Nicola's Pizza

I have eaten at Nicola's at least 6 times. Each time has been 5 star worthy. The food is always incredible. Tonight's special, penne w/a creamy gouda sauce, sundried tomatoes and broccoli was another amazing dish. The servers are always great too. We had the cheese bread as an appetizer, it was good too. Will continue to recommend this great restaurant to my friends. more

A new find in North Portland! Nicola's Pasta and Pizza on Lombard was recommended to me by my Italian neighbor. I have been searching Portland for good down home Italian food and I believe I have finally found it! I had their meatballs and spaghetti. Their meatballs are tender and flavorful. The sauce was perfectly prepared with flavors of a true red sauce. The bread was delicious; made fresh daily. I loved the bread, but gave the restaurant a four star because it was not the crusty outside with a soft dense inside Italian bread and didn't have olive oil on the table (I didn't ask for any, but I am sure they would have brought me some). I had a house salad with Caesar dressing - very tasty and fresh. The waitress was extremely friendly and helpful. I was able to take my time to eat and the atmosphere was pleasant. They do have outside seating, but I did not take a look, so maybe next time I will try that, also. I am ready to go back to try other items on the menu. Although I have only been there one time, I truly believe that this restaurant will be the place I will go when I want real Italian food! more

I have eaten pizza in many places around the world, and Nicola's is really good. The staff are all friendly and the restaurant itself is cozy and well decorated. I would definitely recommend Nicola's to anybody that likes Italian food. -Cheers more

Full disclosure: Have lived most my life overseas and most of that in Europe. I want my Italian food to be Italian. The teramisu was modern Italian, i.e. not much egg and the lasagna was also Americanized. My wife's eggplant parmigiana was good. The bread was not anything you would find in Italy, nor was the coffee. Good wine but no mineral water available, almost a sin in Italy. The dessert cannelloni did not have flaky pastry, it was soggy from being in the cooler for a long time. The pizza at the neighboring table looked great. Pros: Decor, wait staff Cons: American with an Italian flavor more

There are only a handful of places I've found in Portland which I say are old school Italian American food and Nicola's is one of them. Pizza is great, like you get in NYC, and the manicotti was downright delicious. Wine selection is so so, but no big deal. Expect a small wait, even on a weeknight. Worth it though. Pros: family atomsphere, inexpensive prices Cons: small dining room more

Nicola's is an excellent restaurant I have just finished eating there and could not wait to write a review about my experience. I believe in being completely honest so the only reason why this restaurant did not receive a 5 star from me is that certain items are not available such as portabello mushrooms and mushroom based chicken shrimp or veal dishes other then that the place is truly an incredible experience. The restaurant was packed a good sign of very good food. Good wine selection and they also have italian sodas homemade by the staff per order. I recomment the peach strawberry, The wait staff are very courteous and make sure thier guests are very well taken care of and do not rush you to eat and move in new customers even when its packed like tonight. The salads are crisp and definately fresh. They also do not ding you on the check for making the salad to your taste. Great selection of dressings as well for the salads. The breaded mushrooms are definately fresh made each day with the breading and made to order. The afredo sauce definately has a kick and this place will guarantee that you never leave hungry. Thier fresh made desserts are very good as well. Only downside to the desserts is that they do not carry any of the italian coffees or espressos. Overall it was a great experience and the price was definately compariable to that of Olive Garden or other good quality italian restaurants. I hope you enjoy your meal. Pros: Excellent food great courteous staff and very competitive prices Cons: No mushroom based dishes or portabello mushrooms more

The prices are reasonable, delicous food, server's treat veryone nice. But the usal customer's are snobish rich kid's, that will cut in front of you when you're teating your mother. Well it is univerity park. Pros: food, service, value Cons: stuck up snobes more

Exceptional entree dishes. Nice side salads. Friendly service. An absolute must if you are in teh neighborhood Pros: Great Food, Friendly Service Cons: Limited Seating more

I wasn't even a citisearch member until about 30 seconds ago when I read the completely unfair reviews that Nicolas is getting and decided it needed some serious redemption! Nicola's has incredibly tasty food for seriously good prices which is why there is a line out the door every Friday and Saturday night. Anyone who says otherwise needs to go back to the Macaroni Grill where they can enjoy their overpriced chain restaurant with plain tasting food. NIcola's is a diamond in the rough. No, it's not somewhere you would go to impress a date, the wallpaper is falling off and it's close quarters, but the food is fantastic. The pizza is some of the best I've had in Portland. The sourdough crust is what makes it! The meatballs are so tender they melt in your mouth and the bread is homemade thick slices! No, it doesn't appear to be gourmet, there isn't really any fancy presentation about it, but the flavor speaks for itself. It's just good old fashioned Italian at a really good price. They aren't trying to be anything else, so at least give them credit for what they are! Pros: Good pizza and good meatballs! Cons: Busy on Fri & Sat nights more

This place should be sued for false advertising !!! Tonight I just finished "Spinach Dip" that cost $6.99 that was accompanied by SLICED WHITE BREAD (not even Italian) burnt and doctored up to try to resemble garlic toast - certainly not the Bruschetta toast the menu claimed. The Fried Ravioli for $5.99 was rubbery - appearing to have been pre-fried earlier in the day and microwaved to warm - and there was no Marinara sauce as the menu claimed. The chicken alfredo was a big sticky glom with less than 2 oz of DRIED OUT chicken (yes, I weighed it) and no vegetables. My husband's meat sauce spaghetti had no meat and the meatballs had so much filler, you could bounce them off the floor. Tonight the dog is the winner - assuming he makes it thru the nite, You stole from me tonight Nicola's- claiming to have quality food - but you won't get a second chance! Save your money - I MEAN SAVE YOUR MONEY - i could have eaten Beefaroni and had a better meal !!! Pros: Great Printed Menu Cons: None of it is true - the food is totally misrepresented and the COST IS ABSURD more

Everyone told me Nicolas was so great, so i had to try it out for myself. My boyfriend and i went in on a thursday night and lets just say... hopefully they have a bigger staff on the weekends. The hostess took our names and told us there would be about a five minute wait, which turned into ten minutes. When the hostess finally did seat us she gave us some water, told us our waitress would be right with us, and that was the last we saw of her. The waitress came over about 15 minutes later and asked if we were finally ready yet. we ordered a spinach dip to start out with and it came burnt. the waitress brought us the wrong food and when we finally got our right food it was cold and soggy. when we took the bill to the counter to be paid the girl spent 10 minutes on the phone while the cooks talked (that explains the cold soggy food) although the restaurant is cute, it is far too small and not very practical. the staff is rude and don't consider peopless time frames. Pros: cute decor Cons: waitresses, no parking more

first of all we walk in and they say sit "where ever you like" so we did about 5 minutes later some guy tells us to move. so we did. it took about 10 minutes for anyone to even bring us a menu. then i ordered cheese ravioli with white sauce. so then we heard the cook yelling from across the room about how he wont make my "special order" and the waitress trying to negotiate it with him. So she comes and tells me that a lunch raviloli was going to be 13.99 but that she got the cook to lower it to 11.99. Are you kidding me? It was VERY unpleasant and unprofessional. So after the incident she never came back to our table, didnt ask us how we were doing, and told us she was leaving to break and we were forgotten after that. Further more when we went to pay the arrogant chef in the back wouldnt even take our check he made the waitress on break do it. the chef was arrogant, rude, and unprofessional. The food was ok, but nothing special about it. I WILL NEVER EAT HERE AGAIN! Am i the only person alive allergic to tomato sauce that needs to special order? Pros: very cute inside Cons: chef/service are rude more

This cute little NoPo restaurant is one of the best little italian restaurants around. The calzones are huge-about the size of footballs-and stuffed with almost any topping you can think of that belongs on a pizza or in a calzone. The pizza is delicious--granted, its not the chicago style or wahtever, its just wonderful dough with wonderful toppings. Because the calzones and pizza are so great, out of the two dozen or so times my pals and I have been in there we never gotten around to ordering pasta! To be fair, I've only had one bad experience here. I went with a group of about 8 students during my Freshman year of college prior to a homecoming dance. We were treated very well and had ordered 4 calzones to split between us. My friend's and mine calzone which we were sharing was completely raw on the inside--cheese unmelted, stuffings cold, and the dough still oozy and raw. We asked our waitress to place it back in the oven or have it checked, but she would not even look at the calzone let alone go out of her way to take it back to the cook for reheating. I live by the 3-strikes-your-out rule so I kept going back and this great place has never dissapointed me since! Pros: Cheap Eats, Ambience, Street Parking, Portion Size Cons: One Bad Waitress, Limited Large Group Seating more

Nicolas is a wonderful local restaurant with reliably good Italian food at very reasonable prices. The location is convenient, parking is never a problem and the restaurant has a cozy but also sometimes cramped feeling because of the limited size and layout. The Calzones are legenday in both size and flavor. The pasta dishes are good , especially the tortellini. Service is wonderful and you'll be in extra special hands if you're lucky enough to have Sandy wait on you. Good,satisfying local dining experience at very reasonable prices Pros: Food, Service, Prices Cons: Somewhat cramped more

It's been hard finding good Italian food in Portland. But I've arrived and found the little mecca that hearkens back to my boyhood in Brooklyn. It was just after opening for the dinner trade so my pal and I were in there by ourselves. The waitress offered a good deal of attention, even allowing my to order off the menu without getting in my face. I got one meatball and one sausage (instead of 2 meatballs). At another downtown place that offers veloce service, I got nothing but attitude and a buck-fiddy added to my bill. Here, they just did me a favor. My buddy and I ate like little kids at grandmother's Sunday dinner! For one thing, you really gotta love Italian/American style sauce, because if you don't you're not going to really get it. Think Robert DeNiro eating pasta with Bruno Kirby in the Godfather II. Pros: Yummy Food, Flexible with Menu, Attentive Service Cons: , Small Antipasto, No Romantic companion more

The pasta was cold, which for a stuffed pasta like ravioli is a sin. The wine was average and the service swift, but inattentive. A friend ordered pizza, which was a worse mistake. I will never cease to nbe amazed at what Portlander's think of as good pizza, but anyone who likes this has NO idea what that food item is! The sauce was tasteless and the pizza cold (Do the ovens work here?). Oh, and the sausage was tasteless, it could just as well have been hamburger. Not a place to go. Pros: Quick seating more

best pizza, good value, beautiful interior, and they have patio seating for the sunny days. LOVE THIS PLACE Pros: pizza, outside seating, very friendly more

Nicola's is one of the greatest places in North Portland! Lunch & Dinner - Great value, service and during the summer months you've got to try their back patio. It's so cute! more

I have always enjoyed the food at this place but the ambiance is the over the top. I was amazed this place was located in North Portland. I have only had delays at lunch so if you are running short time, call in your order. more

When i first moved to N Portland 1992, Nicola's became a favorite of mine. Their pizza has always been the best. When I heard they were changing it to a full resturaunt i was kind of disappointed - until the owner offered me a tour. It looked wonderful and I couldn't wait to eat there. When it finally openned We were treated to the kindest service- we sat in a very romantic room (there's a few different rooms - 1 is large and family resturaunt style - another is small and romantic another has a great big table in it for large groups. the decor in each is very nice. NOW FOR THE FOOD! i couldn't believe the prices! So inexpensive... I don't think that there is a single thing on the menu above $10. AND it is the BEST ITALIAN FOOD i have had in portland. YOU MUST GO!!! Pros: great service, great food, great prices more