Portillo's Richmond — Restaurant in Sugar Land

We were anxious and excited to learn that our favorite Chicago hotdog place was expanding to Texas.  The Portillo's at Richmond, Texas opened its doors on October 2024 and we made our first visit on November 11th for lunch.  Crowded does not accurately reflect the amount of people inside or outside...not counting the fact the order line was almost out the door. We patiently waited our turn to order and eventually we were rewarded with three Chicago hotdogs, a large drink, and a slice of Chocolate cake.  The associates were busy cleaning tables and guests were regularly rotating in and out of the restaurant.  We filled our large drink and quickly located an empty table in anticipation of savoring our meal. I should mention that Portillo's is always our first stop when arriving in Chicago and we always stop at the suburb locations for lunch or dinner...or just a snack. The quality of the food and the atmosphere of every location adds to the experience and you never leave hungry or disappointed.  As we sat and reached into the bag, it was a real delight to open each Chicago hotdog wrapper to see that perfect hotdog with the seeded bun, slice of pickle, green relish, two hot peppers, onion, tomato, a dash of celery salt, and mustard. Our first bite of those Chicago hotdogs were as we had remembered.  Everything was the same...well almost.  The atmosphere and the restaurant decorations were not what we were expecting.  It was loud...too loud. No sound deadening materials from the furnishings or decorations as they have in the Chicago locations. The dining area was one big open rectangular space with interior walls decorated with petroleum and automotive signage.  Our excitement was diminished by the obvious lack of atmosphere and the obvious lack of importing the Chicago Portillo's legacy of furnishings.  That atmosphere and those furnishings are just as important as the quality of the Chicago hotdogs, the Italian beef, sausage, etc. It is just as much about the "feeling" and that "feeling" was very much missing from our visit. I am hopeful that the additional Portillo's restaurants under construction will go back and take look at where the restaurant originated and make the necessary adjustments to ensure every location accurately reflects the legacy, the heritage, and the brand started by...

I don’t really know what to say… Maybe I could chalk it up to the fact that I’m not from Chicago and don’t have the taste for it…but I ordered exactly how a Portillo lover told me to: Italian beef with sweet and hot peppers wet and gravy on the side as well. Hot dog Chicago style. Cheese sauce on the side. Chocolate cake shake.

The sandwich was soggy immediately. As in the bread was disintegrating as I was eating it. I found it gross. I would order it dry with gravy on the side if I got that again BUT the gravy cup they give you is not a size that you could dip that sandwich into…I was kind of at a loss at how to “dip” it and ended up spooning a little extra here and there onto the sandwich but honestly it’s a very thin gravy with little flavor and I almost don’t see the point at all… but truly if it’s a dipping gravy please explain to me how anyone is dipping a sandwich into that tiny cup?? As for the peppers, I couldn’t tell which were the sweet and which were the hot. None were sweet exactly. None were hot exactly.

Cheese sauce you could buy in a giant tub at any wholesale store. Nothing to write home about at all. My husband wouldn’t even touch it. Also generally pretty flavorless.

The hot dog was the only thing I liked that we ordered. I’m not accustomed to the celery seasoning and it was a little much for me, but that is a personal preference not a fault of the restaurant which I feel like the other complaints I had (soggy bread, flavorless meat and gravy, generic flavorless cheese sauce) are actual things they could improve.

The cake shake. After tasting all the food I knew I could at least count on a good chocolate shake at the end RIGHT?? No. I don’t know what that flavor is but it isn’t good. And people, I will drink basically any sort of chocolate shake. Something is weird about that combo they are using. My husband and I both tried it, looked at each other and said “hmm”. Can’t put my finger on what exactly tastes weird about it, but the bottom line is - not good.

Now maybe ordering the generic stuff just wasn’t for us. I’ve heard the pasta can be good. The salads looked interesting. But for a first time experience I left feeling really...

Im native to Chicago so I understand my expectations may be higher than those who have never experienced portillos before. However, I will not be returning and I was embarrassed to have brought my significant others family there, who have never been to a portillos before. We came in on 7/21, there was only 1 other family in the restaurant and 2 other couples that came through during the length of our time there. The drive through was not busy, maybe 1 car every 10-15 min or so. It took 15-20 min for us to get our food (2 beefs, fries/onion rings, 1 cheese sauce). Ive ordered 100 hot dogs, & 1 small Diet Coke (yes, after a wedding, lol), and gotten my food in less time. The other 4 of our party did get their food in 10-15 min, so not horrible. But again, this place was dead. They had at 1 person at each station in the back. Ive worked in some form of customer service my whole life, I understand things happen. But this was painfully slow, snail pace. LARGE beefs orders with peppers, had 2 peppers on it. TWO, lol. All beefs were with motz, maybe 1 slice on it? My SIL was convinced hers had none, and we practically had to take out a magnifying glass to find it. You could gently push the sandwich closed and you wouldn't know there was any beef inside the sandwich. In other words, we got bread with a side of Italian beef, motz & peppers. 4/6 of us got beefs because I suggested it... embarrassing. The burger was really dry, which is also disappointing because if you know portillos, you know a portillos burger. Cesar salad was good. We had to ask them 3x about a cake shake, which came out when we were all practically done with our meals.

What is not a reflection on the employees is the design, and this is just my 2 cents. Does NOT feel like a portillos. Maybe a sandwich shop? Pretty pathetic and did not do the brand well at all. Portillos is not modern, it's a staple of old time Chicago. I understand wanting to put a modern twist on it in 2025... but this was...