Pastini — Restaurant in Portland

First of all I want to say that the recipes we read on the menu sounded good, clearly the chef who designed the dishes had a lot of creativity. I want to leave here a constructive critic, since I respect the kitchen because I travel a lot, and even more Italian food since I come from a culture that consumes good pasta every day. They brought a well-presented entry but not homemade bread, bought bread is recognized in this country because it is rubbery and not very tasty, for an italian restaurant that is a big mistake to begin with. We ordered some raviolli stuffed with brased rib meat and wine sauce, it sounds so delicious but unfortunatly wasn't the sauce was sour, it was more of a tomato puree with artificial flavors like the sauces you buy in a supermarket, you didn't notice the long cooking or the detail of the search for fresh herbs flavors in the sauce . The filling of the raviolli had the meat completely crushed, puree type, the flavor and textures of the braised was not appreciated, brased totally wasted to my taste. My partner ordered a three cheese tortellini plate, mainly Gorgonzola. Bland, the character of gorgonzola or stronger cheeses was not felt at all, they seemed to be American mozzarella, very tasteless. The cream was not flavored with any herbs that would enhance the flavors... in my opinion, a wasted dish in terms of flavors, any personality in the plate. The only thing I really liked was a house juice made with rosemary syrup, raspberries and soda. I know that this site has many positive comments, that's why we went, but again we loved the menu design of the recipes, we don't know if the Head Chef is controlling how each step of his dishes is prepared, but we regret that the recipes have so much potential and cannot be appreciated as they were intended. Sorry if it was too hard but is nothing personal, is just that for we tasted, and what the menu says. Suggestions: *Homemade Bread is an asset, if it is homemade then something else is happening because it doesn't taste like homemade. We don't use tomato puree for any sauce because the seeds are sour and that's what makes a sauce sour too We would have love to feel the texture of the brased meat inside the raviolli, is not just about flavours but textures too. the Vegetarian gorgonzola tortellini need more of that strong cheese inside, or if it s gonna be a soft flavour, better use a...

It is incredibly loud, there's a lack of barriers to deflect noise and many hard surfaces, I had to lean over the table to hear my friends speak, which was uncomfortable. I was very distracted from experiencing and enjoying the food properly due to noise.

The food is pretty good, they don't seem to give a lot of bread with my portion, which left me with a lot of sauce, just one more piece of bread would've probably made the difference, the portions seem to be a bit on the smaller side and didn't leave with a lot of leftovers.

Overall everyone were satisfied with the food itself but not impressed, although I found that the ravioli was a bit too soft, like it has been frozen and reheated almost, maybe it had been overcooked, I expected to be served fresh. I feel that while I did enjoy the food, I didn't feel like it's something that I couldn't make at home, and I don't feel like that's fair for the price.

Their Italian sodas have great flavor and aren't full of artificial dye, which was very pleasant, it has been a very long time since I've had a proper Italian soda so that was very refreshing. I didn't like the type of straw at all, being paper, but I could ignore it because my soda was so great.

The waitresses were very sweet and enthusiastic, they very quickly moved a chair out to make room for my wheelchair, they had really good timing when checking in, and assured us that we weren't getting pushed out for the next customer, it was very comfortable and laid back.

Overall, I feel that while I had a good time, there's definitely room for...

Nice and tasty, friendly service. Air conditioned.

Started with the parmesan bread and large Caesar salad. The bread wasn’t that great, tasted a little stale but also soggy in some spots. Super weird. The Caesar salad was ok, mostly the bottoms of the Romaine rather than the nice green parts, and a little skimpy on the dressing, but they were generous with the cheese so I was happy about that.

For the main meal I had the spaghetti con gamberetti. The menu indicated that the dish would be spicy, but it wasn’t. Our server brought out some extra chili flakes and I was able to spice it up a bit and take it from adequate to super tasty. Could have done with some more shrimp, but otherwise I found this dish to be very tasty and I would recommend it (with some extra kick).

My partner got the pappardelle with meat sauce bolognese. That, too, needed a generous dose of chili pepper to elevate the flavor. But once it was, it was very tasty.

For dessert we shared the chocolate tartufo. The vanilla gelato was absolutely delicious! I could have done without the cake part, which I found kinda dry and uninspired. But my partner loved it.

Absolutely would...