Address - Yokohama-shi, Naka-ku, Shinko 2-2-1, Yokohama World Porters 1 Fl Opening hours - 11:00 am to 23 pm Map - Yes Telephone - 045 222 2188 Menu - In Italian, English and Japanese CC - OK
Once in a while I Iike going to Yokohama. Its wide streets without all those power cables to cloud the sky above relax me, and give me that room to breathe I am denied in my otherwise always beloved Tokyo. It makes sense therefore that I enjoy above all the harbor, Yamashita Park and Minato Mirai.
Some days ago (March 2003) I was in World Porter in Minato Mirai when I noticed this sign saying "Porticello Ristorante Siciliano". Now, you are just foreigners and don't know this, but besides Mafia Sicily has some of the best food this side of the sky, so my antennae went up right away: I had to go in and try it.
It apparently is a Japanese clone of "Antica Trattoria al Porto" owned by a Francesco Crivello in Porticello (Sicily). (By the way, I am just back from Italy where I met this guy from S. Francisco who lives in my home town and whose girlfriend, also from Frisco, during dinner told me casually that her father is from a place in Sicily called Porticello and that a friend of his owns this restaurant in Yokohama ... Incredible coincidences.)
Anyway, to make a long story short, the food is unusual and interesting, but the cooks were probably not sufficiently trained, so the results of their efforts are uneven and flavors often bland.The place itself is big and the music loud, neither particularly soothing.
We started our lunch with two typical Sicilian appetizers, stuffed peppers and fried ricotta dumplings, which were just OK. Things improved with our next choice, a dish of excellent "caserecce alla carne" (a kind of Sicilian style meat sauce spaghetti). The amatriciana we had next was again just OK. We ended the meal with a typical Sicilian dessert, cannoli alla siciliana, that were once more just worth eating. A grappa apiece brought the meal to a close.
To sum my impressions up in a few words, Porticello is a good chance for you to see what Sicilian food is like, especially since it isn't very expensive, but don't go out of your way to eat there.If you happen to be in Yokohama, go. Othewise, skip it.
