Lured to this restaurant due to its stellar OpenTable rating, I perhaps was expecting different food than offered on the relatively straightforward menu pervaded by pasta with meat sauces that was more "red sauce"-style Italian-American than purely Italian. That said, you can still serve this type of fare and do it "the right way" - incorporating the slow-cooking methods of old Europe to these mid-20th-century "second and third generation" Italian dishes.***
(*** As many of you savvy readers are aware, dishes like "Spaghetti and Meatballs" that are offered on Portofino's menu were invented in America in the early 20th century as a way of providing recipes for which to sell imported canned tomatoes to Italian immigrants. Pasta has been an American comfort food for almost a century, while its treatment on this side of the Atlantic has evolved into an offshot Italian-ish cuisine, with its own unique flavor combinations and vocabulary, overcoming what originally came over from Europe in winning the common American palate.)
I started with "Chef Angelo's Tuscan Beans & Greens," which contained cannellini beans sautéed with garlic and prosciutto, and served with grilled crostini. This is straight-up "grandma food," and I mean that in a good way. A liberal amount of garlic was used, and the prosciutto was strong in this dish, its flavor extracted during cooking and seeping into the beans and greens, which seemingly consisted of spinach, rabe, and chard. I liked this dish better than my entrée, even if I felt $10 was a bit spendy for such a simple appetizer with unexotic ingredients.
Next, I ordered the "Veal Portofino," ($24) which my waitress informed me was the restaurant's signature dish. I was skeptical, as I read the description of veal rolled with prosciutto, spinach, tomato and provolone, topped with a mushroom tomato demi-glace. The description made it sounds a bit overengineered and perhaps even gloppy. Unfortunately, my instincts were correct - this just wasn't my "style" of entrée. The dry veal was certainly overcooked (no one asked me what temperature to cook the veal to), and I couldn't understand what the chef wanted to be on my fork with the meat: The chunks of tomatoes? The mushrooms? The cheese? Because I couldn't pick up everything at once. The flavors were mostly alright, but this dish had too much going on and could have benefited from some editing.
I finished my meal by ordering the "Tiramisu." ($7) The kitchen uses a classic recipe, soaking savoiardi in espresso, then layering on mascarpone cheese, coffee liqueur, and cocoa powder. No complaints here.
Service was efficient and professional but a bit cold on the frigid Wednesday night in January that I dined here solo in a mostly empty dining room. I normally wouldn't mention, and I can't put my finger on why, but my waitress left me feeling a bit uneasy and perhaps unwelcome.
A complimentary shot of homemade limoncello was provided at the end of my meal, which was a nice touch. This wonderful send-off never gets old, and one of the many pleasant touches that makes my dining experiences more enjoyable at family-run Italian-American restaurants around Rhode Island like Portofino's.
Food/Décor/Service: 3.2/3.7/3.5 read more