being described by three things: the menu, the crust... and the cost.

Here's the thing: I'm confident this is a fair price for the work, ingredients, and service. I don't feel like this was a ripoff. If I wanted cheap pizza, I could carry-out a large two-topping slab of cardboard from Domino's for less than $10 (albeit much-improved cardboard over their old recipe). This must be a carefully-considered, appropriate, fair cost for a local business with thin margins beset by out of their control worldwide struggles.

Unfortunately, especially at my financial level, I can't justify dining here more than once a month - if that - and for that reason alone, I would knock only a half-star off if Google allowed it. Is this fair of me, in a world where anything less than perfection is inaccurately deemed failure? No, it's my personal, biased opinion; but it's definitely a consideration when reviewing, so if money is a struggle and you're considering dining out for your own reasons, I have to recommend elsewhere.

Diners ordering solely for themselves ought look into the half-pie option. It should tide you over at a more...

This is not pizza to me. It smelled great but the crust is like a combo of gritty cornbread and cat litter (with no flavor on its own). “Sausage and peppers”? Really? Where’s the sausage? Taco Bell would be proud with the meat presentation. And the weakest/cheapest… green bell peppers sautéed on top… incredibly low dollar. The crust reminded me of a poor peach or apple cobbler crust, but lacking flavor. And $29 for a little pie?!! No wonder they don’t list the size. I could’ve had a large pie from Apizza Scholls (the best) on Hawthorne. And they make a killer Cesar as well. And what’s with the whole tomatoes?! Jeeze. Where’s the pizza sauce? I only checked them out because Sizzle Pie was closed due to snow (great thin crust. Order a whole pie not a slice). Blind Onion does a lovely thick crust with a slightly sweet/chewy texture. Why didn’t I go to this place? They told me an hour wait for a to go/pick up order so I figured it was because of the weather and other places being closed. Got there in 45 and there wasn’t one table occupied. My “pizza” was sitting there for god only knows how long, smelling great but soggy with a pile of what looks like wet, canned tomatoes sitting on top leaking through that unorthodox crust. Wish I had at least complained about the poor pick up...

It’s too bad the pizza was good since the service was so condescending, I definitely won’t go back. I asked for a single slice, as advertised on the menu. The waitress acted like it was quite a big deal and needed to go ask the back if it was ok for the single slice. I wouldn’t have ordered it unless it was advertised in the menu.

Afterwards I said I was dining in and she said “Make sure and grab a small table” as I looked upon a completely empty dining room. With an ounce of self awareness, I would naturally not go to a big table if I am grabbing food by myself. But the condescending order was way too much. Especially in an empty dining room.

She also condescendingly emphasized, “we normally do table service” after I had ordered and paid at the front. Okay, so tell me that before you direct me to pay? I am new here-you are the expert and it’s your job to guide me through the dining experience of a new place in a respectful manner.

Really left such a bad taste in my mouth. Please train your servers to act with more self awareness...