Degarios Ristorante

Always hoping to find a good new restaurant west of Portland, I was extremely disappointed by Degarios. The service was simply terrible. Drink orders were taken and arrived in a timely manner. Waiters took our orders for both appetizers and dinner entrees. Sadly, we then waited almost an hour to see any food. Nothing (and no explanations or bread as compensation for the slow kitchen.) When it finally arrived, the food was okay but definitely not exceptional.
My sense was that the waiters (and kitchen?) were inexperienced and not up to the task of managing a good restaurant. Hopefully they will improve with time. (As for the reviewer who said there aren’t other Italian restaurants in the area, try Pasta Pronto…)

We made an early reservation — but soon after the restaurant filled up.
The food was good — the wine list was extensive, and the service was professional and perfect mix between being attentive but still not over doing it.
I will be back.

Have been here several times. Absolutely love the eggplant appetizer, and the fregula salad. Those are dishes I’ve never had anywhere else and adore. The pizza frita is delicious and also different for me. My husband loves the lasagna (I haven’t had it). And from the dessert menu I very much enjoy the panna cotta. This is a new local staple restaurant for us!

This is a restaurant trying to hard. I love Italian food, but this menu left me wishing I had gone to another place. If this place wants to be successful, they need to embrace the food people want to eat in a neighborhood eatery.

If I could give this restaurant less than one star I would. The service is slow on top off the food being very salty. My wife got a dish that on the menus was suppose to have zucchini in it that’s happened not to make it on the plate. It was a salty disaster. We sent it back and the owner slash chef that also owns Allen Mexican restaurant came out visibly upset that we had sent back his food and refused to take it off our bill. Never have I been treated with such disrespect in my life. Eat here at your own risk cause if you don’t like what you order you will hear it from the owner who’s never wrong.

Really good cocktails. Eclectic menu more true Italian then American Italian. If you are open to new foods and combinations and looking for something different, check it out.

Excellent food and service. Pizza Bianca is great, as is the halibut. Service is outstanding. Local microbrew on tap.

The food was wonderful! The ambiance was nice, music nice and not overbearing. I had the tortellini in cream sauce, perfect! Not bland at all! The caprese salad was wonderful, and to end the meal, my son ordered the vanilla bean and strawberry custard. I figured I would have to eat it, he doesn’t like custard, I was wrong! He loved it! His chicken was also great!

Nearly all restaurants get mixed reviews, but the extremes for Degario’s had us worried as we wanted to try Degario’s as it is located near where we live. We normally ignore criticism that would not annoy us, such as slow service and small portions (unless priced way too high) as we are not of the «fast food crowd that wants to take a meal home». Another issue with reviews is with cuisine not native to the USA. Many people have not had the luck to sample the cuisine in its home country and make judgments based on American versions of such cuisine — I’ve heard of people who say «They can’t make good pizza in Italy». I must admit the picture of the watery pesto prevented us ordering this item as we love good pesto, but the comments from the «Pasta Snob» were encouraging for the pasta.
It is difficult to judge anywhere on just one visit, but I doubt we will be back, but this is nothing to do with the food. The restaurant is attractive in a simply elegant sort of way, but the whole ambience is destroyed by two large TV screens. TVs are acceptable (just) to us in pub-​like restaurants, but as we do not watch TV while dining at home, we do not want to have TVs on while eating good food in a restaurant attempting to serve serious food.
As far as the food was concerned, we started with a shared Autentica Piadina — these flat breads were excellent and easily enough for two people. For our main courses, I had the lamb chops that were very good, and my wife had the halibut. She enjoyed it, but felt it was a little over-​cooked and dry. It was accompanied by lots of good asparagus — so much so, we took some home.
The whole service experience was quixotic at best. My wife called to make a reservation, but when we arrived, nobody had heard of us — maybe they do not take reservations, but the person who answered the telephone should have said so. On a Saturday night there were very few people dining and so I do not give this restaurant a long life.
Our waiter was pleasant, but obviously had no idea about wine service — especially sad as there are a few interesting bottles on the wine list. We had a glass each before dinner (and the pour was generous), but when we ordered a bottle of a different wine for dinner, he seemed surprised that we would like new glasses. He then poured two large glasses of the wine without asking us to check the wine. Luckily, the wine was not «corked» or showed any storage defect.
As the food we had was reasonably good, we’d come back again — if they removed the TVs and trained the staff a little more.

Atmosphere: Really nice. Reminds me of Italy from music to ambiance. The décor is simple– really clean and beautiful wood designs modern-​ish.
Service: I have had two different servers. One was a young lady who seemed to be new or something because she was not very knowledgeable nor seemed experienced, so I almost gave this place a 4, but I bumped it back up with the server I had last time who was fantastic (ask for him his name is Leo!)
Food: We have sampled food from Happy Hour. We had Happy Hour Piadina and we have split several crostini’s which all were delightful! Lamb chops are delicious as is the steak! My boyfriend is a pasta-​SNOB and he said he really liked the pasta dishes he has had. Desserts are handmade here, you can tell because I have never seen anything like them and they are amazing.
Drinks: Wine & Tap list is good, cocktails are fun and creative. Even the flavored lemonades are great.
Overall: There is nothing out in this side of Portland for Italian food like this. Bugatti’s and Spaghetti Factory are over here and they are not even close!

Really nice staff. Amazing pastas here. I have had four different ones and each one has been great. Great happy hour menu too!
They have a good selection of beers on tap and some good wine. I have had the Chianti and really like the cocktails.

Tried this place last night – won’t be back. Had the spagetti with clams, while my friend had the chicken parmigiana. Frankly, not enough food for the price, and the sauce on the spaghetti was like other reviewers have said – thin and oily. I left still hungry after paying $ 14 for half as much food as I would have gotten at Old Spaghetti Factory for around the same price. Plus, OSF is worth the money. This was not. His chicken was burned and semi rubbery, and I hated the fact the clams were open in the shell in the pasta instead of shucked. Clams weren’t very flavorful, either – couldn’t tell the difference between eating them and the pasta taste wise. Menu is far too limited, too. No classic dishes except chicken parm and lasagna.

Just ate here and the food was disgusting. The pesto sauce was like water. I told the manager that i did not like it and he refused to take it off. So I payed 30.00 for watered down nasty food. The Italian sodas are disgusting. I will post a picture please I urge you not to waste your money here the pasta is doughy and gross.
I literally took one half a bite of the pasta and almost threw up it was so bad.
When the manager came over who is like nineteen told me that there was no way the he was taking the dish off of my bill even though I had one bite of it. I told him pesto is supposed to be Thick not watery he said oh that’s unfortunate I will tell the chefs he then walked off and hid in the back until we left. This is a bad way to run a business. A note to the managers of you are going to let your teen son run your place you may want to train him first.
Update they haven’t taken the money off of my card extremely suspicious. Most times it goes right off of the card.

This is a one star review for all the usual reasons, food and service issues. The food was a spin on traditional Italian favorites with no resemblance to the originals.
My daughter had spaghetti with pesto sauce, which was a scant cup of spaghetti swimming in two cups of soupy pesto infused olive oil. No offering of parmesan cheese, to help bind it a bit, was to be had. In fact we never saw our waitress until we called her over for a little more spaghetti to go in the swimming pool of pesto grease. We asked for a bit more spaghetti, but the waitress seemed flustered by the request and we gave up.
My wife disliked her so called Lasagna so much she traded with me for my Cheese Soup with Arborio Rice with micro-​speck asparagus garnish, (Risotto with Asparagus). The «Risotto» was two tablespoons of Arborio rice in a delightful cheese sauce that the Kraft Company has made famous. They took a micro-​grater to half a stem of asparagus, so tiny green flecks were sprinkled in for color, avoiding any asparagus flavor to mar the smooth creamy mac ‘n cheese goodness.
The lasagna was lots of cheese that had been put under the salamander, (broiler), to melt the cheese into a puddle. I could tell since the plate was screaming hot from it several minutes later after the bus boy dropped it off. It wasn’t a usual heated plate for regular service, this was nuclear. I found two one inch by two inch noodles hiding in the pool of cheese sauce. A slight sprinkle of meat, no more than a tablespoon, was also in there. The chef must have thought it was a garnish, just like the asparagus in the «risotto».
Everyone had an edible orchid on their plate. My daughter couldn’t understand why it was there and neither could I. The high point was the garlic bread. It was a hit. The ladies liked the Pana Cotta, but it had left an inexplicable metallic after taste in my mouth.
We had a disappointing and expensive evening, $ 47 for this mess. Oh, what a bummer!

Aweful. The owner/​chef clearly does not have a vision of what a ‘nice restaurant’ is… They charge for it, but the quality was terrible.
To start with, the bruschetta was soaked in grease, soggy, and had no tomatoes or basil on it… Huh? Then entrees were super slow (we were the second table in restaurant and waited almost an hour), pork chop as tough as leather, lasagna with no red sauce and super oily, fava beans with gnocchi were crunchy (and the waiter who delivered the dish couldn’t say ‘gnocchi’), and chicken parmesan looked sad and lonely with no sauce and two pieces of soggy greasy bread.
The redeeming quality was the pizza. Kids had that and it was decent. If you come in, stick with pizza.
We go out to eat probably three or four times a week and I honestly don’t remember the last time I was so disappointed. Anyways, next time I want to spend 80 dollars on food, I’ll definitely go somewhere else.

Average Italian food. Good Pizza. A little expensive for the food portions. Good service.

Our family has been big fans of Allan’s Mexican Restaurant for years. Who knew that Chef Leo could also cook Italian, too? Degario’s is well-​executed Italian fare with an improbably creative menu at a moderate price point. My fava bean and asparagus salad was hearty and well-​balanced — vegetables were blanched and chilled and perfectly crisp tender, balanced with a simple dressing on olive oil and pecorino cheese. My gnocchi was pillowy — perhaps a touch overcooked — but dressed with such delicious sauce and vegetables that I hardly noticed. We finished with a simple, warm chocolate almond cake.
The menu is focused on multi-​course dining so individual portions may seem small. Pasta entrees and pizzas run $ 12-​$ 15 and by themselves would make for a light lunch. Couples might split a salad ($ 8-​$ 10) to round out the meal. A proper three course dinner might run $ 40/​person or more, not including wine. There are a few lunch specials under $ 10 that include a side salad.
All-​in-​all an excellent dining experience with well-​prepared, quality food for a fair price.

By the same owners of Allan’s just across the street. I love Allan’s, the people working there are always wonderful how can I go across and try the Italian restaurant?! Ok ok same owner so get over myself. Oh I’m so glad I tried the food here. So incredibly glad I tried their food!
Being from Europe I’ve eaten in many Italian restaurants that are run by Italian born chefs, may I request a bunch of them to come over and get some lessons from Degarios chefs.
OMG! Everything is über fresh (as Italian food should be) and extremely yummy. We started with mozzarella sticks (baked) yum yum yum!
The drinks are delicious as well (I’m lousy with Italian names but I had the cocktail with cucumber, and at my last visit the New Amsterdam vodka one).
First visit I had the risotto with asparagus: WoW! I’m quite fuzzy about risotto, it’s often too mushy or too al dente, too greasy, too dry not balanced etc. well not here! Here the risotto is perfect. Yes I dare say perfect! Taste is delicate and beautiful (allow me the highest compliments and translate a Dutch saying: «as if an angel peed on your tongue» Yes that truly is a very high compliment). For dessert I had to try the tiramisu. It was really good ! I must explain my good as it may sound meh, it’s not meh. Trouble is I like my tiramisu very strong. When I make tiramisu its adults only strong ! As in high coffee and alcohol; you’ll be so buzzzzzzzed, you wouldn’t know whether to run around the block or take a nap buzzed. Degarios tiramisu is beautifully balanced.
Next visit I tried the ravioli with broccoli creamy sauce (again, the dish has a beautiful name I’m just lousy remembering them). Oh my gosh, again just so fresh and so well balanced. Every bite is a feast. It’s all so right ! Perfectly right. As desert I had the almond cake and it came fresh out of the oven, hate to sound repetitive but yum yum yum.
Ambiance ¹⁰⁄₁₀: it has a wonderful feel of contemporary yet not overboard where you don’t want to bring your kid. Wonderful for all occasion and all number of parties. Food & drinks: ¹⁰⁄₁₀ yum yum. Staff ¹⁰⁄₁₀: Kami is so patience, fun and knowledgable and she’s not hovering over you. Staff will think and work with you if you have any food allergies or preferences, they’re super accommodating ! The chefs, well they sure know what they’re doing ¹⁰⁄₁₀!

Gonna keep this short for now. Had Italian all over the world. Some of the best I’ve had here. Wow. The folks from Allen’s really know how to make food whatever the culinary background. Kudos! Now get some scotch in the bar ;)

If you’ve been to Allan’s, then you probably walked through Degarios doors because you knew the owners are the same and heard about it through them.
My dad and I could not decide on a place to go for dinner and by pure luck Degarios doors had JUST opened so we decided to try it.
I really wish I could remember the name of the drink I had, but it was delicious and sangria-​like. For dinner my dad had the lasagna and I had a ricotta ravioli. My dad said his lasagna was delicious, but he and I were fighting over finishing my plate. The sauce was literally finger-​lickin’ good. Degarios, you have the approval of ²⁄₅ of this Italian family, and we’ll most definitely be back to bring the rest of the family.