Porta Bella

Went here last Monday night. Paisan's has been our favorite restaurant for 35 years and whenever my wife and I get back to Madison we always take our family there. Since Paisan's is closed we wanted to hit Porta Bells since it has the same menu and food. Great atmosphere...I've always liked it. We had five of us and ordered the Garibaldi, Spahgetti and Meatballs, Chicken Alfredo and my wife and I split a pizza. We also all ordered the Porta Salad, which has been a staple every time we've gone. So good! Also ordered a large pitcher of sangria. Food was excellent. Sangria is still great. Very enjoyable evening...prices have gotten a bit high it seems, but worth it.

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.

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!

Hasn't changed for more than 40 years - and that is good...and less good

Porta Bella (and it's less formal cousin, Paisan's - now closed) are/were Madison institutions since Madison was a lot less cosmopolitan (when ChiChi's was mexican fine dining and Supper Clubs were still a thing).

And 40 plus years ago, Porta Bella was pretty adventurous stuff. Now it's not.

The good - still the best Pizza in Madison. Thin, shatteringly crisp edges, great tasting dough, the best italian sausage. Great french bread basket. The Porta Salad. How I love thee. And the spicy cheese bread on sesame crusted bread, no longer from the colonial bakery (RIP), now from Clausen's? My God, how good

Staff - still nice, booths still very clubby and semi private. Place is clean and still well kept. To dang cold for the patio to be open, but it is a nice patio

So why is this not five stars? Because the rest of the menu is still in the 70's

Baked Alfredo in all it's creamy goodness. So comforting, so olive garden. Now PB's version is better, but it is still in the 70's. Chicken Marsala. Great. From the 60's. Most of the menu (all of the menu?) is recipes from more than 40 years ago.

What was great in the 70's just doesn't make it any more. There is way to much competition that did not exist then. Either you engage and grab the future, or you get run over. And based on how many people were there on a Saturday for lunch (we were the only ones there while the downtown was busy), PB seems to becoming road kill

Reminded me of cafeteria lunch when I was in middle school. From the cheap dish ware to the reheated food. Noodles were hard as a rock on the outer edge of the plate. I had the Pasta in vodka sauce with steak for $30 and it was trash. $14 sampler appetizer had 4 mushrooms and 4 fried ravioli straight that seemed straight out of the Sysco box... for a $120 meal ($93 plus the tip) for 2 it's safe to say I'll never be back.

Great pizza, the outdoor courtyard is nice, the rest of the food is Italian-American straight out of the 70s (boo). The decor is also out of the 70s (fun)

The way management is about money though... is downright hostile. We made a reservation for 6 and they wanted a credit card number because apparently they charge you 50 bucks for cancelations. The last time we went they added a 3.5% processing fee if you pay with a credit card so we tried to pay with a check. No, no checks. OK fine we managed to scrape together enough cash to pay but they are not at all upfront about their payment policies. Dad was so pissed he would have stiffed the waitress if cooler heads hadn't prevailed

I wouldn't ever go but my fuck a spicy sausage pizza with spicy cheese is probably my favorite slice in the city

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!

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.

With a nod to nostalgia, I decided on Portabella for my restaurant week choice this year! A bit nervous given the reviews, and the last time I had been here many years ago it had seemed run down. I maintain that I need to get here during the summer months because the courtyard is darling!
The bread was warm, soft, and just what I needed and our server was happy to give a refill when our party of three destroyed the first basket! I ordered the chicken Parmesan. I tried two different red wines; Pinot Noir was a special and the house Cabernet. Neither was an outstanding choice and were both on the mildly expensive side for a glass of house wine at $13. I can't ever seem to turn away from chicken Parmesan at an Italian restaurant so that was my dinner choice; friends both had the lobster ravioli and enjoyed it! The chicken Parmesan was unremarkable - lacking the ham that was in the description though a green pepper ring had been added to the sauce. The porta salad could have actually used more lettuce/greens as a mouthful of cheese does get to be a little much over and over again in a salad, but I certainly see the appeal of this well known starter. I finished my meal with tiramisu which was delicate and flavorful.
Presentation is generally lacking - sauce spills/wipe marks on the plates, my dish felt generally doused in sauce, wine spills on the glass, etc. and I agree with another review that commented on how odd it was that plates were delivered with a stack of napkins as a potholder and then left on the table for us to use. That said our server was friendly and prompt and it was overall a pleasant experience. This was my husband's favorite restaurant in Madison growing up and I'd go back with him if he wanted but it won't make the short list of standbys!

Food ok, staff young and inexperienced- wasted a bunch of my time. Management unhelpful and rude. A shame really - used to be a favorite madison restaurant