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

Normally Portillo's gets a good review from me. Last review I did was 5 stars and commented they had "great food". Been to this location a couple of times and never had issues.

However, this time was very disappointing. We were in town on Saturday May 18th, 2024. While we were inside West Towne Mall, we ordered our food on the Portillo's app. We assumed this would save us from waiting in line and then waiting for our food on top of that. Boy were we wrong! Ordered at 1:38pm and the app said our food would be ready by 2:02pm. We headed over and actually arrived at 1:45pm and found ourselves a table while we waited for our food to be put on the carryout rack. 2:02pm came and went. Noticed someone put a bag of food on a counter around 2pm. The app did say it could be up to 10 minutes after the time. Around 2:10pm I received a survey email from Portillo's asking how the food was. Kind of insulting as I had not gotten my food yet. I finally went up to the counter at 2:15pm. Noticed the bag sitting behind the counter had my name on it. (It was in an area could not access) After a few minutes, an employee finally acknowledged me. Told her I was checking on my order. She grabbed the bag from the back counter and handed it to me. I had ordered 3 meals. Told her I was missing my 3 drinks. She said she would check and then proceeded to print something and walked away. While she was gone, I noticed we were missing our fries, onion rings, and a cheeseburger. The employee returned a few minutes later with the drinks and said she was waiting for some fresh fries and then quickly disappeared to the back before I could say anything about the missing cheeseburger. A few minutes later she returned with all of the missing items and quickly went back to the kitchen. NEVER once apologized for the mix up or for how long we waited. All of the food in the original bag was cold at this point and NOT good at all.

I did fill out the Portillo's survey while we were at the restaurant and agreed to be contacted by them. I did get an email stating they would investigate the issue and respond back to me. This came on Sunday May 19th and I have not heard anything more back from Portillo's. Clearly they do not care about their customers. Will be a long time before I return to Portillo's after this experience. None of the employees at this location seemed happy and most lacked a sense of urgency in...

KESHAWN SAVED OUR VISIT! My husband, our 5 year old daughter, and I came to the restaurant after a long day in the sun after a zoo visit. When we ordered, our cashier Keshawn was SO sweet. He had a huge smile, very polite, held conversation, explained everything thoroughly food wise, make recommendations, and more. To top it off, when we went back up to order our shakes, an employee was ordering and struggling to decide what he wanted, and Keshawn even asked him to step aside for a second so we could place our order. (That young man did step aside without issue at all, so thank you to him, as well!) When we went back up the second time, it was to order three shakes. Keshawn let us know that the machine wasn’t ready and it would take 10-15 minutes to get it going. No problem! We sat without issue and were waiting. After about 10 minutes, a woman who we believe was a manager (she had on a greyish vest) was already eyeballing us. She spoke loudly across the floor from behind the counter with a frustrated look on her face and said “it’s gonna be like another 15-20 more minutes for us to boot the machine…”, saying it in a tone paired with a look on her face that made us both feel like she wanted us to say never mind about the shakes. Again, my husband and I both smiled and said “we’re fine, no problem”. She kept that same look on her face and said something else about the ice cream and then just kept pacing the area. She not once gave us a smile and really made us feel like it was an issue that we wanted the shakes. After about another 10-15 minutes, Keshawn came over to us (walked all the way to us, not just loudly speaking to us from behind the counter or made us get up for them) and brought us our shakes with a big smile and apologized multiple times! Keshawn 100% made our visit to Portillo’s an awesome experience all on his own! We’d go back just for his service! If you see this, we appreciate you and appreciate you making our visit a great experience all on your own! If at all possible, please share this review with him in hopes of making his day better the same way...

Booth size not substantial for a family of four and were a bit close quarters for 2 adults. Felt cramped. Music was loud and seemed to be going for a party/circus type atmosphere, but didn’t seem to really come together. Didn’t give me the feeling of Chicago and the food wasn’t up to par for Chicago-style food - warmthwise and tastewise. In Chicago, the food is just always right. Not so here. Placed order and was a bit challenging and also a few items not quite right on order. Staff tried to be friendly. Didn’t feel this restaurant in general connects with a Madison crowd, decor-wise and for general expectations for food and service levels. This looked to be a place for kids maybe to come to, but wouldn’t recommend for adults. The price was very reasonable which was welcome, but I am really looking for a treat when going out on rare occasion I get to meet with lady friends. And would really be nice to match full Chicago style. In current state, I cannot recommend. With some tweaks, a possibility. I did appreciate the San Pellegrino water, but staff didn’t know what it was. My very gracious and generous sidekick made comments about the food, and I have never heard them complain at any restaurant. Part of their food wound up being pushed onto my plate which I do not desire. Cannot recommend for someone with food sensitivity due to incorrect order and limited food variety. This is critical in Madison market. The wait staff tried to make it sound like you can get free fries with the coupon and made a big deal of interrupting my very limited time with my friend. This is in exchange for even more of my time to fill out a review. This felt tacky and especially for a sit-down restaurant. I do not work for Portillo’s, and expect solid service in all areas when I leave my home to pay for service. This restaurant is located in prime space and the city is really looking to draw families here, and I don’t see this happening, although it appears Portillo’s has invested considerably to make this nice. This is a training/staffing/decor/music/ general...