Red Sauce Pizza — Restaurant in Portland

To say "pizza is life" is an understatement in my world. I'm always bugging my sweetie for more pizza, especially at places we've never been. After dropping friends off, we found ourselves cruising Fremont, hot for a veggie heavy meal. I saw the sign and suggested it. "As long as a salad is involved," was the compromise.

We walk in. The place is cute. They have old-timey Pizza Hut lamps over their front window tables. We were shown a menu of food and drink. Immediately I noticed their wine, particularly their BTG. We ordered a sparkling garganega frizzante and a Lambrusco. These are awesome selections and not found at most stupid chain pizzerias where choices are merely red or white.

Even their beer selections. Nothing against pFriem beer, but every pub in Portland has it. Red Sauce wisely features smaller microbreweries both by the bottle and on tap. (I also noticed some local non-alcoholic beer selections for those who still enjoy a pizza and beer but w/o the Alc. Good on them).

What really sold us were the little touches. Sweetie pointed out each table had a deck of playing cards. The table nearest to us...UNO.

We sat and the attentive staff took our order. We knew what we wanted, the house salad which had much more than boring "spring green mix with choice of dressing." It featured sliced oranges, pepitas, radishes, rainbow carrots and a subtle citrus vinaigrette that did not overpower. The garganega was perfect with it.

Several games of UNO were played. Sweetie cheats so a careful eye must pay attention.

Like many pizzerias of old, each table has a mini rack keeping the pies off the table. I commented that the racks also serve as 1/2 of a warming system if a candle was placed underneath.

The pie arrived. We always order the cheese on a first visit. This allows one to pay attention to the trifecta; crust/sauce/toppings. I immediately noticed it WAS NOT Sheppard's Grain which every local place is wont to use. I get it, sustainable, local, good owners. However, pies made with it tend to be more chewy, less crisp and without the snap when a slice is folded in half.

Without knowing, I suspect they are using Caputo 00 flour or similar. Not an inexpensive choice. Whatever it is, it works.

The char was perfect. Anybody who thinks their pizzas are burnt are idiots and their dogs hate them. The sauce pronounced itself but was not overpowering. The cheese ratio was spot on.

I commented to a staff member how nice it was to see proper char. He commented, "its part of our CHARm. Cute.

Earlier I mentioned lack of candle/warmer under the table rack. It wasn't necessary. The pie disappeared quickly.

The bill advised us a 20% gratuity was already included. Good for them. We added a touch more.

We...

The good: The hostess was lovely and the kitchen sent out a tasty pizza.

The rest: My party and I had a subpar dining experience on April 19th in the evening, which defeated the purpose of dining in.

Our server was inattentive. It took 90+ minutes to receive our sit-down order as we watched freshly-placed takeout orders get prioritized time and time again. Maybe they were just overwhelmed, as it's pizza week, but you have to operate like it's each diner's first time. Because unfortunately, that was the case for my party. Not a good first impression.

Communication goes a long way and it was lacking at Red Sauce Pizza. I can understand the kitchen being backed up at dinnertime but you tell your patrons that and give an ETA. Don't leave them to sit and wonder or have to inquire. Service 101.

The worst part is that their soft serve was one of the draws. While our server was literally sitting down laughing with another table of patrons as we tried to get her attention, a big group came in and got the last of the soft serve before the machine broke. I know this because I got up and went to ask the hostess for boxes and soft serve after being tired of sitting in that place and she cringed as she told me. When our actual server finally came back over to see if we needed anything (after we no longer did), she also joked about how she was finally done ignoring us. She also insisted I was wrong when I explained the latest development to her about the soft serve. Can't make this stuff up.

FYI - 20% gratuity is automatically included for parties of all sizes.

I've noticed the owner making defensive replies to folks on here leaving critical feedback rather than looking at opportunities to improve, which is really disappointing. With all the wonderful pizza shops in Portland (Babydoll, Scottie's, Ken's, the list goes on), no reason to gamble on a...

I’ve been coming to Red Sauce fairly consistently over the last year +, and overall I’d say I’ve had a decently good experience, mainly because the quality of the food is great. The last few months I’ve noticed a slight decline; however, not enough to deter me, as I want to support and hope that things would get better.

When my partner and I went tonight and thought we were ordering one pizza, we received a different pizza entirely. Sure, some ingredients were the same as what we expected to order based from what we read from the menu, but what we got was clearly different (doesn’t look like snap peas to me, but I could be mistaking them for lemons and squash….). Not the biggest deal, and we ate it, but definitely was disappointed we didn’t get what we expected. Had the menu been updated and correct or had someone just told us “hey, we ran out of snap peas so our special has changed” we could’ve known and wouldn’t have ordered it in the first place.

The staff is definitely nice no denying that but beware that if you sit on the patio there isn’t much interaction between the two parties. For example, not being told the special was different because there wasn’t any discussion about changes. I’m more than happy to do a 20% gratuity to help provide health care/living wage/etc, but with it I would hope that there’d be a level of connectivity between restaurant and customer. There seemed to be a disconnect beyond running food, as there wasn’t any follow ups of “how is everything? Can I help with x,y,z?”

I am also aware after reading other reviews that the owner will probably have something negative to say about me rather than just taking critique and hopefully making changes. So be it. Overall not a bad experience, but definitely sour from the lack of consistency, and not just the unexpected lemons...