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    Porta Bella

    2.8 (195 reviews)
    ModerateItalian, Seafood, Pizza

    Porta Bella Photos

    Business Info

    PORTA BELLA ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Intimate
    Quiet
    Outdoor seating
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Porta Bella

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    Porta Salad
    Ron V.

    Went here last night. We were visiting from South Carolina and make it a yearly visit to have dinner at Porta Bellas. We are a small picture of white sangria and two cokes. Three of us sorted the small Portabella salad and one of us sorted the Caesar salad. The salads are always great, especially the portobello salad with the buttermilk all dressing. It's a staple! Three of us ordered the Garibaldi sandwich. I ordered mine with jalapeños. We had another order with the hot banana peppers and the third order with no peppers at all. The bread was toasted perfectly along with the sesame seeds on top of the bread. Everyone loved Garibaldi. My granddaughter ordered the manicotti with a Alfredo sauce and a red sauce. The three of us took a bite of it and it was absolutely great. They also serve some nice French bread with butter. The atmosphere here is really nice and quaint. The service was excellent. Have to give it four stars. I look forward to coming back next year. It's too bad. They don't have the white house sandwich like Paissan 's used to have.

    Menu shot
    Dan D.

    Ate at PB the other night, and was like: Ya. Nothing outlandish like in the some of the other reviews, but nothing 'great' either. The food was Ok, could've been better. The service was good & attentive (server did a good job), ambiance was [as has been said elsewhere]- dated. I read in another reviews that "...Fazoli's (or Olive Garden) has better food." I've never eaten at either, but *owch* that stings. Madison has an _awesome_ restaurant scene with so many *amazing* places. Unfortunately, I'd recommend another spot :/

    Porta Salad
    James I.

    Massively disappointed. It really feels like their food has gone down hill. My father wanted to come here sooooo badly to capture some of his Madison nostalgia. Fail. Our porta salad was wilted greens with a lettuce core. Our sandwich was...lacking and had a banana pepper core. This is supposedly decent Italian? False. Decent Italians take the basics seriously.

    Garibaldi
    Lori H.

    This place has a lot of atmosphere. Be prepared for a dark, romantic slightly gothic/deco setting with many cozy booths. It's right off campus and has an excellent outside dining area. The food is very good. They start you out with warm bread and olive oil for dipping. This also include butter in the basket in case you don't want to dip your bread in oil. My husband had a cup of the soup du jour which was tomato Florentine. It was very good with a rich tomato broth and included Italian sausage and pasta. You cannot dine here without ordering the porta salad. They are known for it. A small salad is large enough to share. The salad consists of Romaine lettuce topped with a blend of ham, salami, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, fresh green peppers, and garbanzo beans They are famous for the Garibaldi sandwich. French loaf topped with layers of ham, salami, pepperjack cheese, sliced tomatoes, and your choice of green or hot banana peppers (or both). You can also have it made on their spicy cheese bread. This is how my husband ordered it with both hot and sweet peppers. He gave it five stars but said he liked it the original way a little better -- traditionalist. I ordered the super hot pizza -Pepperoni, yellow onions, spicy cheese, hot banana peppers and added Italian sausage and sliced tomatoes. Excellent as always. Looking forward to having leftovers for breakfast. We were there during Christmas break when all the student are gone so our waiter was one of the owners. Very gracious and excellent service, of course. We chatted a bit and remarked that we will miss their sister restaurant Paisans which closed due structural problems in their building. He shared that they intend to remodel the basement of Porta Bella for a new home for Paisans. It was a really good lunch and I recommend this place for its pizza, sandwiches and pasta. It won't break the bank and you'll have a great time.

    After I received this text for my carry-out order, I still waited 90 minutes for my order!

    My friends and I ordered carry-out, since we knew the restaurant would be busy on a Saturday night. I placed my order online separately from them, and it only included a small pizza and an order of bolognese. Soon a text arrived, saying the food would be ready in a few minutes - 5:18 pm to be exact. When I arrived at the restaurant, they were busy, and they told me the order had just been put in. So I waited. And waited. And waited. When I asked about my order, the greeter was apologetic and went to check in the kitchen several times. But every time they would come back, they would just say the kitchen was behind, with no real explanation for why a small order would take so long. After a full hour had passed from the original 5:18 estimate, they brought my food out, but the pizza was completely wrong. She showed me a shrimp pizza with banana peppers - not what I wanted! - and admitted that it had been sitting in the back for a while. Finally, after another fairly lengthy wait, they brought my food out. By then it was nearly 90 minutes after the originally estimated time. The food was OK, but definitely not worth the wait. My friend had asked for no mushrooms in his bolognese, and that request was ignored. My chicken pesto pizza was better, but I'd choose something different, if I were to go back. However, that seems highly unlikely.

    Host area
    Ryo Hanalei Z.

    I really wanted to love this place. There are elements to this restaurant that deserves to be a place to enjoy but unfortunately the food didn't live up to its charming facade. The whole look and feel of this restaurant made me feel like I was transcended to a nostalgic time of an era that's no longer here. My friends and I were excited to try this place but it's the food that made us sad for this restaurant. Sam was our waitress, she was pleasant and gave us pretty good service. I think it's the chefs cooking our food who may need the help. The bread basket was ok, in the bottom of the basket had pats of butter in wrappers to use. Suggestion: perhaps but real butter in ceramic portion cups at temp would be better. Our pasta dishes came out Luke warm, almost cold. The cheese garnish on my raviolis didn't melt because the sauce wasn't hot enough. My friends dish was the same, she made me try it see be sure. So we asked that our dish be brought back to be heated. My friend suggested they remake her lasagne and Alfredo dish again. My dish came back a little more better heated and shortly after my friend received her dish. Mine food was ok, I could tell the raviolis weren't fresh. The meat inside was mushy. My friends dish came back remade but still cold. She put her finger in the sauce and was disappointed on how this happened twice in a row. Also, while picking through the lasagna, we all discovered that there wasn't any lasagne noodles in the dish at all. My friend decided she couldn't eat her dish and had it sent back. The only thing we all liked was our small house salad. When we get the check, we discovered that our waitress Sam, had charged us for every soda refills. We checked the menu and it doesn't say that refills are charged. So we asked for the manager and even he didn't know and had to asked a more tenured coworker to find out. We were reimbursed for the extra charge for the refills but when we left, I relooked at the receipt and found that they charged a "non cash fee" of $2.79 I feel like this place can level up their food and create a more polished dining experience if they stopped doing premade food and stopped creating unnecessary charges to nickel and dime their customers. I won't be recommending this place to anyone - good luck!

    Lovely outside patio
    MaryDan H.

    The best part of Porta Bella restaurant is their outdoor patio and their famous Porta salad. I love their enclosed patio in front of the restaurant. It makes you feel like you're dining in Italy! I appreciate that they have nice plants and decor in the patio. And that most, if not all tables have optional sun umbrellas. We started with a Calamari Strips appetizer. It was a generous portion and came with their marinara sauce on the side, but the texture for us was a little off. The texture did not keep us from eating most the dish, as we were famished. Most dishes come with either a salad or soup. My husband tried the chicken dumpling soup, and just thought it was so-so. But it was a creamy based soup which was unexpected. I thoroughly enjoyed my Porta Bello salad: fresh lettuce mixed with crumbled cheese and salami. I recommend getting their house Italian salad dressing for this salad. My husband had the chicken parmesan entree. He felt it wasn't the best he's ever had, just ok. My Vegetarian Pesto pizza was a bit disappointing. I think it's because I just had a very tasty Porta salad and then when I tried my pizza it was just not as flavorful. On the plus side the pizza was much better the next day warmed up at home.

    Erin R.

    This place has a beautiful courtyard, but sadly that's really the only thing positive to say about this restaurant. To start off in the bar, the taps were down and they were out of several bottled beer. The bartender was frustrated and you could tell. The awful tasting wine came in a filthy glass which because it's very dark in there (which I usually love), I didn't notice until we got outside to sit. The courtyard is nice, but it needs a thorough cleaning and removal of random junk. I tried another wine with another dirty glass. Our food arrived and we ordered: Mantova's Bolognese - A regional recipe from Mantova, Italy, Madison's sister city. A thick marinara sauce of Italian sausage, beef, bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes and onions served over penne. Steak Alfredo - Slices of tenderloin tossed in Alfredo sauce, and topped with toasted almonds, and four Italian cheeses. Served over fettuccine. Oven baked. The bolognese was in no way an authentic Italian recipe from Italy! It was filled with hamburger meat and looked like it sat for a while, watery sauce under the overcooked noodles. The steak dishes "steak" looked grey and was definitely not fresh. There were no toasted almonds and again the pasta was overcooked. They did have a tasty French blue dressing that we got on the porto salad, which was good. I appreciate the history of this place and what I think they're going for, but I can only assume COVID and just not changing with the times has greatly affected the success of this restaurant. There are great Italian restaurants in Madison to dine at instead; Osteria Papavero, Bar Corallini, Lombardino's, and if you're looking for one that isn't pricey, Nonno's is good!

    Holly M.

    Absolutely disgusting all-around. Burned out lightbulbs, vacant tables still piled with plates and decor that hasn't been updated . . . ever . . . was the first indicator we should leave, but we were nostalgic for the Porta Bella of the 90s and thought our kids would like the throwback experience. After a long wait, our waitress delivered warm, ice-less water and raced around like a maniac, shouting things like "It's Food Time," which was alarming in the low-lit, quiet atmosphere. When our meals finally arrived, the waitress accidentally dropped two entrees on the floor, which happens, but the way it was handled was completely inappropriate -- no visit from a manager and no real apology, just a crazy "I don't know what happened" from our waitress. And we were still charged full-price. As for the food, we had 9 people in our party and the only decent entree was the cheese pizza. The bolognese looked like dog food smothered in tomato sauce, the lasagna was just a heap of cheese and sauce (oops, they forgot the noodles) and even the meatball & chicken parm subs were somehow disgusting (how do you mess that up???) and the white wine sauce was Alfredo. The presentation of the food was also sick -- sauce smudges all over the sides of the plates and the waitress used a stack of napkins to carry the hot plate and left the stack of sauce saturated napkins on the table. Did I mention the waitresses hair was long and hanging in the food as she served us? I don't know how this place would pass a health inspection and there's clearly no one in charge. I'm sad to say they either need new management (or even just a manager!) or it's time to close the doors. There are too many great options to waste your time and money here.

    Fried calamari and garlic bread

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    4 months ago

    *but porta bella is nothing like paisans!! cannot compare to paisans at all. service or food!! oh. well. . . . .good luck

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    2 years ago

    Great food and service. The chef made a mistake and made us a free pizza. They really care about the customer. Thank you!

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    3 years ago

    My favorite restaurant in Madison! Love the place!! Highly recommend! Amazing ambiance. Great service. So memorable.

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    Porta Bella - italian - Updated May 2026

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