9 Hacks For Ordering At Portillo's You Need To Know

Don't be scared off by the number of cars in the drive thru or the crowd of customers cued up inside. Portillo's is a well-oiled machine known for speedy service, and you'll be stuffing your face soon enough. But take it from this suburban Chicago native who grew up not far from the original Portillo's Dog House in Villa Park. After your buddy steps up and says, "Gimme three a dose beefs, dipped and sweet, extra gravy..." you'd better be ready to order. 

Ordering from Portillo's requires speed and precision. It's a skill that must be honed, especially if you want to make the most of the experience (and avoid dirty looks from the guy in line behind you). If you're in Illinois or one of the ten other states with a Portillo's franchise, you may already know how to work the menu. But if you're new to the scene, or if you're looking to elevate your next Portillo's run, Chowhound's got you.

I've put back enough Italian beef sandwiches, garden dogs, and cheeseburgers to choke a billy goat. This list of hacks for ordering at the eatery is drawn from a lifetime of ten-napkin Portillo's lunches. With input from friends, family, and social media, enjoy these collective suggestions for getting the most from the menu.

First of all, the salty, spicy liquid that's created during the slow-roasting process is called gravy, not au jus. This isn't France. When asking for Italian beef at Portillo's, your first order of business is knowing whether you'd like it dipped (submerged in gravy), easy dipped (quick dunk), or dry (no dip, no gravy). The Turano French bread that this sandwich comes on is a masterful sponge and will catch your gravy like a softball champ. From there, you'll declare your pepper preferences (sweet, hot, or both), and yes, you can add cheese if you want, but you know, this isn't Philly either. Just sayin'.

"I always get mine double hot and dipped. It's a f***ing mess, but absolutely delicious," one Portillo's fan says on Reddit. And while we regulars generally agree that a healthy dip is the way to go, what about those times when you won't be eating your beef right away? If you think you can actually make it home without throwing that bad boy down your gullet at the stop light, the best way to enjoy the magic at a later time is to order your sandwich dry with a side of gravy. This means the bread won't get soggy and fall apart all over your shirt, and you can soak the sandwich to your liking when it's go-time.

Portillo's hamburgers are char-broiled and not particularly greasy. If you're looking for a burger that'll drip down your arm but you don't want to load up on cheese and mayo, order yours with a side of gravy. "I'm dipping the burger in the Italian beef ju lol," one fan of this modification says on Reddit. "Just ask for a cup of the gravy and dip and be amazed. Lol. A flavor bomb for your burger."

Other burger-plus-gravy fans take this duo even further, with one Reddit user saying: "Gotta get the burger on a beef bun. They will make it, cut the burger in half, and dress it. It's a great 'hack' ... bun stays firm when dipped." To complete this customization (and clear your sinuses during the cold, dry winters), why not add some giardiniera to that beef-dressed burger? Portillo's version of this Chicago-favorite relish features pickled peppers, cauliflower, carrots, and celery. What a great way to finish off this unique masterpiece.

Before you ask for a hot dog from Portillo's with "everything" or "the works," you should know that in Chicago, that's called "dragging it through the garden." You should also know there's gonna be a lot happening on that poppy seed bun when you try to get your mouth around it. Piled high with mustard, relish, onion, tomatoes, celery salt, a pickle spear, and sport peppers, a Portillo's hot dog is slender and almost secondary to the condiments, but also long on flavor with a significant snap.

Of course, you can modify this iconic menu item any way you want, but the traditional experience involves these basic elements. "It ain't a proper Chicago [hot dog] unless it's been dragged through the garden," a Portillo's fan says on Reddit. "Peppers, pickles, tomato, onion, and not so much as a drop of ketchup." (Because, why would anyone eat ketchup on a hot dog?)

If you're looking to jack up the heat a bit and add some zing, ask for extra sport peppers, then "bite off the tip and baste the dog with pepper juice," one experienced hot dog embellisher suggests on Reddit. This technique leads to a zippier weiner and reduces the pressure that may cause rogue pepper juice to ruin your sweatpants.

"The ultimate scumbag Portillo's meal is hamburger, cheese sauce, fries, chocolate cake shake, side of beef gravy," one Portillo's regular says on Reddit. "Slap the cheese sauce cup onto the hamburger beef and close that bad boy up, dip that in beef juice, dip fries in shake or cheese ... 4k calories order right there, I bet. Gnarly."

Straddling a line between nacho cheese and liquid Velveeta, Portillo's cheddar sauce is a popular menu modifier. Though typically ordered as a side dunk for a bag of crinkle fries, customers use it in all kinds of creative ways. On TikTok, a reviewer trying a viral Portillo's Italian beef order says: "I dip my sandwich right in this thing," referring to the jumbo cheese cup. "The cheese definitely made this sandwich an 11 out of 10." Others recommend ordering cheese sauce on your burger instead of a slice, or using it as a creamy, melty hot dog topping. We've also seen diners use it to lube up chicken tenders, tamales, onion rings, and even chocolate cake with considerable glee.

And for a quintessentially Midwest tweak to your Portillo's order, go for a cheese-on-cheese indulgence. "I dip my bacon cheeseburger in the cheese too lol, nothing like a good artery clog," says a Reddit user who likes to live on the edge.

Though its origin is disputed, this odd creation is featured on the menus of quite a few Chicago establishments. A mother-in-law sandwich involves a corn tamale on a poppy-seed hot dog bun, smothered in chili and garnished like a Chicago weiner. Portillo's doesn't have one on the menu, but you can cobble it together easily using some of its standards.

"Don't shoot me, get a tamale on a hot dog bun, dressed like a dog. It's really good," a commenter insists on Reddit. Completing the masterpiece, another Reddit user takes this one further, saying: "A mother-in-law is designed to give you heartburn, or so I've been told, to emulate a real mother-in-law. So it's essential to dress it in chili."

Tamales are a nod to Chicago's Mexican immigrant population, which helped build the city's railyards and infrastructure. Listed on the Soups & Sides menu, a Portillo's tamale rolls corn meal around ground beef that's been seasoned with seven signature spices. Marrying it with chili and a hot dog to create a mother-in-law sandwich pays homage to several other Chicago immigrant populations as well. "It's a Mexican food served like the bastard baby of a Chicago-style and Detroit-style dog that was popularized by a Polish dude who first saw a Lithuanian guy do it," one fan of this combo says on YouTube. That's America at its finest."

We can't officially condone a Portillo's Italian beef without the Turano bread. However, we understand dietary restrictions and lifestyle choices sometimes make this opt-out necessary. There are plenty of fast food restaurants with high-protein, keto-friendly options, and Portillo's is one of them.

Describing her method for eating at Portillo's on a calorie deficit, a TikTok reviewer says its Classic Beef Bowl delivers 35 grams of protein with just 435 calories. For an additional six grams of protein and approximately 180 calories, add both kinds of peppers and mozzarella cheese. "Honestly, it satisfied my craving so much I would definitely get it again," she says.

To amp up the protein even further, why not throw a nudie on there while you're at it? A "nudie" at Portillo's is basically one of its signature sandwiches with no bun and no toppings, just the meat. Without official pricing for this add-on, the cost is subject to franchise policy, so you may or may not pay the full sandwich price for the modification. We've seen aggressive Portillo's carnivores pile everything from burger to bacon to Polish sausage nudies on their bowls. If you're visiting a Portillo's location that has a Barnelli's kitchen, you can get a meatball and some marinara on that bad boy as well by ordering an Italiano Bowl.

Though it did not make Chowhound's worst to best ranking of fast food onion rings, Portillo's offering in this category is particularly beloved. "The crunch of the onion ring is just seasoned to perfection," a Portillo's reviewer says on Instagram. "They're constructed in the perfect way ... when I take a bite, the breading all stays together."

When Portillo's introduced its jumbo menu, offering reheatable, family-sized boxes of some of its best-selling items, Portillo's visionaries began embellishing them in some very creative ways, like this Facebook reeler who demonstrates her hack for assembling a combo platter. "I don't know why chili cheese onion rings aren't a thing," she says. "But today we're going to make them." Opening a jumbo box of onion rings and smothering them with what she calls a "river" of cheese sauce and chili, this culinary artiste implores you to try this one for yourself.

A pro tip for ordering this combo: Ask for a clamshell container — the plastic kind they use for chocolate cake to-go orders. Dump everything in and flip it over a few times to get it all combined. Unless your upholstered couch has plastic slipcovers to repel leaks from the cardboard box, you'll thank us for this one.

We cannot emphasize this enough; when it comes to ordering Italian beef, always err on the side of excess. Whether you're getting a Portillo's take-and-make kit for your next get-together, ordering a long-distance cold kit, or scarfing a combo on your way home from work, we implore you to think about the future.

The components of a beef sandwich all freeze really well, even the bread. And social media is long on ideas for repurposing the leftovers if you're lucky enough to have some. "I make a cabbage soup with leftover juice in my pressure cooker," one creative cook says on Facebook. Others claim the gravy makes an ideal base for stews, roasts, beans, rice, and potatoes.

On Instagram, a Chicago chef shares his recipe for Italian beef combo stuffing, promising the "Most Chicago stuffing ever" by deconstructing two dipped, sweet beefs and tossing them with peppers for a unique Thanksgiving dressing. Surplus beef and peppers also make for tasty pizza toppings, whether you're dolling up some leftover Chicago-style deep dish or creating your own from scratch. And Italian beef egg rolls are also apparently a thing. "Beef giardiniera and mozz....wrap tight and egg wash .....lil juice on side to dip," one experimenter says on Facebook.

If a double cheeseburger isn't enough to trigger your salivary glands, Portillo's has a triple cheeseburger with your name on it. You just have to know how to access Portillo's secret menu. Not sold at the counter or drive-thru, a triple cheeseburger is only available to Portillo's Perks members who order inside the restaurant at one of its digital kiosks.

Featuring three ⅓ pound char-broiled patties layered with cheese and all the requisite burger toppings, a Portillo's triple cheeseburger can be secured by patting Pokey, the franchise mascot modeled after founder Dick Portillo's friendly weiner dog, on his head. Found in the lower left corner of the kiosk menu, Pokey will help you gain insider access to one of these babies. While you're at it, score some loaded chili cheese fries for us. We'll meet you over by there in a bit.