Sub Rosa
2601 SE Clinton St
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 233-1955
Last Thursday, we had a very nice meal at Sub Rosa on SE Clinton. I usually drive past it on my way home from work during the week and I’ve been curious about it for a while, so I’m very glad we finally tried it. Yeah, I know, it’s been open for months — but this is extremely quick for us! Although, we hit Lauro Kitchen the first week it was open. Ha!
Er, but back to Sub Rosa. After you sit, the first item that greets you is a plate of bread with olive oil and (if you order one) a glass of wine. Armed with these at your disposal, perusing the menu while you people watch on Clinton can be very pleasant.
The menu is on the limited side with just a couple of salads, a soup of the day, a few lighter plates and then pasta and pizza for the main dishes. There is an additional pasta and a pizza special each night. When we were there, these included a mushroom pizza and a roasted vegetable lasagna.
A more detailed listing of the menu because I sneakily took a picture of it while we were there:
Starters include two salads — a House Salad (“mixed greens w/ spicy walnuts, blue cheese, cranberries & vinaigrette”) and a Caesar Salad (“traditional Caesar w/ parmesan & garlic croutons”). Both of the salads come in small and large sizes for $4 and $7 respectively. The Cheese Plate, Olive Plate and Rustic Pizza Bread round out the smaller dishes along with the previously mentioned soup of the day — tomato on our visit.
The pastas run $8 – $9 with Spaghetti with Marinara, Spaghetti with Meatballs, Fettuccini Alfredo, Penne with Pesto and a Penne with Rosa Sauce (a creamy tomato sauce), completing the line-up. The pizza choices consist of Cheese ($10), Pepperoni ($12), a Margherita (garlic-infused olive oil, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil — $14), and a Vegetable (tomatoes, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives & feta — $14). I would be interested in seeing the pizza size and if they are two-person splitable or more of a one person/one pizza type of arrangement.
The two desserts on the menu are Ice Cream with Homemade Chocolate Sauce and a Cookie Plate. Simple yet tempting, but we were actually quite full after the roasted vegetable lasagna and pasta with rosa sauce so we skipped these offerings. But — with the check came two little extremely good chocolates. No. These were really, really good little truffle-like chocolates. I hope they have those all the time and it wasn’t just a special occurrence.
Wines go for about $4 a glass or $20 a bottle. We both got a glass of the house red (I wasn’t fast enough to catch what she was pouring) and it was perfectly fine. In fact, the whole meal was just that — comfortable, pleasant and friendly. I would definitely go back there again and hope to do so soon. Are you reading this, you-know-who? Good.
To Recap:
Atmosphere: Open, bright and airy with very colorful artwork on the walls and a large table in the middle of the room. Smaller tables surround it and there are about four tables outside. I thought it was really comfortable and pleasing — a great place for a relaxing dinner after work.
Service: Friendly and attentive. At one point, our server took about five minutes to bring me another glass of wine — she apologized for taking so long and gave it to me for free. It was very nice of her but it was really no big deal but it’s good to know that they are proactive about comping things.
Food: If you’re in the mood for pasta or pizza it’s really quite good. I got the Caesar and jwa got the house salad — both were tasty. Lots of crounchy croutons of the Caesar and , which I like. The pasta came in a big bowl and the lasagna in its own individual baking dish.
Overall: We liked it. It’s not super fancy or anything and it doesn’t offer a ton of menu variety but what they do have is satisfying and the atmosphere is very nice. Two people can eat well (salads, wine, pasta) for about $35. You probably wouldn’t take someone there to impress but if you just wanted to sit down and have a nice, unrushed, pasta meal and talk — Sub Rosa would be a great option in the Southeast.
Sub Rosa gets three out of four pasta forks.
