The 9 Best Italian Restaurants in Portland 2026

Cathy Whims cooked at Genoa, the Belmont Street dining room that ran farmer-driven Italian from 1971 and drew Chez Panisse comparisons before farm-to-table had a name. She opened Nostrana in 2005, and twenty years later her radicchio salad is still the most copied dish in Portland. The city's Italian scene runs through her lineage, survived a brutal 2024-25 round of closures, and added a half-dozen new rooms in 2025 alone. The Portland dining guide covers the whole city; this list ranks its Italian tables against the global Italian dining field.

A scene rebuilt twice over

Get the record straight on Whims first: six James Beard Best Chef Northwest finalist nominations, 2008 through 2013, and no win; the 2024 award went to Gregory Gourdet of Kann. Her cookbook The Italian Summer Kitchen, published April 2025, is the closest thing the city's Italian cooking has to a founding document. The scene around her churned hard. A fire took the Caffe Mingo block on NW 21st in August 2024 and the owner retired rather than rebuild; Cicoria closed in June 2024; Renata followed in 2025. Then 2025 delivered the counterwave, at least six new Italian openings, and Portland Monthly ran a dedicated best-new-Italian feature by September.

The nine, ranked

1. Nostrana — Buckman

Twenty years in at 1401 SE Morrison Street, Cathy Whims' wood-fired room still sets the standard: the Insalata Nostrana, her radicchio Caesar variant, the blistered pizza margherita at $18 to $24, and a Friday winemaker garden series running June through September 2026. Six Beard finalist nominations hang on the kitchen, and the bar program at the attached Enoteca runs deeper than most restaurants' lists. Nostrana's full review covers the room. Not for intimate hush; the dining room is big, loud and proud of it.

2. Ava Gene's — Richmond

The Roman-style room Joshua McFadden built at 3377 SE Division Street in 2013 reopened in March 2023 under co-executive chefs Ross Effinger and Amelia Kirk, with McFadden consulting for owner Sortis Holdings. The giardini vegetable plates remain the identity, produce treated like protein, and the tagliatelle alla bolognese at about $28 is the spine. The Oregonian ranked it 35th in its 2025 top-40. Ava Gene's full review maps the menu. Not for anyone expecting the 2015 kitchen; this is a steadier, corporate-owned version of a once-radical room.

3. Campana — Woodlawn

George Kaden's pasta-night pop-up grew into a Woodlawn dining room at 901 NE Oneonta Street, and the cavatelli with pork ragù plus an à la minute risotto won The Oregonian's 2024 Readers' Poll for best pasta in the city. Portions run substantial and pastas stay in the twenties; books on Tock. Not for walk-in spontaneity on weekends; the neighborhood found it long ago.

4. Gabbiano's — Concordia

Blake Foster and David Sigal opened this red-sauce room at 5411 NE 30th Avenue in January 2022 with Liz Serrone running the kitchen, and the chicken parmesan became a city-wide argument within weeks. The mozzarella cups still sell out nightly. Willamette Week and Portland Monthly both reviewed it within three months of opening, which almost never happens for Italian-American comfort food. Not for quiet conversation; the room runs at a Friday-night pitch every night it opens.

5. a Cena — Sellwood

The Sellwood anchor at 7742 SE 13th Avenue has cooked handmade pasta and house-cured meats since late 2007, with the garganelli alla Norcia, sausage, cream, truffle, as the dish worth crossing the river for. Pastas and secondi run the mid-twenties to thirties, and the seven-night schedule is rare for a room this size. Not for scene hunters; this is a neighborhood dining room that happens to out-cook most of the inner east side.

6. Mucca Osteria — Downtown

Simone Savaiano, Roman by birth, has run this SW Morrison Street osteria since 2011, and the oxtail ragù pasta is the most Roman plate in Oregon. Pastas run $25 to $32, a multi-course tasting is offered, and the downtown location makes it the list's best pre-show option. Books on OpenTable. Not for casual drop-ins in shorts; the room reads more formal than Portland's median, and the service matches.

7. Montelupo Italian Market — Kerns

Adam Berger named his 2020 market-restaurant at 344 NE 28th Avenue for the Piedmont village where he learned pasta, and the tajarin with truffle butter and Parmesan is the best $20-class pasta in the city. Market-casual, daytime-friendly, with a Sellwood sibling rebranded as The Focacceria in 2024. Not for a full evening arc; this is a great ninety-minute meal, not a three-hour one.

8. Piazza Italia — Pearl District

The Schettini family's trattoria at 1129 NW Johnson Street opened in October 2000 and still refuses reservations: you queue, you get Roman portions, you listen to the staff argue about football in Italian. The linguine Squarciarella, egg, prosciutto, onion, Parmigiano, was founder Gino Schettini's favorite and remains the order. Pastas $18 to $26. Not for schedules; the line is the price, and on weekends it is a real one.

9. Fantino — Hosford-Abernethy

The newcomer at 2314 SE Division Street, opened summer 2025 in the old Papa G's space, made Portland Monthly's best-new-Italian feature by September on the strength of bucatini al limone and linguine alle vongole in the low twenties. First-come, first-served, no reservations. Too new for a final verdict, but the opening-year cooking ran confident. Not for groups of six; the room is small and the no-booking policy is firm.

Where not to spend the evening

The closure list matters more here than in most cities, because the dead rooms still rank on stale guides. Renata closed in 2025 after a decade as the city's special-occasion Italian. The entire Mingo block on NW 21st, Caffe Mingo and its bar sibling, ended with the August 2024 fire and the owner's retirement. Burrasca's Tuscan kitchen closed in January 2021 and its website still takes up space online; do not trust it. Genoa itself closed in 2014. Any Portland Italian list that predates 2024 is recommending at least two locked doors.

Booking notes

Nostrana and Ava Gene's run on OpenTable and book out Fridays about a week ahead; Campana drops tables on Tock; Mucca holds downtown hours on OpenTable. Piazza Italia and Fantino take nobody's reservation, so go at 5:30 or expect the queue. For a first date, a Cena's Sellwood quiet beats the loud rooms; for a team dinner, Nostrana's big tables and pizza-plus-salad format are the city's easiest yes. The whole scene shares one habit: kitchens here respect farm seasons the way Rome respects tradition, so menus move monthly.

Keep reading

The global field is ranked in the definitive Italian dining guide, and the city's full table is in the Portland dining guide. Up the coast, Seattle's Italian ranking makes the regional comparison, and San Francisco's Italian list shows what twice the budget buys.

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