Porcini — Restaurant in Highlands

GEM IN HIGHLANDS! I absolutely LOVE Porcini! I found this restaurant a little over two years ago, and I been dining here every week ever since! This restaurant isn’t around the corner from me either! It’s around a 40 minute drive from my house, but the food is OUTSTANDING! I look forward to going week after week! Chef Chris who is the owner of this restaurant received an award for top rising chef in NJ! He makes everything from scratch from pastas, gelato, and house made desserts. All the food here is EXCELLENT! If I were to pick my favorite dishes I’d say my top picks are the veal over polenta, the crab cakes, filet mignon in a bernaise sauce, the herb encrusted cod in lemon garlic butter sauce, the New Zealand rack of lamb, the bronze encrusted swordfish over orzo, and the scallops! Ok I know I named a lot, but they are all just so good! You can’t leave here without ordering the cheesecake of the day either! It’s AMAZING! Some of my favorites are the s’mores cheesecake, peanut butter cheesecake, and the white chocolate caramel cheesecake! My favorite gelato flavors here are the cookies and cream and the Heath Bar crunch! He also makes the best chocolate cake I ever had anywhere! He sometimes has it as a special, and if he does order it! I love the chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache stuffed with peanut butter mousse! I still wish he would add a chocolate cake of the day to the dessert menu! The service here is excellent, and they are very accommodating! As long as he has the ingredients on hand he can make it for you! Portions here are generous as well. Chef Chris wants all his customers to leave happy! I’ve dined everywhere, and Porcini is simply the best! I highly Recommend dining at my TOP PICK...

Exceptional. The setting, the service, and of course the food, were all exceptional.

Starting with the setting. Porcini is everything you want when you are going out for a nice Italian dinner. It was clean, intimate, the lighting was just right (low but too low) and the music was perfect. (Neil Diamond radio)

Our server was Kendall. She was honestly one of the best servers I have had in a long time. She was attentive, and friendly. Our drinks stayed full, our food came out quick enough that we were never waiting too long between courses but we also weren’t just constantly eating to keep up. Clean plates and silverware between courses. It was perfect. Kendall treated serving us as if it was her own restaurant. She took pride in balancing being professional and friendly to make sure we were comfortable as her guests. Big kudos to Kendall for completing the experience.

The food was top tier. We began with the complimentary bread basket, olives, and olive oil. All delicious. We then had the homemade ricotta with olive tapenade which was better than we even expected. Delicious. For our making courses we had the spaghetti with meatballs and the spicy vodka vodka fusilli. The dishes were served piping hot and were both amazing. The spaghetti and meatballs also includes sausage in their Sunday sauce which was amazing. Just the way I make mine at home with both meatballs AND sausage. My wife had the fusilli and it was delicious and spicy. We both cleaned out plates. For desert we went with the Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding and Berry Shortbread Tart and a double espresso. Again we cleaned out plates.

Porcini was all in all one of the best dining experiences we have had out in a long time. It is what you want when going out...

My husband and I had a nice meal here about a month ago. We decided to bring our friends a couple of weeks later. When we arrived, the first thing we noticed was the interior of the restaurant was uncomfortably warm. We mentioned this to our server and she agreed. We asked if they could turn up the A/C. By the time our meal arrived, it was even warmer. The people next to us also were commenting about the temperature. Our dinner guest became a bit nauseous from the heat and headed to the restroom, which was occupied. She left the restaurant because she felt very overheated and two wonderful servers came outside with cold compresses for her. Needless to say because of the heat the meal was ruined. None of us finished our meal. We paid the bill and generously tipped the server. My husband sent an email to the owner of the restaurant detailing what happened and the response was disappointing. We were told it is difficult for them to keep the restaurant at a proper temperature when it is full and it’s beyond their control. I think an apology for ruining our meal would have been a...