Port Land Grille — Restaurant in Wilmington

This restaurant has a very nice outdoor area. We got there when it was light out and finished up when it was dark & all the decorative lights were on. It was a really nice atmosphere. 5 stars there. The food was a mixed bag. If I was scoring just on the steak and salads it would be 5 stars. We got the "STEAK KNIFE SOUTHERN WEDGE SALAD” and the "FARMER'S MARKET" SALAD. Both were delicious. For our entrees we got the USDA PRIME ANGUS BEEF RIB EYE STEAK 16 0z with the buttermilk-chive mashed potatoes, drunken mushrooms with sautéed spinach, pink peppercorn-horseradish crème option and the Pan-seared NC GROUPER with the ~ shrimp & crawfish succotash, Southern style stone-ground grits, pimento cheese butter option. The steak was an outstanding cut of meat, seasoned and cooked perfect. The mashed potatoes were lackluster. Seems like they needed more butter, salt and cream. The mushrooms and spinach were delicious. As for the grouper, the piece of fish came out not all in one piece. There was a large part on the edge of the bowl and over cooked.(see my pics) It was seasoned well but kinda disappointing. The grits were clumpy/dry. The succotash had one shrimp and I did not see any crawfish. I could have done without the grits and succotash. Just not executed very well. As for the service our waitress was extremely nice but the service was not very good. We ordered an unsweet tea and an old fashion mixed drink. The old fashion took a while to come out. The tea came out sweet the first go around. During the meal I ended up with no tea and waited for a refill a couple times. The wait for our entrees after the salads was way to long. From the time we sat down, ordered, had our salads and then received our entrees one hour 15min had gone by. We sat at 6:30. We finished our meal with no dessert at 8:10pm. Everything just seemed very slow. We enjoyed the atmosphere so it was not a big deal but not ideal. I would go back and try it again but probably make...

High quality food prepared well and with an excellent dining experience. Port Land Grille offers a good variety of entrees both from land and sea. I had sea bass that was cooked perfectly—crispy outer crust and tender, not quite flaky, inside—served over a Louisiana-style mix of shrimp, andouille sausage, beans and vegetables. I was worried that preparation might overpower the fish but our server assured me it paired well, and he was right. My wife had chicken which she declared the best she’d ever eaten. As a side note, she had originally ordered the salmon but the chef determined that the day’s fresh salmon was not up to his standards so he was pulling it from the menu. I took this as a good sign.

Most of their fish and meat entrees are offered with a separate list of potential pairings, so you can largely customize your meal to find a set of sides that suits the main most to your taste. Our server offered good advice and also steered us to good pre-dinner cocktails and chose a good wine for me to complement the sea bass. I am always happy when a server knows their menu from experience and can guide me to what is best.

The restaurant is located in Lumina Station so it’s a pleasant little shopping and dining spot. They have a small outdoor seating area to go with a large dining room (divided up so it doesn’t feel cavernous) and separate bar. Reservations are probably required, though we were able to book a table online just an hour or two ahead on a Saturday afternoon. Prices are extremely reasonable for the quality food and professional service;their entrees mostly run between $25-$35. Our server heard us mention that my wife and I were out on a “date” so he took care to slow the meal pacing down a bit and encouraged us to relax and enjoy ourselves, which we...

Unfortunately, we had a less than underwhelming experience at Portland Grille last night 4/11/19. Food was changed/substituted with our dishes involuntarily, the food we did receive was obviously left to sit under heat lamps (resulting in steak going from medium all the way to well done), and simple things like roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes were unseasoned and dry. The absolute worse though was the condescending and unprofessional response email I received from the owner, Anne Steketee, after I emailed her about the experience: She combated nearly every complaint, blamed it on the server, or in the case of leftovers being thrown disgustingly into a box too small, insinuated that we unreasonably asked a server to pack up “a single meatball and half a lobster roll.” ( For the record we asked for the entire appetizer to be packed up, including multiple meatballs and peanut noodles, and we specifically asked them NOT to pack up the leftover bits of lobster roll and torn lettuce from our child). A year ago the food and service was great, and something clearly has changed. We were cautioned by friends that have been there recently that it was not good, and we gave them the benefit of the doubt based on our experience there last year. Never again. Mediocre food and service can improve, but careless and patronizing management is something that can’t be helped. Side note: the owner does not appreciate being compared to a local Applebee’s, but at least at Applebee’s, if the food and service is subpar you didn’t just...