Restaurants near Longwood University

Great food and service. Our first visit and we will go back soon.

Our server was great. Food was all cooked well and fairly timely. Wasn’t aware of the up charge for the kids food based on Santa, but that’s ok. Being upstairs made it harder to be around Santa and interact, although he did come up once. Overall a nice night.

We have mixed feelings about Portico. On the positive side, it is a gorgeous setting, especially the outside patio. Even the inside area is cozy and welcoming. We ate here several times during the pandemic, and it felt so great to be outside in this beautiful environment. BUT we haven't been back in quite some time because we had some reservations about returning, and, sadly, they still exist after last night's visit. Our number one issue is their longtime refusal to charge corkage so that we can enjoy our own wine, which is more suited to us than the wine on their very expensive wine list. We don't know of any other upscale restaurant in Richmond that does not allow corkage, which is very important to us. So we reluctantly paid $60 for a $20 Italian Russo when we have such great wine at home. We would have been happy to pay the $10 - 35 corkage charge that we pay at other restaurants, but they were firm. That alone makes us reluctant to return. BUT onto the service and food! The service was great - Billy very attentive. My husband's wedge salad was great. My caprese salad didn't need that huge amount of lettuce that was added when the caprese part was all that was needed, but I love Caprese, so it was great. My husband absolutely LOVED his lamb risotto dish! For fun, I ordered the baked spaghetti with sausage, which was great, but again, a HUGE serving that will be lunch for the next few days. We ran into trouble when we ordered cappuccinos. My husband was just OK with his, but mine was so incredibly runny with no real taste. I've never had anything like it before and really didn't like it. The server, to his credit, offered a new one, but that seemed a waste of time when my husband's was also weak and runny. It was a disappointment when we got the bill and were still charged for 2 cappuccinos instead of one. Any sort of gesture towards recognizing my dissatisfaction would have been appreciated, but nothing was offered. Not sure if we'll be back.

The food was good and our waiter was exceptional. If I had to have one negative, which I hate to do it is that there were a lot of available tables and we were there were two of us and we were set less than a foot from a table with a family of 10 people and our chairs were almost touching and they were all of these other tables available, but we didn’t get moved But otherwise a nice afternoon.

Truly a dining experience, not just a meal. We were seated upstairs in the bar area, our server was very attentive from the time we arrived, around both bar and food service. Knowledgeable about the menu, particularly around pairings (protein with sauce/compound butter, à la carte sides, and wines). Classic with a twist steakhouse menu in a beautiful historic building. Definitely on the favorites list. ❤️