Café Castagna

I must preface this by saying I didn’t eat here, just stopped in for a drink, but my impressions of this annex/​adjoing bar of Castagna next door, is that it’s probably got really great food and tremendous service, but if your under 35, you can take a hard pass (i don’t know too many guys in their early 30s who can afford 100 dollar meal off the chef’s tasting menu next door). Regardless, just not a place I’ll recommend for now.

I started with the cauliflower soup which was completely amazing and smooth and yeah, wow! I then had the steak frites which was a coulotte with herb and red wine vinegar butter with arugula and fries. Great entrée but price was a little high at $ 32. We shared the sautéed spinach with fried garlic which was great and then split the strawberry shortcake which was small but completely delicious. We were seated right away on a Friday night and overall had a great experience!

I decided to take my mom here while she was visiting and try again because earlier experiences had been good minus my last visit … It was great! Everything was delicious and my mother loved it too.

Here’s what I liked: the minimal décor verging on the spartan; casual ambience; uncrowded and open room; efficient if cool service.
Here’s what I liked less. Small & expensive portions. I don’t mind if quality makes up for quantity, but this was not the case. The bread (Ken’s artisan bakery) — was decidedly stale and really not worth $ 3 per serving. Come to think of it, who charges for a few slices of bread? The noise! Although the place was barely half full on a Thursday night, the background noise was loud enough to make conversation difficult. I’m not the first to say this so the restaurant must like it the way it is. And at the end, there was a minor but irritating error in our bill, a more expensive wine appeared instead of the one we actually had. The error was promptly corrected but not removed.
We ordered several appetizers, plus a dessert (blackberry sorbet). The asparagus was excellent, grilled with a hollandaise sauce. The rest of the food items were OK, but not outstanding. Nicely presented, competent, but unremarkable.
Overall, this wasn’t a particularly memorable experience, or good value. We’ll look elsewhere for our next food adventure.

The food was entirely OK, but the noise level was intolerable. Our party of five (average age, fiftyish) literally could not hear one another without shouting. A $ 250 outing was highly unsatisfactory.

The food and the service were superb. Though the portions were small, it just left me wanting to order more outstanding food! I went for the March dining month special and it did not disappoint. However, if I hadn’t ordered a slew of oysters in addition to round things out, I would have left hungry. Our waiter was punctual and efficient. He tried to interest me in a French wine that was bolder than most but he may not have been used to my California wine snobbery as I never enjoy French wine because it is too light for me. He agreed to give me a taste and then took it in stride when I rejected the wine in favor of something bolder.
The room was very loud and I agree with others’ assessments that this one aspect can really ruin a meal. I hope they take these reviews seriously and take interior design measures to soften the din. Rugs, wall hangings, thicker drapery, sound absorptive ceiling — something! It’s just too loud in there.

The food was up to high standards of Castana. The wine outstanding. The portions were just right.
The ambience was totally ruined by the hyperactive acoustics of the room. There was a large, loud office party going on. But the room is just plain loud. We went out to dinner for lots of conversation. Had to shout across the table and still could not be understood. For this reason, I cannot give the best rating. The café cannot control a rowdy group, but they can do more to control the acoustics

I visited Café castagna for *Portland Dining Month 2016. We had the celery root soup*, steak tartare, brocollini, agnolotti, pork shoulder*, pot de crème*, and brioche ice cream.
The celery root soup & brocollini were both excellent. The steak tartare was very simple and lacked the robust spice or egg yolk one would expect with the dish. The agnolotti and pork shoulder were both interesting, but lacked seasoning. The butterscotch pot de crème had memorable flavors, though the texture was grainy. The brioche dessert was inedible. It had an unusual texture, was sickeningly sweet, and came with a bright red maraschino cherry — a touch that felt completely off.
Overall, the service was okay. The staff was on top of things but lacked personality. When the neighboring Castagna came up the waitress seemed defensive and wanted to make it clear they are not associated.

Café Castagna is billed as a «casual» dining experience, but I’m not sure their version of casual is the same as everyone else’s in Portland, as this feels more like a higher-​end «romantic night out» type of venue. The restaurant was on the quiet side despite a packed house and many of the diners were in formalwear.
My husband and I came in on a Saturday night and ordered the bread, pork shoulder, merguez sausage, and 2 desserts (crème brûlée, flourless chocolate cake). The food was all delicious, with the milk braise on the pork shoulder and the richness of the chocolate cake being particular standouts, but we were taken back at how TINY the portions were.
Despite being light eaters and loading up on extra dessert, we left hungry. It seems like the chef’s tasting menu would be the way to go, because otherwise, you simply won’t get enough food.
Overall, if you’re looking for a mid-​tier experience, this isn’t the best offering in town, and if you’re looking for a memorable meal, I’d recommend simply going to the café’s fine dining counterpart, Castagna.

So we tried every single item on the happy hour food menu. Everything was great, but the fried panissa was the clear standout. Our waiter was very friendly and accommodating, and the food came out quickly. It’s on the pricier end for HH in Portland, but worth trying at least once, since I’ll never spend the buckets of money it cost to eat at Castagna next door.

Having lived in the neighborhood for many years, we have visited this «café» many times and the restaurant side as well. Years ago it was well known as having one of Portland’s best burgers. And most of the other offerings were very well done too. Unfortunately the food has really become mediocre over the past several years, slowly going downhill. I can only blame the kitchen for this as plates are incomplete and uninspired. And their one price $ 45 a bottle wine menu is not the value Portland expects for a café. It appears they no longer offer a less costly carafe of wine as an option. All this with prices that keep rising is going to mean the demise of this once really good restaurant. A positive note would have to be the staff as they are the right balance of friendly and attentive and sincere. If they are still around a year from now we will try it again, but unless quality and value improve I can’t imagine they can survive. But I really hope they do. This once was a great place and I’d like it back.

A total disappointment. $ 6 for an IPA, $ 10 for a butter lettuce salad. One of us ordered halibut and asparagus, two TINY pieces of fish and 3 pencil thin asparagus spears, and a radish. So so macaroni and cheese for $ 15. Ordered a glass of Rhone wine, served in a small wine glass not appropriate for a Rhone wine. Terrible music, rock hard chairs with no padding. Strange menu, hard to find anything we wanted to eat. Will not return.

Café Castagna wraps up this year’s Portland Dining month with my foodie roomie and we went out with a bang. With this restaurant, the dining month option was for the entire table to be served semi-​family style, or no one could order it, which can be a pain if one person didn’t want to do dining month, but it wasn’t an issue for us. I thought this was one of the better deals for dining month with 3 appetizers (all amazing except the salad was a bit bitter), squash soup (delicious), and trout entrée (crispy skin with entire head to tail and is ok but lacked flavor and there were bones in parts of it which made it very unappetizing when not expected) with roasted beets and chickpea with kale and pineapple (both delicious). The dessert was an explosion of flavor in a mild ice cream topped with mint, chocolate, cookie crumb, and pepper flakes so you get the sweet and refreshing with a spicy aftertaste. Very unique and great finish to the meal. Would love to return to try other items on their menu!

First time here. My group ordered about 10 different things off the menu. Everything was delicious except the bread. It was awful! 2 out of the 3 of us tasted mold and when I let the waitress know she argued with me. All that she should have done was apologize and take it away.
Nothing leaves a bad taste in your mouth more than bad service, not even moldy bread.

Table service was very good. The wine list is good. Café Castagna is a cozy, intimate destination and a charming neighborhood place for a bite especially after a film at Cinemagic up the street.
The squash soup ($ 8) was competent if unremarkable. I don’t recommend the flatbread plate ($ 11). It consists of a very large and doughy-​verging-​on-​gummy, house-​made pita roll with an accompaniment of three tiny ramekins of dips.
I was expecting a flatter, crunchier bread product which would have offered better texture balance to the dips. While «flatbread» covers a lot of territory from thin and crunchy to doughy, it might be listed on the menu as «pita» rather than flatbread and perhaps a more acceptable alternative might be offered when in response to the server’s inquiry, the guest reports that the dish is a disappointment.
I like this place and I want it to succeed with its newish Middle Eastern-​inspired menu.

We had the chef’s choice brunch on Sunday and it was a real treat. It must have been at least seven courses of amazing food selections for $ 15!
Just sit back and enjoy unique and delicious selections, there wasn’t a single «miss.»
It’s definitely not the same old tired brunch selections.
Plus, no long brunch line to wait in at some overrated brunch spot!

Visiting from Boston in January, I was happy to find a nice place that cared about food in PDX. Although I loved the city, I found the vibe of some places to be a little too laid back. (Walked into once restaurant with $ 40 entrees and our table-​neighbors were wearing trucker hats, sort of throws off the nice date vibe).
I loved the minimalist ambiance, the encouraged plate sharing, and the food was delicious. My only regret is that we didn’t get a chance to try the Restaurant next door before we went back to Boston. The waitress was so sweet, too.
Definitely would come back here if I was in town again.

Went here with a group of 11 and did the «let the chef choose» option, which was the right choice. We were presented with plate after plate of awesome food. I thought they would have been done after the muscles and pizza, but that was only the beginning! I had to dig deep to finish strong with the awesome ice cream desert. We definitely left with some leftovers. I definitely recommend stopping and going with the «chef’s choice» to let these guys impress you with what they can do.

I love this restaurant. Reminds me a little of Chez Panisse in Berkeley 30 years ago, very mellow with a nice emphasis on wine. They have great taste in wine and I’ve been impressed by their recommendations over the years.
It has been quite a few months since we were here last and they have a new menu and chef. So, I was very concerned, especially as we are vegetarians and the new menu has a lot of meaty dishes. I didn’t know what to order so we left it to the chef and it was a superior meal. Things we haven’t had before like seared beets, I didn’t think I liked beets but this dish is excellent.
I live close and like to watch their garden. They have a garden on the side of the restaurant as well as a couple doors down in front of the Hankin’s Hardware. Good neighbors, and I like having them here.

So delicious! We may have tried everything on the small but perfectly created menu of amazing yumminess! Simple and relaxed atmosphere, friendly service and gourmet comfort food small plates. We’ve been wanting to come here for awhile and will absolutely be coming back. Thanks!

Delicious brunch. Had parissa and malawach, eggs Benedict and fritatta, solid bloody Mary. Great food, great drinks. Check it out

I used to go here all the time, but then they changed things around and now the portions are really small for a really high price, and the flavor isn’t great. It seems like they are maybe getting desperate? Sorry Café Castagna! I’ll miss the old version of you :(

Wow. I have always loved castangna. It has always been our restaurant of choice when we had small kids because everyone was happy. Now I even love it more, the new menu has Lots of veggie options and still the greatest burger. Love the ambience, love the hostess and prices fair. Happy hour is wonderful, the beets are out if this world.

I don’t know, I thought this place was just okay. After liking the happy hour menu I finally made it here for happy hour. The portions are indeed small, and even though the burger wasn’t ba it wasn’t that great. Just a plain old burger. The service is kind of slow and the drinks were not really strong. I think this place needs to kick it up a notch. I don’t think I would even try the full out restaurant next door.

Disappointing, frustrating, and almost embarrassing meal.
Dinner for 2, first time visitors, we ordered the «Chef’s Table» — ie, they pick the dishes.
Our first 3 dishes came out quickly. Small little pickled things, a little fried this, a little fried that. Nice, good intro.
Then we waited almost 45 minutes for more food. When it came, three small dishes of tomato salad, seared tuna loin with wheatberry, and cardoons. The salad had a rancid flavor like old oil. The tuna and cardoons were good.
They cleared our table and that was it. What? Where’s the rest of the food? About 5 oz of tuna shared between two adults was the extent of the non-​vegetables? We laughed at how paltry the food was. And after a 45 minute wait, our expectations were pretty high. They did rectify a small error and state we «actually» still had the dessert coming, which was wonderful.
The food was underwhelming, service very slow, and the chef’s table menu paltry and insubstantial. There are so many other more satisfying options in PDX, we could not recommend returning here under any circumstances.
Only reason not 1 star is the food is not literally inedible; mostly it was fair or better.

Have been here three times over the past 3 months!
The food has been excellent– small portions– but very good food! I am alright with compromising the quantity for quality for a reasonably prices dish. Drinks have been good, and never had ant complaints about any food.
The only down side is the service at times: I am not sure what it is– but most of the servers i had were aloof! Once i went alone, and most of the servers kept starring and seemed to be at a lost as to serving a single women at a table! — its almost funny– given none of those times were crazy busy and there were so many servers just walking around, wiping tables, glasses etc…
Once with a group, the server forgot drinks even after two reminders. finally got the beer at the end of the main meal.
One good thing is the servers do not rush you — could be good or bad i guess!
even with the terrible service i give 4 stars– just because i like the food and the ambience and i can just take my time to eat!

Just re-​visited this neighborhood gem after a long absence. We’d been eating here since moving into the neighborhood in 2003, but had grown bored with the menu. We gave it a chance over the weekend, and were blown away by the revised menu and quality of the food. The old standbys — burger, fries, butter lettuce salad — were still there, but the addition of a wonderful selection of small plates was a breath of fresh air. As others have posted, the quality of a restaurant’s steak is (for me at least) a good marker for the overall quality of the restaurant, and in previous visits the hanger steak was a disappointment. But I was optimistic with the new steak (served with a creamy polenta instead of the fries and an herb-​anchovy pesto), and gave it a shot. It was delicious — it tasted like the an $ 18 entrée, not an over-​priced, undercooked $ 26 entrée that the hanger steak was. The meat was so tender I cut cut it with the side of my fork, and the pesto/​polenta combination was right-​on.
The service was, as it always has been, outstanding. The waiter mentioned that they have a new chef, which accounts for the improvement in the food. We are happy to have our lovely neighborhood dining experience back!

Great burger and lovely staff. I would come back for sure. Drinks were good, not amazeballs, but good. Thank you again Portland!