Here in London looking for a dinner spot, its late and most of the restaurants in the area are closed or about to close. Portico did us right and came through strong. When we called they said they would hold from closing if we were on our way. We all hopped in a uber quickly and they had a table ready for us when we arrived. Service was sweet and they helped us navigate the menu in search for vegetarian options. They never made is feel rushed. The food came quickly and everyone enjoyed it. I had cappellacci with spinach and mushrooms in a butter sauce. It was fantastic I tell you! The cappellacci was light and tender in a rich buttery sauce. I also tasted ravioli in a tomato cream sauce and it was great. I had some brandy in a sniffer that they warmed up for me. It was some of the best brandy I have had in a while. I loved my experience here at this family restaurant. It will always hold a special place in my heart and mind when it comes to London. read more

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Another great dinner! Fast friendly service. We didn't have a reservation ( open table required a credit card confirmation) so we just walked up and were seated right away. On a cool night sit outdoors but we sat inside today in a candlelit spot. You can tell it's a restaurant for regulars as we saw them asking for their usual spot. La Palombe a few doors down is also owned by this same owner but we haven't tried. Delicious Al dente pastas! read more

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This was listed on the Michelin star restaurant list - not for having its star, but it was highly recommended. We were looking to splurge on a really good meal, and we found one! It's in high Kensington and right on the main round. Very small, intimate place. We made a reservation weeks in advance and walked in only to be the only ones there. We slightly panicked as it was dinner time and how could it be such awesome food, yet no one was there? Our waiter was spectacular and everyone working there was from Italy or Portugal. The burrata starter was good, make sure you love olives too. The calamari took us for surprise as it wasn't fried, but freshly cooked with garlic, butter, and a little spice. Delish! We had red and white wine - both were amazing and huge pours. I had squid ink noodles with seafood and my bf had a wild venison red sauce noodle dish. EXCELLENT! The tiramisu for dessert topped off the entire meal so perfectly. Excellent meal, the friendliest of servers, and authentic experience! read more

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What an awesome meal. Highly recommended. The service was prompt and friendly. The food was fantastic. I had the sardine appetizer, the squid ink pasta with seafood and lemon sorbet for dessert. Sardines were a 4.5. The pasta and sorbet were 5/5. My fiancé had the ragú sauce pasta. Also very good. Nice wine list. Overall excellent Italian meal and the menu was varied. read more

Not a welcoming place. Very rude owner. The food is fine, but there's a lot to put up with and it's not amazingly great. Ultimately, it's not worth the trouble. read more

The host asked me where I'd like to sit and I said I would prefer inside. Then they said they were fully booked inside and they only had outside tables available. Fair, I didn't make a reservation so I was willing to take what was available to accommodate their other reservations. However in the time I was there, the dining room consistently had multiple tables available. I felt rushed by the waitress who came by for my drink order. She had a very harsh tone in all of our interactions. I told her which glass of wine I wanted. Later when I got the bill I realized she served me the wrong wine. A much more expensive wine. The waiter taking my payment did not seem to have a solution other than for me to just pay for it. From the beginning, they clearly did not care to have me as a customer. Message received. Oh and the food was just fine. Probably won't remember it. The experience clearly overshadowed it for me. read more

The food was phenomenal and the staff was terrific. We did not have a reservation (although I would recommend making one) and they snuck us in. read more

Food and the staffs are great! The waiter was very helpful with great recommendations. I highly recommend them. read more

It was so good !!! I've ordered the osso buco tortellini and tried to each one as slow as possible because the taste was amazing. The staff was wonderful very nice quick and polite. Overall one of the best places we've eaten in London this trip. read more

Great prosciutto starter with a house wine! Wait staff were very friendly, very outgoing, and knowledgeable about the menu items. Gave great suggestions to our party of three. Sorry I didn't get pictures of the seafood spaghetti, however, it looked and tasted very good. I had a very delicious creamy pasta dish that went well with the wine. Would definitely go back and try other dishes. read more

Il Portico - Italian Near Me - London, XGL

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Awesome food. Very welcoming and inclusive. Live this place and these people. Best place for food and fun. read more

As always, just delicious. Thank you for keeping up the tradition of good food and great ambience. One is lucky to have a restaurant like yours in the neighborhood. Keep up the good work! read more

A fantastic restaurant. Excellent food and wine were complmented by warm and attentive service. We were made very welcome and enjoyed the whole experience. Can't wait to go back. read more

The food was not very good, the owner is exceptionally rude, and the ambiance left nothing for me to write home about.

If you love very good food, you can't go wrong. From the outside it is easy to mistake as any regular Italian eatery. read more

The tagliatelle and bolognese is really tasty. The noodles are made from scratch. I liked the bolognese but cant say I loved it (hence the four not five stars). It needed a little more flavor for me - a little heat, cream, just felt slightly off. I tried the meat and cheese board to start and finished with chocolate cake dessert and port wine. All fantastic. My husband and I were celebrating our anniversary and enjoyed our experience here. read more

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Cozy and intimate ambiance with a nice selection of delicious food! Our server Vinnie was very helpful and efficient.

Small, and sort of noisy when it gets crowded (which being a fine place, it fills up quickly). We were able to get a table, but most had reservations. Service and food was incredible. Flavored perfectly and nothing overbearing. Reasonably priced and an extensive wine list. An excellent way to spend an evening but for safety I'd recommend calling ahead! read more

Phen.Om.En.Al. Really great Italian, great staff, food arrived as it was cooked and tasted delicious. read more

Brilliant service and absolutely wonderful food! Not only was the food delicious, we had a delightful experience with staff and the atmosphere is wonderful. We will be returning! read more

That feeling when you find a neat little place in a completely new and unknown environment but that still makes you feel comfortable and almost like home, ain't that great? That's just how I felt when we were having dinner at il portico the other night. The staff was super friendly and very attentive, coming up with great recommendations esp. on the wine. The menu is not huge in this place which I always interpret as confidence. The confidence that the chef believes in their handful of starters, primi and secondi. I have tasted the strozapretti and the tiramisu, both of which were incredibly tasty! I will definitely come back to this place the next time I will be in town again. read more

Great food and service -- been here 4 times over my last 9 days here in UK - Fantastic service, good portions , delicious food! Had the veal , calamari, salad , lamb steak , spinach , French beans; all very tasty Staff was exceptional at service , and accommodations read more

This unseasonably warm night started off in a hotel bar right off of Hyde Park. I like the Kensington High street area, but aside from business dinners in hotel restaurants have never really had the opportunity to explore this area. We had quite the mix of characters this evening. An ex-pat American from Cleveland, an ex-pat Brussels based Italian, and me. Having saturated ourselves in imported beer and wine in the hotel lobby bar meet up spot, we decided to hit the high street for something to eat. I never really got the full story of how he knew the place (or if he even did), but our Italian friend walked us full-on into Il Portico. The place was packed on a random Wednesday night, but a couple of words exchanged between our new found friend and the host landed us in a corner booth in the back with comped glasses of Prosecco in our hands. Being that I'd been in London already for a couple of days, and obligated to attend work functions outside, and inside of the city for the past few nights made this especially comforting. Just drinking and dinner relaxing with some old and new friends. I'd been longing for a down-home, Italian comfort food meal since I landed, and this place fit the bill. I started off with the caprese salad of caprese salads. This not only had the requisite tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil, and balsamic. But also a healthy heap of prosciutto. When the spaghetti and clams arrived, although a staple and most pedestrian of Italian cusines, it immediately bought me a feeling of familiarity and content. The group devoured this as our chosen pasta plates arrived. My veal ravioli were delicious, delectable, and cooked to perfection. And then for the main course, the veal saltimbocca was amazing. For a city known to be expensive, Il Portico was definitely a value. I'm not saying it's cheap, but for the value of the cosine, I'd definitely open my wallet again. As I'm in this area fairly often, I'll be sure to make a return to Il Portico shortly. read more

Sometimes I fall in love with places first time round, others talk me a little longer. For Il Portico, it was second time lucky. Almost a year since I last went in, we went back last night for what was one of the nicest, most authentic - and most delicious Italian meals of my life. Nestled at the end of High St Ken, Il Portico is small but perfectly formed. It's warm, inviting, and all of the staff are superbly polite and trained to perfection. Following the HUGE tasty olives and fresh-baked ciabatta we were given upon arrival, I had a king prawn starter for the second time. I can't recommend it enough. With garlic, herbs, lemon and a hint of chili, the sauce will have you asking for more bread and the seafood itself is top notch. Great portion size and something I'll have again in a heartbeat. Then I had the handmade pumpkin and ricotta tortellini, which were JUST as I hoped. Light, creamy and utterly divine. My other half had a lovely starter of what looked like a slice of a giant cannelloni, with meat ragu and bechamel sauce filling. It had all the flavours of lasagna, just in a different format. Taaaaaasty. Then he has steak with wild mushroom sauce (which the owner later told us were handpicked), which was also very, very good. We has beautiful wine to match and left happy, with the bill coming in at a very reasonable £82. I would have had a dessert but just wasn't that inspired by what was on offer, next time I hope there will be something to whet my appetite. read more

I'm always searching for the comforting Italian that I know from Chicago. While I realize the UK doesn't have the same Italian immigration history as the US, I am still a little disappointed in the lack of basic Italian cuisine in London. And what I'm searching for is probably more of a hybrid Italian-American cuisine than anything--but that's beside the point, because I'm an American, and I want things how I want them (this is me trying to be a self-deprecating Yank). Well, this past weekend I was introduced to a little Sicilian place in Kensington, that is very close to the mob-fronted, Italian-American places I know and love in Chicago. While it was a little warm inside, we stayed cool with a crisp bottle of trebbiano, grilled sardines, and beautiful prosciutto and mozzarella di bufala. For mains it was pasta, although I have it on good authority that the osso bucco is also quite good. The gnocchi was nicely chewy and drowning in heart-stopping amounts of cheese, while the linguine in squid ink was just as amazing. Lots of beautifully sautéed little fishes accompanied it. It was heavenly, and I can't wait to go back. Although next time I'll make a reservation ahead of time. We did have a little trouble getting in just after prime-dinner hour, but it gave us an excuse to check out the quirks of the neighbourhood. All in all, a very successful night! read more

I generally refuse to eat Italian food (except pizza) because I am a traditionalist and always disappointed by restaurants claiming to be authentic. Il Portico, however, is an absolute exception. The staff are fantastic - everyone is smiling, everyone is personable, everyone wants to crack a joke, everyone is enjoying themselves that it just rubs off on you - and yet they do this all without compromising on efficient and attentive service. The Asparagi alla Parmigiana -Grilled asparagus with Parmigiano Reggiano gratin - were nice and crunchy with a thin layer of melted cheese on top. Simple yet tasty. The Prosciutto and Mozzarella plate was simple, but you could tell the prosciutto had been freshly sliced just then as it was light pink in colour with no dried edges. The Fusilli Ortolana - Fusilli with sundried tomatos,artichokes, and spring vegetable - was fresh, cooked perfectly al dente with just the right amount of vegetables and not overdone with sauce. The Gnocchi alla Sorrentina - homemade (yes! finally real ones!) gnocchi with tomato sugo, melted mozzarella and basil, baked in the oven - were divine. PERFECT gnocchi - not gummy, not too soft, not a factory-made shape. Beautiful in a simple tomato sauce laced with mozzarella cheese that didn't come out in globs. I will most definitely be returning. read more

There is something extremely comfortable and homely about Il Portico, like stepping into someone else's living room that looks just like a restaurant. The owners are Italian so the food is Italian which makes a lot of sense to me. I think I'd have been pretty shocked if the food was like, something weird, like Brazilian, but then I went through my mental database of Italian diaspora statistics and sure enough, like every one in Brazil is Italian so not that crazy. Very nice people run it, and the food is excellent, fresh and simple. Really a great neighbourhood spot. read more

I came here with no idea where to go to eat. Used Yelp to find the highest rated restaurant near me and hiked the 1.5 miles not knowing what to expect. The experience was well worth it. Excellent service, presentation, and amazing food. read more

What an amazing find! My husband and I were visiting and craving some good Italian food, we really found a gem here. The place was packed when we arrived, so we were glad we made a reservation. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we made a reservation to come back the next night, Atmosphere- This is a cute neighborhood restaurant, nicely decorated with white tablecloths & outdoor seating. Staff- Very friendly! They all worked together as a team each one checking on us at different points in time refilling wine, water and such. Food- Delicious and home made with strong delicious flavors. We started with the Sardines and they were perfectly cooked, salty and crisp at the same time. I had Pasta both nights, and each time the sauce was flavored well and perfectly cooked. My husband had the free range chicken, it was so good he ordered it two nights in a row. It was crisped on the outside and perfectly juicy on the inside. The only downside was when people started to smoke in the outside seating & the window is open smoke would blow in a little bit (we were seated near the window both nights). We closed the window and it was better. read more

I rate different areas of our expierence at the Il Portico to give you an idea why this place gets 5 stars from me. Service: I cant imagine a more lovely service. We arrived 30 minutes too early for our reservation. The main man ( I dont know if he is the owner) took my plus one and me to there other Restaurant 50 meters down the street to get a drink while we wait for our seats to be free. The barkeeper at this place than gave the Il Portico a call after 30 minutes to confirm our table is free now and we went back then. This is such a good service! Not to mention the huge efforts to make us feel very welcome Food: The quality of the food, also in comparison to its price, is unbelievable. As starters we had the plate of different kinds of meat and a plate with different kinds of cheese. Our mains were a Risotto which was stunning and probably the best Pasta Bolognese I ever had! Place: The place is small and cozy. As someone mentioned before its like arriving at your own home place and having a dinner. If you fancy italian food you must have been at this place! read more

Excellent food and top notch service. We had spaghetti and veal as well as a selection of their mature cheeses - all of which were unbelievably delicious. Automatically one of my favourite Italian places in London. read more

We arrived 3 people for at late reservation on a Wednesday night - it might have been the hottest night ever in London, which unfortunately resulted in a chaotic experience. We were greated by an elderly gentleman, who seemed to be way more busy taking orders from other tables. When he finally took our order, he was in such a hurry resulting in him forgetting to notify the kitchen of our order. This meant we had to wait a solid 40 minutes for him to realize this mistake, and then finally the process of cooking our food started. For drinks, we had water (loads!) and beer - unfortunately the fridges could not cope with the heat, and hence the beer was warm. The owner (I pressume) was kind enough to explain the situation to us, and brought us an ice-bucket to chill the beers - amazing solution! I shared the asparagus and parmesan starter with one of my companions - it was simple and great! For main course, I had the Tagliatelle Bolognese. It was a solid, simple italian, house cooked meal, but nothing more. I suppose we caught the staff on an off night - but the place is great value for money. Oh, and the bread is amazing, make sure to order loads! read more

I may fly back to London just to eat here again! Amazing! My wife and kids came a little early. Great food, charming and kind service, one of the best meals I've had in London! read more

I am not sure I can say anything that hasn't already been said. Quite literally the best italian food and restaurant I have been to, including the ones in Italy! read more

Saturday night dinner with another couple - the service was attentive and family styled. The food was good but moderately expensive. I had the shrimp to start and it was quite good. For main course I had the lamb steak which was on special. Both dishes seemed quite good but a friend of ours had the risotto which was just a touch underdone. I also had the affogato for desert and shared a bottle of wine between the four of us. Came out to about 40 pounds per person. Not bad for a night out including 3 course meal and wine! read more

Odd experience last night at Il Portico. Greeted by the staff when we arrived. Seated immediately. A couple of minutes later the woman at the front informed us that we would need to give up our table at 8pm. Since it was only 6:15p we were not bothered by this request but found it odd to be told that after being seated. Our waiter was attentive and friendly and the food was delicious! But our attention was often turned to the woman at the front who was visibly stressed about the pending reservation at 8pm. Not sure who she was expecting but every patron who entered after us was told the same thing about giving up their table. I'm sure this was just a fluke occurance so we would still return for another delicious meal. read more

My favorite meal in London! This is an amazing Italian restaurant, great service, fresh food!

Amazing one, the staff there are kind and helpful Can't wait to visit it again, don't forget to book your table first. You have to try prawns dish as a starter! The place is lovely. read more

Wow. What a meal! My family had the best time / meal at Il Portico. The staff was so friendly and the meal was delicious! We were able to secure a table outside at 7:00pm on a beautiful July night. We had burata to start, spaghetti with clams, risotto with snap peas, asparagus and butternut squash, Parpadelle with pork belly and veal Milanese. All of it was outstanding! Would highly recommend this play for a great meal and wonderful atmosphere. read more

Great restaurant with lovely staff and delicious food. This small restaurant is very cozy and seems to be constantly packed with people. The servers are very attentive and welcoming and the food comes quickly. I especially liked their gorgonzola gnocchi dish, it was very rich but very tasty! read more