Portillo's Kennesaw

Reviews

• CE

  Criss Engels

  Jan 4, 2026
  4.0
  My husband's favorite place in Chicago. Both of us from IL. He, from a Chicago suburb, me from central IL. Kennesaw location is not as large as Chi-town's and menu is. Much smaller. On all fairness, I imagine they probably had no clue it would take off like it has and be so insanely popular. The lines are crazy, especially drive thru, where if you get caught in you cannot get out until you get to the window area. It's a nightmare trying to park and a good number of parking spots were blocked off for the drive thru with pylons. More seating would be great but not sure how or where it could be done either. The food was phenomenal tho!! I had Polish Sausage on a bun with grilled onions n mustard. My husband had his favorite, Italian Beef (& got the fixins for it all to go), our oldest had Italian Sausage and Beef, fries and onion rings. We have ordered the fixins several times in the past, online and had it all shipped.
• MD

  Meg D

  Jan 2, 2026
  5.0
  This was my first time at Portillo’s. I have a co-worker that is from an area where Portillo’s is a big deal and she would always talk about it and it always sounded so good. When it first opened I knew I would have to give it some time after hearing how chaotic the lines were. My daughter had a doctors appt down Barrett Pkwy on a weekday afternoon and I thought I’d finally try it out. I got there and drove up and had to ask the police officer where to go for the drive through and he told me to go up the hill and do a u-turn and come back down. I got in the drive thru line and there was maybe two or three people ahead of me. I was in and out minutes. It was not a terrible wait and the employees were super friendly and working hard. I ordered an Italian Beef with sweet peppers, Rodeo Burger, Cheese Fries, and a Chicago Dog. I’d have to say that we enjoyed all the food we had and we can’t wait to try more stuff from the menu. I think the Italian Beef was my husband’s favorite and I really liked the flavors on the Rodeo Burger.
• SP

  Sharon Poindexter

  Jan 2, 2026
  2.0
  Went for my birthday and drove 1 hour and twenty minutes only to be disappointed! Food was cold - burgers, italian beef and hot dog. Clearly the burger was pre-made because the cheese was firm and never, EVER melted. Now for the famous chocolate cake. Was excited to get it but clearly this cake is an IMPOSTER!!! Portillo's is know for the chocolate cake, especially the thick icing which was weak at best. The flavor of the cake didn't taste the same at all and had an after taste! For 20 years we lived down the street from the one on Rt. 59 in Naperville and would eat at Portillo's weekly. I'm talking salads, ribs, burgers, dogs, pasta, and Italian beef (double dipped and baptized). After moving to Atlanta, whenever we fly into Midway, Portillo's on Cicero is our first stop before seeing family. So hurt that I wasted my birthday and $100 on this mess. Should have waited to go to the Portillo's in Chicago. If you are from Chicago, don't waste your time, gas or money. Seriously save your expectations, taste buds, calories and MONEY for the original locations in Chi-town! You'll thank me later. What a disappointment! Going home to brush my teeth to get the artifical taste out of my mouth!!! Yuck!!!
• DG

  D Gibbs

  Jan 2, 2026
  3.0
  I believe this would have been a 5 star review had my food been prepared hot. Before beginning the review, I went yesterday which was January 1 (a holiday) and I went at 10 PM they said they close at 11:30 PM so I thought it was ample time not to disrupt the end of day kitchen duties - this is relevant to my review). So I decided to wait until the fanfare died down, and as I was driving by last night, I noticed there were only two cars in the drive-through. I took that as my sign to go in. Sure enough I went in and there was no line. I was literally the only one at the time. Two guys walked in right behind me. The line was wide open, although I used the kiosk to order. And the dining room was only seven tables maximum, being used. For lack of better term, they were dead. Perfect! Ordering from the kiosk went flawlessly. I sat down and waited for my food. They were doing a great job of yelling out order numbers and making jokes about each one which I did like. I got my food and that’s when the problems began. I decided I would get a sweet tea so when I went to fill my cup, the tea carafe had pure water in it?! As if someone acknowledge it needed to be filled, but it did not have tea in it. I went to the sweet tea on the other side and it was empty. At this point, I can only assume that with 90 minutes left in the day, they decided not to refill them? And then one of them was filled with water? So then I went to my go to which is Coke zero. The side I filled up with was watered down. At the end of my experience I did a refill on the other side and it was significantly, better but not good. It was only slightly watered down. The food. We ordered a large Italian beef sandwich meal with sweet and hot peppers, fries, and a side of cheese dip. Also a Maxwell St. Polish sausage and onion rings. The fries were cold! You could see they had staged almost 15 to 20 fries under a hot lamp that clearly was not doing its job. The fries were not fresh and the people sitting next to me returned all four sets of their fries and demanded fresh fries. The guy actually ate a few bites in front of the server before leaving the counter. Outside of the fries, everything else was lukewarm at best. My side of cheese dip was not in the order so I had to go back up to the counter to get my dip. I was amazed that with 12-ISH people up there I sat at the counter for a good 75 seconds looking back-and-forth trying to make eye contact with somebody to get my dip. 75 seconds doesn’t sound long, but there were people everywhere and no one was acknowledging the counter. Also my tepid food was cold at this point. The young lady that did acknowledge me was actually at the back by the to go window. She walked past several people and helped me. She was very nice and did help me immediately and should be commended. I was surprised that I waited 20 minutes to get my food knowing I was the next person in line and it was all lukewarm except for the fries that were cold. It’s like they don’t know how to handle low volumes of people. They just pre-made everything let it sit, but then don’t give it out in a timely fashion?! Not sure what was going on with the timing of the kitchen but they were STRUGGLING. Lastly, remember what I said the dining room was basically empty? The trashcan was overflowing. Like no one was taking out the trash. I saw a young lady walking around the dining room, but I’m not sure what she was doing. I thought she was busing tables, but didn’t have anything to clean with. See the picture I included with this review. In summation, I’m extremely disappointed. The Italian sandwich was the best and I think I would come back if it were hot. I’ll give them a good 6 to 9 months and give them one more try. I definitely feel the experience was fumbled just because of process and timing.
• PC

  Punk Rock Mom of East Cobb

  Dec 20, 2025
  5.0
  For being open 2 weeks, I expected there to be a HUGE wait. My son thought I was crazy that I was ok with the expectation of standing in line for an hour+once we got there. But I'm the one who was born and raised in Chicago suburbs. I knew what this was about. So we head out on our adventure, see police cars at the entrance with lights on. They are out there directing traffic. Cool. We turn into the lot. It was packed, but quickly found a spot within a minute or 2. Once inside, there's clearly a line. I was truthfully expecting the line out the door, so pleasant surprise. Then we see it. There are 3 or 4 self ordering stations. Love it. Perfect for us to not feel the pressure of standing in line, figuring out what to get, what customizations, etc. Anyone with kids, tweens, or teens will completely understand this relief. We took our time scrolling through, reading each description, etc. I knew I wanted the Italian beef and sausage, lightly dipped, and onion rings. My son was torn between the Chicago dog and the Maxwell Street Polish. He settled on the latter, with fries. We made the deal to split both. Win-win! He picked it a shake, I already had a Portillo's account (it takes 2 minutes and you get coupons. Do it.) and had a free shake coupon. Simple checkout process and we were done! Took us, I'll be generous and say it was 10 minutes. By the time we finished, the entire line was GONE. Well ok! We checked out the reasonably priced merch for a few minutes, picked out a couple things like a magnet and a mug. I go to the cashier to pay for those items and the pickup window is already calling our order number. Yes, that fast. So my son went to pick it up and I easily found a clean table in the packed restaurant. The food, My son's impression was that this is the gold standard. It was as good as he hoped for, his Maxwell St Polish he said it was "fine." I was surprised by that and he added, "it tastes just like what you make at home." Ok. So that was fair and I'll take that compliment. But that also tells me I'm a pretty damn good cook if it was just fine to him. He was instantly obsessed with the Italian beef and sausage. He loved that the bread was dipped (something he said eeewww about when I was ordering it) and the onion rings there are some of my favorites. We sat and are and chatted with the mother and her adult daughter eating next to us, also Chicago transplants like myself, and they raved about how great their food was (I know one got the Chicago dog). Of course we had leftovers, so once we cleaned up our table and stood to throw out trash, we were already being offered a to-go bag. We watched the employees. They were all clearly working hard, but very smart and efficient. They never seemed overwhelmed, they were chatting with customers, cracking jokes, and making it flow flawlessly. Whomever created the job roles and processes, I applaud you. The staff there worked like they'd known each other for years and operated like a perfectly oiled and tuned machine. From the time we walked in the door to the moment we walked out, less than an hour. I looked back and it table was already cleaned and new people were sitting down. Absolutely 5 stars across the board. The food tasted exactly like home. The service was on point with the perfect blend of positive attitude, hustle, and engagement. - think Chick-fil-A quality, standards, and service but without the Stepford wife, "my pleasure," & 1950's innocence vibe. iykyk......

Frequently Asked Questions About Portillo's Kennesaw