Portale

Best Restaurants in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York | Eater NY

"This restaurant, named for its chef Alfred Portale, offers a menu of Italian classic dishes in a fine dining vein, with the conventional three courses plus pizzas and desserts. The antipasti are particularly fine, including a perfect seafood salad of lobster, scallops, octopus, shrimp, and avocado. The menu also lists a handful of pasta and secondi, and the one labeled “maiale” (Italian for “pig”) combines hunks of pork with polenta and a zingy mostarda." - Robert Sietsema

SevenRooms Is the Stealth Competitor to Resy That Tracks Your Restaurant Spending in Real Time | Eater NY

"Trying to book a Friday 7 p.m. reservation at Portale, I found that while OpenTable showed no available slots between 5:30 and 9 p.m., booking directly on the restaurant’s website (controlled by SevenRooms) offered same-day options between about 6:45 and 9 p.m. and allowed me to choose my seating area, illustrating how the platform can surface different inventory and seating choices that third-party platforms might not show." - Melissa McCart

Where to Eat on Christmas in New York City

"A four course prix fixe for $140 per person is on offer for Christmas Eve at Alfred Portale’s namesake restaurant. Choices include a roasted pear and bacon salad with gorgonzola; seared scallops; a seafood bucatini; chicken with polenta, mushrooms, and black truffle; and rack of lamb." - Eater Staff

Portale

"Trailblazing Chef Alfred Portale, who spent 35 years gathering a passionate following at the critically-acclaimed Gotham Bar and Grill, strikes out on his own with this innovative Italian restaurant. Set in Chelsea, this is casual fine-dining at its peak, with a generous space that is minimally dressed, elegant and deeply intimate.The well-curated Italian menu is decidedly not bound by tradition; and the show-stopping house-made pastas—like cavatelli laced with a pitch-perfect arrabiata over a base of cilantro pesto—showcase Portale’s innovative style. Excellent duck, pork, roasted chicken and dry-aged steaks round out the entrée options, as do ethereal seafood plates like exquisitely cripsed cod bobbing in a lobster broth-based seafood stew." - Michelin Inspector

"I’m going to Portale for dinner tonight with my friend Jonathan, who is something of a regular there from pre-COVID times. I order the cappellacci with peas and pancetta, which is just terrific. We split an order of the herb-crusted cod, then I have the chicken with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and cauliflower, and olive-oil cake with cherry compote for dessert. It’s all so good and professional and pleasing; without a doubt the daintiest, fanciest thing I have eaten in over a year of cooking almost every meal for myself."

Grub Street Diet: Laurie Woolever