Gumba — Restaurant in Portland

Gumba is absolutely my favorite Italian restaurant in Portland. All of the food blew me away. These pictures are from two separate visits. The Fry Bread was so light and fluffy and paired with the Chicken Liver Mousse it was heaven. I don’t like chicken liver … I would venture to say that I hate chicken liver … but that mousse is absolute magic. The pickled onion and pickles raisins were a perfect pairing. I could eat that every day and be happy. The clams were fresh and the citrus saffron sauce was so well balanced it was a sort of dance of flavors and textures that all worked well together. Not pictured were the tangerine marinated olives. I want a giant jar of those at my house at all times! Olives are give or take for me, but by god those are the best olives I have ever eaten in my life! They are sweet with a slight heat that was very pleasant. The Garlic bread and the meat balls were the perfect happy hour appetizer for two. Both delicious and the meat balls were cooked perfectly. The Spaghettini was divine. The mascarpone added a fresh light creaminess that pulled all the other flavors together and the squid ink pasta made for a great presentation and was absolutely delicious. The Tagliatelle was so light and fresh and that Dungeness Crab was a delicious treat! The star of the pasta show was the Pappardelle. I felt like Anton Ego in “Ratatouille” when I took the first bite. Absolute silence and reverence for the most perfect pasta dish I have ever eaten in my entire life. The flavors are so so complex yet comforting and the beef is so tender it falls apart. It was so flavorful and comforting it made me sigh with relief … from what I don’t know but there it is. If you are in Portland looking for Italian food, please check out Gumba. You will not be...

Very disappointing experience.

We had really set our expectations high given all the amazing reviews and we were really disappointed. We ordered online and we were notified it would take 60 minutes for our order to be ready - which was perfect because we had to put our toddler to bed and then one of us had to go over and collect the meal - 15 minutes away. However, 10 minutes after we ordered, we got a notification that our food was ready. Unfortunately, we weren't able to drop everything and scramble over to the restaurant to pick up our order which sat for the next 50 minutes getting cold. We tried calling but the voicemail was full. And when my husband got there to collect the meal and commented on this issue he was met with a shrug.

When we finally sat down to eat (an hour later), the main course was cold and congealed - truly awful. The starters were ok - we had the burrata which was ok although the bread also had been sitting there for over an hour so it just felt and tasted oily. The winter salad was ok though it felt very heavy on the cabbage and not the other flavorful ingredients. I wasn't impressed by my main (squid ink spaghetti) but it is hard to say whether this was because it had been sitting there for so long or because of another reason.

I realize that businesses are working hard to stay afloat during the pandemic and we are working hard to support them but it really felt like the customer wasn't considered at all in this experience. The food was just dumped as though it was 'fast food' without any regard for how it was going to be consumed. If the website says it will take one hour, people plan around that, especially if this is a meal to be picked up and not for delivery.

I doubt I'll try this...

This was just...ok.

While the ambiance was cute and the service we received was great, the food at Gumba fell short for me. I'm kind of bummed about it because after reading all the positive reviews, I was really looking forward to spending some serious calories on their carb loaded menu. We ordered:

Fry Bread with chicken liver mousse -- the fry bread was delicious and the mousse made for a great spread. The raisin things on the side that came with the mousse was just too sweet. We couldn't eat it and left it on the plate when we were packing up our leftovers.

Squid ink spaghettini--my husband's choice for the evening. He said he really enjoyed this dish. I liked his meal more than my own because it was packed with some serious flavor. It was citrusy and refreshing.

Pesto spaghetti with crab--on paper this pasta sounded delish. While the pesto flavors came through, the whole dish itself was very bland. It was just under seasoned. The pasta too was lacking and felt overcooked. I ended up not finishing the dish as I didn't want to spend anymore calories on it.

Eggplant Olive Oil Cake--I've never had an eggplant cake before and I'm always down to try new things. This was surprisingly good! The slice we received was huge, big enough to share with 2 people. The cake was dense but moist. The eggplant was situated on top of the cake and the whip cream went well with it, I wish there...