Portico Restaurant - Richmond

I was disappointed with my recent experience. Has the ownership changed? My first clue was the 2/3 empty parking lot when we arrived for brunch. The same inside.

The server changed just after placing our order. Of the four guests 1 plate arrived cold. The 2nd server did not check back for 15 minutes...too late to correct the cold food. The price of the spoiled food was removed from the tab, but the server was unconcerned with the spoiled meal for my aunt.

It was an indifferent experience. Quite a contrast to many previous visits. No reason to return.

Great food service and atmosphere

Love going to Portico. Never disappointed there. I will caution that in the winter when the restaurant is full it can get a bit noisy. Never have that problem when it’s warm and the doors are open.

Food was outstanding in such a beautiful and quant setting. We will be back again and again!

Great food, actual service of drinks and food good. However, they were very much in a rush to get our order and get us out of the restaurant. Closing is 10pm and at 8:45 they said we had to order before kitchen closed. When we left, it was obvious two of us were waiting for Lyft, they locked door behind us and did not offer for us to wait inside. We will visit again as we like Portico and go pretty often. Chalk it up to one of those nights for the closers.

Had to wait 40 minutes for a table when we had a reservation.

New Year’s Eve

Not sure how to interpret the boxes for noise level. Portico is noisy to the extent that it is hard to hold a conversation. While I love Portico, it is best to go when you will be comfortable eating outside due to the noise level inside.

The food and service are outstanding. Wonderful neighborhood restaurant.

Great place for a gathering with friends and/or family. A favorite of ours.

We had to wait a little while but not too bad.

I would suggest you have a very short questionaire.
About 3 questions at most.

From the drive up to the ambiance, I always feel like I am in northern Italy, where I used to live. Great place for a romantic dinner, dinner with friends, or drinks at the bar or outside when weather permits. A Richmond gem.

Hidden gem! We love it. Casual and great food and service!

Always a favorite place to dine. Food is fantastic!

Staff seemed hurried. Low ceiling makes for high volumes - husband had to remove hearing aids

The food and service has been just mediocre the several times I’ve been in the last few months.

Always a pleasure! The menu is always full of wonderful selections, too!

Great atmosphere and beautifully prepared entrees. Seasonal drink specials and delicious desserts.

Celebration- hired a new employee. Took him and his wife out to dinner.

Went with my fiancé to celebrate our engagement. The staff was very friendly and helpful with recommendations. The food was outstanding and, in my opinion, very reasonably priced. Would absolutely recommend to anyone.

Overall, I have mixed emotions about Portico. While the venue, food, company and our waitress were amazing, my family and I had a not so pleasant encounter with one male manager. I had made reservations online about a week prior to our date. Online I was able to select the “2:15” option. Knowing that Portico closes at 2:30, I called to double check that it was okay that our party of nine was coming at 2:15. The kind man on the phone said, “Absolutely, we just have to have your order in by 2:30!” I then thought, “Perfect!” My family and I then go on Saturday for my birthday at the time of our reservation, sit down, order our food, have two bites of our meal when a male manager comes over and tells us that we need to be out by 3:30 because they are now closed in preparation for dinner. I then stated that I had made the reservations online and called to double check and was told that 2:15 was perfectly fine for us to come in. He then states, “Well that was never supposed to happen so please be out by 3:30.” It was 3:00 at this point and we had just received our food, we were not just sitting and talking and killing time after our meal. In both my mine and my family’s opinion, it was an absolutely horrible way to approach a family on a special occasion who had done nothing wrong. In fact, called to make sure the reservations were still okay even if it was a time right before they closed for dinner. With having experience in the restaurant industry, if something is the restaurant’s fault, you own up to it and make note on how to fix the situation so that it does not happen again, not to make the customer feel rushed, uncomfortable and upset. Again, our waitress was amazing and you could tell that she was upset as well. I hope that this does not happen to any future customers.

Waiter was wonderful. Great food and wine. We live to eat at portico every time we are in town.

If you are in the West End of Richmond---Go to Portico. This is Richmond's Napa Valley "look a like" if you are seated outside (summer), you would think that you are in Napa Valley. The food is comfort food and wonderful.

Great food, nice atmosphere. Highly recommend the eggplant appetizer!

It’s small and very open, so it is noisy, but we still like coming here. Our second time here. Table was on time and ready. Food was good. Great service.

Delicious food, but pretty loud. Really could use some noise absorbing panels.

We went here for a birthday dinner with a small group. Food and service were good, atmosphere was nice as well. The general manager was rude and irritable when we arrived. He needs some training on etiquette and needs a refresher course in management 101. We will probably not return until there is a new manager on board. We have been here multiple times without any issues. It’s a shame this man is representing such a nice restaurant.

Brunch was fabulous, as always!

My eggplant Puttanesca dish did not arrive hot. Our waiter was snobbish and abrupt. Pricey even for its location on River Road.

Awesome food and atmosphere.

Absolutely Beautiful space, but disappointed with the lack of care small touches.
The menus were made to look like out of a roadside dinner. The food was presented well but was more than a bit dated. A very nice wine selection and nice owner. A manager yelled at my friend when she asked if they had advil.

Service was seriously lacking. There appeared to be enough servers but a very lackadaisical attitude.

Lovely ambiance; ok food; our server, Adrian was surly and rude. I guess he was not concerned as he was guaranteed at 20% tip. We won't return.

Great ambiance and I’m sure it would have been nice outside on the patio in warmer weather. $24 for baked spaghetti with chicken that was only ok was way overpriced. Waiter seemed distracted but was ok. Wife had the fish special which had a heavy cream sauce. Good but too much sauce. Will we go back? Probably when weather is nicer.

Cozy, outdoor seating had fireplaces. Romantic!

Great night. Service,management, drinks, food all spot on. Prices are reasonable. Always special.

Everything was worthy of a 4 rating UNTIL I got my credit card slip and my server had to tell me that a 20% gratuity was automatically added. The reason was because we were a party of six, and a 20%
gratuity was automatic. I found this very offensive for the following reasons. Had I been advised of this policy upon arrival along with a reasonable explanation, I would not have been offended. However, sneaking it in at the end of the meal seems underhanded. I usually tip 20% or more depending on my assessment of the server's performance (which was very good) but because you denied me that right, I chose not to add any additional tip. If you need the revenue, just raise your prices. Don't insult your customers by telling them how much to tip, and even worse at the end of the meal. By the way, I think our server was uncomfortable in having to handle it in this fashion.

One of my wife’s all time favorites. Sitting outside by the fireplace on a cool fall nite sets the perfect ambiance for a date night. Then to top it off, the meals were spectacular. We have been here many times and we have never had a bad meal. 👍🏼

As always our evening at Portico was outstanding! Our group of 13 was well taken care of. The food was delicious and we enjoyed our time together!

Love this place. If the weather is nice then sit on the patio.