Nostrana — Restaurant in Portland

We went to Nostrana on my birthday after debating between here and a few other places. I am bummed we picked Nostrana to celebrate. To preface, I am no stranger to dining out in Portland. I usually plan to go out to eat once a weekend and like pretty much all types of food. I was excited to try this 6 times James Beard award winner, but it did not live up to the hype. The start of the evening was nice, we had a glass of wine each at the next door bar. The bartender was FABULOUS and engaged, attentive, knowledgeable and I wish we had stayed with her to enjoy our night. Wound up being called for our reservation and this is where the vibe shifted. When we made our reservation we noted a rosemary allergy and birthday. Nostrana responded to the notes and to top it off my partner called to confirm prior to arriving that they had these things noted and they assured her they did. Well guess what, they did not lol. We mentioned the rosemary allergy to the server and she had no clue what we were referring to. Interesting considering the double confirmation but okay....

We ordered our entrees and apps all at once and while the server was fine, it was nothing out of the ordinary esp compared to their staff at the next door bar. Now, the food. We shared the burrata and crab cakes to start. The burrata is not even a full ball of burrata. Imagine one of those mini ones at the store with half of the top cut off. The flavor was good though and this was prob my fav dish of the night. The crab cakes were fried instead of broiled which was disappointing and lacked a lot of flavor. For dinner, we ordered the steak, the ragu and the smoked halibut pasta dish. The steak was fine, nothing special, the smoked halibut was mainly a large bowl of pasta with barely any toppings, veggies or fish. Disappointing and salty. The ragu was inedible. We sent it back it was so salty it burned my throat. I tried twice and so did my partner but it was impossible to eat.

At the end we thought for sure they might acknowledge the birthday, but NOPE. NOTHING. Not even a happy birthday. My partner asked if I wanted her to say anything but I declined. We skipped on dessert as at this point we were sorely underwhelmed and the pricing was not matching the service or the food so I opted to high tail it out of there to get dessert nearby. All in all I would never return to the restaurant. I cannot believe they forgot my birthday and the allergy after confirming twice. The food was a 3/5 and it desperately needs a refresh. In a city of outstanding cuisine both low budget and high, I think Nostrana is stuck in the past and needs to catch up on details and quality to stick out in...

This is a painful review to write as I don't write bad reviews lightly. The vibe and service of Nostrana is always fantastic, but the food is a massive disappointment, especially considering the reputation of the restaurant and the price. Our latest experience is as follows:

We were a party of 4 for dinner celebrating a birthday and visiting relatives. As said above, service was fantastic, from the hosts to to our server, bartender, and everyone we interacted with. Our cocktails were amazing, and I have no complaints there.

For food, we started with the Insalata Nostrana and an order of focaccia and ciabatta bread. The salad was great, and I understand inflation is the reason it's $17. No big deal. I expected the bread to be served warm, but it was slightly chilled. The bread itself was kind of bland, but not bad.

For mains, we ordered the grilled pork cutlets, gnocchi alla Romana, radiatori with clams, and capellini with meatballs. This is where everything went downhill. The pork cutlets were maybe about 4oz of thin, rubbery, flavorless pork with just the slightest hint of grill marks, served some mashed potatoes and cabbage for $36. The gnocchi was basically 2 small scoops of mashed potatoes with melted cheese and tomato sauce for $24. There were supposed to be porcini mushrooms, but I certainly didn't see or taste any. The capellini with meatballs literally looked like someone plated up a can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs and sprinkled it with parmesan. A tiny plate with basic dried capellini and 3 1-inch meatballs was $27. The radiatori with clams also seemed like basic dried store-bought pasta with some tomato sauce and maybe 5 clams that could have been canned for $26.

The deserts were good, if a bit pricy as well. Nothing amazing, but they absolutely did not make up for the poor food.

I completely understand that inflation has driven prices up and restaurants are struggling right now. But at a restaurant with Nostrana's reputation, I at least expected the small portions of food to be of exceptional quality. Instead, I left embarrassed that I had recommended Nostrana to my family as a celebratory dinner. I feel like any home cook could have made significantly better food than what we had, and that's not a good feeling to leave a restaurant with. We will definitely not return.

As for the 22% service charge, we never felt pressured to tip more on top of that, and we were fine with it since the...

In a nutshell: RAW PIZZA DOUGH, don’t go here; they are total wannabes and I totally felt embarrassed that I suggested for us to go to this place with my fam and in laws. Food is not tasty and it’s overall pretentious. Food was awful and bland; no one bothered to season or taste the dishes before going out. Ordered the spaghetti, the pizza with clams, pizza w/pepperoni & sausage, steak, and the radish dish. All were bland besides the steak & that was only cuz each piece of steak had slices of garlic on them and I’m a fan of garlic 🧄.

Pizza with clams & pizza with sausage & pepperoni - total flop house with no undercarriage; it totally flopped (look at pic I uploaded) and was so oily. There was no real flavor besides olive oil and grease. I thought their pizzas would be nice and perfectly made cuz of their amazingly expensive and beautiful oven, BUT it wasn’t; the pizza couldn’t even hold itself up like it was still raw.

Spaghetti - noodles in olive oil and parsley and was totally bland.

Radish dish - bland, no seasoning beasides being sweated in a pan. No one tasted this before going out cuz it was lacking in effort and care.

When I told the staff person about my experience their only response was “everyone has the right to their own opinion” and that was it. Atmosphere is good, but that’s it.

It was confusing because the place was crowded but then after trying the food I didn’t understand why there are so many people there. The decor is good but the what bothered me was after I told the staff person about my experience they didn’t seem to care at all and then stated “everyone has the right to their own opinion”, telling me that that person didn’t care and thought I was wrong. Also confusing because their menu says they serve pizza traditionally like in Italy…Italians would be personally insulted by this pizza if people were to say this represents their REAL...