After years of hearing how great Cafe Porta Alba is (both at the former Butler St. location and its current Hilldale spot) my wife and I checked it out with friends last night.
Now I can tell you about how great Cafe Porta Alba is: it's pretty great.
Our service was efficient, friendly and helpful.
The only complaint I might have is the sheer number of amazing pizza selections. All of them sound wonderful. We went with a mushroom pizza and another that was flash fried with smoked mozzarella cheese on top. Both were astounding.
The pasta dishes are few in number but delicious. The ragu is rich and flavorful if not quite as tender as I anticipated (which is by no means to insinuate the meat was tough).
We will definitely be back. Maybe they'll get an additional star by having coffee beans to float in the Sambuca. How do you serve espresso and not have a few coffee beans around?