Even though Jersey City isn't really that far from the city, I don't often find myself there unless it's for work and even then I'm kind of lazy about it and try to get out of any dinners. But since I rarely get to see my work colleagues, I figured I should show my face and crossed my fingers that it would be a better experience than the last time we all got together.
The space at Porta is spacious, nice and casual. It seemed like it's a fun place to catch up with friends over some pizza and beers. We started with a bunch of appetizers for the table since we were all starving but hadn't yet made up our minds about entrees. We got the kale salad ($14), house made mozzarella ($10), salumi e formaggi ($19), house made meatballs ($9), fried artichokes ($9) and calamari ($14). They were all pretty solid appetizers - the salad was nicely dressed (it was served with tuscan kale which can be a bit tough but I don't mind it at all) and the mozzarella was tasty and paired well with the soft yet crunchy bread. The housemade meatballs were also super moist and served in a tangy tomato sauce. The meat and cheese plate was ok - they had a nice blue cheese that I devoured but I wasn't super impressed with the meat selections. I didn't get to try the fried artichokes and the calamari was fine albeit a bit small and too friend. If the meal had ended here, I might have given it a 3.5 fork because it was good but nothing mind blowing. Unfortunately, it went downhill once we ordered our entrees.
While they also have pastas here, it seemed like you shouldn't come to a place this like and not get their pizza. They are small Neapolitan pizzas (about 6 small slices) but if you aren't hungry you can get away with 2 people splitting 1 pie. I was hemming and hawing between getting the Carbonara ($16) or a red sauce pizza. I normally prefer any of my Italian dishes, pasta or pizzas, with red sauce but I had seen a few pictures of the Carbonara pizza with the egg on top that looked delicious, so I decided to go with that choice. Then things got a bit weird. Two of my co-workers wanted to get a margherita pizza but also wanted to add some greens like arugula to it but the waiter said they couldn't do it. What the hell? You can't dump a bunch of greens on top of a pizza? He said, they could take items off a pizza but they couldn't add to it. I can understand for certain dishes but this is pizza, it's not that hard to add something to it, especially if it's a topping. Instead my co-worker was able to order the arugula pizza but without the garlic or truffle oil - essentially making it the exact same thing as a margherita pizza with arugula on it. Go figure.
As soon as I saw the Carbonara pizza I knew I should have stuck with my gut and gotten a red sauce pizza. With no sauce or cheese, it just didn't look like a pizza at all to me but I take total responsibility for my decision. It came with guanciale, parm, extra virgin olive oil, parsley and a roasted egg on top. I took one bite and it was so salty I couldn't believe it. When the waiter asked me how it was, I had to be honest and say it was unbelievably salty and his answer was "oh yeah, I probably should have told you that. The guanciale makes it really salty". The egg was overly cooked - I thought it was going to be more of a runnier poached yolk version but this was closer to a dry hard boiled yolk. I will say that the crust was chewy but good and the only thing I really liked about it. I ended up only eating 3 slices and left the rest behind. I felt like I was pretty much eating a salt lick and pounding water like it was my job. Then they totally forgot one of my co-workers pizzas but luckily there was enough food leftover from everyone else that he didn't bother re-ordering and waiting for his food.
While I don't want to sound like a total snob, I just don't see Jersey City as a culinary destination yet. The few experiences that I've had there have been really average despite all the great press the city has been getting. I really want to be open minded and enjoy places that aren't necessarily Manhattan or Brooklyn, but my experience at Porta hasn't really tipped me over the edge to this area just yet.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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