Portside Cafe — Restaurant in Hamilton Township

Every order has been carryout. The parking lot is gravel or crumbled asphalt. Hard to tell. The exterior roadsign is terrible to non-exsistant. If not using GPS, you will pass it. They still have truck parking in the lower back lot. They spent some money on the inside re-furbishing it, from what I remember back in '95. It's standard diner fare with reasonable prices. I've seen many of the menu options from what I pick up for other co-workers. How they eat fries from carryout, I will never know. I find the Southern Omelette to be one I have ordered more than once. 2 big styrofoam boxes for one meal. I call the hashbrowns and toast, the carb box. I always give it away. One co-worker now knows I do, and only orders gravy to top it. That means the Omelette must be big to get a box to itself. It's HUGE! I still only eat half of it. I have also had the daily special. Which on that day was chopped steak with 2 sides and roll for $8 or $9. It was a very brown meal that did not make me wish that that is todays special. The restroom is in the small lobby foyer, and a bit sketchy. They do accept credit cards, but have no WiFi. There are several TVs hanging in corners.

OK, so we have had some items missing or slightly incorrect. I do not fault them. This is not a drive-thru pushing a car every 50 seconds. This is a diner accommodating a carry-out order from 4 to 14 people. Any significant mistake, worthy of a phone call, has been met with a friendly apology & offer to replace. I once went back a month later to get a replacement club sandwich platter, without hassel.

They exclaim that they are known for their pie. Usually only 2 choices at lunch hour. They look like they might be from yesterday. 1 piece left. Cream fallen. etc. I've had great pie. At $4 a slice, this is not it. Maybe they bake after lunch, and it's all good for dinner.

Heading south, I would get outside 270, and stop here. But for dessert, I would wait for the bakery in Round Town. Heading north, this is a great place to wait out rush hour traffic, or stop as a truck driver waiting to get a meal & deliver inside the loop in the morning.

The staff is friendly. The prices are fair. The food is decent...

Best little diner we've been to in years. The staff were busy but, still very cordial and super friendly. We sat ourselves upon entering.

I grabbed menus after seeing it was very busy. That made the waitresses think someone had already helped us. The waitresses don't appear to have assigned tables. (I know they do.) It's just that they help any customer as needed.

The atmosphere is a busy diner with a well worn floor from all the customers. There's several reasons for that too. The main reason for going to any restaurant is food. This place won't disappoint if you like honest home/diner cooking. Nothing super fancy. It doesn't have to be.

The food is packed with flavor. We chose to eat off the breakfast menu. For us that was the right choice. Everything is made to order including the gravy. Virginia (owner) does the cooking. We saw a cheeseburger that she made someone. It looked delicious. Guess what? It wasn't a frozen patty. She formed the patty by hand then cooked it on the griddle herself.

As I write this I want to say that the main star is the food. Sure it's fantastic. Though that pains me because the staff were so sweet and shouldn't take have to a backseat to anything. Last but, not least is Virginia the owner/cook/powerhouse is a force not to be forgotten either for all that she has done.

I will say the star of Port Side Cafe is "No frills and honesty". Nothing fancy or glamorous here. In fact, it may even be a tad worn but, it's honest in what it is and doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't. The staff are sweet but, I'm sure those ladies are strong enough to make many tough men shed some tears, Virginia makes the food her way, staff respect and truly like her, and she works to make things "right". All the components that make this place great are "No frills and honesty".

You get an honest plate of really good food at good prices from some...

Food was good. Service was terrible. My cousin and I shared our water because once the food was delivered to our table, the waitress never came back to refill our drinks. Even when we were done eating and ready to check out, she still never came back. We sat there and sat there and sat there. In the time we sat there waiting for her to return to give us our check, I watched her stand behind the bar and eat, then went to another table (which was right beside ours) and chatted with the people at that table, who appeared to family or close friends. To hell with her customers. Family/friends was more important, I guess. We were finally given our check by another waitress, since our original waitress was too busy chatting it up with other people.

I've been to Virginia's several times and I honestly can't say many good things about the wait staff. And since it's a family operation (I believe a couple of the servers are her daughters) Virginia herself doesn't seem to care. As for taking orders, they write customers' orders on whatever piece of paper they can grab. And then our 'checks' are the same random pieces of paper that the orders are written on. The whole system is very antiquated. This place needs several updates and the waitresses need to step up and start treating their customers as though they actually matter and stop acting like they're a bother to you. Because, ladies, if it weren't for your customers, you...