At Portale, chef Alfred Portale strikes a casual yet upscale vibe with seasonally inspired Italian dishes, making it a top spot in Chelsea for fresh pasta and elegant plates.
"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
"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
"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."
"Even more than chocolate pudding, I love butterscotch pudding, and the one I had just after New Year’s at Portale was among the most memorable examples of a lifetime. Firmer than most, the pudding has a buttery and salty taste, and the micro-dice of green apples as well as the crushed nuts and whipped cream put it over the top. Feeling obliged to share it around the table was the hardest part." - Robert Sietsema
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