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Portobello
TERRIFIC Italian Restaurant at
Pleasure Island!
If you're at all like me, you LOVE
Italian food! I don't let a trip to Walt Disney World pass by
without at least one Italian meal, and Portobello is one of my favorite places to eat at Downtown Disney!
In February of 2009, Portobello emerged from
a refurb as a whole new restaurant. Once a green stucco
structure called Portobello Yacht Club, the
new restaurant is simply Portobello, and the building is
brown--a much more "Mediterranean" color, in
Aronda's opinion!
This restaurant features terrific food,
and the ambiance is so pleasant too. My favorite time to eat
here is at lunch when it first opens up. It can be a bit
hectic in the evening.
Although the restaurant is located on
Pleasure Island, the entrance faces away from the club area.
As you pass onto Pleasure Island over the bridge from the
Marketplace, you'll pass right by Portobello. Back
when admission was required to enter Pleasure Island, you
could enter Portobello before reaching the turnstiles, but now
that Disney is retooling this area, Guests are free to roam
without concern for admission turnstiles.
Here's a press release
describing the new eatery:
Portobello
restaurant, located at the Downtown Disney
Pleasure
Island
, has recently completed a transformation into an eatery
reminiscent of the Italian countryside. The revamped trattoria
will offer authentic regional fare and warm
rustic décor with a reinvigorated wine list.
According
to Executive Chef Steven Richard, the change is a natural one.
“
America
has had a love affair with Italian food for decades,”
Richards said. “What we’re seeing now is more and more
people knowing the regional nuances of the cuisine – having
more vivid notions of what
Italy
feels and tastes and smells like. More families have been
there themselves, and the ones who haven’t, want a life-like
recreation of that trip they haven’t taken.”
Those
recreations will come in the form of dishes such as the
Sambuca Shrimp and the Suppli Alla Telefono (crispy risotto
croquettes stuffed with fresh mozzarella, playfully named for
the way the mozzarella oozes out in curls, like an
old-fashioned telephone cord). Guests can also enjoy an
assorted selection of antipasti and charcuterie, along with
the restaurant’s new signature extra virgin olive oil, which
is served tableside with bread offerings and is also available
for purchase in the restaurant. The children’s menu offers
an array of delicious and nutritious offerings such as filet
mignon, fresh fish and whole wheat pizza.
The
space, inspired by Italy’s trattorias and hidden corners,
features warm tones of red, orange and yellow, with terracotta
tile and rustic irons designed to make guests feel transported
to the Italian countryside. Guests can also enjoy dining
outdoors with the new alfresco patio.
Portobello’s
new menu was developed by the culinary triumvirate comprised
of James Beard award-winning Chef Tony Mantuano, of
Chicago
’s noted Spiaggia restaurant, John Radcliff, Regional Chef
of
Levy
Restaurants, and
Steven Richard
, Executive Chef of Portobello.
Portobello
is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and accepts all
major credit cards. Portobello is owned and operated by
Levy
Restaurants.
The beautiful Portobello in
the twilight as dinnertime approaches.
The food tastes as great as the building looks!
Lunch Menu
(Updated Tuesday, March 17, 2009)
Dinner Menu (Updated
Tuesday, March 17, 2009)
Kid's Menu (Updated
Tuesday, March 17, 2009)
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