Portabella's — Restaurant in Foley

First time here today and it smells amazing in here, quite Italian. This place is in a concrete block building next to a seafood shop on the main drag (59) just south of the Foley town square but still easy to miss. There's off-street parking on the south side of the building. The interior is simple but clean and comfy with lots of local art in the walls. The people are friendly and professional and the food is made fresh to order, not pre-prpared fast food.

I like the menu, while it isn't huge or trying to cover to many appetites, it focuses on everything Italian. There's a few appetizers, a few desserts and salads but the rest is pastas and pizzas. All of the pasta offerings also give you the option for a small or large version of the dishes. They include meatball marinara, Greek pasta, Alfredo, lobster ravioli, lasagna, la pasta (Italian & smoked pepper sausage, onions & marinara with penne), chicken cacciatore and my choice today the chicken parmesan. The pasta dishes come with a tasty garlic knots and your choice of any salad for $3. I chose the Greek salad which was delicious and big enough to share, my chick parm was different than the expected deep fried chicken patty or filet but was rather sauteed chicken slices (like scallopini) with a very tasty, light and well seasoned marinara over angel hair pasta. It was a solid dish and even though I opted for the small version is was pretty big and filling.

Let's talk pizza, I noticed a very good looking pie at a near table with a thin crust. They have 10 house specialty pizzas like the Alberta (Italian & smoked sausage), Foley (peppers, Kalamata olives, mushrooms, onions, pepperoni & Italian sausage), The Gulf (fresh shrimp, spinach, artichoke hearts, feta, sun-dried tomatoes & pesto sauce) but my sweetheart went for the Farmers Market (fresh spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers and mozzarella. It had a thin and perfectly baked crust and tasted VERY fresh and very nicely seasoned, very tasty. There's two sizes offered 10" and 14".

There's a legit use of garlic and herbs in everything we had and this is a big deal for me because too often the basil or garlic is missing or that rare occasion where spices are excessive, so a good balance is a nice find.

Bottom line: The food and people are solid, it's a nice touch of Italian in...

(Visited in February 2018) - We drove quite a ways with some friends to try Portabella's, and while the food was above average for an Italian restaurant in America, it was nothing to rave about, nor was it true Italian. For the restaurant, this is probably a good thing, since an americanized Italian restaurant will obviously do better in America than one that serves only true Italian food. We lived in Italy for three years and both love to cook, and this simply is not genuinely prepared Italian fare...but it is very good.

One missing menu item would have made it better for me...Insalata Caprese. In my humble opinion, any Italian restaurant worth it's salt has this on the menu. And with only two simple ingredients of tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, you'll find this on the menu of nearly every Italian restaurant (even some American restaurants).

On to the more important things...food and service, and both are very good here. I had "The Lion" specialty pizza and it was very good. Having eaten pizza at over a dozen places in this resort area, I'll put it at the #2 spot. My wife had the Fettuccine Alfredo and it, too, was very good. One other person had the Chicken Carbonara, which was good, but not a true Carbonara sauce. I can understand this, however, since serving an egg-based sauce that isn't fully cooked (true Italian style) would probably not be good in a public restaurant.

Overall, we enjoyed good food and friendly service, but in a slightly less-than-clean environment. The floors could have been cleaner, and while this didn't impact the food quality, I kept thinking if this is how they keep the floors, what does it look like in the kitchen.

I recommend Portabella's, but I'm not sure I would return except for...

So as they say, there is a first for everything and tonight I definitely experienced that! I have been a local that has enjoyed Portabella’s for 8+ years but I can say after tonight I will not be back. I met up with a friend and we were there for roughly an hour and a half and had closed out on our check (which was still sitting on our table) when the older lady came up and asked us if we would get up and leave because there was a table of 10 waiting to be seated and they closed at 8:00. I was definitely shocked by this and got up but then realized that was not okay. I tipped $40 on my $98 bill and could not understand why someone would ask me to leave when it isn’t exactly my problem they close in 40 minutes and have a table of 10 wanting to be seated. When I brought up this issue to the lady that asked us to leave her solution was “I would be happy to refund you your tip and please have seat so I can get you another glass of wine.” As if our waitress, Marcia, did not earn that herself? I told her absolutely not that was her tip but the entire situation was appalling. I have left a review for this establishment in the past raving about their service and food. The food is still amazing but that just does not excuse being treated like this. I have been here regularly for 8 years and still cannot believe I was asked to leave after leaving a $40 tip while being there for an hour and a half, maximum. I love and appreciate the people that work in our food industry considering me and my family have all been servers at one point but again, this was a first and I have never been so disappointed. Marcia was great but don’t come expecting anything more than a dine and dash. Very...