Portofino Takapuna

This is one of the worst restaurants I have ever been to, I am utterly disgusted at how we were treated.

I ordered a seafood risotto dish and after the third mouth full of grit told the waitress. The waitress took it back to the kitchen and some lady came out and basically accused me of lying. I tried to explain that after the third taste of grit between my teeth it was inedible she looked at me with disgust and said it must have been salt or pepper took the plate back and walked away without offering any sort of apology or the possibility of changing the dish.

As we walked up to pay there were at least 4 people glaring at us from the kitchen as if it was our fault, I have never been made to feel so uncomfortable by restaurant staff. The lady rudely offered to take our garlic bread off the bill, however I did not think that was fair as I had to pay for a meal I couldn’t eat. She then turned it into a yelling match.

Hugely disappointed as I have been to two other Portofino’s and they are always fantastic, tasty meals and great service. This Portofino’s however is lacking in all aspects I would not recommend you eat here unless you like bland food and the worst possible service.

I don’t normally write negative reviews, I just don’t go back to places but the poor service and disappointing food that we had at Portofino Takapuna warrants my time to write one. Five girlfriends and I booked a table here on Valentines night. We arrived at 6.30pm and the restaurant was just starting to fill up. The first hiccup came when I ordered a soda with lime but was delivered a tonic instead, no worries, it was replaced quickly with an apology. I went with the Cannelloni Ricotta E Spinachi as did one of my friends. The food arrived reasonably quickly which was good considering how busy the restaurant was but my dish itself was enormously disappointing. The ricotta, spinach filling was extremely bland and the tomato sauce reminded both me and my friend of a canned soup. Another friend who ordered the Risotto Di Pollo was also disappointed, a lover and someone who frequently orders Risotto in restaurants, she commented that is was one of the worst she had ever had, dry and basic. We were offered dessert menus but no one came back to take an order. None of us decided to have dessert, probably a good decision otherwise we might have still been there at closing time but we eventually hailed down a waitress to order two coffees. A good 20 minutes later there was no sign of the drinks and when we questioned where they were we were told they were very busy and they would be some time yet, that was our cue to cancel the order and proceed to the till to pay the bill. Portofino Takapuna seemed to contain a few disgruntled dinners, in the space of 5 minutes I observed two separate tables send their dishes back to the kitchen, I can only assume they were as dissatisfied with their meals as we were. I understand it was Valentines night and the restaurant was busy but the restaurant floor was vastly understaffed which left the few waitresses stressed and diners waiting far too long for simple things like a coffee. An establishment I won’t be frequenting again,