Laporta’s Restaurant

Every time my husband and I are in town, we dine at LaPortas. We love this place with live jazz or piano and such wonderful food. The calamari is so delicious and every entrée we have had has been quite yummy. And don’t forget the lava cake. NICE! Great for happy hour, date night, lunch. The wait staff is always well trained and attentive and the ambiance is romantic but not pretentious. We love this place!

Last night, my family and I went to LaPorta’s for the first time and it was one of the best experiences ever! It started with the location, which was easy to find with nearby/​free garage parking. As soon as I walked in, I was pleasantly greeted by a host and hostess would made recommendations for seating since it was our first time. Even after being seated, they checked on me while I was waiting on the rest of my party. Our waiter Luke was attentive and engaging the entire evening. It was a great mix of making sure we were fine, but no over doing it. One of the reasons we selected this place was because of the live music. It was amazing! Sharon and the band were a nice blend of sultry jazz that wasn’t too loud, but beautiful enough that the soft tones kept you connected. And the best part — the food! Fresh seafood, well prepared. I had the onion tart (that I could have eaten two of) and the mahi mahi special! This was a great meal at a place we’ll definitely go back to. Highly recommended for a date night!

I ate here because it was close and convenient to my hotel. I ordered an Italian sausage sub with peppers. It was ready for pick up quickly. I ordered a Diet Coke also. The fountain Diet Coke was $ 2.99. That’s seems like a lot. The ‘sub’ was between 5″-6″ long. Probably closer to 5″. Bottom line is that the sandwich was small. The bread was good but the sausage wasn’t good at all. The sausage was flavorless. It was also completely sliced on a bias in 2″-3″ strips and overcooked. The slicing and cooking process, in my opinion, rob the sausage of any flavor and completely dries it out. I don’t know when it was cooked but it certainly wasn’t today and I’d be surprised to hear if it was cooked yesterday. It wasn’t a good sandwich. If I owned a restaurant I’d be embarrassed to serve that.

Traveled all day from west coast without more than pretzels and water. I was starved and was ready to eat anything. Walking distance from hotel and when I got there I had two options, eat in dining room with music or go to lounge and eat. The lounge was my selection and I was not disappointed. I ordered the special, breaded sword fish over mashed potatoes and roasted zucchini. It was unbelievably tasty and perfectly cooked. Of course I had to continue to test the waters and have dessert. It was just as delightful as the dinner. High recommendations for great food and fine service.

This is a good restaurant with great food and ambience. We mainly went there for their live jazz, but the band started later than planned, and then took a «short break» which seemed awfully long! We left before they came back on.

My date & I ate here for the first time on NYE. $ 69.99 per person. That was their special NYE menu. EXCELLENT MEAL! I had fried oysters, almond crusted salmon & carrot cake. Everything was delicious! The venue is a little cramped and a lot of the other diners were senior citizens but I enjoyed my evening!

My family came here because we were so attracted by their deal on Monday and Tuesday. The deal is 2 entrees from a selection and a bottle of house wine for around ~$ 25. In our case, it was lucky duck Chardonnay. For my entrée I had the Toscano chicken and my family had the daily catch. Overall, it was a delicious meal and for a reasonable price. The portions were not huge but I was happy in the end.
The restaurant has two sides with one near the bar and another with daily live music. We sat on the side with live music and it presents itself with a romantic vibe. Nice for dates and similar occasions. The waitress was friendly and answered any questions we had about wine selections and how the deals worked. Especially with the deal, I’d highly recommend this place. I’ll come again for sure. I want to give this place more a 4.5 but I guess I can round up for this place.

The food and atmosphere was excellent. The crab dip and chicken Evoltine were delicious. The apple cobbler with cinnamon ice cream were heavenly all with a jazz ensemble playing smooth jazzy tunes. I highly recommend this resturant!!!

While service was wonderful, we will not be back. For starters, husband had the lobster bisque while I had the berry salad. Both were lacking. Husband felt like the bisque was simply squash soup with lobster juice thrown in. My salad was okay but the greens were wilted and overall wasn’t a pleasant dish. For our main course, I had the salmon while husband had the pork tenderloin. My salmon tasted like it had been microwaved. Fish is hard to cook appropriately… I get it. However, if I’m paying for it… I want it cooked accurately and don’t want something that taste like tuna fish straight out of the can. The «chef’s Potato» was tasteless. Husband’s pork tenderloin was «okay.» For $ 105 (including tip)…well, we won’t be back.

I am a lobster bisque lover. And sadly it was more like a seafood flavored tomato soup. No meat in the bisque. But their scallop cheese bowl was amazing. The little blonde waitress (forgot her name) was an outstanding server. The music was awesome but didn’t play a lot. Pretty steep prices but a special occasion I would recommend this place.

My husband and I ate here for our anniversary. We specifically came here for the lobster bisque (we both love it) and the live music. The staff was friendly and it was super easy to get reservations. I had the lobster bisque for a starter and wasn’t impressed. It was just okay. The bread was good. My husband enjoyed the beer selection. I ate the mushroom pasta and my husband had the special which was scallops in a cheese bowl (with noodles). Mine was okay. The mushrooms were good. My husband loved his scallops. I also ordered the pumpkin cake YUM!!!
Now the live music was really good but played in short spurts. We left while the band was on break and had only played for about 20 minutes.
The cost was expensive too. I would try this place again but it’s not on my hot list for Alexandria!!!

Awesome food and service EVERY time! I’m in their email club and receive a free birthday meal and invites to special events. LOVE the happy hour specials. I recommend the chicken sandwish, burger and nachos (not in one sitting). There’s also a great Mon and Tues special on 2 dinners and a bottle of wine.

I work near LaPortas and often schedule many client meetings here. The service is always great. They also have a great happy hour from 5−7pm. My favorite entrée is the wild mushroom pasta. Simply delicious!

Sad about beer selection. No yuengling on tap or bottle.
Wings are decently good. Could be Spicer. Still sad about beer selection on tap.
Bartender blan. No conversation
Spaghetti was excellent. Very very good. Would order it again

Laporta’s is a lovely, small venue with lots of ambiance and personality.
The food is fresh and delicious, and there is live music that isn’t too loud to preclude conversation at your table. The bar area is also very nice!
The Greek salad is a favorite of mine, and the molten chocolate cake (not always on the menu… the dessert menu periodically changes) is to die for.
It is especially nice for celebrating a special occasion, but I would go at any opportunity.
There is convenient parking in a nearby garage after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

While the couples special was fantastic (tilapia and half chicken), our server recommend the fried oyster which was a horrible dish! The dish tasted like they re-​dipped the cold oysters in the oil. All we could taste is the oil. The oysters had no spices or anything! Very blend!. It’s really puzzling how the oysters turnout to be more than the entrée. This time around you get a ONE star-​For problem resolution (the manager seem to not really care when I spoke to him in the phone because I did not want to make a scene while I was there), bad food (oysters only) and trying to up sale a bad product!!! Sorry!!!

The serving sizes could be a little bigger. However both times I have eaten here the food has been consistently fantastic. The lobster bisque is hot and delicious and was a big hit — the only thing I would change is add a little bit of Old Bay seasoning. The first time I was here I had a mushroom pasta — rich and perfect, and last time I got the scallops — HEAVEN. Scallops, when cooked correctly, are just the best things on earth. However, that dish was more than $ 20 and only came with 3 scallops. Luckily I was at a party and not paying for it myself :)
I’m usually too cheap to order dessert, but last time I did and I got the tiramisu. YUM! I was scraping my plate with the fork at the end to get every little last morsel off of it. Fantastic.
Because we were at an event they also had passed apps being handed around. For some reason I always enjoy them but never remember them exactly. I do know they had SHRIMP, a bacon-​wrapped something that was pretty good and these little puffs that had meat in them. The problem with teh passed apps was it was during the drinking time and I was probably paying more attention to the delicious house red wine and guzzling back the decent beer choices!
A big sign outside the place says that there is jazz being played here on occasion. I would love to come back on a fancy date and have some great food and drink and listen to some jazz! Laporta’s is not cheap (but what is in Alexandria nowadays?) but they have done a great job with every aspect of the meal both times I have been here, so so far I am a big fan!

Our family got us a gift card here to celebrate our engagement and we had a wonderful meal. I got the spinach stuffed chicken with potatoes, a pear salad, and the tiramisu. Everything was delicious! The sauce with the chicken was phenomenal and the pear salad had a delicious dressing.
I had the moscow mule to drink and it was very refreshing.
My fiancé got the BBQ hanger steak with mac n cheese and loved every bite!
The service was great and the jazz added a lovely touch to the evening!

Stopped in while walking to old town with my hubby. We have passed this place all the time, but never stopped in. Tonight we decided to, and I’m glad we did. I cannot give it 5 stars since we didn’t have dinner and I cannot fully make a comprehensive review, but we did have happy hour drinks and an appetizer. I started with a Bloody Mary (I am a connoisseur) and hubby got a $ 3 draft beer. The bloody was good, but not great. We got calamari, even against the reviews. It was pretty good. $ 11. Enough for two, but not too much. It’s not the best calamari, but good. But the 4^th star comes from the sangria. It’s November and they have the ‘spiced’ sangria. HOLY SHIT. Soooooo good. Perfect warm taste (not temp) and smooth. Love this! So different.
Bartender is nice and knowledgeable (Anthony) and ambiance is good as well. We will be back for dinner.

When my coworker suggested Laporta for lunch, I didn’t think we’d be heading to such a fine dining establishment. When we walked in I half expected our party of four males to be serenaded by violin. Luckily it was restaurant week so I only spent about $ 25 here at lunch.
I began with the seafood chowder. It was fairly chunky and well flavored with just the most subtle aftertaste of spice accompanying every bite. If you’re truly in the mood for a creamy seafood chowder I would recommend it, but it’s not worth visiting this place just for that.
My entrée was easily the best part of the meal. The Bar-​B-​Que Hanger Steak I ordered came rare just as I desired. The meat wasn’t the most tender but the barbecue sauce along with it made every bite that much more delectable. Never has a barbecue sauce been so thin and sweet at the same time. The side dish of macaroni and cheese was exceptional as well. Would recommend all of that.
For dessert I had the recommended Blueberry Cobbler. The Blueberry Cobbler itself was oven-​warm with a helping of vanilla ice cream on the side that when combined made for a pleasant experience. Plenty of blueberries and a fair amount of the sugared breading and I’d have to say I was overjoyed and having to adjust my belt and it not even being one in the afternoon yet.