Portal Restaurant and Bar
our comments
Portal’s rather deceptive entrance gives you the impression that you’ve stepped into a well-established private club. Walk though the bar and the restaurant opens out before you, spacious and uncluttered with a mix of styles. A modern space extends from the original building and beyond that a huge conservatory style structure makes up the main dining area.
We were encouraged to have a glass of chilled fine white port as an aperitif, a great way to start the meal.. On to starters, the full-flavoured roasted sardine, served between potato bread toast with a warm tomato escabeche (like a salsa) was very pleasant, supported by a good quantity of lambs lettuce, with a drizzle of squid ink and olive oil which brought the dish together nicely. The asparagus with warm goats cheese was presented impressively, it was essentially a ‘sandwich’ toasted on a griddle, making the cheese soft and creamy, bringing out its flavour, which worked remarkably well with the al dente spears of asparagus. This was a simple, but lovely starter.
For our next course, the braised bisaro, a hunk of pork marinated for many hours in red wine before cooking, was very tender. Supported by a bean mash containing finely diced chorizo, the two flavours lifted by the Madeira sauce drizzled on the plate, combined to give a full flavoured dish. The pan-fried tornedo steak was tender and perfectly cooked, medium rare as ordered: the saltiness of the presunto (a cured ham) and the creaminess of the molten serra cheese supported the steak beautifully, as did the julienne vegetables held together by leek rings and the fig sauce. Each of these substantial and excellent mains.
It was difficult to choose dessert, although the dark chocolate cake with a molten white chocolate centre was a must: served with a scoop of orange sorbet, it didn’t disappoint. The raspberry ice cream with licorbeirao sabayon was divine, the ice cream incredibly full favoured, a lovely dessert.
Service at Portal was efficient and attentive, with a flurry of showmanship at times. They have an extensive wine list with a good range by the glass, the house white is light, fruity and slightly acidic, the red, nicely soft, both at £20 per bottle. A popular restaurant, Portal is well worth a visit.
akandpa - August 2007
your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne
Dissapointing overall. The restuarant appears to striving for mediocrity and will probably never achieve it. There was a table of 20 of us and we were given a choice of only 2 dishes for starter and main course which given their apparent reputation was extremely limiting. Considering there was hardly anyone else in the restaurant the service was slow. The starter looked like it had been sat around for a week and was dried to the plate. The main course of monkish and spinach was good. The guinea fowl could easily have been battery farmed chicken and the cabbage it came with was almost inedible from garlic overload (and I'm a garlic lover). They ran out of deserts (although for those lucky enough to get the portuguese custard tart it was excellent) and to add insult to injury they tried to charge us for an extra 14 places with no apology when we realised what they had done.
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Harry, Herne Hill
Overall rating 
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Sunday, November 25, 2007
I went to this place with a couple of friends yesterday evening. We ate tapas in the bar. It's a lovely place and I'd definitely return.
The bar is relaxed and convivial. Nice, low profile, unselfconcious buzz. The staff were very pleasant and friendly - and efficient enough (the rude sloppiness experienced by other reviewers was nowhere to be seen). The wine list is interesting and very reasonably priced, encouraging adventure and over-indulgence. The food was good - fresh, simple and nicely done, and fairly priced.
I'll definitely be going back. It's nice to stumble on a place that I reckon I will become a regualr at.
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Kev - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, October 12, 2007
The restaurant has a nice decor. The food and service are in general disappointing. The waiters and waitresses were friendly, but the service was very slow, even though the place was not very busy.
The cocktails were awful. The mojito had no sugar or crushed lime/ice. The gin and tonic was made with gin and water.
The appertizers were fine. My veal cappracio with foi gra was fresh and tasty. But the main courses were terrible. My fish was dry but edible (not something I'd like to get for £18-20), but my friends' dishes were so rubbery that they only took a couple of bites, and they took more than one bite only because they were hungry after waiting for a long time.
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Overall rating 
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Sunday, October 07, 2007
lovely design. there was a group at the next table desperately trying to get their dirty plates taken off their table for about 20 minutes. this meant that we decided to skip starters to avoid what was looking like a brewing service saga. the main courses were nice. £19 a main course nice? not sure. the sea bass and clam risotto was nice enough and the monkfish and scallops were fine. not knock out stuff but knock out prices i felt. the presentation was quite fussy for me but others would like it i'm sure.
rightly or wrongly i'd had in my mind a portuguese Moro. i don't think it's got that confidence or focus or pricing but maybe we just got it a bit wrong in the order and got put off by the fear of slow service.
however, if i was going to have poor service, i'd rather be sitting in there than anywhere else!
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Family Jules
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
My Daughter's wedding reception was held at Portal last weekend. From the moment we entered the bar area to the minute we left nearly 12 hours later we had the most attentive, friendly and professional service. Antonio ensured that we had the warmest welcome and was on hand at all times, ensuring everything went smoothly. The atmosphere was great, the food and wines were excellent, and we were able to relax and celebrate the occasion without the slightest hitch. All the staff did everything possible to ensure our enjoyment of the day. We thank you all.
Some of your reviewers must have visited another portal!!
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Doug Kelman
Overall rating 
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Monday, July 02, 2007
My friends and I, a group of six, had a marvellous evening at Portal last night. We had a great table in the area at the back (atrium? conservatory?), with plenty of space, excellent service, and superb food. The desserts and cheese were particularly good, and it was nice to be able to select from a wide range of portuguese wines for a change. Although we all had three courses plus coffee and LOTS of wine to drink, the bill came to just about £60/head, which we thought was great value considering.
Astonishing after that to read the review below left in December - were they reviewing the wrong restaurant by mistake?
Tim.
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Tim Barrett
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Delicious food and fantastic service in a great setting. Highly recommended - will definitely be returning.
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AJ
Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Monday, March 19, 2007
Went last night for the first time in ages and was a little worried given all the service comments but it was great. Great food and wine (recommend the Monk fish for 2) with very friendly, attentive service.
Was a big birthday group using the great looking private room who also looked like they were having great fun. Definitely an idea to bear in mind for future birthdays/celebtrations.
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Neil - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Sunday, February 18, 2007
I had dinner last night and found the service to be most attentive. We were both greated warmly by the manager and then shown to our tables straight away. It was a very busy night in there but that didn't seem to affect the service in any way. Our waiter recommended some dishes and they were all excellent, especially my pudding the raspberry gratin. I had finished this before my boyfriend had even decided which of the huge selection of cheeses he was going to have! The conservatory is such a beautiful setting and the decor makes it feel very intimate yet still has an edge to it. Most enjoyable evening and will definitely be back
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, February 16, 2007
My friend and I tried Portal last night. The food was delicious, the wine list superb and the atmosphere excellent - the converted conservatory at the rear is just stunning. However, the service was just appalling - we had a reservation for 7:45 and ended up getting our menus at 9:30, despite repeated requests. I'm hoping this was a one-off as there were many largish groups dining last night?
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Bethan
Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Friday, January 12, 2007
