Portofino Italian restaurant — Restaurant in Newport

Good afternoon - I want to tell you about this cute little Italian place in Newport, TN. I visited on Nov 3, 2024. The staff greeted us upon entry with smiles and warmth. We were asked if we wanted a booth or table and we sat down. Unfortunately I was sick and didn't get pictures for you. Trust me - It is WORTH IT. The dining room was very clean with nice wood tables. It had a warm fireplace that wasn't overly hot and pleasent to warm up after coming inside from the muggy day. My first place is almost always the bathroom. It has cute plaquest that are for men and women. I know we all need to upgrate to generic bathrooms but give it time. I entered the bathroom with two stalls. It was obviously well taken care of. When done, I headed to my table where my partners had ordered me a Dr. Pepper. My Favorite Drink. The waitress came over and I felt like I'd known her forever: ALLISON YOU ROCK!!!!

She took our order and was able to make suggestions and information about the food available. Her knowledge was great and provided mouth watering descriptions. We ordered our food and waited. It wasn't long before our salads were brought to our table. The Bleu Cheese actually had Bleu Cheese chunks. I haven't seen those in YEARS. It tasted so smooth and delicious. The lettuce and cucumbers were crisp and fresh. The side salad was perfect. My partners ordered the Greek salad and it looked divine but way too big for me to eat as I was excited about my Alfrado. Allison was attentive and made sure our drinks were refilled. She also was lively and personable. SHE WAS GREAT!! The food arrived a bit later and we decided to enjoy. My partner had something with lobster in it. Let me start by saying she is a cook. She works hard to make sure her picky family eats food with different seasonings and tastes. She makes broccoli taste good. So I was worried if she would like it. The first bite had her smiling. She said it was awesome. I was pleased that my dish wasn't super big. It was a nice size and I had enough to save for later.

Now I loved everything about this place but I have to be honest. The Alfrado was lifeless. It didn't have any flavor or seasoning that made my mouth happy. The noodles tasted great and tasted home made so there is that. It's hard for me to judge Alfrado when I've had 4 star restaurant in disney make me the perfect alfrado. So it was editable but not pleasant.

AGAIN - MEET...

We ate there as a family; 9 of us total and it was nice inside, as well as friendly staff. It took forever to get our food and none of us were impressed. I ordered the chicken parmigiana so I expected real chicken; instead I received 2 perfectly round and flat patties with the spaghetti. We all know what real chicken looks like, so yes, I was very disappointed. We all ordered salads as well and I must say that the salads were very fresh and good, but instead of bringing out our salads before our meal they brought them both out around 2 minutes apart. The problem with this is that the tables are SUPER SMALL so there is no room for your salad and meal at the same time and everyone was knocking elbows. Then at the end of our meal instead of asking us if we needed to-go boxes and how many, the waitress brought over a stack and handed them to us; we took 2 and handed the remainder back to her. One last thing for the staff - if your serving us Italian food, make sure that you have spoons in with the silver ware. Us true Italians use a spoon and fork to eat our spaghetti; I should never have to request a spoon at a place that claims...

New restaurant in town which is welcome. Not the best first impression but I could see the waitresses seemed to be very new at their jobs. Only the 'more mature' waitress seemed to be giving her customers good service. We were sat down and no one came to give us menus or drink order until we flagged down the 'mature waitress'. She took our drink order and then told our server to come to take our food order. I got the chicken parmesan which was edible but it was made with a chicken patty. And their sauce was super bland. My husband got the spicey meatball calzone and it was really great and big. We would come back and just share that next time. Worst part of our experience was the waitress brought out my dinner salad and meal and made my husband wait another 15 mins for his to come to the table. That was not something they should have done. Both meals need to come out at the same time even if it takes a few minutes longer. Like I said, we will come back and hope that they get their wrinkles ironed out by then. We are desperate for places to dine out in our...