Portofino's Ristorante: Traditional Italian Food in Four Charlotte Locations

Portofino’s Ristorante Italiano e Pizzeria has four locations in Charlotte and is a joint venture between two childhood friends from Naples, Italy, who came to the United States at a very young age. After spending years apart, the two friends came together to open their first restaurant at 3124 Eastway Drive in 1996. The success of Portofino’s Ristorante on Eastway meant more locations opened up in other Charlotte areas at 5126 Park Road, 2127 Ayrsely Town Blvd., and 591 River Highway in Mooresville.

Portofino’s Ristorante has made a name for itself by offering up a huge menu with large portions of traditional Italian food. Huge is an understatement, as Portofino’s makes 18 different types of pasta sauce combinations — such as Bologneses, clam sauce, or Arrabbiata — served on top of your choice of cappellini, linguini, fettuccini, penne, spaghetti or farfalle for $11.75 to $13.95. This pasta section is just one small portion of the menu — which has more than 100 different choices for antipasti (appetizers), dal fornaio (baked pasta dishes “from the oven”), vitello (veal), pollame (chicken), pesci & crostacei (fish and shellfish), pizza, sandwiches and desserts.

And even though there is an entire section of the menu devoted to pasta and baked pasta dishes, each of the veal, chicken and seafood entrées also come with a side of pasta. These traditional Italian meals like chicken parmigiana, chicken cacciatore, veal saltimbocca, or shrimp scampi are $14 to $19. 

Portofino’s has a lunch menu — which is basically the same as the dinner menu, but a few dollars less expensive —  served each day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

HelloCharlotte Tip: Portofino’s Ristorante has a full catering menu with 15-person plates of pasta dishes running $55 to $95 and meat and fish dishes for 15 people for $90 to $160.

Italian pizza pasta veal traditional lunch dinner