Porto Bello — Restaurant in Town of Southold

We arrived at 8:15pm, 15 minutes earlier than our scheduled reservation. We waited around 10 minutes before being seated outside. They had to set up an already empty table in a rather dimly-lit seating area and open our table's umbrella in front of us. We just stood there and waited for them to finish after they already walked us over, so I'm not sure why they didn't already have a few tables set up in the first place. That's just a nitpick though. The real issues came up during and after our waiting times. Our food didn't come out until 9:55pm, an hour and 40 minutes from when we arrived. To say the service we received was slow is an understatement, since another outdoor-seated group who had arrived after us not only received their entrees first, but were already most of the way through their meals by the time we got ours. Now right after we had initially ordered, the waitress informed one of us about how they had run out of one of the entrees we requested, which is fine that they let us know right away. I mention this because two of us had ordered the leg of lamb & mashed potatoes, but instead the mashed potatoes somehow had been replaced by very bland rice, and without our prior knowledge. It's ridiculous that after more than an hour of waiting, they simply served the dishes without even bothering to tell us they were out of potatoes, especially after they had warned us on a similar issue. The lamb was okay but slightly charred on the exterior, despite how I had ordered it done as medium. We realized the case with the lamb dishes right after they walked away, and had to go find the waitress to let her know about the surprise sub-par rice replacement. The waitress had mentioned that she had not been informed by the kitchen of a shortage of something we had ordered well over an hour prior. She tried to offer us a free side, stating "either it will be on the house or I will pay for it." I didn't care to wait for another side dish after it was already 10pm, plus I didn't want her to pay for it out of her own pocket. It seemed that the problem wasn't solely with the waiting staff, but with the kitchen itself. It simply feels as if it's too slow, and apparently they don't communicate with their serving staff properly, if what the waitress said was accurate.

Aside from these events, the servers were nice, the interior of the restaurant looks well-presented, the bathrooms are clean, and they even have blankets for when it gets too chilly outside. However if you care about wait time, or the quality of food for what you pay, or even a consistency in your food from what you order, then I would not recommend...

Even with a reservation we waited over 90 minutes to be seated... outside. We had a table overlooking the marina, it was a beautiful view. The ambiance was quaint and nautical so we were content. The server was friendly but we waited a very long time in-between courses. He kept apologizing to us, saying they were understaffed. We didn't mind, we sipped our cocktails, chatted and enjoyed the view. Until 2 hours had gone by, the sun was no longer out and we were extremely cold, sitting on the water after dark, still waiting on our food. The restaurant does not have heaters on its patio. That would have been helpful and cozy. The food finally came but most of it was barely warm. We didn't say anything because at that point we were beyond hungry. Plus, we just wanted to eat and get out of there to a warmer place.

Food: The meatball appetizer and wedge salad were both delish! The filet mignon with chimichurri was amazing too. Top quality aged beef. The mashed potatoes that all dinners automatically come with were so-so, pretty bland. Salt and pepper fixed that. The onions on the side should have been sauteed or crispy, not soggy like they were. The giant pork chop was very good all around. (you have to like rosemary and other strong herbs seasoning to agree though) The asparagus was boring and plain. They made my son chicken tenders and french fries, both were yummy!

Pros: The place is in a beautiful location, has live music, the outdoor patio seating is spacious, the staff is genuinely friendly, and most of the food tastes very good. 🍴

Cons: Long wait times for seating and service from beginning to end. We were there for over 3 1/2 hours. It's quite expensive. The food presentation is underwhelming and needs some wow factor added to them for what the prices are. $$$

Overall, we do like this place. We were there on Mother's Day so it was quite busy. We will go back there and give it another try... when the weather is much...

Called ahead for a party of 19 people. Most of the party arrived right away and about 8 people were lost and got there about 15 minutes later. We were seated outside which was very nice then proceeded to order drinks and a few appitizers then entrees. The apps arrived within a reasonable amount of time but the entrees took over an hour to get to the tables. When they did arrive most of them were ice cold. My 83 year old father just had said to wrap his because it was freezing cold and he couldn't be bothered to wait for them to reheat the steak after such a long wait. One fillet mignon was ordered medium and arrived at the table raw. It was sent back only to come back to the table still too rare to eat. One member of the party had shrimp that tasted frozen. The lobster was bland and had no seasoning. When we spoke to the manager she said the food was cold because we staggered in after calling ahead. She actually blamed us for the poor quality of the food. She also asked us where we were from ( I guess in case we didn't know what quality dining should be like.) We are all from the island. She agreed to take 15% off the bill which didn't begin to compensate for what happened. They took the cold rare fillet back after we complained the second time and said they would make it right but never removed it from the check and just Incorporated the difference into the 15%. This was a $50 meal.

The party spent over a $1000.00 between drinks and food and for that amount of money everything the customer care, the food and Management attitude should have been much better. Needless to say we will...