Portillo's Madison, Wisconsin - East Towne — Restaurant in Madison

First time at Portillo's, Madison, WI East Side. 3:00 pm on a Thursday afternoon, not busy, no one else in line. Took a longer than expected time. Italian Roast Beef was cold, substantial fat and gristle, little taste. Salt, pepper and sweet peppers helped. Fries were cold. I asked for the manager. Person at the register at first refused to get the manager. Eventually someone came over, said they were the manager. Apologized for the cold (I guess take your chances maybe next time better). Showed him photos of the Italian Beef, he said that is the standard quality. (fat and gristle at no extra cost?). I then asked if they ever wiped the tables down, in the approximate hour we had been there, turnover of customers, staff never wiped the dining tables down. I guess grease from previous diners is also at no extra charge. Manager mumbled something about they hadn't gotten around to it for a while. Then, he asked if there was anything else he could do for us!?! Poor quality food, service and rude..... Note grease and scraps on two tables closest to us!

Follow Up. Thank you Lindsay for your acknowledgement. I have responded to both posts from Portillo's.

Your "Area Supervisor" may be part of the problem, as they either know what shoddy food and service is taking place and tolerate it, or they are remise in not knowing what is going on.

The "management" on site must be addressed, and that's more than a "talking to". This is a core problem that's not going to change without significant change in attitude and execution. From my experience, including as a business consultant for 40+ years, the current personnel may not be able to meet the challenge.

New management must be in place in order to lead a change in worker attitude throughout. I was shocked at the poor quality of food and indifference of the staff;. Staff just lingering around, while place is dirty (COVID pandemic, so what I guess), food is ill prepared and service slow. Recall, cash register guy appeared to want to start an argument while refusing to call a manager.

Rumor is this location is not doing well. If I was the owner I would be all over it, as I have heard where other Portillo's locations are legendary. elsewhere. Unfortunately for Portillo's, in Madison there are far superior options in level of service, customer focus and quality of food available. A shame, Portillo's has so...

Portillo's time and time again has overachieved above and beyond.

First impressions by looks: I went to Portillo's Hot Dogs with with two of my colleagues this past weekend, from the outside, you'll see a nice outside seating area, and an inviting exterior to the building. Going inside, it feels like you're being transported back to a different era. The atmosphere makes it feel like an old style retro 1950s style dive. The place looked nice and clean, with people bustling around hither and thither.

The Food:

I will put a disclaimer here first and foremost that Portillo's, though excellent with their food and the taste of said food, has a really bad problem with it being really calorie intensive. That being said I think it would be best to come during a cheat day. Though, they do have some calorie friendly options.

When I was there I tried the Italian beef, polish dog, and a charbroiled chicken sandwich. ( I did not eat all of these by myself, but my colleagues and I all split the portion of our food so that we could all try different things). What's nice about portillo's is that you can add or remove any type of condiment that you'd like, which makes it convenient to customize your own meal However you like it. The Italian beef sandwich we had customized to be "juicy" in which they dip the sandwich in their sauce or they pour it on. You can't go without the side sauce for the Italian beef sandwich! It's a classic! I would highly suggest that you get it juicy, but if you do, make sure to have a fork and knife.

For the Polish dog, we added their sweet peppers, grilled onions, and ketchup and mustard to it, and it was a very delicious hot dog, probably the best I've had since I had visited a hot dog stand in Milwaukee back in 2018. I would highly recommend this to a first timer at Portillo's.

Lastly, the Charbroiled chicken sandwich would be an excellent choice for a pescetarian or an individual who wants to keep low on the calories, or doesn't eat red meat. The chicken is tender, and not dry, and it actually has taste. It isn't bland. With a combination of mayo, tomato, lettuce, and pickle, it made an excellent sandwich and I would definitely go back for it again.

Final thoughts: Overall, the staff are friendly, the food was good and hot, and the environment felt safe, and I would definitely go back again. Though, as I said before. Make sure to come during...

Wow, I guess I got lucky. I went last Friday at about 9:30 PM and it wasn't that busy at all. There were only a couple cars in the drive-thru, but I went inside to eat. I would say the place was only about a quarter full. I was able to order right away. All I got was the regular Italian beef. It was good and came out fairly quickly. My main "beef" was that if you get the peppers, the sandwich is 7 bucks and it wasn't a $7 sandwich in my opinion. It would be a decent value at the $6 price point. If they maybe put a little more meat on it, I wouldn't have a problem. Or just quit charging for the peppers. But the next time I order an Italian beef there, I will definitely get the bigger one because it is a better value and I now know that I can finish the whole thing.

3/21/19 Update:

So a few people I know told me the hamburger was really good. I went and got one a little earlier. I was very disappointed. The problem is, I like my hamburger a little short of medium. They didn't ask me how I wanted it, that is because they already have them in the broiler expecting people to buy them fast. It wasn't that busy so they weren't being sold fast. So I ended up with a very well done burger that was quite dry. I have to have a juicy burger for it to be any good. Also, they say it is 1/3 lb. before cooking. That didn't seem to be the case, but maybe because it had been in the broiler too long and lost all that weight and volume in lost juiciness. It did come with a nice thick slice of fresh tomato, lettuce, and onions. It would have been a good burger if the beef hadn't been so dry. I was expecting them to ask me how I wanted it and cooked it to order, but that isn't their business model. I don't mind waiting an extra 10 minutes, but I guess a lot of people want their food right away and that isn't practical. But now I know, no burgers for me from there anymore. Maybe they are better when they are busier because they are turning over faster? Also, I got a large order of fries which was actually enough to split with 2 people. The problem was that I think they could have used a little more time in the deep fryer. I can't complain much because I got them for free thru their survey on the receipt from my last visit, but I wouldn't pay for them even though there were a lot of them for the price. So next time I will probably just go for the big Italian beef...