Nostrana

This place is one of my top favorites in Portland. Time after time, it is consistently some of the best Italian food I have ever had including the food I had in Italy. The pizza is amazing, the pasta and everything else. The cocktails are delicious and the wine selection is perfect. Do yourself a favor and make a reservation to come here.
5 7 years ago (02-06-2018)

What a great Italian restaurant. It's a bit swanky, on the expensive end of the spectrum, and you do need reservations, but it's not pretentious. A great spot for special occasions. The wide open dining room is busy, but didn't feel crowded, even when they were at maximum capacity. It's a warm and inviting space that is pleasant to be in. My wife and I came here for my birthday and it was a real treat. We sat at the bar and watched the activity in the big, open kitchen, which was fun.The servers were very knowledgeable and attentive and they helped us choose a few glasses from their impressive list of mostly Italian wines. They will ply you with round after round of delicious, fresh baked Italian bread with olive oil, but stop! The best is yet to come. There are not many veggie options on the menu and essentially zero vegan options, but if you're okay with that, the food is excellent. We had several sides and the mushroom pizza (veggie), which was amazing. And don't forget about dessert (seriously) because every item in the lineup is worth it's weight in gold. My only notes for them would be to develop a more robust vegetarian menu and a few vegan options (it's Portland, after all!).
5 7 years ago (23-03-2018)

I am a simple man and I don't often feel right in a place without hamburgers on the menu. At Nostrana I felt right at home. The food was great and the staff friendly and unpretentious. This is a high class restaurant where simple folk will feel welcomed.
5 7 years ago (11-04-2018)

There's no denying, the food is amazing. I had no idea arugula with olive oil was such a flavor packed combo. We ordered cheese with crackers and bread with olive oil for starters. They were okay. Not bad, not great. For main course, we ordered pizza and a salmon dish. The pizza was about 10 inches and had their tomato sauce, mushrooms, garlic and arugula. It also had their own cheese. It was amazing. When it first arrived,I thought it was a salad on a pizza.... Was I wrong! The second dish was salmon on creamed bread with a salad of pickled onions, walnuts and arugula again. This too was just brilliant. I wondered why I never thought of putting salmon on creamed bread. It's a fantastic combo. We ended the meal with a slice of cheesecake, which i couldn't really enjoy because by this point I was stuffed and tipsy on two glasses of wine. I give three stars instead of five, because the server was a very weird lady. She was really patronising and had an air of condescension. The only time she looked at us with anything more pleasant than derision was when she returned our card after payment. It did spoil my evening a bit because I often feel that the servers in fancy places are just racist towards Indians, and she was just another one of those. Amazing food but I probably won't go here again.
3 7 years ago (01-04-2018)

Legitimately the best Italian food I've had in my life. The atmosphere in Nostrana is simultaneously romantic and energetic. The open kitchen and wood fire oven give an authentic, intimate feel to the spacious dining room. The radicchio salad is an absolute must and pairs very well with any of the amazing, cut-it-yourself pizzas.
5 7 years ago (06-04-2018)