Portobello Cafe — Restaurant in Eddystone

Sunday November 20th 2022

I'm not sure why this place has so many overwhelmingly positive reviews. Our waiter was extremely curt, rude, & acted like we were bothering him for serving our table. The 2nd waiter was nice but our main waiter was overall really bad. I guess he was angry he had to be at work? (and the entire table agreed. Someone in our party didn't even want to tip & several of us also work in the service industry, so that speaks volumes).

The clams casino weren't fresh, they smelled & tasted off. The shrimp was difficult to peel & cut the heads off. Food overall did not taste authentic, it tasted frozen & not fresh.

My aunt asked for medium & her steak was practically mooing.... extremely rare & bloody.

For some reason, only 2 of us were offered salad or soup, I'm unsure why. None of our meals came with sides, which is also strange.

It took over an hour & a half for our food to come out. An hour & a half is unacceptable. Several tables sat after us, got served & left before we got our food!

Their website simply states BYOB with no mention of an $8 cork fee. I have no issue paying that but state it on your website menu.

The fried mozzarella was pretty good as well as the prepackaged lemon cake (but how do you even mess that up?)

It took over a half hour to even get a soda & I couldn't get a refill.

Overall, I expected much better service for such an expensive Italian restaurant (meals on average are $20-$30 & there were 8 of us).

This was our first time at Portabello Cafe. We were extremely excited to celebrate my mom's birthday & honestly regret not just going to Olive Garden. I don't even want to give 1 star, it was that bad. Unsure if we will return (because they have great reviews, so I'm just confused).

The only true great experience was spending time with my...

Best keep secret in Delco. After driving past this location for years never gave it another thought on eating there was a huge oversight. Wanted a good tasty dinner which usually meant going to the city. The weather wasn't ideal and everyone was exhausted. I went onto Google maps to figure out where to eat. I hit highest rated and Portobello was one of the first so we decided why not. Arriving there I said oh this place. Oh well let's just go in. From the second we opened the doors I could feel the warmth of walking into a magical place. The restaurant is exactly how I picture walking into a restaurant in Italy. The smells alone I could bask in forever. Not sure if the staff are all owners or what but what a wonderful warm caring funny attentive bunch of people. The food OMG the best I have ever had. Its been 24 hours later and its all my family and I can speak of. We were treated like family and ate like kings. Seriously wished it was my family. They have outside sitting which I can not wait to go back with a great bottle of wine eat laugh talk with family n friends. This is the type of restaurants one could only dream about. We had apps, breads, seafood, steaks, veal, pasta, salad, 4 types of dessertsbasically covered the full menu. Every plate was above outstanding. Not a single well... all omg how can everytbing be soo good.. It has the essence. Good for these guys.Im so mad I judged this place and I haven't been going there all these years. Well we will be making up that difference I do suggest making reservations. Hands down my favorite place. No where else around here who is off the charts terrific in...

ATMOSPHERE Very quaint Italian restaurant. We sat inside, which was a little small, but it was a Tuesday night and not busy. We had a reservation for 4 which I'm guessing would be necessary on the weekend. Nicely decorated, quiet and romantic. They also had outdoor seating which was nicely lit and private. FOOD The food was awesome. I had the chicken (pollo) parm which was a very nice portion; tender without being dry and chewy. My wife had the salmon which was cooked perfectly, and also was a nice portion. Our table shared the arugula, pear, and goat cheese salad. Nice start; super fresh and just enough dressing to add flavor without drowning the salad itself. The calamari was very good, but generic. I'd order it again though. SERVICE Our server was very good, very patient, very present. My group was laughing, catching up and just having an outright good time. It took us probably a half hour to order just appetizers and we did not feel rushed at all. Plenty of time between appetizers and our main course. The wine flowed easily, which brings me to the one negative. It is BYOB and there is an $8 corkage fee. So, bring your own corkscrew. Knowing that, we brought fine twist-cap wine, hahaha, so did not need that service. But, I will be looking closer at the bill next time as another reviewer stated that they were charged $8 for having twist cap wine.

Looking forward to coming again. Well worth the drive...