Nonna Emilia Ristorante

Ah gezzz. What a waste of money and time. I have heard about this place for the 25yrs I've lived here. Friends in town wanted great pizza. What a bomb. Fettuccine was gastly as well. \r I wouldnt even recommend someone try it. Stay home and have water and crackers before going here. more

OK food but not clean!! I was there for lunch buffet today...the first thing i noticed as soon as i walked in is the smell of mold and dryrot! The bathrooms are very old and dirty....also the lady and the guy that were serving the food werent even wearing aprons or hair nets! Thats such a health code violation...the ribs were nasty but the alfredo pasta was good. Also the pea salad was good. But id rather go to Olive Garden. If you have a sensitive sense of smell forget it dont even go! Server was nice but not personable at all. Only the hispanic guy serving food was all smiles and greeting. Not at all the place i was told it was...disappointed! :( more

My visit to Nonnative Emilia's today will be my last. About three months ago we waited1.5 hrs after we ordered until we got our food. Our waiter checked on us once. WheKn ou food came it was cold. Our waiter argued with us about it being cold. Needless to say it wasn't a good expierence. We considered it a bad night. Today we went to get a togo order. The hostess was nothing less than rude. She was telling customers what a horrible day she was having. I had to change my order about 2minutes after ordering. She dropped her head and did not respond to me. I had to say hello?... To which she said ""I'm listening"". I apologized -we got our order and left....for good. more

We called in an order for veal parm. Since I have food allergies, I asked them to not sprinkle the food with extra parsley. We were driving over from work at the height of rush hour. After fighting through traffic, we went to go pick up our order and were told that they could not prepare food for allergies, as they could not confirm if the cook used parsley in the sauce. It would have been nice to get a call back STATING this, rather than have me fight through Friday night traffic! I did provide my number and never got a call. Total losers! more

I will have to agree with the review below. This was a terrible experience. My grand daughter and I went for Buffet Lunch. Got there at 1:30. Woman on the other side of the buffet was sampling a salad. We thought she was a customer so my grand daughter went to that side of the buffet only to be scolded that for FOOD SAFETY reasons...she was on the wrong side. When I attempted to serve myself...the PASTA NAZI loudly admonished me that she was there for that reason. Who knew? By then I was so upset I just wanted to leave. We did go to the empty back room since I am in a scooter and mobility limited. I'd been there before with my son and that's were I was relegated to that time also. No, the restaurant wasn't crowded enough to get me ""out of the way"". At 1:50 my grand daughter decided she'd like seconds. She came back with only a fruit salad and said the buffet was closed. Seems the Pasta Nazi had left her station for parts unkown. I've never been to Ernestos...don't really know where it is....but I will find it. The snarkiness is unnecessary. The nice young man who seated us was polite. You can't bank on keeping your customers if you can't deliver good service. Also...a word to the gent at the register when I came in. (I get the feelings these were the owners, eh?)....attend to a paying customer instead of continuing your conversation with a sales person. They can wait. more

O.K. here goes. Take this for what it's worth, but I think this restaurant is not any better than it was when I tried it years ago. I gave it another shot today at lunch and that surely was a mistake on my part. I usually drive all the way to Ernestos near Jesuit H.S. and I should have done that today also. I understand they are brothers that run the two restaurants. Well one must have been watching mama cook and the other must have been out playing ball because the two restaurants are quite different. I am Italian and have been eating this stuff since being weaned and Nonna's was not good Italian food. I don't know what the other reviewers were tasting. The noodles were mushy in the lasagna and whatever they used for sausage well.....they shouldn't. The staff was all cranky. I made the mistake of trying to serve myself at the buffet like they offer at Ernestos, and was scolded by whoever was in charge. Imagine that. And then I made the mistake of asking to not have the end piece of the lasagna as that usually is more crusty....that did not go over well either. I was two for two. But frankly that could have been overlooked had the food been good....all I can say is if you want to really enjoy Italian food....drive a little farther and go to Ernestos. There is more variety, better quality and you will be treated better not to mention it is a much nicer restaurant atmosphere. I just thought I would pass it on. I don't think you will be sorry. more

We have had experience in the bar area for dinner and just for drinks. We love the quietness, the staff is awesome and seems to know what we want before we even say anything. Everything was good. Everyone seemed very relaxed and we have enjoyed it every time we have gone there. Definately a place to go and just relax. more

My family and I have been here 3 times because we were told the food was really good. By the third time I was done. If you do try this place do not order the roasted chicken. They pre-cook it and it always comes out dry. They'll even tell you that after you've ordered it and will not comp it. Really sad to say even Olive Garden is better than this. more

This place has the nerve to call it an Italian restaurant! NOT a chance, Im a second generation Italian who enjoys having authentic Italian food . Sorry to say this place is not it!!Take for instance the lasagna, it had a mush meat center that was suppose to be Italian sausage but this flavorless meat was camoflagued in fake cheese and horrible sauce,My friend had a minestrone soup in which i shared in and found it nothing short from campells.In fact, I think campells soup has more spices! My friend had Fettuccini Alfredo that was over cooked and prepared in a flavorless cream sauce. That came piping hot with the oil from the cheese or sauce ..oveflowing the plate, more

I grew up in the Beaverton area, and have always loved Nonna's pizza. Now I live on the East Side of Portland. I have been known to make a special trip across town just to get some Nonna Emilia's Italian food.\r Quite possibly the best Italian food in Portland. \r Well worth the trip. more

When we arrived at their restaurant, the dark-haired waiter evidently was agitated about something that went down earlier. The restaurant has many tables available, but we had to wait for him while he mill around the restaurant doing something irrelevant than showing us the table. Then we get our table. Ordered our drinks and pizza. These waitpeople never brought the breads, unlike 99% of the other Italian restaurants that does. Pizza took an unusually long time to come out of the oven to our table, that we went through our drinks twice. The pizza is a mess. They bombed it with too much cheese and buried the toppings Mt St.Helen-style. The pizza sauce is almost non-existent, it's just dough and cheese. For about $28, the pizza is an effing joke. We refused to eat any more of that so-called Italian pizza. It's a wonder why this restaurant is still in business with waitstaff that doesn't seem interested in serving new customers and the cooks that doesn't get what constitute a great pizza. Ciao! Pros: None whatsoever. Cons: Snotty waitstaff and sub-par pizza more

Where the people get the gall to call this place a ""Ristorante` Italiano"" is beyond my comprehension. There must be legions of dead Italians rolling over in their respective graves. The audacity to call their food Italian is an insult to real Italians everywhere. The Cheddar Cheese on the Eggplant Parmigiana but one of many disgusting points that made our experience just plain horrible. What they call Calamari should be punishable by whipping. Calamari is squid..cleaned, breaded, and the tentacles and tubes fried. This was what they call a ""pounded steak"" and was as tough as plastic and just as tasteless. We sent it back. My linguine with (what once again they called Marinara Sauce) was overcooked then mixed in a pot or some other vessel with the sauce and obviously canned clams. Awful. The complimentary antipasta was a dish with some carrot sticks, celery sticks, pepperocini, and packaged Genoa salami, pepperoni, and provolone ...the slices of which were cut into pie like pieces from the round slices. The salad was lettuce with a few croutons. We all found the food to have been enormous portions that none of us wanted because it was terrible. It would be a blessing to see this place go out of business by simple virtue of how lousy the food is. I base my opinions on my almost forty years as a Pennsylvania State Certified Chef / Culinary Arts Teacher and a lifetime in the business. My best suggestion to anyone contemplating visiting this place would be to do a 180 degree turn and go anywhere in the opposite direction. Pros: Great waitress, great accordion player, great garlic bread. Cons: Everything else. more

The food at this restaurant is an absolute abomination of ""authentic"" Italian cuisine. The only thing worse is the service, staff and management.\r \r The young man at the door, Jeff, was offensively arrogant and condescending in demeanor, our waitress was a rude slob who I watched wipe her snotty nose with a ratty kleenex from her apron pocket right before taking our plates of food from another server and bringing them to our table. I refused them and SHE was offended... go figure.\r \r In short, if you are looking to enjoy a tasty dinner served promptly and politely under sanitary conditions by folks that appreciate your patronage, (and the $100 bucks you will spend on a standard dinner for two including an appetizer, salad/soup, entree and couple glasses of barely-better-than-boxed wine) this is not the place for you. AVOID IT AT ALL COST! Pros: Absolutely NONE Cons: Absolutely everything from the minute you step in the door.. more

I took my wife to dinner at this restaurant on the reccomendation of some coworkers. I knew ahead of time that they are uncultured slobs, but I generally take the advice of grossly obese people on the matters of walking path shortcuts and pizza, but no. this was in no way good food. Walking in, I admit, it smelled good, and I saw some people eating what looked like a delicious pizza, so our hopes were high. We ordered a calamari appetizer, 1/2 carafe of the house pinot grigio, and a pizza that featured chicken, artichoke hearts and a bunch of other tasty sounding toppings. Then, our culinary nightmare began. First came the wine. 10.50 for two glasses of truly lousy wine. I don't expect house wines to be top shelf stuff, but I could have paid 7 bucks for a box of better wine. It was pathetic, cloying white wine, served ice cold so you can't taste the turpentine going down. As the headache from the wine started to take hold, we were presented with a slab of rubbery Shake-n-bake calamari with a side of ragu for dipping. It was like eating strips of battered rubber,the only flavors present being breadcrumbs and canned marinara sauce. This bland offering was the highlight of our meal. After we were done chewing the calamari, we were assaulted with a pizza that will haunt my nightmares for months. It turns out that the dominant topping of our pizza was whole cloves of garlic. Whole cloves. I counted seven CLOVES of garlic on the one slice of pizza I managed to eat. All of the other ingredients were suffocated by the ridiculous overdose of garlic. Everyone likes a little garlic, but garlic is a seasoning, not a topping. In fact, the only indication of chicken that I managed to get was when I bit down on a chicken bone. I managed to choke down one whole slice after picking off most of the garlic, my wife didn't even finish one small slice. After picking at our pizzas a bit the waitress came by and offered us desert. We declined, as we both had tremendous headaches brought on by lousy wine and too much garlic, and we fled while we still could. This restaurant is terrible. I would not recommend it to anyone under any circumstances. You're better off with little caesars pizza and a box of wine. Filth. Pros: The waitstaff was friendly and attentive. Cons: The food was horrid and overpriced more

My girlfriend loves Italian food. I often look for new places to take her. We have gone to many of the local places but since Nona's, it has become her favorite. I always know where to take her for a romanitic dinner that she will be sure to love. Pros: Great Food! Cons: well used tables more

read the description of Nona Emelias and if big is your definition of good then this is the place for you. However if you are looking for quality, edible food - this is not the place. I cant believe that anyone who writes about food considers this worthy of praise!\r \r The pizza was doughy and uncooked. It tasted like a frozen pizza with a pile of toppings in the middle. It is a shame that this place claims to be original italian! The only thing Italian is the name. I guess I should have guessed I was not going to get quality when the girl at the front counter was busy talking to her friends on her cell and the kitchen looked more like a taqueria than a pizzaria.\r Cons: Fancy Menu, really bad pizza. Raw Dough more

This is probably the worst ""Italian"" food I have ever had. There is absolutely no excuse to go here, especially since there are such great restaurants down the road. Please take the time and drive an extra 7 minutes and go to Mingo's or Decarli, both of those restaurants are twenty times better, with fresh food, and thoughtful preparation. They do give you HUGE portions at Nonna, but the food is so bad, there is no reason to take home any of the left overs, let alone eat any of the food. The pasta was overcooked, the sausage was flavorless, and the tomato sauce was insipid. Their ""calamari"" was a breaded squid steak, which was overcooked. Ugly decor, silk plants, phony Italian pictures and memorabilia (which can be bought at any home decor store such as bed bath and beyond). I can put together a better menu in ten minutes, with a restaurant concept. If you want to be an adult and actually eat well instead of stuffing your face with gruel, please go somewhere else, otherwise if you are total white trash with no taste, culture, or idea of what food can be, eat here. I pity anyone who put a good review for this restaurant. Pros: Nope Cons: Everything more

This restaraunt is the one in which the love of my life took me out for our first date. My brother proposed to his wife at this restaraunt, and the food is wonderful! Nona Emilias has reasonable prices, great service,and is a place where many people create wonderful memories. Pros: Nona Emilias is one of those places that people go back to. Cons: I never liked the location. more

We've been going to Nonna Emilia's for 10 years. This is THE best Italian food I've encountered in Portland. Big portions, fresh ingrediants, lots of standard Italian options, and reasonable prices. The service has always been wonderful and the atmosphere is fun.\r Nonna Emilia's is one of our ongoing favorites! Pros: Great Food, Great Service, Reasonably Priced more

We have eaten at Nonna Emilia's for quite awhile we always had good thick crust pizza until tonight! We got our pizza took a peice we could not bight it with our teeth, my husband immediatly picked up the pizza to look at the bottom to see if it was burnt, so we took a knife and for and had to saw a peice off.\r \r The waitress came by to ask how it was, I asked her if they changed the dough recipe"" she said no, she watched us try to cut our pizza and saw what trouble we were having, she said let me have them make you another so you can take home, I said we eat here quite often and it has never been like this, I also advised her it was not burnt but something was wrong, she came back 5 minutes later with the same pizza and said her manager said there was nothing wrong with it and handed us STEAK KNIVES, now come on!\r \r We got the bill the cashier asked how everything was and my husband explained to her what had happened she said oh when I eat the buffet and the pizza has been sitting out for a long time it will be like that!!! Then she said oh thats too bad it should not be like that and charged us.\r \r We did not want a full refund we did not even eat a whole 2 pieces out of the pizza but it would have been nice to have someone acknowledge there was something wrong or even given a coupon for next time.\r \r Too bad we will never eat there again, very bad customer service and management, cutting a piece of pizza with a steak knife!!!!1 Pros: Nice lights Cons: Horrible management more