il Portico Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Town of Orangetown

DO NOT waste your time or money here. The owner was extremely rude. I made reservations in advance for a Saturday evening seating. My reservations were changed from 7 to 7:15 without me initiating it. When we arrived "early", we were scolded and were told that we were NOT ALLOWED to sit at the bar. The place was EMPTY. Once we were finally seated, we waited over 20 minutes for the bartender to come to our table to take drink orders. After waiting over 40 minutes, we still hadn't been introduced to our waiter/waitress nor were given menus. After patiently waiting, someone asked for the menus and again was rudely spoked to by the owner and was told to "stop being anxious". We decided to pay for our drinks (which by the way weren't even made correctly) .... and leave.

As we were leaving, the owner disappeared but not before he uttered under his breathe F-bombs & childish remarks. In all my experiences, I have never had service like this. I should have read the poor reviews of this place prior to making a reservation. Lesson learned on my end as I like to give a place a chance... but not in this case. I have never had such an AWFUL experience. The vibe was unnerving & unwelcoming.

THIS PLACE SHOULD BE TAKEN OVER BY NEW WELCOMING MANGEMENT. An owner should have proper customer service ESPECIALLY in...

We came to Il Portico for a party this past weekend. Food was delicious, staff was courteous and professional. Then there is the owner, which is the reason I am only giving 2 stars. The entire restaurant was reserved for the party, so there were no outside guests. Apparently, when the number of guests that would be attending the party was called in, seating for four was set at each table to accommodate every person. As not every family had 4 to sit, there were empty seats at some tables, therefore not enough seating to accommodate every family, so some were moving tables and place settings. This is when the owner went nuts, yelling at guests that he had the settings the way they were to be, and would it be expected that he goes to someones house and rearrange the seating to please him. Personally, I would not recommend this restaurant because of the owners childish behavior and explosive demeanor...

We had dinner there on Saturday night. I called ahead and made a reservation for 5 people, arrived 10 mins early to be told by the owner that he had just given our table away. He seemed flustered. After some rearranging of tables, we were seated. We had not been there in years, and were looking forward to it. The menu was extremely limited - 2 salads, 3 appetizers and a handful of pasta and entree dishes. VERY different than prior years...and the entrees were nothing special. Chicken parmesan, lasagna, pasta bolognese...pretty much dishes one can get at any basic Italian restaurant. My lasagna was cold in the middle, and after taking it back to the kitchen, it came out a hot mess...slopped with extra sauce and clearly microwaved. 5 entrees, 3 sodas, one glass of wine & one whiskey. $175. Not going back. 3 stars because while nothing exciting, the...