Gino's

We have been twice and both times we had a great dinner and fun service. We took our 2 year old and the first time we ran into another couple with a 2-year old (early dining on a weeknight) and it was great! The past time we took some folks from out of town and they really enjoyed the place. Pros: kid friendly, good amount of food more

My wine-tasting group went to Gino's for dinner. When we arrived, the two young men who were running the restaurant side of Gino's were unbelievably rude. They refused to seat us until all of our party arrived. They asked why we didn't make reservations and we said because their web site says they don't take them, and he responded with ""that's not my problem, I didn't make the website"". They then said that because there were so many of us, we had to use the ""family style"" menu (minimum of $20 per person) and ""you can't eat off each other's plates"". We asked to speak to the manager and were told ""no"". We turned to speak to the other young man and he simply walked away when we were in mid-sentence. In the bar we had the opposite experience. The bar waitress was warm and helpful. Pros: good food, one helpful server Cons: Rude, INCREDIBLY RUDE more

Wow! Gino's is such a great restaurant. Kinda pricey, but super ambiance and service and HUGE portions! We are so used to getting tiny portions when paying this price for food, but here, I couldn't even finish! Highly recommended for an Italian style dinner more

Gino's does a variety of dishes: pasta, risotto, steak, and salmon. While not ""bad,"" the pastas tend to lack flavor and substance. Their meat and seafood selections, however, are superlative. The filet is exceptional, served perfectly along side creamy (and very buttery) mashed potatoes and a variety of vegetables. The salmon is also a treat. Always fresh and cooked to perfection, this dish is also served with potatoes and vegetables. Skip the overdressed caesar salad and go for the shrimp or clam appetizer instead. Served with delicious garlic bread, you cannot help but devour the entire dish and soak up the broth with the remaining bread. Overall, my experience is that the service at Gino's has never been stellar. But, the staff is nice enough, and if you can tolerate a short wait (no reservations) and a leisurely dinner, Gino's is a great little neighborhood restaurant with a fabulous atmosphere. Pros: fantastic steak, romantic atmosphere, great bar Cons: no reservations, slow service more

I had read about Gino's online and had tried to eat there two times prior to our intial experience. While the wine list is extensive, the service was very slow, the food subpar, and the prices were through the roof! We do not plan to return. Cons: over priced, slow service more

This was my first time coming here and I have to say that it will not be my last. While I have to say the seating was not as fast as I would have liked, teh food and attentive service all but made up for it, the owner even came to my table and asked if he could do anything to make us more happier. The food was perfect. We ordered a Porterhouse steak and an order of Grandma Jeans. The steak was done to perfection and went perfectly with my Manhattan, the Grandma jeans was amazing, filled with pork ribs, stew beef and pepperoni. We didnt venture into the wine list however opting instead to sample the amazing selection of bourbans. This is a Restaurant that all of Portland should take note of and try to be more like. Thank you, we will be back. Pros: great bar, perfect steaks, service more

I like Ginos because I can understand it. It's fresh, garlicky, and abundant. Really good. Just food. Ambience is unpretentious but cozy. Service is fine but not too intrusive. Been there 3 times, and had the same experience. Highly Recommended Pros: Good, Real, Garlicky Cons: , can be crowded, get there early more

So the food comes in double sized portions... Order family style, which can be fun. The caesar salad will appeal greatly to some, not at all to others: hugely garlicky and brimming with anchovy flava. I liked it. The pasta comes nicely al dente, but both the vongole and cioppino (transformed into a pasta dish) are bland and not exciting. Red and cream based sauces fared better, with Grandma Jean's, and the house made sausage winning out. You will bring food home. It's the Saburo's of italian restaurants in PDX. Pros: ambiance, value, wine list more

Gino's used to be our favorite restaurant. I still love the food, especially the Caesar, steaks & seafood. However, they're no longer a good value for your money. Ginos raised their prices 10% accross the board. For example they now have a $40 steak on the menu & most pastas are well above $17. To be fair, they do use high quality ingredients from organic farms and meat from Painted Hills, but many Portland restaurants do , & without the inflated prices. Also, Gino's ambiance & service is good, but does'nt warrant $30-$40 entrees. The place is funky, they use paper napkins, kids' drawings & cluttered shelves are scattered throughout. It's charming, but not the atmosphere you'd expect to pay Bluehour prices at. Further, Bluehour has a stellar Caesar & similar prices, but it also has high-priced ambience, crystal, the linen & the best service in Portland. Pros: Caesar Salad, Wait staff, Bar Cons: , TV in bar more

The food is always yummy and mark and debbie are always there to make you feel like part of the family! Pros: dessert, grandma jeans pasta, people more

We recently went to Ginos after hearing a number of different personal recommendations. We were pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. We had an appetizer, two mains and dessert. We took almost as much food home as we ate. We fought over who got to have bites of each item. I look forward to going back and have recommended it to a number of friends. Great looking bar as well. Pros: quality, value, variety more

The evening started promisingly enough with prompt seating and a friendly server. However, the food was only average at best. The supposedly meat-filled Nonna's Suace had literally 4 little chunks of meat in it. The service was the real problem. We waited forever for everything, and rarely saw our server. Don't take a chance at ignoring the negative reviews like I did. You might regret it. Pros: Nice decor Cons: , Bland food more

i loved my one and only trip to this great eatery. the setting is this great out of the way old building with high ceilings with tables and booths. we got into a booth and ordered the muscles and clams for appetizers and they were wonderful. we in turn from the 6 of us tried everyone's meal and discussed which one we liked best. what i liked about this place rather than assagios is it was fine dining without being uppity. the atmosphere was great including our waitress who put up with our indecisiveness. the wine steward was wearing sneakers and made great reccomendations. this was exactly the dining experience i was hoping for. more

Rarely can two people to take one bite from their respective dishes and make a negative judgment, but it happened here. First, the cream of potato and pancetta soup was very Campbells like. Their seafood stew entree was a very poor version of this classic dish as it was watery and bland, were those ramen noodles? The Marsala chicken was decent, but the accompanying mashed potatoes were dry, while slices of tomato and other frozen-taste-like vegetables surely didnt belong. Portions were ample, and prices were reasonable, but it's obvious why. Service was good, but a little too much checking on our water glass levels. We didn't need a to go box for our two barely sampled entrees. To the reviewers who rated this a 10 - again a 10 is something that couldn't get any better - and believe this to be Italian like it should be...please get out more. Pros: bread Cons: seafood stew, soup more

I reviewed this restaurant several years ago when I first tried it. The review was bad then, and it is bad now. As I have sat enjoying my delicious meal down the block at Portofino, watching the throngs go to Gino's, I have had to wonder what the attraction is. The only thing I can figure is that there are more tables available at Gino's than there are at Portofino. Gino's food is bland, oversalted, and they go spare on the meat and seafood heavy on the pasta. The food was so salted I had to continually grab the waitress to refill my water - no easy feat given the poor attention to our table.\r \r Our dinner this particular night was a family discussion for which we had asked for a table at the back. This was fine, but there was obviously some heated and very private conversations going on between us. At least four times our waitress walked up, looked one of us in the eye as we were quite obviously quietly crying and stumbling over words and asked ""How's your dinner?"", ""Would you like more wine?"", or ""How about some desert?"", with lots of banter added to instill friendliness. Once, ok. Twice, well, maybe she forgot. Four times? Get a clue! Purchasing another bottle of wine was not going to be at the top of our list, and we really didn't need her to change the topic of conversation! This was a quiet and long overdue conversation held in what was supposed to be a safe and unobtrusive place. A quiet observation of our water glasses would have been fine. If we wanted something (other than the water which she never seemed to notice) we would have asked.\r \r And paying for bread with dinner? C'mon. Bump up your entree price a dime, but don't charge for bread. No class. A difficult evening made worse by bad overpriced food and a waitress without a clue. Pros: Lots of seating Cons: poor service, bland food, not clean more

They won't take reservations for parties of less than 6 people and since we only had 5 we had to wait, and wait, and wait... We arrived at 8:00 for dinner and 2 FULL HOURS LATER we finally got seated in a 4 person booth. The host told us it would only take 45 minutes and she never made even one attempt to update us on the expected wait time. We finally asked her what the deal was and she was hardly concerned. Neither she nor the wait staff made any attempt to make us feel better about the situation, not even a sincere apology. We were seated at 10:00 and finally got our food at almost 11:00PM!! By the time we left it was nearly midnight. People pay money to be treated like this? Pros: Fair Parking, Fair Food, Good Neighborhood Cons: Terrible Service, Long Wait, Poor Atmosphere more

when we attempted to have dinner there the other night, we were kept waiting for a very long time with no acknowledgement. finally, upon asking if there was a list or someplace we could sign in, we were told brusquely, ""the hostess will be right with you"". After 10 more minutes, the hostess never arrived and we had dinner at a restaurant down the street. While I've had dinner there on several occasions and found the food to be great, I won't be back. more

I like Gino's...they have great Caesar salads, great desserts, and tasty, inexpensive wines. However, I will agree that sometimes the entrees are disappointing and you feel as if you ordered the wrong thing. The ravioli can be excellent and then the next time I go, it's a pale imitation. Enjoy Gino's for what it is--a fun, neighborhood place and don't expect Pazzo (which I don't think is very good itself). more

I have never had a bad experience at Gino's, and have eaten there dozens of times - it's one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. They make great martinis, wonderful budget wine list and the service has always been friendly. Reading other postings here, I'm not sure what happened for these people. It is a neighborhood place, so if you're expecting Pazzo, it's not. It gets very crowded, expect a wait and don't go there if you're feeling in a hurry. I have found Gino's to be on par or better than most Italian restaurants I've been to in the North End in Boston or in New York or San Francisco - wonderful home cooking! Pros: Caesar Salad, drinks, steak Cons: long wait, impatient patrons more

Ginos is REAL Italian food!! My family owns a six course family style Italian Restaurant in San Francisco, CA (North Beach). I have lived in Portland for a few years and been searching for some good honest Italian food. This is not your BS yuppie place serving bland pasta with whole cloves of garlic. If you want to experience real Itailian food, this is the only place in Portland to get it. Not to mention that they may have the best wine list in Portland!!!!! Pros: Food, Service, Wine List Cons: Very Busy, Long wait more