The PorterHouse Bar & Grill

NOTE: Despite its shortcomings as a dinner destination The Porter House serves an above-average burger. Burgers are only $5.95 (with one side) on Mondays, and are also available via The Porter House's food truck.

Located at 4608 W. Market St. in Greensboro, The PorterHouse offers burgers, sandwiches, salads, and entrees. There is a full service bar, a different burger special each day, and $5 burgers on Mondays. Dinner entrees are available after 4 p.m.

Don’t be fooled by the moniker. While the PorterHouse does in fact serve steaks, the name comes from the couple who owns the establishment, and it’s far closer to a pub than a steakhouse. There are enough flourishes here to elevate it above typical bar food, but there are also enough inconsistencies to keep it from receiving a glowing recommendation.

The PorterHouse’s menu emphasizes the tried-and-true (steaks, chicken sandwiches, BLTs, pork chops, etc.) with a dash of the unexpected (pulled pork egg rolls). Like Hop’s, The PorterHouse offers boutique burgers with a bevy of intriguing ingredients (You can make your own with jalapeno cream cheese and peanut butter, for instance). Prices are moderate. Sandwiches and burgers run $7-9 and include a side while entrees are priced in the teens

Decked out in dark wood and deceptively spacious, The Porterhouse provides a comfortable atmosphere. Servers are very polite and professional, but the kitchen is not exactly swift. Interestingly, there was a longer wait for food during a lunch visit than there was during a dinner visit with a bigger crowd.

This would be easier to overlook if the food was less uneven. To the PorterHouse’s credit, much of the food appears to be made fresh in-house. Unfortunately, not all of it is made well. An order of fish and chips came with slaw that was bitter and vinegary and fries that were hot but limp. The fish itself was cooked and battered nicely albeit rather underseasoned. On a subsequent visit, I tried chips instead of fries and found them to be an improvement. A burger in the rye (griddle-cooked 8 oz burger with onions, Swiss, and thousand island dressing) came tucked between two very thick slices of bread. While they made the burger seem small by comparison, they effectively held everything together. The burger itself had a good flavor and was not too greasy.

The $5 burger on Mondays makes the PorterHouse worth a return visit for a leisurely meal, and hungry Greensboroians can do far worse on any day of the week. Beyond that, however, there just is not enough to make this place stand out.

7.5/10