Porta Bella - Madison

This Italian restaurant has been serving great food since 1968. With a long history like that, you can trust that the quality is top-notch. I highly suggest trying the 'Porta' pizza, it's a delicious combination of toppings.

We had a wonderful time at this restaurant. The ambiance was fantastic and extremely clean, which is the main factor that would bring me back here. The staff was excellent and appeared genuinely happy to be there. The food was good, which is why I gave it 4 stars. However, considering the price, I was expecting more. The standout issue was the cheesecake, which clearly had been frozen recently. The raspberry glaze was still frozen and felt like biting into an Icee when you hit it with your teeth.

My, son, and I were a bit disappointed. While the service and main dish was really good, it was the little things that made us disappointed. The menu said that the meal was supposed to come with brioche bread and olive oil dipping. In reality it didn 't come with any bread. When we asked our waitress about bread she said they needed to update the menu, but would bring us some bread and 'spiced oil '. Well the bread turned out to, what seemed to be old, dried out rolls and the spiced oil had no taste.

I absolutely love this Italian restaurant, it's one of my favorites. My go-to is the porta salad with buttermilk ranch dressing. The atmosphere is cozy and romantic with dim lighting. The service is usually excellent, although we had a new staff member last time who did a decent job.