Porcelli’s Ristorante & Bar

My girlfriend and I heard about Porcelli’s from a friend and we finally decided to give it a try. As we pulled up, we were both a little skeptical of the outside of the restaurant, but as soon as we entered we were welcomed and sat by our waiter Steve. He did a fantastic job guiding us through the menu and their wine list! I thought the food overall was good, but the service knocked it out of the park! We will definitely be back!

I could give 5 stars based on the value of their Happy Hour alone. Huge portions and the food is tasty. Happy hour all night on Tuesdays as well. It has a nice variety of choices and managed to accommodate a vegetarian and a vegan while keeping the meat eaters happy. This is good old fashion comfort food style Italian with super friendly service. If your looking for Portland neuvo cuisine this probably isn’t your place. If you would like something warm and cheesy or a bright marinara give it a shot!

Several months ago my girlfriend and I were walking past and decided to go in and check the place out. They weren’t open yet, they were just getting ready for lunch. However, a waiter spent a couple of minutes with us, showing us the menu, answering questions and giving us a good idea of the place. We were both impressed with what we saw so we decided to come back and give it a try.
The following Tuesday we went in for happy hour and we loved it. The food was great, the wine selection is good and our favorite waiter, Steve, is all about service. He remembers us, greats us warmly and takes amazing care of us every time we come in. He was the one that showed us around the first time we popped in.
We’ve since been back several times and have tried many dishes. The spaghetti with a whole Italian sausage, The bolognese, steamer clams and this weekend I had the Special Cioppino (fisherman’s stew) and it was AMAZING!
The vibe of this place it great, totally un-​pretentious, causal but nice, low lighting, linen tablecloths… it’s really my kind place. It’s homey and I love that.
I will return, many times I’m sure. Highly recommended!

In some ways this reminds me of the sort of restaurant you’d find in Italy — it’s low-​key, has a pretty wide variety, and makes its food from scratch. The quality though, is just OK. I had a Milano Calzone. The bread was average, the cheese was dry, and it just didn’t have much flavor overall.

Excellent fresh food, great prices! Tastes so fresh and authentic, love it. Went with friends and each plate looked amazing. I ordered the turkey sandwich with beef and veggie soup all for $ 7! (Lunch hours) the portions are also huge!

Not my favorite Italian restaurant.
Food: decent but not good. Very bland food no fresh flavors stood out.
Service: nice and attentive.
Location: not very clean. Lots of fruit flights at our table. Darker than i would have liked.
Music: No music so you can hear everything that the table next to you is saying.
Definitely it was not my lucky day visiting a new restaurant :(

Porcellis reminds me of the trattorias in italy — little cafes that in my opinion, serve better food than the touristy upscale places. This place is in a neighhborhood and has a homey feeling.
The interior isn’t lavish like all the other reviews complain about, but that’s why I think I liked it. It’s clean, interior is simple, and definitely a place to stop by for some good italian food.
Took awhile for the food but when we received it, it was awesome. We got the meat ravioli and the milano calzone.

When eating at an establishment at noon in this part of town one would anticipate more than 3 tables of customers. This was a bit of a concern. Reviewing the menu the prices are VERY reasonable and the selection is pretty good as well. The taste of the food is above average, but when comparing the price to the taste and portion I’d say it’s a pretty good value. The service from our waiter was very good (however, I could see if they got more busy it would be tough as there was only 1 waiter and 1 cook staffed for «lunch hour» rush time).
The biggest concern was eating there for only a 2^nd time in my life (been more than a year since last time) and I purchased a discounted gift certificate off of
. I was there meeting with clients who work near by (and quite a few from their office will go to Porcelli’s as an option — and I have a strong rapport with a large number of the staff at this business). When working in an «open air» kitchen (and in a quiet restaurant) it’s important to realize customers hear what you’re saying. When being presented with the discounted gift certificate it’s not appropriate, nor professional, to air your frustration over lost revenue — especially when it’s what brought me in to your establishment. It’s ok to be frustrated and feel this way… but complain BEHIND closed doors OR make a decision to end your relationship with the discount gift certificate company. But to openly complain for a couple of minutes where I could hear you? Absolutely 100% NOT ok or appropriate. While Porcelli’s runs some advertisements on the radio, is featured on Groupon and
it concerns me that a quaint establishment with VERY good prices and decent food has very, very, very low customer traffic the two times I’ve eaten there. My guess? Service and attitude? While the service we received was fantastic, like I mentioned above, I could very easily see the wait staff paying the burden of a busier meal time.
If I had not overheard the comments made by the «owner/​cook» in the open air kitchen I likely would have rated it AT LEAST 3 stars, if not 4. I sure hope if I return the behavior changes a bit and makes it more welcoming to the few guests that are in the restaurant during lunch time.

I was raised in the Midwest so my natural way of thinking is to hope for nothing and expect even less. Well lucky for me, Porchellis certainly didn’t disappoint. Food wasn’t bland but it was heavy with one note. The complex favors normally found in Italian cuisine seemed to have fled this restaurants recipe book.
To top it all off, our server bad-​mouthed the kitchen warning me not to order the Spaghetti alla Carbonera. Classy.

This place is really not that bad despite the run down look from the outside. The inside is pretty big and looked clean and inviting.
This place has a great (and also cheap) happy hour but unfortunately no kids options.
We had the mushroom risotto, shrimp ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs and bruschetta as an appetizer. All the food was pretty good although the mushroom risotto was lacking flavor in my opinion.
We can’t complain about the service. All of our food was out in a decent amount of time and our waiter was friendly — despite being a little timid for whatever reason.
Now the reason I am only willing to give Porcelli’s 3 Stars is due to three reasons:
1. The dinner menu was a little overpriced (just my personal opinion) and the food was lacking flavor.
2. We ordered dessert and the Tiramisu was AWFUL. I was shocked that our waiter even had the balls to serve a dish that looked like someone just got done eating half of it.
3. Another waiter seemed a little snippish by calling us out on the Tiramisu. As we left he looked at it and said very loudly «What’s wrong with it!!! It looks good to me!»
I think that was kind of uncalled for — you shouldn’t make your customers feel uncomfortable because they spoke up about a dish that was just not good at all.
Now I do have to point out that the waiter gladly took the Tiramisu off our bill but it was just too disgusting to ignore. (see picture)

I have been coming here for 5 years. The food has always been good. Now they have this new young chef, Jeff. He is more like a ninja, slaying Italian food, best I have had in years. I consider myself an Italian food expert /​critic, and this great Samurai of Portland Italian food has me looking forward to a return to Porcelli’s. His carbonara is food art (slow clap) and maybe the best I have ever had.

They handled a group of 8 very well. We got a table right away and served in good time. The food was very good. I lived in Naples a year so Im not too easy to please when it comes to Italian food!

Best tiramisu we’ve ever had. Excellent osso bucco. Salads are generous, as are portions. The place isn’t pretentious and it could have used some music or something to make it a bit more cozy, but the quality of the food was great and it was reasonably priced. We’ll be back!

Absolutely amazing food! All 7 of our party said it was hands down the best Italian place they’ve been to. The service was excellent and we had at least three different waiters checking in on us and making our visit enjoyable. I like that it seems to be a tucked away secret without breaking the bank. My wife and I would spend more than this at many other restaurants and the food was much better. I am blown away that it wasn’t packed.

I walked past Porcelli’s about 100 times before I went to give it a try. I had no idea what to expect. Went in for a dinner on a Thursday night and was absolutely blown away!
Delicious appetizer selection. My girlfriend and I stuck with a Caesar salad and garlic bread. You can tell they make just about everything homemade. The marinara was excellent for the garlic bread too. The Caesar dressing had the perfect anchovy bite to it as well.
My girlfriend ordered the special of the night, some halibut dish over pasta with capers and kalamata olives. She said it may have been the best pasta dish she has ever had… Period.
I had the pasta carbonara. I make a killer carbonara at home so I am very picky about it :) it was excellent. Very saucy, which I love. Plenty of sauce to scoop up with bread at the end too! I will post a pic of both dishes.
We each had a beer and a glass of the house cab with dinner. And we had to get the cannolis for dessert. One of the best I’ve had. Seriously this place is great.
Johnie was our server and was very knowledgeable about the dishes and wine and even compared some of the dishes to the dishes at some other familiar Italian restaurants downtown. Great service all around. Never had an empty glass of water either.
LASTLY, they also have a TV inside with sports on it. They have a KILLER happy hour menu and all day happy hour on Tuesday. I can’t wait to go back here.
Our bill was about $ 70 for everything I mentioned. Can’t beat it!

My husband and I ordered for pick up. He got the chicken Alfredo and said the chicken tasted boiled and he stopped eating it. I got the lasagna after being so sick for a solid week, that I couldn’t eat much, and was craving a tasty meat sauce. So disappointing. When we got home I noticed the puddle of grease the lasagna was lying in. Also the limp steamed veggies were not appetizing. After taking a few bites… I stopped because the sauce was so over seasoned, there was no ricotta, the texture was to chewy, and I can only taste garlic now. Overall I will never eat here again.

Lots of vegetarian options and really humongous portion sizes !
Overall a good dining experience. Will keep coming here :)

Fun fact: Porcelli’s was once a grocery store.
The spot is located in a very quaint part of town, just outside of downtown Portland. We found street parking relatively easily and walked in. It was busy, but my party of 3 was seated immediately without a reservation.
Service was great. We ordered the Bruschetta for an appetizer — can’t go wrong with that. It was fantastic, just delicious. I ordered a Caesar Salad as well with the appetizer, and the Spaghetti and Meatballs for my meal. The two others in my party ordered Fettucine Alfredo and some sort of penne pasta dish with scallops, asparagus, and sun-​dried tomatoes. All were delicious. We all ordered relatively run-​of-​the-​mill entrees as far as Italian dinner food goes, but it was absolutely fantastic! I just about scraped my plate clean.
For dessert, we all split one giant slice of Tiramisu. Again — can’t go wrong with that. The coffee taste was very strong in the Tiramisu, but no complaints with that. It was large enough for us all to share, and tasted amazing.
What’s best about this place is the pricing. Before tip — the 3 meals, the appetizer + my salad, and the desert cost just under $ 60. That’s not bad for fine Italian dining.
You have to check this place out!

Found this place via groupon and im glad i only paid half price for this meal. I highly recommend other Italian restaurants of Portland over this place.
For an appetizer i ordered the bruschetta. The presentation was lacking and the overall flavor was too sweet. Not exactly sure why it tasted like a savory desert dish, but it did.
For dinner i ordered the chicken marsala. For some reason this dish also had a prominent undertone of sugar. Im starting to wonder if the kitchen there even knows what true Italian food tastes like. Do your customers a favor, check out this chicken marsala recipe online and tweak your recipe. No sugar added please.

Such diverse reviews on this place! I had none of the bad experiences and all of the good.
We were immediately seated, menus and waters given and drink orders ($ 4 martinis!) taken within minutes. Having never tried this place, we went for as typical Italian fare as we could. If you can’t get the basics right, why bother? So, we ordered the antipasto plate, full of delicious meats, cheeses, olives, etc. and nice warm bread with olive oil and basalmic vinegar. Yum!
For entrees, I got the bolognese (with good, local meats!) and my husband got the penne with tri-​tip beef and mushrooms and a lovely red wine demi sauce. They were both very rich and delicious and I love when they freshly grate parmesan on your food for you:)
With our meal, we ordered a half carafe of wine and even got a dollar off because it was still happy hour. Very serviceable chianti for $ 12, full to the top.
Desert time! They have cannolis, tiramisu and some great looking gelato! We ordered the cannoli (2 for $ 5, a smoking deal) and asked if the shells were made in house. They are!
The only reason I don’t give it 5 stars is the décor leaves something to be desired. it’s a little gloomy in there. They should rip out the front wall and replace it with windows that open to let some of the lovely breezes in.
Other than that, we had a lovely Italian dinner that was exactly what we were hoping for. We will be back!