Gilda's Italian - Portland

Went twice in one week and will definitely be back. As for apps, the tartare and buratta were phenomenal! Entrees impressed as well. I've had the meatballs, boar, and a veal special and was happy with them all. Nice ambiance and great service too.

I’d say it’s a strong 4 star rating. We ordered beer, white wine, calamari, and mushroom pizza. Firstly, the customer service was amazing, one of the best we’ve ever had. They’re great. Though I remember talking to this lady on the phone asking something and she wasn’t friendly and didn’t want to ask kitchen a question I had. Regarding drinks they don’t have draft beer, just a heads up, but my husband liked their canned IPA. The white wine I ordered wasn’t very good quality in my opinion. Calamari wasn’t bad but over salted. Pizza was a bit burned at the bottom and a bit fryer crust than I’d like but wasn’t the worst pizza I’ve tried. To be honest, I wouldn’t come back but I get it why people might like this place.

Where to even start?! The owner, Marco, is a piece of work. We went here for a nice evening since we were visiting family, ordered three dishes, and found a cockroach COOKED in one dish and several hairs in the second dish! When we brought it to our server's attention, she took the dishes away and said she would speak to the owner, Marco. She then came back over and said that Marco said he would look into it but we still had to pay for the food. Wait... what? Of course, we would be happy to pay for the food. That was the point of going to a restaurant, after all. We just didn't want a COCKROACH and HAIR in it! So, I asked to speak to the owner directly so we could resolve this quickly and still have a nice evening. After waiting maybe 15 minutes (there were maybe 3 other couples in the whole restaurant) Marco came over and was immediately defensive and started talking about how he would be happy to serve us other meals but we had to pay for the ones we ordered. He was so rude and immediately acted like we had cooked the cockroach in pasta! It was unbelievable. I'm speechless. I have never been treated this way, especially at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where there are homeless people outside. All we were asking for was clean, edible food. Nothing else. Needless to say, we left and won't be back. So disappointed in this place but more in the owner. I can't believe people support this place. Who acts like this?

I ordered the appetizer that included scallops, prawns and calamari. Excellent flavor! Great dipping sauce with “artificial” scallops! There were 2.5 prawns, some white fish cut into semi circles “artificial scallops” in mostly a calamari appetizer. Amazing. When I brought it up to the server, he took my plate to the kitchen and returned to say that the white fish pieces were scallops. Great food, misleading menu.

We waited for our food FOREVER. The waiter was really nice and it wasn’t his fault but everyone around us had finished their entrees and dessert by the time we got our first dish.