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March 2024 by Seth Von Gretlein
Where to begin? My partner has lived in this neighborhood for 8 years and mentioned that she’d never been to the restaurant, so we decided to give it a go before moving to north Portland. Seeing as it was a beautiful March evening we decided to walk to the restaurant. Arriving at the Barbur Blvd entrance we see a beautiful albeit empty dining room with a tremendous view east over Portland… and a sign informing us to use the door on the parking lot side of the building. As we meander our way down we pass another door (the bar entrance?) also informing us to keep on moving. Finally we come upon a door that will grant us entry. Upon entering we are greeted be a nice young person that proceeds to stare at us until we say we are indeed just two people dining this evening. We were seated on the lower level of the restaurant amongst the other diners with a beautiful view of the patio furniture locked up on the disused patio. No matter, we peruse the menu and settle on a regular cheese pizza (I like an even playing field to judge a pizza on), their “wild” mushroom ravioli in a white wine cream sauce, and a bottle of Italian white wine to round off the meal. In short order our gracious server Sara(h?) brought the food, the pizza was square(ish) and cut into 8 rectangles. Though I’m not a geometry wiz, I’m certain there is better ways to do this. I would describe the crust as having all the flavor of a packet of saltine crackers, but that would be unfair to the crackers, as they are actually a wee bit flavorful. The sauce was far from the “zesty marinara” the menu boasts and more similar to a grocery store ragu. The crust was stale flaky, and left a distinct layer of regret on my mouth. At least there was cheese on it? Moving on the the ravioli. The only thing wild about the mushrooms was liberty in which they use the word wild. I’m no mycologist, but if those weren’t crimini, I’ll, well… I’ll correct this post. There were five ravioli on the plate which brings the cost to about $4.80 per ravioli. Not a horrible price for what was advertised, but an atrocity for what was delivered. The white wine sauce lacked any sort of depth to put it lightly and almost certainly came from a large can marked “Sysco Alfredo style sauce”, and was garnished with healthy handful of wilted spinach, conveniently not mentioned on the menu but was simultaneously also completely void of the garlic or shallot that was mentioned.Suffice it to say, I will not be returning. There is plenty of more authentic Italian food in Portland, like Gabiano’s, Pastificio d’Oro, or even Pizza Hut.
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March 2024 by Tim Studer
My wife and I were in the area after dropping the kids off at the airport, and we googled nearby resturants. Lucky for us Caro Amica came up. It had good reviews so we gave it a try.The atmosphere is very nice but casual. The service here was friendly and very professional. Our waitress, Celina did a wonderful job.The food there is delicious. We started off with the prawns in a white wine and garlic sauce and some toasted garlic bread. There was plenty for both of us, I soaked up every drop of the sauce with the bread. My wife had the cheese ravioli in a marinara sauce and loved it. I then had the Angel hair pasta with pesto and sausage. The cream sauce with the sausage and pesto was really, really good. The portions were very generous but the food was so good we didn't have any left over to take home.One of the best meals I've had in months.Can't wait to come back.
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March 2024 by mary russell
The bakers special pizza is not the same. Less bacon and pepperoni and a higher price.
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March 2024 by Rose Miller
Outstanding service and quality, highly recommend for any occasion. The bread was an amazing experience all in itself.
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March 2024 by K G
Waitress was rude. Very rude. Service was horrible. Requests were not met.
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March 2024 by JayH
Best Italian food I've had in what feels like forever. The service was excellent. This is what going out to dinner used to feel like. I had forgotten what good service was like until I came here. Kind, attentive, polite servers, crazy good food and an old school atmosphere. This will be my new go-to spot for a date night or family dinner out
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February 2024 by John Toppel
Just great. Classic Italian with great service and ambiance.
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February 2024 by ReneeM
It must have been an off night. We had a 7:15 pm reservation, along with what seemed like 5 or 6 other parties, some of which were there and others who came in after us. We checked in on time and were told it would be a few minutes and the people who checked in right after us were sat first, having the same 7:15 reservation time and ahead of others who were already there waiting. How does that work? We waited and waited while standing in the small hallway, cooks were coming in and out of the door behind us and left a big pasta sauce stain on the back of my partner's jacket from dirty dishes, only to just say, oops, sorry! We were STILL waiting 45 minutes later to get seated with no communication from the hostess this whole time; we were standing right in front of her station for most of our wait. It got down to just us and one other party who came in much later, still waiting. I finally asked and commented about the wait and seating preference and lucky she found a table for us right away, as we were ready to walk out the door! They offered us a small complimentary dessert for the wait, which was nice, but we will not be rushing back there anytime soon.
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February 2024 by Kevin K
Been a few years since I've been in and it was just as good as I remembered. A really nice experience.
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February 2024 by Sara Ramos
Finally, my family was able to get to Caro Amico’s after they reopened. We celebrated my daughter’s birthday with: the chopped salad, shrimp fettuccine, ravioli, pizza, garlic bread, and spumoni ice cream. Oh and a beautiful bottle of red. We’ve been customers for over 20 years. We love the staff, atmosphere, and food. Definitely a big ticket for all the above. Happy hour in the bar is full of great deals. Highly recommend!
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February 2024 by Zachary Hastings
Service was excellent and prompt. Food was outstanding!! Definitely a casual restaurant that has a flare of Italian food. The main entree, appetizer and dessert were absolutely divine.
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February 2024 by chris mattix
More money than I like to spend on Italian food, but the quality was great. I came in a party of 6 and the service was just frequent enough to be there when we needed something. A few questions about the menu and space went unanswered because of it being a recent reopening and changes, but it was pretty minor. The ambiance could use a little work but I guess they designed the dining area upstairs based on need to packing in extra seating. The wine selection was decent and the portions were good. Everyone loved their selections from the menu. Personally, I had the spaghetti carbonara and I enjoyed it thoroughly! Even without eating all of the garlic bread w/ marinara appetizers we ordered it was so rich and savory I could only handle eating about half of the dish and took the rest home just so that I could enjoy dessert!Items ordered, if I remember correctly, included wild mushroom ravioli, spaghetti carbonara, chicken piccata, scampi fettuccine, and pasta putanesca. Those jumbo pan seared scallops and pizzas looked really good, but I guess it is something we will have to try on our next visit. Drinks included a grapefruit drop, and a bottle of rock horse ranch red blend, and for dessert I ordered a chocolate marquee mousse cake (amazing!), with a cup of good coffee after I ran out of red wine to pair it with.I think the pre-tip total for the six of us ended up around $325, but it was the holiday meal, after all (Christmas) so I tried not to flinch at the price tag.
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February 2024 by JakeL
Upon arrival, we were informed that our 7:30 dinner reservation only allowed us 15 minutes to order before the kitchen closed for the evening. Other members of our dinner party arrived at 7:32 and were locked out of the restaurant. Upon eventual entry, they were asked if they had a reservation instead of receiving an apology for the inconvenience. Very disappointing conduct from one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants.
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February 2024 by dlomax
We had our Valentine's Day dinner at Caro Amico. It was vry busy even at 5:30pm so we were lucky to get the last spot in their small parking lot. We were seated quickly and, recently remodeled, the placelooked great with many window with a view of the eastside. The server was very friendly and the garlic bread and a Caesar Salad we shared were delicious while we waited for our meal. While taking awhile to arrive the pasta were so good, wild mushroom ravioli in a cream sauce and fettuccini with shrimp. Worth waiting for and with the friendly staff stopping by to chat we had a very nice evening on ourspecial occassion dinner.
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February 2024 by JacquelineM
I was looking for veal parmigiana ... wasn't disappointed: excellent. The vegetables served with it were excellent too —- perfectly cooked. And the penne also!! Other entree was Scampi! Nine large shrimp. Great fresh pasta and delicious.
