Lunch at il Porto

Samantha Elizabeth
Feb 25, 2016
2 min read

il Porto is an Italian restaurant that 'serves fresh and delicious Italian food at very reasonable prices along with impeccable service' located in the Festival Shopping Center at 245 Muddy Branch Road, Gaithersburg, MD 20879. The restaurant staff are super friendly and accomodating, providing a welcome atmosphere for all. The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 11:30am to 10:00pm and Sunday from 11:30am to 9:00pm. The only exception is Christmas Day (12/25). On New Year's Day (1/1), they open at 4:00pm for dinner.

The restaurant has a private dining room that will comfortably accommodate 60 people. The room has a large flat screen TV for you to display a presentation to your group. The seating arrangement can be configured to tailor your needs.

When the weather gets nicer, patrons can utilize the outdoor patio. When you enter the restaurant, the decoration was quite simple. There are large painted murals on the wall of various scenes in Italy such as Venice and Siena/Tuscany. I liked how there was a combination of natural light, chandelier, and ceiling lights. Each table was covered with a white tablecloth with plain off-white dinnerware, glass drinkware, and floral centerpiece. The floral centerpiece consisted of a small clear vase made of glass, filled with water, and a fern to accompany a mix of white, pink, or red carnations.

The menu consists of typical Italian appetizers, salads, pasta dishes, pizzas, and entrees such as Fried Calamari, Baked Ziti, Cheese Ravioli, Meat Lasanga, Spaghetti, Linguini with Clams, Shrimp with Garlic and Butter, Chicken Parmigiana, and Chicken Marsala.

Baked Ziti

Linguini with Clams in White Wine Sauce

Chicken Parmigiana

Shortly after being seated, a gentleman asked us what we would like to drink and provided us with basket of warm bread - enough for everyone to have seconds. The bread was served with pre-packaged butter, a bottle of rosemary infused extra virgin olive oil, and freshly grated parmesan. We started our meal with Fried Artichoke Hearts, which isn't listed on the menu. The Fried Artichoke Hearts consisted of four whole artichoke hearts, battered with cornmeal, deep fried in canola/olive oil, and served with lemon. I liked they were fragrant and crispy on the outside. For my entree, I stuck with my usual / all-time favorite at il Porto which was the Chicken Doratti. Similar to Chicken Francese, the chicken is crusted with egg batter, pan-fried to perfection, served in lemon butter sauce, and garnished with freshly grated parsley. This entree was served with linguini topped with lightly spiced marinara sauce.