We came on weekday evening around 6pm w/o reservation, the wait time given was 45 mins but ended up…read morebeing 50 mins. We used that time to walk around the block and discovered 50 licks (yummy icecream place with unique flavors) at a nearby beer garden. We sat at the bar. The servers were friendly and service was fast. The ambiance inside was lively - you can see fresh pizzas being assembled in the kitchen. We ordered the Arriabiata pizza and it was absolutely delicious! The crust is thin, loaded with fresh toppings, and not too greasy. Each pizza comes with a side of flaky salt and red pepper flakes to dip each slice as desired. I'm not a big pizza person, meaning, I don't crave it. But, I wouldn't mind coming back here often to try all of their pizza flavors. Would recommend!

I checked Yelp to see who makes the best pizza in Portland, and Ken's popped up in the number one…read morespot. I can confirm that Yelp, locals, and visitors are right. The pizza is phenomenal. It's wood-fired, Neapolitan-American in style, thin, and beautifully blistered around the edges. The toppings go beyond the usual suspects, and I love that they offer seasonal goodies. The whole place was loud, and so alive with happy people stuffing their faces. The only downside is that they don't take reservations, so waits can stretch to an hour. We got lucky and scored two seats at the bar and only waited about 15 minutes on a very busy Saturday evening. There's free street parking all around, but keep in mind the neighborhood is popular and busy. You might circle a bit before snagging a spot. Indoor and outdoor seating is available.

This is a familiar type of place for Portland - not inexpensive, but great food. It's small,…read moreshareable plates. A friend brought me here and we split 8 plates and each had a dessert. One drink and the "Employee Health" charge of an additional 5% made the bill $163.80 before tip. Okay, so that's the not inexpensive part. As for the food, there were several great dishes. I was not wild about the salad we got, The Crunchmaster Crisp, the my friend said a different one she had previously was really good. We got the Crusty Avocado - seeds coat the outside and inside the avocado is filled with Ahi tuna. That was a good dish. We also had Garden Peas which were pretty good. The trout was excellent, the Fried Chicken was unique, and quite good. We got a couple of the skewers (they're small!), the pork belly and the steak and both were great. I could have ordered several and made a meal out of those! The Milk Chocolate dessert was good, but I wasn't a big fan of the "baby popcorn". The Whip-a-licious was well liked by my friend. It was better than I thought it would be because I'm not a big passion fruit fan. Our service was excellent. All together, I definitely recommend for the food, atmosphere, and service. Just be prepared for an expensive night out!

I really wanted to enjoy this restaurant. Unfortunately, our waiter seemed a little under the…read moreweather and got two of our orders wrong. There were also times where it felt like we were waiting forever for the next dish to come out. That said, the food was impeccable. Just keep in mind it's definitely true tapas style, so the portions are on the smaller side. My parents were visiting, and I wanted to take them somewhere with a fun Portland vibe. Even my mom commented that it seemed like something was off with our waiter. It was a bit disappointing because the food was so good, but the service took away from the overall experience.

One of the best restaurant meals I've had in a long time! The spicy pork ragu was out of this world!read more

We chose Dolly Olive for our anniversary dinner. We decided to splurge on the Chef's Tasting Menu,…read morevegetarian version. It was a LOT of wonderful food. We walked away stuffed! So it was a good value for a special occasion. I'll walk you through what we ate: First came their signature green olives with a little bowl for the pits. They had some little pickled red onions in with them. Soooo good! Then focaccia. It was a big hunk that we tore pieces off of and dipped in garlic olive oil. Those were standard with every meal. Now came the fun. The thing I love about tasting menus is you never know what's coming next! It's so much fun to be surprised! They started us off with a seasonal burrata with local strawberries, hazelnuts, fresh basil and a strawberry gastrique. Swoon-worthy! Next we were served the house version of Caesar salad. It came with a wedge of lemon to squeeze over the top. Yum! Next was the thinnest roasted asparagus I've ever eaten. I don't normally like asparagus but I really enjoyed this. It rested on a bed of some sort of puree (I forgot what they said it was). Next was corn ravioli. Sadly it was the only pasta included in this meal. I had been hoping to have another pasta dish or two. The ravioli was special though and not your normal filling, so that was nice. Then came roasted cauliflower on a bed of green goddess sauce. Tasty but I was feeling very healthy by then with all the veggies! (Couldn't they have replaced that with pasta? Sorry, I'm whining here). Our last savory dish was eggplant parm. It came with more focaccia. Again, I'd have loved pasta instead. Isn't that what one goes to an Italian restaurant for? Finally there were delicious, short, buttery Italian wedding cookies. But then our waiter surprised us with cannoli, for our anniversary! It sat atop Maryhill peach compote. Excellent! The service was impeccable. Our waiter was knowledgeable, personable and very attentive. We were also served by some other staff who did a great job as well. Good thing we've been married 42 years. If this was a first date where you want to get to know each other, it would be hard because it's pretty loud and the tables are crammed closely together. They really need a bigger space. We are looking forward to bringing friends and family here in the future.