Reviews Lovely's Fifty Fifty

Incredible. We’ve been waiting for so long to visit Portland and try this place, and it far exceeded our expectations. Went on a Thursday evening, had to wait an hour for a table - nice that they call you back so you can go walk around and grab a drink at many spots down the block. Totally worth the wait. Service was friendly, fast, and efficient, even with how packed it was. Everything looked amazing, but we settled on the potato pizza and sausage pizza. Both were phenomenal and unique, unlike any pizza we’ve ever had. The crust wasn’t an afterthought either, which made a difference. Wine selection was nice and what we were recommended went perfectly with the pizza. Something I’ll never forget was the fig ice cream. There was something so special and delicious about it, not overly sweet and it left the lingering taste of having just bit into a ripe fig. We took a pint to go as well and savored a few bites every night of our trip after. Simply put, this place is special. You can taste that the food is made with love. I wish we lived in Portland, I’d come back all the time to try the different seasonal dishes.

Great pizza with some unconventional ingredients. If we lived in Portland, I could see this as a regular place in our restaurant rotation. I appreciated the seasonal ingredients alongside deep cuts, like Etxegarai cheese. They could've easily chosen a more conventional cheese but went with something distinct which was very much appreciated. One thing I realized with the pizza that I would like to call out is that the flavors apparently take some time to bloom. My wife and I had three slices each and the first and second wild good were nothing all that special. For whatever reason, the third slice hit with incredible deliciousness. If the whole pizza tasted like that last slice it would've been divine. So maybe give your pizza some time to rest on the plate before digging in. Ice cream was good too, but really the star of the show was the pizza.

There are many things that Portland does right from a food perspective. One of those is pizza. You’ve got plenty of household names where you truly can’t go wrong. Our latest pizza excursion took us to Lovely’s Fifty Fifty on Mississippi. There are a number of great restaurants to choose from while on Mississippi – Lovely’s is one that should not be missed. We were hoping that by going out on a Monday night, the wait would be less… We were wrong. While there was no line, there was still roughly a 45min - 1hr wait to be sat. We were committed, so we waited. Walked up and down the street a few times until our name was called. It is a cute, intimate area. Not a lot of seating, so it made sense why the wait is so long. While we waited, we had already scoured the menu and were ready to order once we got to our table. Please note that the menu does change. We started with the curly kale salad with creamy garlic dressing, breadcrumbs, and reggiano. It was delicious! The creamy garlic dressing with the breadcrumbs took the salad to the next level – would have licked the plate! As for the pizzas, we went with the chanterelle mushrooms with spinach spring onions, etxegarai & gremolata and then the house made fennel sausage with lacinato kale, sleeping beauty & rosemary with a side of the herb-y ranch. We paired the meal with their house made elderflower soda. After our first couple of bites, it became clear why there is always such a long wait and why people rave about Lovely’s Fifty Fifty… the flavors are insane and the ingredients well accompanied. Not sure if it is simply the fact that they serve 100% organic farm direct produce or that their dough is naturally leavened with 35% Oregon grown whole grains, but the dough is truly out of this world. It has crisp, crunch, softness, truly everything you’d want in a pizza dough. To finish everything off, we tried their seasonal Huckleberry Honey Ice cream. It was pretty good. Stars of the show were definitely the pizza – could have done without the ice cream. While it was great pizza I will say that $32 for a 12 inch pizza is pretty steep no matter where you are… Again, loved the food, just think those prices are on the higher side – would expect more of a fine dining experience to match the prices. Food great… Value ehhhh… Overall, it was a great experience. It was worth the wait and did not disappoint. Check em out!

Don't sleep on the corn soup or the ice cream. The chanterelle mushroom pizza was very tasty with lots of mushrooms and umami flavor. I also had the buckwheat honey ice cream with hazelnut toffee that had a unique mild honey flavor I never experienced before but really liked and the crunchy buttery hazelnut toffee added great texture and sweetness since the ice cream itself is not super sweet which I liked. Take out is done by text and is very efficient and with quick response.

Had little high expectations from the place, with the Netflix feature.. their dough is definitely 20/10, hats off to that, whether it was focaccia with soup or pizza dough, I have had that quality dough at very few places. I was though disappointed with the pizza, ordered mushrooms pizza, the cheese was on overcooked side, i think even if you use best quality cheese and overcook it.. it gives no taste or flavor :( wine was absolutely amazing.. we couldn’t order two pizzas because the size of pizza is just too big for one person, which was another bummer :)