Editor’s note: Boy, there sure are a lot of new Italian restaurants in Portland these days. Our critic Michael Russell visited eight of them, from a dimly lit pasta bar in Slabtown to a red sauce joint in Westmoreland to an under-the-radar gem on Southeast Division Street. Read his first-hand accounts to find out what he learned, and where he thinks you should spend your hard-earned dough.
Marrying into a part Sicilian family means Christmas Eve now involves a tradition known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which is more or less exactly what it sounds like. Only in our house, the feast is tweaked for Oregon, with pan-fried razor clams and steamed Dungeness crabs, salmon roe and blini from the East Portland Euro markets, sardine and scallop conservas from Spain — any tasty seafood satisfies the quota.
In 2025, you could just about manage a moveable version of that feast at seven new Portland Italian restaurants, each opened within the past year.
Did you notice this abundant trattoria harvest? These overflowing osterias? As a friend texted me in October, “Has Portland reached Italian restaurant capacity yet?” Two new red sauce joints opened the next day.
Depending on how you count, at least 6-7 new Italian restaurants opened in Portland in 2025. Make that eight or more (8½?) if you use your best spaghetti-western squint. And that doesn’t count the Italian food carts, focaccia shops and pizza places — I have a list somewhere around here with 25 new pizzerias, all opened since our last big pizza guide update. Whew!
All across the city, Portlanders can’t seem to get enough Italian — or Italian American, to be specific, as many if not all of these restaurants specialize in East Coast red sauce dishes. (By this light, Northeast Portland’s always-packed Gabbiano’s is this trend’s Rosetta Stone, at least locally.)
But which of these new Italian restaurants, if any, are worth your time and dough?
Let’s cut to the verdict: Almost everywhere we went, the vibes were great, the food just fine. If all you care about is what’s on the plate, you might be better off heading to Campana (or Nostrana, or Ava Gene’s, or Cafe Olli). Still, we found things to recommend at each stop: a great pork chop at a new Italian supper club, a clubby dining room with all the looks of a Manhattan destination and a counter-service spot few people are talking about, but which might have the best food of all.
Great vibes, decent food? Let’s call it the rise of the rizz-torante. Here’s how to surf this Italian new wave — without wiping out.
What we learned at Portland’s newest Italian restaurantsBistecca
Dinner daily at 2145 N.W. Raleigh St., 503-384-2064, bisteccawoodfire.com
Bistecca opened the Italian floodgates when it delivered its first wood-fired steaks to a dining room with dark leather banquettes and a portrait of Al Capone in early February. (Sister restaurant Hey Luigi, a pasta bar directly across a pedestrian-friendly Northwest Portland promenade, likely sealed them shut when it debuted in October.)
My meals at former “Top Chef” contestant Gabriel Pascuzzi’s previous restaurant in this location, the grilled chicken and veggies spot Mama Bird, never inspired me much, which explains why I didn’t rush out to try its replacement. I finally dropped by in October and found … a mixed bag.
A bowl of plush gnocchi in a sauce loosely based on cacio e pepe was a win, while a $14 Negroni lacked balance or verve. The steaks come from higher quality 1855 and Brandt Ranch beef, but our hulking ribeye ($65) was unevenly cooked. And I made the mistake of ordering it “Luigi style” (an additional $25), meaning the steak came slopped with Béarnaise sauce, with two “Dungeness crab cakes” the size of hush puppies and about as much crab flavor, while the “seasonal green vegetable” side was a pile of bland romanesco. Dessert was a plum sorbet with almost no detectable plum flavor.
The verdict: Unlike almost any other Portland neighborhood, Slabtown seems to have a captive audience — just look at the nightly crowds at G Love. But if you don’t live in one of the new buildings above, don’t go out of your way for Bistecca.
1/45
Dimo’s Italian Specialties 2025Mark Graves
Dimo’s Italian Specialties
Lunch daily and dinner Thursday-Sunday at 701 E. Burnside St. Suite A, 971-867-2932, dimospdx.com
More than any other restaurant on this list, I’m curious to see where Dimo’s Italian Specialties ends up in a year.
Nearly six months in, ideas are being thrown at the wall like so much cooked spaghetti. By day, Dimo’s serves a lengthy menu of pizza bianca sandwiches and an expanded lineup of the good East Coast grinders that became a secondary signature at Dimo’s Apizza, the sister pizzeria next door. Four nights a week, the room becomes an all-comers “supper club” with generous portions and excellent pork chops mixed in with some less successful dishes.
The dining room entrance sits to the right of the pizzeria, and you’ll likely wait a spell near the deli. Eventually, someone will greet you and guide you past a small market into a dining room with a lively central area cordoned off by dark wood banquettes, a large bar with vintage mirrors and lights rising to the left. Once seated, my large group was handed a menu featuring a four-course tasting menu ($55 per person) but no other prices. We had to ask to make sure we could indeed order a la carte, an option that should have been made clear from the jump. Luckily, those were the only service snags of the night.
Seated near the back, it quickly became clear that Miriello and his team are dead set on making sure guests are well fed by the time they go home, starting with the complimentary rounds of focaccia and bomba oil, an oil-based dip blending charred eggplant and roasted red peppers. We started with a generous plate of pink prosciutto, grilled strips of pizza bianca, ripe pear and a slab of gorgonzola ($17). Late-summer tomatoes and Jimmy Nardello peppers running with aged balsamic and a pincushion-shaped round of house-pulled mozzarella ($16) came next. One more bite of tomato, another slab of cheese on bread and you’re almost full before the salads arrive.
But sometimes, it pays to muscle through. After an oil-soaked lasagna verde ($28), a soft and soupy vongole ($28) and a salty (but better) rigatoni alla zozonna ($24) — a Roman pasta combining elements of both carbonara and Amatriciana — the dish of the night came last: a double-thick pork chop ($35) beautifully charred in a Spanish charcoal oven, sliced off the bone and served with a fennel salsa verde for dipping.
All right, who saved room for cannoli?
The verdict: You can’t fault the generosity. If Dimo’s Italian Specialties can rein in a few wayward dishes and add a little more lightness to the mix, it could end up among Portland’s best — the pork chop already is.
1/13
Fantino Italian restaurant in Southeast Portland
Fantino
Dinner Wednesday-Saturday at 2314 S.E. Division St., fantinopdx.com
If paparazzi ever caught Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift at a Portland restaurant, it would probably be Fantino.
The name is Italian for “jockey,” which explains the stable’s worth of horse paintings on the wall, dining room decor resembling a small-scale take on Polo Bar, the impossible-to-get-into Manhattan restaurant. Credit to Garrett McAleese, the Kells Irish Pub scion, for crafting a vibe to match the ambition implicit in that design choice. Whether by word of mouth or social media buzz, the pony-sized restaurant seems to have no problem filling its seats, despite not meriting a single mention in Portland’s mainstream food press since its early 2025 opening (until now).
Recently, some friends and I dropped by and, after leaving our number with the host, cooled our heels at Reel M Inn until a table presented itself. Back at the restaurant, we were seated next to a crowd of mostly young, mostly well-dressed people in the dining room.
Beyond the handful of so-so Spanish dishes — gildas, pan con tomate — the menu mostly leans Italian, with seasonal salads, simple pastas and mains including a chicken breast Milanese ($26) and fat mussels with chorizo in a decadent Calabrian chile butter ($21). In winter, you could do worse than saddle up for a nicely seared culotte steak ($39) dragged through au poivre sauce and an OK old fashioned cocktail ($18) at the bar, though generally speaking, the restaurant seems better suited for date night.
Fantino might shine brightest in summer. A September meal on the restaurant’s small patio was all refreshing spritzes and bright cucumber-tomato salads (better and more memorable than the current chopped brassica, $16). The centerpiece that day was a whole branzino ($37) in brown butter and chopped olives deboned tableside by McAleese himself. But the best bite was the simplest, a pasta al limone ($20) with plump bucatini slicked with lemon cream under a shower of grated Parm. Evening sunshine can’t return fast enough.
The verdict: Yes, the vibes outpace the simple (and mostly good) food at Fantino. But those vibes are immaculate.
Maglia Rosa
Lunch and dinner Wednesday-Monday at 3010 S.E. Division St., 503-477-6699, magliarosapdx.com
Had you wondered whether this Italian replacement for Bollywood Theater’s sprawling Southeast Division Street location might be a Hail Mary (or a cash grab), rather than a passion project? If so, you are forgiven. The thought crossed my mind as well.
Then I took a bite of the fall salad, with beautifully marbled radicchio ($14), cradling thin-sliced apple and soft cheese in a brown butter vinaigrette. And I forked up some house-made butternut squash ravioli ($20) dressed in fried sage and amaretti crumbs, drips of buttery sauce falling back to the plate. And I scarped out the last spoonful of an excellent panna cotta with huckleberry and crumbled pistachio.
Wait. Here in this big room, near a market that once sold spice blends, idli rice and ghee, was some of the most proficient seasonal Italian cooking in Portland?
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Maglia Rosa owner Troy MacLarty moved to Portland two decades ago to work with Naomi Pomeroy in the early days of Ripe, and his CV includes time spent at Chez Panisse in Berkeley (where he fell in love with the Indian street food that inspired Bollywood Theater). Portlanders of a certain age still fondly recall his run at Lovely Hula Hands, the predecessor to pizzeria Lovely’s Fifty Fifty.
The pink color scheme and bicycling memorabilia are fun — the name refers to the jersey worn by the leader of Italy’s premier race — but at nearly six months old, Maglia Rosa doesn’t have much dining room energy. More people would certainly help: It’s a big space, and where Bollywood Theater once packed in diners for fried okra and pork vindaloo, the crowds have yet to descend on the new concept. The counter-service model, an odd fit for the food quality, could be throwing diners off the scent.
Still, I can’t wait to return for MacLarty’s tortellini in brodo ($22); the peposo, a slow-braised Tuscan beef stew ($22); and longtime Portland pastry chef Mandy Groom’s other desserts, including a creamy tiramisu for two ($16).
The verdict: If you’re in search of an energetic dining room, you’re better off elsewhere. But when it comes to food, Maglia Rosa is the new Italian restaurant I’m most excited to revisit.
1/10
Monty’s Red SauceVickie Connor
Monty’s Red Sauce
Dinner daily at 6716 S.E. Milwaukie Ave., 971-288-5388, montysredsauce.co
The first thing that strikes you about this 9-month-old Sellwood-Moreland restaurant is its scale. The long bar. The tall ceiling overhead. The wide space between the front door and dining area, and expanse separated by a table topped with water carafes and folded napkins doing double duty as a takeout counter. In a space this big, there’s room for such things.
That expansiveness extends to the food, from the cheese-dusted Caesar salad ($16) to the pile of fried calamari ($14) with herbed aioli and tomato sauce dips. Even the butter noodles ($11) we ordered for our kids this summer were portioned more for a hungry preteen.
The food doesn’t quite have the ingenuity of a Gabbiano’s or the cheese-pull appeal of a Sunday Sauce (see below); a basic linguine with shrimp and asparagus ($23) already felt out of season in summer (let alone fall); and the bar was so backed up our drinks didn’t arrive until well after we started tucking into our eggplant Parm ($24).
But the neighborhood seems happy it’s here: During a summer visit, the big dining room quickly filled up with families with wet hair fresh from a day at Sellwood Pool and by what appeared to be at least two first dates, including a pair of teens sweetly swapping bites of meatballs and linguine.
The verdict: As with sister restaurant Montelupo, the prices are fair and execution is consistent, while portions are even more generous. Monty’s is solid spot to take your family, especially if you live nearby.
The newcomersHey Luigi
Dinner Tuesday-Saturday, with late-night hours Friday-Saturday, at 2175 N.W. Raleigh St., 971-279-2731, hey-luigi.com
After my earlier Bistecca meal, I almost skipped Hey Luigi, the dimly lit pasta bar that replaced Pascuzzi’s Tip Top burgers last month, worrying it might be a TikTok trap. But in the interest of thoroughness, I dropped by recently, grabbed a solo seat and ordered an off-menu Gibson fizz variation that had just been delivered to a neighbor at the bar. It came in a tall coupe with a stiletto stem and lots of frothy white foam. Very nice.
The room was packed on a Tuesday, a rarity in Portland, and after an odd little arancini amuse that was giving tater tot, I settled on the vongole ($25). Though overly oily and tossed strangely (at least to my eye) with clams removed from their shells — “De-shelled?” a vongole-loving friend messaged me that night, “hard pass” — the flavor was mostly there.
The verdict: Though I haven’t explored the menu deeply, I could see returning for a pasta-cocktail combo next time I’m in the neighborhood.
A crunchy chicken Parm with browned mozzarella in a thin tomato gravy at North Portland’s new Sunday Sauce.Michael Russell | The OregonianSunday Sauce
Dinner Wednesday-Sunday at 902 N. Killingsworth St., 971-990-9441, sundaysaucepdx.com
Like Hey Luigi, this North Portland restaurant also opened in October. But as the name implies, the jokey menu here goes full red sauce, with Italian American dishes inspired by Normandie co-owner Amanda Cannon Winquist’s East Coast childhood. (For any New Jersey transplants out there: You’ll even find disco fries, smothered here in marsala gravy and served atop red-and-white-checked paper placemats).
On our visit, the petite dining room was packed, so we killed an hour at Saraveza. By the time we returned, the kitchen had run out of cheesy bread, but still had its namesake dish ($28), a slow-braised pile of beef and pork with a whisper of tomato and a scattering of rigatoni tubes serving as a meat garnish (not that I’m complaining). A Caesar salad draped with anchovies ($16/$26) was a textbook rendition, and good. Of the two Parms we tried, the eggplant ($22) was an unfortunate oil sponge, but the chicken ($25) was better, crunchy and tempting under its cap of browned mozzarella.
The verdict: Let’s give Sunday Sauce some time to settle in — and for the crowds to settle down — before returning.
Bonus pick! Parallel
Dinner Wednesday-Sunday at 3101 N.E. Sandy Blvd., 971-339-3143, parallelpdx.com
The art nouveau lettering in the window doesn’t exactly scream “mangia!” Neither does Parallel’s signature dish, hush puppies with uni honey butter and trout roe, nor the aroma of Emmental-cheese-stuffed pork sausages wafting through the dining room.
But despite the occasional Southern American or Northern European dalliance, there’s an Italian restaurant hiding inside this comfy Northeast Portland wine bar.
How else to explain the Caesar-ish salad showered in Fiore Sardo, the duck agnolotti in a blood orange gastrique, or the excellent meatballs and polenta with Lunetta’s garlic marinara. Turns out, that bright, lovely tomato sauce is a nod to the Manhattan restaurant where owners Stacey Gibson and her chef husband, Joey, first met.
The concept at the year-old Parallel is a bit of a reversal from how most restaurants work. Here, advanced sommelier Stacey Gibson picks the wines first — say, a lively Oregon Chardonnay or some crisp Alsatian bubbles. Only then does Joey Gibson set to work crafting a dish — the aforementioned salad and hush puppies, respectively.
Besides the solid technique in the kitchen, one thing I like about Parallel is how this format takes the guesswork out of picking a wine. If Stacey Gibson is pouring, it’s bound to be delicious.
The verdict: Parallel is a little off the beaten path and the menu is only somewhat Italian, but those meatballs are worth going out of your way for. If you’re looking for a restaurant where the food and service get as much attention as the vibes, this is the spot.
Dining and Cooking