I had heard about Caffe Mingo from a variety of people as one of the places ""to go to"" in PDX for Italian food, so I was really looking forward to our experience there. The place is fairly small, so it's noisy when it's busy, that is to be expected. But it took a while for our server to come to our table to even greet us to start the evening, at least 15 minutes. Then when I selected our wines for our group (there were 6 of us) they were out of both of them. Slightly frustrated at this point I order a couple bottles of bubbly. They arrived another 15 minutes later, or so, and then we were able to place our dinner order. The appetizers were o.k., but I'd stay away from the gnocchi, it was more like a casserole than gnocchi. But the worst was the entrees. I had heard so much about the beef braised in Chianti, but the food was mostly bland and lacked texture. The waitress actually forgot to order one of the two orders of it we gave her (you'd think that 5 entrees for 6 people would seem odd to someone), but I got my food on time, and it was just lack luster. My buddy dish was the same when it finally arrived. My wife got a mixed seafood pasta in a light white wine cream sauce that was equally uninspired. Dessert wasn't bad, even though they were out of both dessert wines I ordered (imagine that), but not enough to make up for a meal I still can't believe we spent over $500, before gratuity (which the waitress somehow rationalized to include). Maybe it was just an off night, but it was really off. It'll be a while before I go back to give them a second chance.
Pros: not much
Cons: service was bad and food doesn't make up for it
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