Where is the Best Pizza in Portland, Oregon?
My husband and I stayed in Portland recently and picked Dante’s for their Saturday Night show – Subterranean Caberet. There was a Seattle group playing, and we found both the music and show to be very entertaining! It was my birthday and we were so lucky to wander in! The musicians, dancers, MC, and crowd were all upbeat and the atmosphere was friendly and in party mode. There was a very diverse crowd – all ages and style of dress from jeans and sweaters to short black dresses and heels. No baseball caps. Two drinks were 11.75 plus tip – pretty typical.I have two cons that I want to share with readers. The first is that the service at the large bar was horrible. I thought my husband was exaggerating about her rudeness, so I attempted to order the next round with no luck. She wasn’t busy, just leaning and chatting. Order from the small bar!Second, we decided to stay for the second show and all patrons staying were told to leave their coats at the tables (or lose your table) a
I’m a west coastie who didn’t grow up on NY style, and I have to say in general I prefer a sturdier, heartier pizza. But Bella Faccia has me won over. Even if it wasn’t in my neighborhood I’d go out of the way for it. There’s a Hot Lips closer that will deliver (Bella Faccia doesn’t), but even that won’t make me change allegiances. The sauce is flavorful–it actually tastes like tomato and not generic “sauce”. We always get takeout because the place itself is very small. The staff there won’t coddle you, but I don’t consider that bad service. To me, poor service means you don’t get what you asked for or it takes an unreasonably long time to get it. Their job is to get you your food, that’s it, and here they do it well. Maybe they won’t read the signs for you if you won’t read ’em for yourself, and yes, they enforce a strict no-cell-phone policy at the counter and WILL walk away if you ignore it. I say, good for them! Great pizza, fast service, and I don’t want anything else
Other reviewers have already summed up Rocco’s pretty well, but I had a few things to contribute. Their biggest flaw, by far, is that they make their most popular varieties (Cheese, Pepperoni, Sausage, etc) way too far in advance. But here’s the deal– don’t let the pre-made stuff tempt you. Find a menu. Notice that for the same price, you can order a personal pizza with whatever toppings you want. They’ll make it on the spot, and it comes out of the oven in much better shape than the stuff in the warming case. It takes a bit of savvy to get what you want at Roccos, but it’s easy to get used to the cheap prices and hip people.
Remember the scene in When Harry met Sally and Sally had a fake “O” in the restaurant? Well, the first time I ate at Dovi Vivi I almost had one for real. I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm or surprise by how incredibly delicious the food was. All of my friends that have experienced Dovi Vivi for the first time either went back for seconds in the same weekend, or once, in the same day! I also have a friend who has a pretty high wheat/gluten intolerance and we ate there because we thought it would be better for her stomach (it turns out that cornmeal crust still contains a high amount of wheat) but she still sacrifices it all for a little slice of cornmeal crust heaven. The vegetarian and vegan options are delicious! My favorite: the corn pizza.Pros + The pizza is really incredibleCons – It can get crowded, so get there early!
My hubby and I have had Hammy’s pizza twice now after it was recommended by a friend. We’ve loved it both times. We live in the area, so in both cases we picked it up and it was ready when he arrived. So we haven’t experienced the delivery issues that other reviewers mentioned. We absolutely loved the pizza – it was real NY style pizza, not fancy pizza. We’ve had a cheese & jalapeno pizza twice and it’s simple and good. The crust is thin, NY style, the way we like it. I also had the super veggie pizza and it was awesome. I loved that it had a ton of roasted garlic, way more than any other pizza I’ve had. It had as much roasted garlic as pizza I make at home. The super veggie crust was a little soggy under all the toppings, but it was still delicious. We found the price reasonable too. We’ll keep coming back (and keep picking it up).
