Best Northern Italian restaurant in Portland

Nostrana is a restaurant that presents seasonally influenced Italian dishes, including popular thin-crust pizzas and wood-grilled fare, in a beautiful, soaring space. The restaurant features an extensive wine list and innovative cocktails. Chef Cathy Whims, a master of inventive regional Italian cuisine, has cultivated a collaborative relationship with local farmers to access top-quality ingredients, allowing her food to reflect the best of both the region and the season, in the true Italian spirit. Nostrana offers a menu that changes nightly to showcase the best local ingredients, including freshly-prepared soups, decadent charcuterie boards, homemade pastas, and rustic Italian dishes. The restaurant's atmosphere is cozy and welcoming, with a warm, inviting ambiance that sets the stage for an authentic Italian dining experience. Nostrana has a reputation for serving great pasta and Neapolitan pizza, with a pizza peel as its logo, and a wood-fired oven that bakes thin-crusted pizzas to blistered perfection. Nostrana is a popular destination for Italian foodies, with a collaborative relationship with local farmers and a commitment to using fresh, high-quality ingredients. The restaurant's service is welcoming and friendly, with knowledgeable staff who expertly recommend wines and craft cocktails. Nostrana has earned six nominations for James Beard Best Chef Northwest, and its elemental regional Italian cooking has earned it a reputation as one of Portland's favorite restaurants.

Cibo is a neighborhood Italian restaurant located at SE 35th and Division in Portland, Oregon. It serves authentic Roman-style wood-fired pizza, handmade fresh pastas, grilled meats, and fresh seafood in a warm and welcoming space built around an open kitchen and an imported Ligurian pizza oven, the first of its kind in the United States. The restaurant's menu changes with the seasons, built around the best local and imported ingredients available. It offers a variety of dishes, including wood-fired pizzas with toppings such as fig and prosciutto, housemade soppressata with Calabrian chilies and honey, and classic Margherita with fresh basil and imported Italian tomatoes. Fresh pastas are made daily, with options like rich Pappardelle alla Bolognese, delicate wild mushroom ravioli in porcini cream, and fresh tortelli stuffed with roasted squash and sage brown butter. Meats include a Black Angus flat iron steak finished with a four-day veal glaze, a peppercorn-crusted pork tenderloin, and a marinated hanger steak served medium rare with Tuscan fries. Cibo also offers a seafood menu that changes with what's fresh, featuring dishes like Cioppino, which brings together salmon, flounder, shrimp, octopus, mussels, and clams in a rich tomato fish broth. Other seafood options include fresh Puget Sound mussels sautéed with saffron, thyme, cream, and butter. The restaurant's bread is baked fresh in-house every day, and it offers a variety of housemade desserts, including Torta di Ricotta with amarena cherries and dark chocolate ganache, and classic tiramisu.