Porto Bello Ristorante

A Rhode Island institution that still has spice

by Jim Johnson

Porto Bello
156 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester
(508) 753-9865
Lunch Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Dinner Mon.-Thurs. 4:30-9:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 4:30-10:00 p.m.
Liquor license
Visa and MasterCard
Handicap not accessible

People always ask me whether I'm assigned the restaurants I review or whether I choose them myself. The answer is that, almost always, I go where I want, thanks to a wide network of tipster friends who alert me to their favorite dining experiences. A return visit to Porto Bello Ristorante was a rare exception.

According to my editor, a call came in from the restaurant complaining that my capsule review from nearly two years ago, which stated that the menu was "heavy on the red sauce," was off base. Apparently, my statement in the capsule that the marscarpone curry sauce was also a stand-out did little to offset my egregious error, and the call went on -- loudly, I am told -- for nearly 10 minutes. My editor, as much out of curiosity as anything else, suggested a return visit.

For the record, Porto Bello does indeed offer much more than red sauce. There's also light cream sauce, broccoli cream sauce, Marsala wine sauce, garlic oil herb sauce, roasted red-pepper marscarpone cheese sauce, and pesto sauce, among others offered with specials. Even the red sauces are varied, including basic (but fresh, home-style) tomato sauce and tomato sauce laced with plenty of basil.

These sauces are used in harmony with a variety of familiar Italian specialties, such as chicken parmigiana, veal Marsala, chicken and broccoli over penne, sirloin tips with roasted red peppers and broccoli over penne, scampi (with shrimp, chicken, and vegetables), and straight linguini, spaghetti, or penne with sausage, meatball, or eggplant parmigiana.

The menu also includes other Italian favorites, such as baked stuffed manicotti, baked lasagna, and ravioli. The ravioli dishes extend further to Mediterranean ravioli filled with portabella mushrooms and mozzarella and to agnollotti -- lemon basil pasta ravioli filled with goat cheese and red peppers.

Prices are reasonable -- from $6.95 for pasta with sauce to $14.95 for veal Portobello (veal served over red bliss potatoes topped with mushrooms). Most entrées come in between $8 and $13.

We'd had several visits from our server and were just about to place our order, when I noticed a blackboard with perhaps eight specials listed. Our server hadn't mentioned them, and we asked her for more details. Alas, she knew nothing beyond what was on the board. For example, not everyone prefers lobster ravioli to be stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, a fact we learned only after the second server overheard our questioning.

The second server's voice would be a constant throughout the evening. Apparently, some friends had wandered in, and my tablemate and I had no choice but to overhear loud -- and sometimes crude -- gossip for most of the evening. It's bad enough when other guests are raucous, but it's doubly bad when the waitstaff contributes to and encourages the disturbance. Given the otherwise quiet, peaceful, and somewhat intimate setting, the distractions were a shame. We could barely hear the piano music that played gently from speakers. I can only assume and hope that the evening's disruptions were atypical.

As for the food, it was wonderful. For appetizers, we enjoyed stuffed eggplant ($4.95), two thick slices stuffed with ricotta cheese, coated with a fluffy egg batter, and topped with rich tomato sauce. We also enjoyed caprese con prosciutto ($5.95), a plateful of bite-size mozzarella and prosciutto roll-ups served with firm tomatoes and sliced, meaty portobella mushrooms. Olive oil and oregano added additional flavor.

Some bread would have gone nicely with our appetizers, but our server forgot, almost insisting later that she had indeed brought some.

My dining companion (after hearing the description) ordered the lobster ravioli special ($12.95), which featured a reasonable portion of lobster pillowed with warm gorgonzola cheese inside firm ravioli. The tomato basil sauce seemed to draw out the rich flavors of both the lobster and the cheese.

I was delighted with the haddock ($13.95) wrapped in prosciutto. The delicate ham added its slight saltiness to the fish and helped keep it moist. Despite the large portion, the fish was cooked uniformly throughout and broke into firm yet tender flakes.

A cool, malty block of grapenut pudding ($3.50) and a slice of near-perfect (and traditional) tiramisu ($4) provided a sweet ending -- to both our dinner and to my tenure as restaurant reviewer for the Worcester Phoenix.

In fact, I write these words on a sunny Sunday morning in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I will soon move into (by my modest standards) my dream home. I will miss the restaurants of Central Massachusetts, something I couldn't have imagined saying five years ago when I started this gig. Of the 200 or more restaurants I reviewed, there were few I wouldn't send friends to. There were many that I'd rank among my finest dining experiences and which were certainly on a par with those I enjoyed while growing up in Providence, working in Boston, and traveling to many of the world's culinary capitals.

Thank you and happy dining. It's been great.