Name: Lorenzo’s Tavalo Caldo
Location: 3807 N Mississippi Avenue
Portland, OR 97227
Contact information: 503.284.6200
Hours: Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Cost: Approx. $8 for an entree, $4 for an appetizer
Reservation recommended: None taken
Good for: Cheap, easy Italian
Insider tip: Things move a little on the slow side, even for counter-service
Review: Let me start off my saying, the food at Lorenzo’s isn’t that great. It’s about what you’d expect from a meal prepared at home…except you didn’t have to cook it AND it’s located on the hipster Mississippi Avenue.
Bread was a starter (small or large, $2 and $4, respectively) and came in two varieties. My $4 stuffed mushroom appetizer consisted of three tiny crimini mushrooms with blue cheese. Nothing I couldn’t do at home without a little motivation and fresh ’shrooms.
Dinner was a simple pesto dish (around $8) and my friend ordered spinach and ricotta gnocchi (also around $8) Now his was interesting - four mounds of cheese, mashed potato and spinach covered with plain marinara sauce. Points for creating gnocchi that never looked like anything I’d eaten or tasted previously, but still pretty plain.
Food is counter service, as is water (no, you can’t get ice) but dishes are served at your table, and you pay after eating. Lorenzo’s is a cheap night out, but I’d suggest upping it a few dollars and heading downtown to Piazza Italia.
{ 7 comments }
I don’t agree…. I’m italian and the food is what you expect from a very nice italian trattoria … simple, tasty and absolutely not expensive!
I like it too; but more importantly this phone # listed here is incorrect. It’s actually 503-284-6200; and right now, this is the # Google result for “Lorenzo’s Portland Mississippi” so it should be updated; right now some poor folks are getting way too many wrong number calls.
Thanks for the correction - it’s been fixed!
Cheers
I disagree too. It’s one of the best restaurants I’ve eaten at in awhile. Maybe because I’m not blown away by pomp and circumstance. I really enjoy simpl(e)y good food. Slow service? Faster then in Italy. To each his own I guess.
Lorenzo’s food might be simple. But it is cooked right there, fresh, tasty and not overpriced. I lived some years in Italy and Lorenzo’s atmosphere gives me more the Italian Restaurant feeling than any other restaurant in Portland.
I love the food and service which recently changed to tableside not self serve. The dishes remind my of dinner with my grandmother and the prices allow me to eat ther with my daughter often. We go once a week now and have made it oor spot.
I eat at Lorenzo’s regularly, and I recommend it or take friends there any time I want a guaranteed good meal and extra-friendly service, with no air of pretentiousness. I’ve never had my favorite, the ricotta gnocchi, anywhere before, so it seems unique to me, and it’s outside of my skill at least (I tried) for things I can make at home. They also changed from counter service to table service recently. I like it, but I guess it freaked out some of the regulars.
Comments on this entry are closed.