Portale

Portale Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant & décor: For more than three decades, Alfred Portale ran the kitchen of the beloved Gotham Bar & Grill. His stylish, eponymous restaurant in Chelsea has an elegantly curved marble bar, which makes way to a sleek dining room with exposed brick, an open kitchen, and soft Italian leather chairs.

Likes: Pasta; Negronis; milk chocolate tiramisu.
Dislikes: None.

Food & Drinks: Here, Alfred Portale’s food is rooted in Italy, with a nod to New York City today and some ingredients and techniques from around the world. Sure, you’ve seen a lot of these dishes on menus around town, but they’re winners for a reason, and Portale has a way of executing them deliciously. Start with oozing burrata, which is served with candy sweet roasted beets and crunchy pistachios. The pasta is exemplary, whether you opt for ruffled campanelle in a luxuriously rich duck ragù, or chicken broth studded with tiny foie gras-stuffed tortellini. Non-pasta options include duck breast with sunchokes, roasted radicchio and honey, and a dry-aged sirloin with smashed fingerling potatoes baked in Parmigiano-Reggiano. Milk chocolate tiramisu is satisfyingly fluffy and light, and panna cotta arrives atop fresh figs. The bar specializes in Negronis, which come in four varieties, as well as an impressive selection of after-dinner amari. The wine list focuses on Italian bottles.