Portara Fresh Mediteranean — Restaurant in Pearland

I had high hopes for this restaurant but was, alas, disappointed. They advertised themselves as a Mediterranean restaurant with influences from Greece and its neighboring nations, but this couldn't be further from the truth. When you walk in, you're greeted by charming portraits of Thrace: Greece and Turkey, as well as the ambiance of cultural music and hospitable service. Overall, good vibes. The food, on the other hand, is a different story and needs immediate improvement. For starters, the tzatziki sauce is not evenly distributed throughout the pita and so you get ends soaked in it. The salad ingredients are similarly lazily slapped at the very end of the Greek gyros. There's no cohesiveness. Secondly, the gyros arrived cold. Only three minutes had passed by the time I touched it! The meat was also somewhat dry. Lastly, and this may be a nitpick, but I've never seen cucumbers in gyros, which really just tarnishes the authenticity of the dish. I feel less is more sometimes and would honestly save the owner a buck. The side of fries also lacked flavor and were soggy, as if they had been sitting out for a few hours and had deflated, despite the fact that they were freshly prepared. The Turkish rice pudding was also undercooked and gritty, which was unfortunate expectation-wise as these desserts aren't readily available locally.

So if you've a Balkan/Anatolian/Caucasian/Levantine/German mouth on ya, take my word and stay clear of this restaurant or be sure to give them specific instructions on how to prepare your meal. It seemed to me that only Americans who aren't knowledgeable about decent food, or of at least this kind, were into it. For some, perhaps an upgrade from the typical at-home-unseasoned-chicken-breast. I truly hope they bring in chefs that specialize in this cuisine to provide an objective critique and evaluation in order to then improve and enrich these recipes. There's truly potential here. The restaurant is visually appealing; it's undoubtedly picturesque, and you can tell the owner worked hard to develop the interior, but we need food reform as the high price and serving size for the quality is imo unacceptable. The gyro alone cost me $14.05 with taxes!!

Even the positive reviews for this restaurant are consistently 4 out of 5 stars, which is telling. However, because this location is still new, I'll return in a few months to see if anything has changed and will be sure to provide an update in the review...

The food was excellent. We got the tzatziki with pita, and spanakopita as appetizers. The pita was warm and soft and the tzatziki was perfectly fresh. We had never had spanakopita before but we were really impressed! It’s phyllo dough with feta and spinach and it was light and warm and flaky and delicious.

We shared a side Greek salad - dressing was bright and fresh and the salad was crispy and delicious. I got the gyro plate with lemon potatoes. The portion was huge! The gyro meat was so delicious and had perfect ratios of veggies, tzatziki and a generous amount of meat. The lemon potatoes were delish but I asked for a few extra lemon wedges bc I like mine extra lemony. They were cooked to perfection! My husband got the Moussaka which was like an eggplant lasagna and the sauce had a very pleasantly surprising nutmeg flavor to it. It was unique and delicious, we both loved it. He also got the sautéed spinach as a side and he ate every bite!

We saved room for desert bc we could not pass up the baklava cheesecake and omg it was worth every single calorie. It came with your choice of a scoop of gelato. We chose pistachio and it paired with the baklava cheesecake perfectly.

The environment was really nice and the decor was super Greek! Lots of bright blues and nice photography of Greece throughout, and they had Mama Mia songs on their playlist which I thought was a great little touch lol!

Overall a fantastic experience and delicious food and great...

Today my family and I decided to try Portara for the first time! What a great choice. From the moment we walked in, we were greeted with a smile, excellent service from both the wait staff, even the manager Stephen stopped and talked to us for a moment. Super nice guy! Not to mention Portara has a beautiful environment, a bit small but man the menu packed a punch!!!

As for the food: Appetizers: We had the trio dip, hummus was amazing with fresh pita bread. Ugh so gooood!. The Dolmas (stuffed grape leaves)were awesome, and the spanakopita was delicious aswell.

For our entrees: I had the gyro pita and it was big, filled to the max, and fresh. The meat was delicious and the sauce was even better! My fiance had the lamb pita and she said it was amazing! My son had the chicken tenders , I snagged one to try, and man the breading on the tenders was so delicious and crispy! The fries were seasoned well and tasted great!

Desert: we were stuffed but took a Baklava Togo, shortly after getting home I ate it and it was still top notch with great flavor!!

Overall 5 stars! We will certainly be returning customers! Thank you for the experience Portara, I had to...