A coworker recommended Estes to us and it did not disappoint. Also, I love places that take reservations. At 7:30-ish on a Saturday night, they had some business but weren't super crowded. The interior is beautiful, think dark wood, dim lights, cozy and a bit romantic. The staff was incredibly nice and helpful. They originally sat us at a cramped two person table near the kitchen, but they were very willing to re-seat us at a high table in the bar area. Our server was perfect, friendly and efficient without being overbearing. They have NA beer, yay, because I can't drink anymore. We ordered a starter of the focaccia. It was incredible, crusty on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. This bread was served with a terrific whipped butter topped with olive oil. For dinner, my husband had the wild boar ragu and it was really good. I tasted a bit and it was really tasty, the seasoning was perfect. I decided to try the kale balanzoni, which the server described as one of the more unique menu items. Being me, that was intriguing enough to make me say yes. I was a bit surprised by what arrived, it's a bowl of mushroom broth with some pasta dumplings filled with ricotta. But my server was right, it was totally delicious. The broth was rich and flavorful. I initially wondering if five small dumplings would be enough, but they were. The ricotta is very indulgent and filling. Paired with the broth, I was completely satisfied. We're eager to try Estes again. I want to try the cacio e pepe, which my friend loves and we want to split the Caesar salad. We saw one whiz by on a server's try and it looked wonderful. Highly recommended! read more

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Good not great. Very nice ambiance, cool NYC restaurant atmosphere. I was excited to try this one, as I am for more Chef driven restaurants in pdx! The menu was thankfully small. There werent serving cocktails for some reason that night, I forget. So I went for a glass of red wine. The appetizers were the stars: Sprouted broccoli rabe with almonds - loved this. Cesar with prosciutto - very good. We also had the focaccia which was solid, but not as memorable. Will skip this next time. For dinner, we ordered a variety for the table, to include: Beef Cheek Ragu over Polenta: just tasted salt and more salt. This recipe or execution needs help, asap. It has potential but is not edible like this. Spaghetti Amatriciana: amateur hour, honestly. No strong smokey flavors from good pancetta. Just basic and somewhat bland, on top of quite a small portion for pasta at this price point. Not recommended. Lumache al cinghiale (wild boar ragu): the best dish from the dinner entrees. Definitely the highlight and the one to order! And for Desserts: Panacotta and Tiramisu. Well prepared, nothing much else to note. Summary: Lovely ambience. At lower prices, much can be excused. But at these prices for PDX. I expect near perfect execution and/or more generous portions. I liked Estes, but for the time being they do not execute at the level of Canard, as a local example of fine-ish dining done (mostly) right. I will def keep tabs as the menu (ideally) changes seasonally and will def give Estes a second try as you can tell this place is teeming with potential. read more

I liked the dish I ordered and we even got a free panna cota to share at the end of the meal. I got myself the spaghetti and it was delicious, it had some meat on it that vaguely reminded me of Chinese sausage. We got a focaccia bread to share and I really love my bread fluffy and soft, this bread wasn't very soft but it was a little spongy, it was still good. My friend who got the dish with just 5 raviolis it was not enough to fill her. We were doing the math and it cost like $6 per a piece... The interior of the restaurant was nice and the service was good. There is a restroom outside. It was all of first time having panna cotta and it reminded of a mouse with a taste of cheesecake and yogurt mixed together, I liked it. read more

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Good food. A bit slow tho. They take over the inside of Broder Nord for dinners. Small typical menu - about 4 pasta dishes, 2 larger entree dishes and some classic apps. We got the caprese, bucatini & beef cheek ragú. -Caprese: very heavy on the tomatoes, mozzarella & peaches (which were new but delicious new touch to add freshness.) but besides a few decorative basil leaves, I wish there was a tad more greens. - Bucatini: I was expecting the squid ink bucatini in the soup from pics I'd seen but they changed it to a red sauce w/ olives. Still good but was hoping for the other. - Beef cheek ragú: I think this dish replaced the braised pork osso bucco dish we were hoping to try but it was still delish. Tender beef, Very hearty and rich. I was really curious to try a pork osso bucco but I guess they are still making some menu tweaks bc of price/demand. My one complaint would be the time - it seemed to be dying down by the time we came at 8 and we got our order in pretty quick but it was about 15 min for our salad and then we got our entrees around 9 when they close. It seemed like they were purposely pacing the food slow which is surprising seeing we came 1 hour before closing so I'd think they'd be trying to get us out of there quick. Maybe they were just trying to get me to order another beer out of boredom (which worked) or trying to make it more of a relaxed Italian type dinner but this is 'Murica dammit. Kidding (mostly) read more

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Excited to have been able to try Estes after hearing all the hype for a while. While the meal was tasty, unfortunately it wasn't something that was memorable or I would come back for. The service overall was great, we were greeted upon entry and had a reservation which meant we quickly were seated to our table. The waitress was kind and helpful throughout the meal. Ambiance wise the space is quite nice and well set up for dining. It was a bit bright and I think they could have benefitted from turning off a few higher lights, especially in the vending service. All that said the food just didn't quite hit the mark for us. The focaccia, which we got as our starter was honestly just not very good. I'm not sure if it was gluten free or some different version but it was generally dense and lacked flavor. If not for the whipped butter we might not have finished it. For mains we shared the pesto and the lasagna. The pesto was nice and the pasta tasted fresh. Overall simple but tasty. The lasagna however came up a bit short for me. It was a bit watery inside and really didn't feature the classic layering that you might expect. The flavors were okay but the layer of cheese baked on the top just sort of dominated the dish. Wouldn't rank it super high on my list and felt not as traditional. Overall a decent meal but just was expecting a little more given the reviews thus far. read more

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We ordered the broccolini, albacore tuna crudo, ricotta ravioli and the pesto gnocchi. The broccolini was good but a little oily, the crudo was fine but the peaches were kinda the main feature, the gnocchi was good in texture and well made but the pesto was kinda bland. The ravioli was kind of the big let down of the meal because all I could taste was the overwhelming amount of lemon in the dish. I also wasn't a fan of the corn. Overall, not very impressed. The restaurant otherwise had a nice atmosphere and friendly staff. read more

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Some of my favorite Italian food in the city! Patrick is so gifted. Absolutely incredible ricotta ravioli. I'm always in love with the broccolini and the Caesar salad as well. I used to eat any risotto they had on the menu back when he was the chef at Dame. You literally can't go wrong. Wonderful vibes in the new space! read more

Estes - Ricotta ravioli - Italian Near Me - Portland, Oregon

Cancelled our reservation with 24 hour notice for signing a new lease, if you think you are going to do that don't allow people to make reservations. Completely unprofessional read more

So Estes had their residency at Dame and recently changed venues and moved into Broder Nord space using it for the evening since Nord is more of a breakfast/brunch place. Anyway, back to your regular programming here. I didn't know much about Chef Patrick but had read up about his skills in the kitchen and all his delicious dishes. Since I live in the neighborhood of Boise, I thought I would try this place on Mississippi. I went with 3 other people so we were able to get a few dishes to try. We ordered three antipasti, one pasta, and two secondi and topped it off with a bottle of nice Italian wine (Valpolicella) and two desserts. The food was incredibly fresh and you can taste the sauce and broths in the dishes were very well balanced. One of the desserts we ordered was the tiramisu and it was perfectly made! Loved it all especially the grilled bone-in pork chop dish that came with this calabrian pepper type of sauce. The squid ink pasta was cooked to perfection in this tomato based broth with some shrimp to top it off. Also ordered the beef carpacio with SHAVED foie gras. I'm calling out the shaved part because reading other reviews everyone seem to be under the impression that you were going to get more then shaved foie. But let's think about this for a minute. Who wants that much richness on beef carpaccio with a hunk of foie on it anyway? I like indulgence but think the shaved was enough on the beef carpaccio. The richness is kinda like having an egg on the carpaccio. Remember when the 90s served carpaccio with an almost raw egg on top of it? Well the shaved foie is kinda what it is now. The sprouted broccoli antipasti was really good and we all loved the polenta dish. Service was great even though they were transitioning into this new space. Our water glasses were kept full most of the time and the dishes were courses out perfectly. My hats off to Chef Patrick and his team! Felt like I was having a great meal in Italy! read more

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I had the best pasta dish (ricotta ravioli) that I've ever had outside of Siena at Estes. The service was great, the food beyond fabulous, and this is a restaurant we can't let disappear. It's a very pleasant and comfortable restaurant and the music was good and not so loud you couldn't hear each other speak. read more

Atrocious service. We arrived at 5:45 and by 7:30 still had not received our dinner. One of my party asked for a glass of ice with lemon four times before receiving it. We waited for 25 minutes after asking the bill. The thing is, there were four people in the kitchen and none of them were working. One was leaning on the stove so it definitely wasn't hot. The place wasn't that busy. It's as if they were trying to provide bad service. Additionally, the carpaccio that was supposed to have foie gras turned out to have only shavings of foie gras, so small I thought it was Parmesan. The food was flavorful though. However, there are plenty of places to eat in Portland that provide flavorful food without the horrible service. Will not be returning. read more

Estes - The carpaccio with "foie gras" came like this. - Italian Near Me - Portland, Oregon

Wonderful pasta, seasonal salads, wines by the half glass, full or bottle. And absolutely do not pass on dessert; the pastry chef here is incredibly talented! Start with the grilled flatbread w/ ricotta & fennel pollen; it exceeds one's expectations! The pasta will blow your mind (of course) but we also really loved the steak entree. Ya know... we have been a decent amount of times and I can honestly say I've never not loved a dish here. Chef Patrick has really honed in his skills and the food he is putting out is incomparable to anything else in Portland right now. Bonus is the breathtaking setting inside Dame; the most perfect wine bar. Get wine! read more

Truly exceptional food and friendly, efficient, knowledgeable service. Probably the best risotto I've had in 20 years of eating risotto all over the world. Also really loved the roasted brussels sprout dish and charred romaine lettuce salad. Oh, and the freshly baked flat bread. OK, I loved everything I ate actually. Great windows, comfy space, not too noisy, good music. The only downside was the miserly wine pours by the glass. read more

Favorite chef and favorite Portland spot. Outdoor seating was great and we felt sufficiently distant from other guests. Our server was easy going and professional and the wine in fantastic. Plan on desert as well! read more

The food here was excellent. The portions were perfect. Not too big, not too small. I also loved that all of the glasses can be half portions. The service left a bit to be desired. No, don't clear one persons plate while the other person is eating... Some of the people working there seemed lovely. Unfortunately we got the hipster one that just wasn't. Oh well, it's Portland and it happens. read more

Holy meatballs! This place makes excellent seasonal Italian food. The gazpacho was perfectly spicy, sweet and refreshing. The grilled romaine farro dish was a pleasant surprise! For mains we got the meatballs and the risotto. While both were delicious, the meatballs are a MUST! read more

Located inside Dame, the sexiest wine bar in Portland.....seriously just beautifully decorated and phenomenal wine selection, lays a gem of a food program run by chef Patrick McKee and team. The hand-made pastas simultaneously push the envelope using seasonal ingredients and have the nod of every Italian grandmother looking down from heaven. My wife and I have gone multiple times, and each have been blown away. While the flavor fireworks do not stop at pasta, but transcend the entire menu. Their salads make a case for everyone to eat their veggies and Robb, the pastry chef has the skills to pay the bills. If this isn't enough poetically waxed praise I don't know what will convince you to go...seriously, it's just that good. read more

Freah, seasonal ingredients with perfectly executed pasta. Chef McKee consistently puts out some of the best food in Portland, under the radar. Excellent wine pairings from Dame. read more