Portside Cafe

Food:
Huge portions! Great prices.
Breakfast:
Biscuits and gravy, you cannot go wrong! Love their home fries.
I’ve also had their corned beef hash which Is some of the best I’ve ever had.
Eggs are always cooked perfectly to order.
Found time to make my kids a special pancake.
French toast covered in powder sugar. Which is never a bad thing
Dinner:
Anything with noodles. They make them in house. Love their coleslaw.
Desserts: homemade! The pies are out of this world! Peanut butter pie is to die for. I dream about it! If they have cream puffs do yourself a favor and get one. You can thank me later.
Service: there’s a reason why they have so many regulars. Service is excellent, attentive, knowledgable. They make you feel like family and take the time to get to know their guests.
Overall: great experience.

I’ve eaten here since they first opened. Sometimes eat here 4 or 5 times a week. This is a nice local diner, that has the feel of diners «back in the day». There’s a family atmosphere, especially if you go there frequently, and get to know the staff, and the regulars. Food has that «down home» taste, and the portions are surprisingly large. You’ll also find items on the menu that you won’t find anywhere else, too. This is «home-​cooked» food, not commercial, «by-​the-​book» corporate meals. Then, save room for dessert! Their pies and pastries are fresh-​made, and totally delicious. They’re made on site, in limited quantities. So, depending on the time of day, and demand, there may not be a big selection. Overall, Portside Café is a fun place, and a great place to get a generous diner-​style meal. For you truckers, there’s plenty of truck parking in the back, and on the side of the building. Truckers are appreciated at Portside Café.

Every order has been carryout. The parking lot is gravel or crumbled asphalt. Hard to tell. The exterior roadsign is terrible to non-​exsistant. If not using GPS, you will pass it. They still have truck parking in the lower back lot. They spent some money on the inside re-​furbishing it, from what I remember back in ’95. It’s standard diner fare with reasonable prices. I’ve seen many of the menu options from what I pick up for other co-​workers. How they eat fries from carryout, I will never know. I find the Southern Omelette to be one I have ordered more than once. 2 big styrofoam boxes for one meal. I call the hashbrowns and toast, the carb box. I always give it away. One co-​worker now knows I do, and only orders gravy to top it. That means the Omelette must be big to get a box to itself. It’s HUGE! I still only eat half of it. I have also had the daily special. Which on that day was chopped steak with 2 sides and roll for $ 8 or $ 9. It was a very brown meal that did not make me wish that that is todays special. The restroom is in the small lobby foyer, and a bit sketchy. They do accept credit cards, but have no WiFi. There are several TVs hanging in corners.
OK, so we have had some items missing or slightly incorrect. I do not fault them. This is not a drive-​thru pushing a car every 50 seconds. This is a diner accommodating a carry-​out order from 4 to 14 people. Any significant mistake, worthy of a phone call, has been met with a friendly apology & offer to replace. I once went back a month later to get a replacement club sandwich platter, without hassel.
They exclaim that they are known for their pie. Usually only 2 choices at lunch hour. They look like they might be from yesterday. 1 piece left. Cream fallen. etc. I’ve had great pie. At $ 4 a slice, this is not it. Maybe they bake after lunch, and it’s all good for dinner.
Heading south, I would get outside 270, and stop here. But for dessert, I would wait for the bakery in Round Town.
Heading north, this is a great place to wait out rush hour traffic, or stop as a truck driver waiting to get a meal & deliver inside the loop in the morning.
The staff is friendly. The prices are fair. The food is decent diner.

Good service but food not up to good diner what it could be. Had the pork chops which were kinda dry. Fake mash potatoes and canned gravy and canned corn.
The place itself is clean and friendly. Didn’t try the pie but looks homemade.

I’ve been here a couple times. I believe it is nothing more than a senior citizen poor quality cheaper prices diner.
Great hours…5 a.m. — 10:30 p.m.
There is plenty of parking.
Ambiance, beauty, sophistication… NONE EXISTS HERE.
Food quality very poor.
Example: pies are to be homemade but they use instant pudding and fake cool whip… Not any good.
Servers are great… hard workers and pleasant.
She told us Salmon Patties are homemade but I’m cautious.
They have Liver & Onions and because I really Like L & O I’M way too cautious to order them.
I can open cans and boil ‘stuff’ at home.
MAYBE IF I WERE ORDERING ONLY BREAKFAST FOODS IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT.
They’re on Facebook.

Calling Portside a greasy spoon is being unfair. The food is humble, but good — not greasy. They’ll bring you a massive amount of whatever you want, for a very reasonable price, and enough coffee to float you through your day. The space is large and clean, with plenty of windows. We always get great service here as well… they treat everyone like regulars.
We met up with family at Portside for Easter breakfast for some down-​home cooking. Most of us had GIGANTIC omelets — I think they must use ostrich eggs — with hash browns and toast. Serious, full-​plate, 2″ high omelets stuffed with goodies. If you’re looking for gourmet or artisanal — yeah, they don’t do that here. Make plans to workout later. The spouse did get a traditional turkey dinner and it was delicious — carved turkey, real mashed potatoes and stuffing. I ended up taking ²⁄₃ of my ham and cheese omelet and half of my hashbrowns home.
Great place to try along the road out of town!

Great breakfast I always get the biscuits and gravy. Great home style gravy, and biscuits.
French toast is fantastic, Covered in powdered sugar can’t go wrong.
They are also known for a cream puff that I prefer to Schmitz. They are massive!
Great prices and large portions!

Since Grove City doesn’t have many hometown mom and pop restaurants we drove a couple miles out of town and I am so happy we did. The food was delicious. We got a western omelette (which is huge!), French toast, and basic eggs and hash browns.
Four stars only because the interior is slightly out dated but it did appear they were going through renovations.
We will definitely be back and likely for lunch so it’s acceptable to dig into their delectable pie selection!

I don’t live here but I grew up in Chillicothe so I know of this place from friends and the Bass Bros. I stopped in one afternoon hoping for some pie. Unfortunately they had sold out of many pies; they must be really good. I decided to get pancakes. Good decision on my part. They are made from scratch, not a food service just add water mix. Nuff said.

Plenty of seating, clean with an open, well lit interior. The service and food style is 100% diner, friendly and casual. Daily specials like fried chicken, beef and noodles and Johnny Marzetti. Cheap prices!
8.75 gets you a huge omelet filled with grilled chicken, bacon, ham, sausage, green peppers and onions, tomatoes and american cheese. Plus home fries and toast (refer to the picture).

Headed south on Rte 23?
Well. chances are you’ll be passing Portside Café. A little hole in wall restaurant that has beaten the odds of it’s predecessors and kept it’s doors open for at least a couple of years. It’s a run down little greasy spoon across from the large Catholic Cemetery just a half a mile away from Scioto Downs.
It’s run down, there’s holes and knooks… missing ceiling tiles, worn seating, and creepy Maw and Paw dolls, so ambiance seekers turn away.
Locals keep this place packed, and when I say locals… I mean a lot of older, white haired clientele, but as I had expected. they come here mostly for the breakfast a brunch. For a Sunday though, this place was extremely hopping and already had a waiting list just shortly into noon.
I was not feeling very adventurous, so I kept it simple with a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, which was average.
HOWEVER. don’t write them off yet… My husband ordered pancakes and they were GINORMOUS. Probably some of the larger pancakes I have seen in my existence. The man ordered two, and could only eat one. They were tasty looking and he said they soaked up all the nice flavors from the grill, too.
So, yes, breakfast is the way to go if you’re interested in stopping by Portside.
They have a pie case full of delicious sugar coma inducing confections. The pies were average. I have had better at other greasy spoons, but it was still delicious none-​the-​less.
This places deserves another stop from me and perhaps my rating might increase, but for now. it’s A-​OK, Unilocalers!

Lunch/​dinner offering wasn’t as impressive as breakfast, but still ok and still a good deal.
I had a very good fish tail sandwich, nice crispy not too thick cornmeal breading, but the fries didn’t appear to be prepped in house. Also, I ordered the platter which should have came with coleslaw, but I didn’t realize it was even missing until the end of the meal.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, they don’t have a kid’s menu, so my 7 y.o. had to order a ¹⁄₃^rd lb cheeseburger and my 3 y.o. ate a la carte from the breakfast menu. There was obviously plenty of burger left for me to try. Tasted like it was just a slightly over-​cooked frozen patty. It was big enough, but thinner, and in a near perfect circle. This surprised me because on my last visit I had a chopped steak breakfast which was essentially just a hamburger patty too. That burger was juicy, fresh, and on the thicker side with a slight irregular shape and thickness that made it seem hand formed. I’d gladly pay and extra buck or two for this patty on a cheeseburger.