Gilda’s Italian Restaurant

Amazing food! Absolutely impeccable quality. Best fish dishes in town! Period! Alaskan halibut would be my last meal request if I was on death row. Seriously. Meatballs are truly authentic Italian meatballs and are honestly the best I’ve ever had. I’ve traveled all across Europe including Italy and I can tell you with 100% confidence that this place is in the top 5% of all the Italian restaurants I’ve eaten at. I AM FOREVER AN LOYAL CUSTOMER. KUDOS TO GILDAS. YOU HAVE TRULY RAISED THE BAR.
SINCERELY,
MATT…

Classic Italian cuisine. Being Italian I seldom go out for it. Gilda’s is worth paying for. I could never cook food like his at home. The veal scallopini was to die for. The menu is apparently fresh based on what’s seasonal. Tons of wild mushrooms in the autumn, I also found fresh figs used too.

What a wonderful dining experience at Gilda’s tonight! I was on business with a couple guys wanting to have a light dinner and a beer or two, and my friend who works in an office a couple blocks away suggested Gilda’s and what a treat it was!
Charming old-​world remodeled building right downtown, you couldn’t ask for a cozier little Italian place that’s walking distance from most anywhere. We opted for the bar (downstairs, down a long ramp) so that we could take advantage of the «lighter fare» on the Bar Food menu. After we ordered our beers, we ordered a serving of Grandma’s Meatballs, and a 6″ lasagna square…
Both were absolutely yummy! And what surprised me most of all, both were LIGHT! I really only eat lighter foods these days — but the meatballs, in addition to having a very delicate seasoning and sauce, were very light tasting — not heavy and hard like a lot of meatballs are.
Same with the lasagna — can you imagine lasagna being «light and airy»? Well, it was! Not the usual greasy slab of pasta and sauce, but very light strips of pasta and cheese — not at all greasy or overwhelming… just perfect in flavor and «heft» — I must admit I ended up eating more than I normally would, it was that good.
Marco, the owner and chef, came to visit us several times — very nice guy, who obviously learned a lot about Italian cooking from his Grandmother, Gilda herself.
Highly recommended — 5 stars all the way
Dave

There were four of us with two of us having their house made Lasagna Bolognese (every Monday only) which is as good as it gets. Two of us had salads with one with fresh halibut and the other with fresh salmon. Everything was done to perfection and very tasty. The wines were excellent as was the coffee and the affogato. It is reasonably priced value.

I wanted to love this place, I really really did!
We came here to celebrate my daughters 16^th birthday party prior to attending a Wednesday night Timbers game. When we sat down just after six we explained to our server that we needed to leave by 730 and he told us this would not be a problem. Mind you this was a Wednesday and the business was steady it was by no means super busy.
It was about 20 minutes before anybody came back to check on us. We ordered the anti-​Posto platter and asked A few questions about the menu, then I asked that our server come back in two minutes so we could order. Another 15 minutes past before he returned.
We placed our order and reiterated that we needed to leave by 730. We asked how much longer are appetizer might be at which time our server admitted that he had forgotten to ring it in. Though the birthday girl was really looking forward to it I asked that he not bother if it was going to delay the rest of the food coming. He said it would not.
Another 15 minutes past before the antipasto platter arrive. At this point we have been at this restaurant for nearly an hour and have only just received our appetizer. Our entrées did not arrive until 720 10 minutes before we needed to leave. We immediately asked for a check which did not come for quite some time. We ultimately left the restaurant around 745 and ended up missing the first 20 minutes of the game.
As for the food, it was a solid OK. The $ 28 seafood tagliatelle had four small prawns and a few pieces of lobster, and was smothered in an incredibly salty tomato cream sauce. The rigatoni bolognese lacked the depth of flavor I would expect from a Bolognese, especially one you pay more than $ 20 for. The spaghetti agli olio was drenched in olive oil — literally swimming in it — and not a single red pepper flakes to be seen.
The highlight of the meal was the complimentary bread. Save yourselves $ 125 and buy a baguette from Grand Central. There’s far better Italian food in Portland!

The staff was lovely, BEAUTIFUL little place, and the food was delightful. I was happy I chose this place for our anniversary dinner.

Rarely do my husband and myself eat out. We were given a gift certificate to Gilda’s for the holidays and decided to use it. Both my husband and I are Italian descendants so their was skepticism about eating Italian food out. When I first walked in I noticed the atmosphere was very warm and cozy, also clean which is important to us.
Our server Selena made us feel like we were in her home, her hospitality went way on and beyond what you’d expect from your hostess. The owner whose name is Marco came over and introduced himself to us which put our experience on a more personal level.
Now to the food… It was wonderful! Flavors I’m real familiar with growing up Italian. Not too much of any one ingredient and very fresh foods blended together perfectly. We will eat there again and thank Marco and his staff for their friendliness and their ability to make us feel right at home. Prices are reasonable as well.

We have dined at Gilda’s many times and found it to have good food and drink every time.

The food was good, though we found it a little pricey. Dinner and drinks for two came in around $ 100. Service was good with a few minor exceptions. Wait staff should know where food is going as we were asked (paraphrasing), «I’m not sure where these plates are going, did you guys order dessert?» Also, when I finished my beer, the wait staff asked if I’d like another. I answered ‘yes’, but before I could get a word in about which drink I’d like, the staff sped off and ordered me the same drink as before. I’d recommend simply asking, «And would you like the same drink as before?» Overall, we had a good time.

Looked forward to a new experience for a friend at what I thought was a great place only to be disappointed by a toxic east coast female bartender who poured shit drinks and had a personality like a venomous see u next Thursday
I as a customer should not have to work for a connection what makes this more difficult is I to am an east coast sweetie!!! Management may want to review customer service policies with staff in what otherwise is an establishment with nice ambience and good food. Ps. So instead of staying for dinner we left. UPDATED.: I would like to thank Marco for the sincerity of his concern related to my recent visit. Having had wonderful experiences in the past I look forward to having them once again in the future and would highly recommend the food and the owner’s respect for his clientele an immediate response to addressing problems.

Amazing people, food, and vibe.
Our waitress was the sweetest human. She provided great service and great conversation. The food was some of the best I had, along with fab lighting and chic charm. I highly recommend to everyone in Portland!

Quaint restaurant with great ambiance. Outstanding, authentic Italian cuisine. After living and studying in Italy– Italian cuisine that is legitimate is hard here in the US.
Chef/​owner Marco is very friendly– best dining experience here in Portland :)

Been there twice recently — once business and once with family and friends. Menu is well laid out, food is great with homemade pasta’s and other unique excellent dishes. Service is top notch. Very homey vibe at this place. I plan on making this a regular stop.

I didn’t have reservations and walked in to an almost empty restaurant and the hostess told me she could seat me since she had a cancellation. I wasn’t sure if she was being funny or not as the entire hour or so that I was there, the place was never filled.
Anyways … the cocktails are interesting and good. I had the blue salad which was lovely and delicious and homemade pasta with a meat sauce. The bread was really good and the dipping oil was amazing! I finished with the flourless chocolate cake which was ok but the homemade ice-​cream was awesome!
It was a quaint and charming spot and I enjoyed watching the rain while dining… I never felt rushed, the service was good and everything was tasty. Would be a great date place but I was there solo as I was traveling for work.

We had a wonderful family dinner here last night. Very authentic Italian food. Marco, the chef/​owner came by and chatted with us. He studied in Italy and lived there awhile which you can tell. There was 8 in our party and we had the pappardelle pasta special, the wild boar, lamb chops, steelhead, salmon, and the lobster pappardelle. Excellent wine selection also and then everyone tried a variety of deserts. Nice size portions and the prices were very reasonable. We will definitely be back again soon!

The love is abundant here. It flows freely from the family tradition of making people happy. What a great place to enjoy with friends. Check it out, it will become your family tradition.

I would love to rave about how delicious the food is, but I never got a chance to try it. I showed up right as they opened on a Sunday evening wanting to enjoy a delicious Italian dinner before the show I had tickets to, and got a table immediately. And proceeded to sit at that table for nearly 20 minutes and no one ever came to my table. The couple behind me got up and left, the table beside me had to go in search of their own menus… There was ONE server for the entire restaurant. It’s not the poor servers fault, that’s poor management. I finally got up and left because I needed to eat SOMETHING and I was shorter on time than I’d planned thanks to this restaurant managers lack of planning. Maybe I’ll give it another chance in the future, but right now I’m too angry.

My boyfriend and I are visiting Portland and we wanted a good Italian restaurant. We picked this place on reviews and were very disappointed. The restaurant is very quaint but it was extremely loud. We had to almost yell to hear each other and there were only 3 small groups there. We never got refills on our water or drinks despite having three different people checking on our table. The food was ok. Good sized portions but not very delicious, unfortunately. My boyfriend got the risotto and he said it was good but not great. I had the spaghetti carbonara and it was okay. After we ate, we had to wait about 10 minutes for the bill, then another 5 minutes for them to pick up our credit card, then another 5 minutes for it to be charged. It felt like we did a lot of waiting… We were very disappointed with our visit overall, unfortunately.

That’s unfortunate that you removed my last review, as it’s entirely accurate. I’ve watched that chef creep out any attractive female that comes near the bar section of his business. I’ve attempted to dine there with my date and had him hit on my date while I was in the restaurant. His food is over priced and frankly, not near the quality that our area demands. I’ve talked with multiple former employees and found that their food safety standards are sub par, at best. I will post this email as a review as well, so maybe it will warn some folks away from this guy.
Thanks.

First time trying Gilda’s and it was SPECTACULAR! Walked in through front door wearing ripped shorts, and felt a little awkward with how classy everyone was dressed, BUT the awesome Natalie Portman look alike hostess told us about the lounge downstairs! The lounge has a menu and they serve the full restaurant menu as well. The waitress was just as great as the hostess!
Italian restaurant that serves burgers?! I had to order one and it was delicious! Fresh bun, and caramelized onions made this burger! Also had homemade vanilla iced cream topped with the most amazing black cherries you will EVER have, because they import them from Italy… EPIC!
3 of us went, finished all of our food, and lalala loved it! We all know it is hard to satisfy a group at a restaurant, but not at this place!