Lilla — Restaurant in Portland

I was SO excited that an all vegan Italian place had finally come to Portland. I wasn't sure what to expect based on most of the reviews being either really good or really bad. Well, in our group, it depended on what each person got.

I got the chicken parm, which was insanely salty and I LOVE salty food. The pasta was absolutely terrible. It was so tough and chewy. It wasn't al dente, it was clearly way overworked dough. I didn't eat more than a few bites of it and everyone else at the table agreed it was bad. The marinara was fine, but nothing special.

Fried mushrooms were disappointing. They looked really good in customer pics, but ours were all little broken pizzas, over-fried and kind of tasteless. The "dill aioli" that came with them didn't taste like dill at all - it was bland. It also came with marinara but the portions of sauces that came with the shrooms were laughably tiny - like shot glass size for a big bowl of mushrooms. Weird.

The pizzas were very good. Their crust is amazingly good.

The butternut squash was dynamite. It was also well-salted, but not overly so.

My wife really like the Brussels sprouts salad, too.

The decor and is odd as others have said. I would prefer less "modern casual" and more traditional Italian, but I'm not knocking off stars for that.

The hostess/server (with the blue hair) was very sweet. She was running the whole front of house by herself.

Sadly, the kitchen service was not good. My chicken parm came out pretty quickly, but the server said the chefs were having problems with pizzas (which is what 3 out of 4 of us got). It literally took another 30 minutes for them to come out. So the rest of my group stared at me while I ate my salty, gross chicken parm.

I really wanted to love this place, but not sure I'll go back. If I do, I'll stay away from the pasta, which is a super bummer because fresh vegan pasta is tough to find...

*Edit to the owner: I saw your response, I called twice and asked some questions, that's not harassment. Harassment is a serious claim so I hope you know the seriousness of that claim is not something I will be taking lightly. I'm sorry she felt that way, I conveyed to her that I know it's not her fault and that it's wild that there is not a manager on. I asked to speak to a manager about it and she informed me you don't have one on usually... for dinner service... so how much of that slack are your other staff members picking up? While I appreciate your explanation to the pricing, I do want to convey it came across as condescending. I am also no fool and there is a noticeable difference in your quality, portion, and presentation of your food. I hope that the price raising and portion shrinking is contributing to supporting your employees the MOST. Well, I technically called three times if you don't count the time when I heard my call was being recorded, which I do not consent to. If you're the chef, I know why you felt the need to respond in the way you did, I have worked with many chefs and the unprofessional response is right on par with the typical chef attitude. Thank you for acknowledging that your quality has gone down, I appreciate your openness to that feedback.

Ever since the new owner took over, prices have increased, food quality has decreased. $8 for five pieces of asparagus...!!! What the actual heck, lol. No potato in the potato soup, just skins. New crochette portion size is about half of what it was for the same price. Not only that, but there was not manager on staff for dinner service... I was in the restaurant industry for 12 years and that is WILD. I will be avoiding from now on and recommending others to do the same. It's a shame, I've been ordering from here...

Me and three others arrived here super excited after hearing about this place; we were expecting an upscale dinner experience, but that’s not what we got. I will preface this by saying the food was delicious overall, but we would not spend this much money dining in again based on the disorganization and impersonal service.

We waited 45+ minutes in the cold to be seated. No offering us water or anything. No where on their site or Instagram indicated you could call and make reservations; despite no one else visibly waiting, we were somehow 5th in line. Tables sat empty for ages.

You order by a QR code on the table. The server basically told us to order on our phones, let them know if we have questions, and left. We didnt want to be on our phones at a nice dinner; I get QR codes at more casual places, but not here. We ordered appetizers, entrees, and desserts all at the beginning. Any small question, we had to flag down someone. Half the menu was marked Sold Out, including every single pizza. And one entree we paid for ended up being sold out and we had to choose something else.

One entree came out 10 minutes before any others, then 2 arrived, then 5 more minutes before the last one finally came out. Our salad came out 10 minutes after the entrees. We had to ask twice for our desserts after our empty plates sat on the table for a while, and got “what did you order?” in response.

I know they havent been open for 6 months quite yet, but it seems like things like this should be hammered out by now. I would maybe get takeout in the future, but not table service unless they change their...