Family-run halal Italian restaurant Porta Porta to close on Dec 31 after 33 years

For Danesh, who grew up alongside the restaurant and described it as his first job, Porta Porta has always been more than a family business.

“The restaurant kept the family close,” he said, recalling evenings when his father would play the guitar and his mother would sing for diners, sometimes with customers joining in. “We’ve made so many wonderful friends over the years through the restaurant.”

Rozi said she and Nino had opened Porta Porta with the hope of sharing the warmth of Italian family dining in Singapore.

“Nino and I opened this restaurant because we wanted to bring Italian homely traditions to Singapore, sharing food together as a family at the dinner table, laughing and filling our bellies,” she wrote on Instagram.

She also thanked customers who had supported the restaurant over the decades, including families who had returned across three generations.

“You’ve all become family to us,” she wrote. “We hope that from now till the last day of opening, you’ll come by for one last time as we close this chapter for good.”