Sebastiano's — Restaurant in Portland

Cute storefront with window service. The food was excellent. I'm so sad that it took me so long to find this place and now they're moving but they'll still just be a little further away. I bought one of almost everything. Muffuleta was excellent. It is the closest thing to N'awlins that I've found. Focaccia pizza is exactly what it should be. I don't like cake but I decided to try the olive oil cake. By the time I got to it it was a day old. It was wonderful. The mini bundt olive oil cake was a little icing delicious. And I don't like bundt cakes. The chocolate torte is it a truffle is it a brownie is it gooey is it chocolatey Yes! The paprika chips? only kind of chips I want anymore. Lastly, the cannoli. Cannoli are my favorite thing in the world. I have had cannoli from little Italy in New York City to Dianda's bakery in San Francisco. None of these have compared to my family. Most get the texture wrong by using too much sugar and too much cream they turn the filling into something pasty and non-recognizable as ricotta. Often they're filled too far in advance losing the crispness that is required. Some coat them in chocolate to compensate. I am a chocolate lover, but a cannoli is not a chocolate dessert. Often made with citron and mini chocolate chips, most like my family, have stopped using the candied fruits and incorporate the chips throughout the filling. Here the addition of a freshly made candied orange peel is utter brilliance. And while I missed having the chips throughout, when I took that last bite the combination of the filling the pastry and the chips created a sense memory that brought tears to my eyes. While a new generation of my family make cannoli, this bite was reminiscent of the flavor and the texture I grew up with when my great-aunt Josie was the only one who made them. I look forward to at least an annual cannoli since I live so far from my family and I can't always make it home. I should be able to make it to Sellwood. I'm really looking forward to what they'll do in their new space. I just hope they don't lose the utter charm of what I found in my...

I really, really want to support and love them, especially as a fellow Sicilian-American. I love their story and that they are bringing some Sicilian flavors to Portland. The service is friendly and the muffuletta is good - the bread is amazing! However, I've noticed their sweets tend to be burnt. The shells of our cannoli were pretty dark, at first I thought maybe they put cocoa in them, but they were just burnt. I was hoping we just got an off batch, but from social media posting this seems to be the norm, which is unfortunate because the filling was super tasty and the consistecy was great! This summer I'd often get their cookies from Cooperativa in the pearl, and always loved them. Yesterday I went there to get some packs of the chewy almond and orange cookies on our way out of town, as stocking suffers. I ended up having to pass, because all the packs they had were burnt on the back half of the cookies. Hopefully their quality control will improve soon, and I can start buying them again because they...

Spectacular. Sebastiano's is a bit quirky - a small selection of sandwiches, a small selection of prepackaged items (marmalade, olive oil, salt), a small selection of baked goods, and only open at lunchtime 4 days a week (Wed - Sat). Also appearing at the neighborhood farmer's market down the street on Sundays. The good news is that it's completely worth having to remind yourself to check the calendar and the clock to visit these wonderful people. There were two of us on my recent visit. We split that day's sandwich special - a Sebastiano's Hoagie, and it rivalled anything I ever had growing up on the East Coast. We also split a fantastic rustic fruit tart, and each had a wonderfully cold Italian lager. Another of the quirks was walking up to the dutch door out front, checking out the posted menu and the goodies on display in the window, ordering, and then walking out back to the festive patio seating set up in a corner of the parking lot. Not a typical dining experience, but I wouldn't miss it...