Gino's — Restaurant in Portland

Yeesh, I have to change my review again from my updated 3 stars down to 1. This used to be my very favorite restaurant, and I can now say I won't be back. When we first went 3 years ago we LOVED this place. Over the years the service and politeness of the staff has declined. Tonight we went in for my 40th birthday celebration. (A big deal! My husband and I got a babysitter and dressed up really fancy! We planned it for weeks!) We were told the wait would be 30 minutes but it turned into 45 minutes, and we were then seated at the table closest to the waiting area. Then it took about 15 minutes for our server Elijah to come to our table. I told him it was my 40th birthday, Gino's was my favorite restaurant, and I was jazzed to be there! We both ordered mussels as our dinner. It took about 30 minutes for them to come out, and we were giving each other some sideways looks, surprised it was taking that long for appetizers. Tonight the mussels were really tiny but maybe there's a mussel "season" we don't know about. The only other time Elijah came to our table was to throw down a dessert menu without a word and keep walking. I usually don't like people to make a fuss over me, but I had told him it was my 40th birthday and sorry but I expected more than a dessert menu thrown at me... We then felt insulted and my husband asked the water person for the bill and put his credit card on the table to pay and we waited and waited for someone to bring it. (It was now 830pm and the crowd had subsided). He finally had to go to the kitchen to pay. Overall, I felt highly ignored and insulted. We wasted 2 hours here to get some mussel appetizers which were substandard (plus $30 in babysitting alone for all this extra time), nobody acknowledged we were celebrating a milestone, and we were totally ignored by the staff, except the blonde hostess. As my husband aptly said "this place is totally full of itself." It reminded me of the service in a pharmacy- they're so busy, they don't care if you ever come back. I was previously one of their biggest fans, but I can now say we will NOT be back. Argh. Unfortunately I need to edit my review from 5 stars to 3. We've been eating here/ getting takeout for about a year and a half and almost every time there's a problem with our order, they're out of the thing we want to order, or they tell us they're too busy to give us takeout (I've never heard of another restaurant doing this). We love their food but geez it feels like we're going to a lot of trouble to try to eat their food and it's now feeling like it's not worth it anymore.

Today (Saturday) we went in for lunch and they weren't busy. We sat in the bar area because we didn't know the main dining room is now open for lunch (we found out at the end). The bartender was nice but clearly overwhelmed with the 3 tables of people in the bar. Every other table already had their food when we ordered but it still took almost an hour to get our food. He told us they were backed up but nobody else was there waiting for food... Everyone else at my table got their food and mine took extra time, then I was told the kitchen had run out of spaghetti (what??!!). So for us waiting all that time and no spaghetti he said he would give us my meal free. He brought it, and I traded my son some of my garlic bread for some of his spaghetti so I'd have more than just 10 clams and some bread for lunch.

The bartender walked by and saw that I now had what looked like a meal, so at the end he changed mine from a free meal to half price. Never mind that my son had half a meal but we paid full price for his. Also he overcharged my husband $7 for his meal but at least we caught that. With the huge wait, running out of spaghetti, being overcharged, and the bartender going back on what he said, I'm now pretty angry with this place and maybe I don't care anymore that their food tastes good (when you can get it)

My original review: BEST Italian food I've ever had. Moved to Portland partially for access to their steamed mussels. Most delicately prepared...

This was the worst experience I've had. My group made a reservation for our friend's birthday. We had 3 dogs with us and were told they could accommodate outside. When our table opened up 10 minutes late, another woman decided she wanted our table and didn't want to be seated inside and the hostess allowed her to take our table. The hostess told us it would be another 5 minutes. After we were standing outside waiting in the heat for 40 minutes - I asked what was going on. The hostess was completely unapologetic and said she had to wait for another table to open and there was nothing she could do. I asked why she gave our table away to the other party and she said the woman just took it and she couldn't do anything about it - even though we had the dogs and she could have sat inside. When we were finally seated literally every person that came near our table was ruder than the next. I asked if we could have an appetizer brought over since we were all starving and waited so long when our reservation wasn't honored and the girl glared at me, never came back and changed servers! 50% of the menu wasn't available - we were left with practically nothing to order. I'm gluten free and their gluten free options were all sold out. I ordered a club soda - was asked if I wanted citrus in it - I said no. The drink came with a lemon in it. I asked for it without since that's how I ordered it. The woman huffed off - came back with the exact same drink with the lemon pulled off the top (I still tasted it and hate lemon) and a straw that was USED. There was wine and lip marks on it!!!!! She threw it on the table and ran off so fast I couldn't even tell her. I went inside to ask for a clean straw and was given such an attitude I couldn't believe it. Not one person was even remotely apologetic. I asked to speak with a manager and was told no one was there (clearly). Also the food was so subpar I couldn't believe this was what we waited all that time for. I couldn't recommend this restaurant less. They ruined my friends birthday dinner - real nice since she couldn't celebrate last year cause of Covid. Negative 5 stars here - and I'll make sure to tell everyone I know never to...

Seductive spot no doubt, classic corner with original signage and what not, but their knowledge of Italian cuisine, much less how to serve an Italian dinner, is regrettably mediocre, and shameful for the price. Our first crack at it we order the pasta putanesca ($17.25) and a rib eye ($43.95, they were out of the filet). The pasta was so salty that it was totally inedible. The prime rib was almost as bad, as was the vegetable side it came with. Luckily the mashed potatoes we're there. We barely poked at the pasta, and after literally 4-5 bites of the steak, we decided to do something we never do and ask to send it back. The waitress was very friendly and accommodating, but upon return told us that they would not charge us for the pasta but could only give us a family discount on the steak. Although we ate 30% of it at best, we didn't protest and just wanted to leave. Considering this alleged fine dining establishment doesn't provide anything in the way of complementary foods we left hungry, but not totally defeated.

We decided to give it another try, and this time went straight to the bar and had the Shrimp Scampi. Although edible, it lacked any depth to charge $16.75 (which is not really that expensive, hence its quality). We overheard at least two other tables complaining, the first about service, the other trying to find the silver lining of a meal they probably dropped way too much money on to all out criticize.

To summarize, great spot to get a cocktail on your way to the olive garden, or a real Italian restaurant. Don't buy the hype here on google reviews, something tells me these patrons ain't all that up on...