Cuisine: Italian
Website: http://www.ernestositalian.com/
Address: 8544 SW Apple Way, Portland, OR 97225
Phone: 503-292-0119
Cross-Contamination: Unknown. We have reached out to this restaurant but they have not responded to our inquiries.
Accommodation:
Gluten-free pasta available for most of their pasta dishes. From Mike Ceccanti, the owner: “We cook our gluten-free pasta in a separate water pot. We are also working on a gluten-free pizza crust, as requested by our customers. We have always made our pizza products from scratch and are excited about adding gluten-free pizza dough to our menu.” Can’t wait!
UPDATED 3/15
Fresh, delicious italian food! Have eaten there a couple of times lately and they were great about my dietary restrictions. You can get GF pasta with any of their sauces and I’ve had the veal marsala and chicken cacciatore, both of which were delicious. They also offered to make me the chicken parmagiana without any breading, which I plan to get next time! This is my favorite italian place in the Portland area (and being from the east coast, I’m picky about my italian food).
This is my review from about two years ago. Please see my more updated one below. DO NOT EAT HERE! They WILL make you sick!
With regards to Ernesto’s in Portland (Tigard) on SW Apple Way Rd, being gluten free, I have to object. My daughter is gluten sensitive and we ordered a gluten free meat sauce pasta with meatball and the pasta was gluten free but the meatball most certainly wasn’t. When the waitress comes to your 13 year old daughter and says “oh, stop eating the meatball” and I”‘m sorry”. This doesn’t cut it. My daughter suffered horribly all night and the most the restaurant Ernesto offered was $6.00 off the entire bill. The menu was also very limited as GF, only pasta with some sauces, no pizza etc. If you advertise Gluten Free you must ensure that the meals you serve as GF are indeed so.
Sorry to hear about that! Restaurants really need to be more careful. Thanks for your comment!
I am sorry to say that I had a gluten-free pasta dish there and had a severe reaction. The clam sauce was wonderful and I was assured that it was gluten free. Alas this was not the case. It is difficult to control cross contamination in a restaurant kitchen. Do the cooks know? Are they like me before I was diagnosed? Skeptical that even a small bit will make a person sick? I know better now but can’t blame them.
I used to eat regularly at Ernesto’s with a friend and was assured that they know what they are doing with gluten-free. I got sick after eating there once, but thought it was something I had earlier in the day. The next time I went I asked clearly for GF pasta and what I saw and smelled on my plate was definitely wheat pasta. I told my waitress and she argued with me, but after she checked with the kitchen for a third time, they did discover their “mistake” and gave me a new dish (10 minutes after my friends all finished eating) without hardly an apology and only would take $5 off of the bill AFTER I complained about getting a full bill. I actually ate there one more time because other friends surprised me on my birthday with a reservation and I did not want to make a scene asking to go somewhere else. I had the same server as last time and she pointed out that she remembered me and was rude to me through the whole meal. My friends felt terrible when they saw how rude she was being and I had to tell them the story. Plus, I got sick after my meal!! DO NOT EAT HERE!