Loved It
TLDR: Portale is the one-size-fits all of restaurants. A fit for dates, for big groups, for impressing out of towners, Portale does it all with a smile. Its healthy-ish and delicious menu has something for everyone (including picky eaters) ranging from solid to exceptional. What can I say? Love is in the air.
Portale is an anytime restaurant. The last minute date night. The work group dinner. The grandparents are in town dinner. The impressing new friends dinner. I have literally used this restaurant for all of the above scenarios, and I’m sure I could find more.
Above all, I appreciate Portale for this versatility. It’s unusual to find a restaurant that can suit so many needs, but it does so perfectly. It’s fancy enough to feel like a “night out”, but casual enough to go on a weekday. It’s quiet enough to talk to someone with hearing aids, but there’s always a lively crowd. It’s not hard to reserve, even for a large group, but it’s always full. How do they do it? I truly don’t know.
It helps that the food is great. It’s not “blow your mind, I’ll never be able to eat again”, great, but just solid all the way through with some stand outs. My personal favorites include the meatballs, which are ridiculously light and fluffy but somehow don’t fall apart and the mafaldine, a heavenly bowl of buttery lobster and ribbony pasta. But you can’t really go wrong at Portale. The salads are all good (I’m partial to the cavolfiore), the pastas are excellent, and the mains not only taste great but feel surprisingly healthy. Even the dessert is delicious, and I don’t say that about Italian desserts (gelato yes, but please leave the rest of it to the French).
Personally, it helps that the interior looks like a page out of a home magazine (except for the art, which is admittedly cheesy). I would be happy to sit at the bar at Portale just to hang out and feel the zen of the space. In case you need to impress an even larger group of people, they also have a lovely private upstairs space you can rent out for events.
Finally, I think it’s a reasonable cost for the experience – you’ll likely average $100 per person, with alcohol. Not bad for an upscale spot with this quality food, and certainly not worse than comparable restaurants.
Really, what’s not to love?
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