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I must have driven over this way a million times, but never noticed the enormous exterior of the barn like restaurant. My friends took me here after losing in a four person golf scramble.
From the exterior, you would think you've driven across Route 66 and spotted a bigger than a volcanoe type of place. It's a little tricky to get to the parking lot, so be careful.
The entrance is on the back side, another gotcha.
The staff are extremely friendly, and it's obvious from the packed house. People are cheery and their stomaches seemed full. Everything is lively.
The menu is big and so are the serving. Whatever you imagined you can handle times two. Be prepared to have left-overs the next day.
My friend had one with a special sauce, so I would recommend tasting it, because he swears it's the best thing ever. I can't voucher, since I was still trying to clear a fourth of my plate.
Go there with friends and a large empty stomach, you'll need it.
Very nice lunch buffet for $8. You get salad, bread, fettuccine, rigatoni, pizza, and a special of the day. I went on Friday and the special was lasagna. They make it very rich and hearty here with pork and beef.
The pizza is deep dish and very good. They had a sausage, cheese, and Canadian bacon available. Another great lunch spot to add to my rotation.
Came here again with the family and they loved it. We like getting a couple family sized plates and… Read more »
This restaurant is pretty good. The food is very heavy. The sauce is always very meaty and extremely filling. I think that's why men seem to love this place.
However, their pizzas are fabulous. The dough is thick and the toppings are fresh.
The atmosphere is also a bit dark for my taste. The lights are all turned way down, so it's a bit hard to see.
When, I decide to get food here, I always order tortellini with meat sauce and a pizza to go. The perfect combination with a salad at home.
I heard this place changed the decor not too long ago so from old school Italian to what it is now. What it is now is if there were some Quakers that went to an old school American Italian restaurant and came back and totally forgot what the American Italian restaurant was like and decided to serve some spaghetti. Not that that's a bad thing, I'm not much of fan of could care less what type of decor any restaurant has as long as the food is good.
For 10.95 you will get the biggest plate of single serving spaghetti you will ever have seen. If you're not trying to beat a world record, I suggest you just a order the spaghetti as a dish and get a salad with it. I wish I knew this before I ordered the spaghetti but now I have lunch for the next two days so I guess it worked out in the end.
My name is Mari and I am a carb-o-holic.
There, I said it.
I love Italian food and culture and have been fortunate enough to try the food at a number of places all over the US. I learned to make gnocchi when I was 12 and my signature dish when I was growing up was spaghetti bolognese. I started to learn Italian when I was 16. All that being said, I do NOT consider myself any kind of expert on Italian cooking or cuisine as I have never been to Italy.
I have been to Nonna Emilia's, though and I love it. I suggest sticking to the classic and homestyle dishes - spaghetti, ravioli, manicotti, lasagna, and parmigiana - as the fancier items have been less fulfilling. I prefer getting their plain Italian bread with my meals as the sauce makes a fantastic accompaniment, especially when it is unsullied by garlic and butter (just my opinion)
The portions are ginormous and I can always count on having lunch the next day no matter what I order. Their meatballs are big and dense and tasty, though their sausage is not to my liking. If you are a carb lover like me and are a little adventurous, I highly suggest the pizza-ghetti. Pizza topped with spaghetti - sounds awful and crazy (and maybe it is) but I love it :)
Yeah, the decor is kitschy and the ambience is not high-class, but it feels pretty homey to me. The service is usually efficient and friendly and there is lots of parking.
All in all, a good, comfortable place to have a hearty and tasty meal. If you are looking for gourmet, fancy food, then you are not going to be happy. But if you want large portions of a good, filling meal, then try Nonna Emilia's spaghetti and ravioli combination plate with meatballs. I cannot vouch for its authenticity, but I can say that it's my favorite thing to get when I am there.
If you are Italian, like Italian or heck even ever watched an Italian movie than if you go anywhere else for Italian food you are wasting your time and money.
Nonna Emilia's is the best tasting food at amazing good prices. I promise that you order something unless you are the biggest eater in the world, you will have lunch the next day!
Great place for to take a date with its dimmed lite atmosphere, it can make any date a romantic one.
Man, I don't get some of the snooty comments. This place is about as red sauce Italian as it gets. Nothing to apologize for. Is it straight fresh off the boat 'real' Italian? Of course not, most Americans don't want that. I. DON'T. CARE. IF. YOU'RE ITALIAN. Big deal, get over it. being Italian doesn't make you an expert, it just makes you hairy.
Nonna's is North End Boston or North Beach SF Italian, which is what most people without their heads in a dark place are looking for when they say 'Italian'.
Portions are huge, wait staff is friendly, and the food is light years better than Olive Garden. You want more than that, you've got to get out of Aloha. Great place for a family meal, unless you're a snoot. if you are, please go find somewhere more pretentious and leave our kitschy Nonna Emilia's to the rest of us.
There weren't many interesting or even worthwhile theses in my graduating class. Besides MINE (ha ha), the only one I thought that was really *good* and utilized interesting concepts and thinking was this gal--and for this purpose we'll call her C.
C did her field work in Oaxaca, and she studied the tourist market. Not tourism, per se, but she looked at the native Mexicans there who created handicrafts to sell to [mostly US] tourists. In essence, she found that the handicrafts that were being sold were not actually authentic pieces of art. But these vendors were constantly asking the tourists questions like, "What would you like to buy?" and people would tell them what they thought authenticity would be. So these vendors basically stopped creating their native art in favor of things that the tourists *thought* were authentic crafts--their vision of Mexican authentic art.
In a sense, this is almost how I have to think about Nonna Emilia. Yes, Nonna was a real person and I'm sure she brought many old-world recipes with her to this place. But really, the food here is just as Italian as the crap from Acapulco is Mexican.
Relatively tasty, what many people think is authentic, but ultimately a cultural sham. I know. I. AM. ITALIAN.
But let me digress just a bit. This place reminds me of one of the family restaurants on a "before" segment of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The decor is just horrendous!! We're talking beyond tacky. Crazy carpets, weird tables, and more. But what REALLY got me were the finishing touches like the swaths of cascading fake flowers and borders of grape-cluster LIGHTS. Wallpaper borders, inconsistent artwork, and dark red walls. This is NOT fine dining.
And then there's the crazy menu that has no end. Really! And it's expensive, too. Granted, you get enormous portions, but there's a full page or two of pastas, another huge page of pizza, a page of specialties, a page of sandwiches, etc., etc., etc. Have you ever heard of an Italian joint with French fries on the menu?
Okay, I'll deal.
As per my usual Italian-food test, I was going to order the gnocchi. But the waitress had the misfortune of not only alluding to the gnocchi being pre-sauced, but said that it wouldn't be possible to have the gnocchi in pesto (rather than marinara) because it'd make them too pasty, and they were already pretty sticky. BAD SIGN. They clearly did not pass my gnocchi test.
So I moved on to the tortellini...with pesto sauce. Which happened to be more of a combination of pesto and alfredo. And I won't lie...it tasted good. Really fatty, but good. And I could only eat a few bites before getting a box. But shit! Almost $17 for pasta? And that being on the lower end. Come...on.... It's Aloha.
Most meals come with soup or salad and bread. The garlic bread was also tasty, albeit pretty oily. The salad could have been good, but I had several pieces of very, very brown lettuce, which is almost always a total turnoff.
The pizza, and several of the other dishes, are pretty drenched in cheese. Remember what I said about fake junky Mexi? Apply same comment here.
Oh, also, there was an accordion player. This dude was actually pretty chill, and when my deadpan friend told him to play the Blazers theme, he pretty much did. But for some reason, it always makes me incredibly uncomfortable when people walk around restaurants playing music...or competing with the radio. Meh.
So, I suppose my long-winded ultimate thought is that sometimes the general public accept something as being authentic because that is what they've shaped their ideas to be. I think C had something going on with that idea. And I think that Nonna's tastes good but should not be confused for the real thing.
One reviewer gave this place one star.
One star? How could that be? It's a travesty! Nonna Emilia's is a great, authentic Ristorante Italiano, and in the area there is none finer.
I don't want to go off on a rant here, but...
The complaint seemed to center around a lack of authenticity. Well, kids, that's impossible and hilarious. Nonna Emilia's is right out of the old country. It is a bonafide Itailian restaurant owned by a bonafide Italian-American and established as an homage to a bonafide Italian chef whose recipes were directly handed down 2 generations - and those recipes subsequently form the basis for this restaurant's cuisine.
Perhaps if you're used to eating Americanized Italian (the likes of which you'll get all over downtown Portland) then you're used to something different, and thus the food here will seem a little strange to you. Well, I completely understand that.
As for me, the only food I like authentic *IS* Italian food and this is *THE PLACE* to get it.
However, that also means Nonna Emilia's alienates itself from a lot of people who *think* they know what authentic Italian is supposed to be. So be it.
As for yellow cheese - a true, good, properly aged Provolone (which is probably served at Nonna's) is a rich yellow color and does have a bit of a cheddary mouthfeel and taste. BUT! You did not get that on a "veal parmesan" because there is no such thing at Nonna Emilia's and never has been. The word is "Parmigiana" and that is what they serve. A Parmigiana dish (veal or otherwise) may or may not contain parmesan cheese and most certainly contains whatever cheeses (often just mozzarella in traditional Parmigiana) the cook desires to add. Nonna's Parmigiana topping is a blend of Italian cheeses and it says so right on their menu.
Right on the darned menu it says that.
So now that I've put all that to rest...
The food is great, the service is good enough, the ambiance is authentic and pleasant, and the overall experience is worth the moderate price you'll pay for it.
If you like "authentic" Italian, and that's what you're looking for tonight, go here and skip the downtown trendies. This is better than a lot of Boston shops, in fact. It's certainly a good deal and a good time.
A couple friends raved about this place so of course I had to try it--
I must say I don't get it. Yes, the portions are huge, but what about flavor? I don't care that I could eat for three days on one order of spaghetti & meatballs-if I can make it better at home I'm certainly not going to pay for it!
The pizza is pretty good, not great but ok--I'd probably give the pizza by itself 3 stars. (Oh and yes, it's smokey in there! Yuck!)
Oddness...serious oddness. I really felt like if you're not a regular, you should order a pizza to go and get out. Maybe if I was more Italian than 'I think I've got some in me' I would appreciate.
So, much like a Mariachi band at a Mexican restaurant, they have an accordion player. Yeah, you heard me... and people sing along. Really, they do. It actually rated pretty high on my entertain-ability scale. Good for a laugh or two. The food left a lot to be desired. I've mentioned before that I hate to pay for Italian food when I can do a better job at home and this place is case in point. Honestly, when I can make better lasagna than an old school Italian restaurant...shut your doors. Why the 2 stars you ask? The pizza. Seriously good stuff. Super thick crust (which I don't usually like but it's good bread) and tons of toppings. The husband and I could probably feast on a large for a good week. So yeah, if you want good Italian come to my place, if you want an odd experience go to N.E. I may return for pizza. To-go next time.
An italian restaurant in aloha with a lunch buffet!!! It's located on the south side of the railroad tracks off tv hwy and 170th ave.
I went here for the lunch buffet with some friends a few times. Everyone thought it was really great except me. I did think it was good (for this area) which is why they got 3 stars.
The buffet includes the salad bar, pizza bar, several entrees, and dessert. Not too bad a deal.They got a 93 out of 100 on their last health inspection on 9/4/2008. Really Not Bad!
I will probably go back with friends.
Okay I don't get it at all. I guess if you have never been to an Italian restaurant you might think this is good.
1st off I don't like to eat food in a smokey room! The bar allows smoking and there is nothing but a curtain to block the tons of smoke from wafting into the eating area. Maybe chain smokers like it because it is almost like they are still getting to smoke while they eat. If you are at all sensitive to smoke do NOT go here.
Next we serve up the greasy garlic bread. It tastes good for a minute and then you feel your arteries clogging. I made the mistake of ordering veal parmesan. It was $10 more than the chicken version which I can understand to get real veal. When it came I wasn't sure what it was. It was covered by a half inch of cheese which had cheddar cheese in it! I don't ever recall seeing cheddar cheese in anything ever in Italy. It is not parmesan for sure! Then when I found the meat it looked like ground meat. It did not have the taste of veal or even regular steak for that matter. Down right bad!
My husband had lasagna which also was drowning in cheese and he said was okay but kind of bland.
I would rather go to a chain Italian place over this one and I generally hate chain Italian.
It's a love hate relationship I have with this place...
Been eating the pizza since I was a wee one and I agree, it is awesome - if you like thick crust and as many toppings as possible to put on a pizza - a large will feed a family of 5-6 no prob (LOVE IT)
But I agree with a lot of the posts here on the resturaunt. However I have never gotten bad service from them - then again I have never been in much of a hurry either. The non-pizza fare is sub par. Large portions and not the highest quality. I think it's a bargain for a dinner out with the kids, but if I was eating with my more sophisticated friends - this would not be the choice for a good Italian meal - we'd head east toward the city. It's nothing special pasta plates in huge portions with in my opinion way too much sauce.
When I do eat in, I get the Rigatoni con Salsiccia al Forno specialty with the sausage & meat sauce - it is really good (not drowned in sauce) and I split it with at least one other person.
They have a good bar with a patio for happy hour if you want a stiff drink and they have a pretty good size HH Menu.
I go in knowing what to expect and I've never been disappointed. The place has been around forever and is a cornerstone to pizza and italian dining in Beaverton - it's not trying to be anything more than what it is.
I have only dined-in twice and both times it was enjoyable. The portions are very generous and tasty. Might I add, I have never even been a fan of Italian food! I noticed the other reviews mentioned the smokey atmosphere, I didn't notice that, but maybe I just got the right table? Also, the decor is great, really romantic.
My family actually gets pizza to-go from here quite often, and once again, I have never been a fan of pizza either. When I do eat pizza, I only eat it cold...I know, I'm weird, whatever. Anyway, This place has THICK crust. I usually prefer thin crust but Nonna's crust is delicious! And I would like to say that this is the only place that I will eat my pizza hot! : )
Being from the west side....I love to go back to the old stomping grounds sometimes and Nonna Emelia's is one of my favorite places to go and eat. This place has been around about 30 years and is still a great blue collar Italian Food place. The pizza is thick Chicago style and weighs about a 100 pounds. You can get a full Carafe of wine for about 26 bux! pretty decent ones too! (that's 5 glasses). The pasta dishes are rich and oozing with cheese and they have all the classics. This is no Serratto in NW or Ciao Vito in NE it's good old fashioned red checkered table clothed candle lit and they even have an accordian player that plays at your table on the weekends. This a family place and ohhh sooo good.
Date Visited: Saturday 3/8/08 (Dinner)
A group of Meetin folks and I met up at Nonna Emilia. It was part of a "Perfect Pizza Quest" that is going on. Did we find the perfect pizza at Nonna Emilia? Ummm....NO.
Our visit happened at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night. Our group was 13 people strong. Our host said she was unable to make reservations for us, so we were told it would be a 2-hour wait. We went into the bar/lounge and discovered we could have our entire meal there or at least start there and then get our table. We ended up being there all night and there were times when someone nearby would light up a cigarette. It wasn't that bad though (and this coming from someone who HATES being around smokers).
Sherry, our server, had only been there for 2 days...but you would never know it. She was a doll. She made sure we always had drinks and everything that would could possibly need. She rocked.
The food....well like I said, we did not find the perfect pizza, but you definitely get a lot of dough for your dough. I had a slice of the vegetarian pizza. It was my first time eating pizza in 2008. You would think I'd gorge myself on the stuff, but it took only the 1 slice to basically fill me up. It was good, but nothing extraordinary. They have a great looking menu and I will definitely go back and try their pasta dishes sometime. The pizza seemed average to me. We ordered a total of 4 pizzas (2 medium and 2 large, I think) and we all had leftovers to take home. We all chipped in $9 for the 4 pizzas.
This is one of my favorite Italian places on the west side. It's easy to find with a red neon sign next to TV highway. Wait times can be long Fri and Sat around dinner time, but otherwise are less than 5 min. They do have a separate bar/lounge which is nice enough, but doesn't really do anything for me as far as a hangout/bar spot. Restaurant is traditional Italian in a casual setting - red checker/plaid tablecloths and a live accordion player (he plays Stairway to Heaven *slaps forehead*) are the order of the day. Entrees include soup/salad (their minestrone is good and hearty) as well as garlic bread and some of them also include free coffee. I've been here many, many times, and I've rarely had an unsatisfactory meal. Some of the entrees I would recommend:
Pasta Plate - Sample that includes their spaghetti, ravioli, rigatoni and tortellini with meat sauce. You will likely get two more meals out of this.
Lasagna - One of the few entrees that can be finished in one sitting if you're hungry enough although this depends on how much they give you, as the portion can vary slightly. One of their best dishes in my opinion.
Rigatoni con Salsiccia al Forno - For those not shy about clogging their arteries in the name of science (this is my preferred excuse). This is a rigatoni pasta smothered in meat sauces and italian sausage and baked under a blend of cheeses. It is to die for, and I think once or twice I almost did die after eating it. Another dish where you'll get two or more meals out of it.
Calzone - This is basically an entire medium size pizza flipped on itself. Their crust is very tasty, but when you get this, you will be overwhelmed by the sheer size of it. At my hungriest (not eating at all the entire day until dinner), I could only take down a third of it.
Pros: You won't go home hungry, reasonable prices for such portions
Cons: The flavor is good, but not fantastic or anything you'll be flipping out over. You might die of abdominal distension.
Recommended: If you're looking for large portions of solid quality Italian food. Kids will love the accordion player too.
I don't understand the low star ratings here. Nonna is the best place in town for spaghetti and pizza. The portions are huge and your lunch tomorrow will be just as tasty as the night before. The food is full of old time flavor and they don't believe in artificially shortages. When they ask soup or salad, pick soup the salad is just okay but the soup is so delicious.
I cannot express how much I LOOOOOVE Nonna's!! The pizza is absolutely FANTASTIC! I cannot say enough good things about it! Any of the food I have had there has always been DELICIOUS!! Sure it may cost a bit more than the average Aloha/Beaverton person is used to, but in my honest opinion it is WORTH it! I love Nonna Emilia's and wish I had them here in NY!
My husband and I were looking for a new, fresh Italian alternative to the overly crowded, bleh food, big corporation that is The Olive Garden. We hit the jackpot with Emilia! The decor is very beautiful and romantic. We had a very friendly accordion player serenade us and the rest of the restaurant all night. The service was fast and friendly and the food was so fresh and delicious! The portions were huge and we took home loads of leftovers for later. Don't miss this one!
I think a dolly to roll me out of there should have been in order ha ha. We lucked out, it was Friday but apparently everyone was somewhere else so we didn't have a wait for a table. The service however... slow as could be. I honestly can't figure out why either, there were several large parties but our server wasn't dealing with them and she seemed to know what she was doing, perhaps they had her split into another room because of the large tables in the room we were in. I'll give then the benefit of another try on that one because the food was wonderful. I was taught how to make the meat sauce and a few other homemade Italian dishes from a friend of the family's mom (and have been promised a broken arm if I shared them haha) The sauce was very much like good homemade Italian sauce with all the flavor from the tomatoes as well as onion and some wonderful spices.
To say the portions were generous might be the ultimate understatement. There was a table of 3 next to me sharing a calzone and they couldn't finish it between them and I think more of my dinner is sitting in my refrigerator right now than I actually managed to eat. Do yourself a favor, skip the appetizers so you can actually make a dent in your entree.
As for the accordion player.. he was in the other room much of the time so I didn't hear a lot of what he was playing, but I did manage to catch him near a table with young children playing the background music from the original Mario Brothers video game... ACK!
This place had some pretty good Italian food. While there was an excess of cheese on both my wife's and my own plate, the food was nevertheless fantastic. The atmosphere alone is a reason to go to this place. The staff was fine, but could have been better. They rarely checked on us towards the end, which expanded the time taken to get our check to us. Nevertheless, you should try this place.
Very good Italian restaurant with decent service. Big portions, so come hungry!
Wondeful traditional italian food, roving accordian player in the evenings, great "deep dish" pizza. Portion sizes of "individual" meals are generously too big.
Good food--great pizza. The only thing is that when you walk in the front door, all you smell is the STINKING lounge with all the SMOKE and dinge. It is AWEFUL and you usually smell it all through the restaurant! Then, you come out of the place smelling like an ashtray. You would think that people could wait a half hour during dinner and then light up outside or something. This has got to be one of the few restaurants around with smoking still permitted inside. I guess because it has a lounge, that is what you get.
Neighborhood: Southwest Portland
Category: Italian
Neighborhood: Southwest Portland
Category: Italian
Beaverton, OR
Category: Specialty Food
Hillsboro, OR
Category: Italian
Neighborhood: Southwest Portland
Category: Chinese
