Portogruaro sits on the boundary between Veneto and Friulan cooking, and the local osterie and trattorie reflect both. Expect baccalà and risotti from the Venetian side, and frico (fried cheese), gnocchi di susine (plum-stuffed gnocchi), and game from the Friulan. The wine is mostly white — the Lison-Pramaggiore DOC immediately west and the Friulan DOCs of the Grave and Colli Orientali to the east — and excellent.
Restaurants are concentrated along the arcaded Corso Martiri and on the small streets behind, with a handful of family-run osterie still serving traditional menus for a fraction of what equivalent meals would cost in Venice. Saturday market spills lunchtime crowds into the arcades; this is when the town is at its most lively.