Portofino - Auckland

We had a nice dinner: wine, a salad, 2 mains, dessert coffee. The lasagna al forno is delicious.

Not sure if this connected to the other Portofino restaurants arounds but we came here once and were quite happy with what we got. I reckon Pizza Non Solo is a better Italian restaurant but the food here is very good and there's a good atmosphere too. What attracted us was a range of vegetarian dishes which kept my wife happy rigatoni with feta, spinach and sundried tomatoes was the one she decided on in the end. I had a Spaghetti marinara which had fresh seafood and a rich tomato sauce. We had a bottle of Chianti and it was a nice romantic evening. It's not just pizza and pasta, they do a range of Italian meat and fish dishes. I am never quite that hungry though and am usually happy with a decent sized pasta. There is also a good selection of wine but I ordered Chianti as I am not an expert on wine and I understand it's a good wine to have with Italian food.

We ate there on a Grabone voucher. Was actually quite impressed with the neighbourly atmosphere and the starters were exemplary I had the bruschetta, which made me pretty nostalgic (having eaten in some pretty decent Italian restaurants in my time). But the rest of the dinner was pretty dismal. The Veal Masala was bland and I struggled to finish it, and dessert seemed store bought. If the owners serve sub standard food to grabone guests, then they're missing the point of the promotion. If not, and this is the standard of their regular fare, then it was not up to par. And to add another layer of pettiness, they charged us extra because we ordered 2 desserts they said the voucher only covered one (between two people) although nothing on the voucher said that, and they didn't mention it when I ordered. I queried it, but was not about to spoil what had been a pleasant enough night, so paid and left. But I won't be rushing back there.

I have just eaten in your restaurant 156 parnell road, Parnell. To be honest I was disgusted, embarrassed and very disappointed with the way my wife and I were treated. My food was fantastic but unfortunately my wife 's chicken had lots of gristle and was dry, the veg was rock hard and the Parma ham on top tasted like it had gone off. I spoke to a waitress when she cleared our table regarding this matter and she could see from the amount left on my wife 's plate that she did not enjoy her meal and that there was an issue. We were very polite and embarrassed to mention this but felt it needed to be brought to light as we didn 't want other customers to experience the same issue. Upon me saying this, nothing was offered in exchange or compensation to rectify the issue. Once I received the bill from a different waitress I noticed that I had been charged full price. I went and quietly spoke to this waitress and asked if was she aware of the issue raised regarding my wife 's meal to which she confirmed yes. I told her that I felt it was wrong that I was being charged full price as one of the meals was not up to the standard I would expect. The waitress said she would need to speak to her manager. The manager came out on the defensive straight away with an attitude and to my embarrassment in front of the whole restaurant saying 'what 's the problem, you ate the food and now you are refusing to pay! You need to pay '. I said have you spoken to the waitress that cleared our plates, he said yes there was nothing wrong with the food and I should have said something in the beginning. However there was no check backs throughout our meal, not even to check that we were ok or happy with our food. From this the manager continued to state I needed to pay and made a scene in front of the whole restaurant and continued to raise his voice at me. I ended up just paying the bill in full as I was so embarrassed, mortified and completely shocked. This manager really needs to think about his actions and how he speaks to customers and I would recommend that he has further training regarding customer service. I will never go to this restaurant in Parnell again and I will give this feedback to my family and friends of our experience.

I went here with my mum for dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed the pasta. My mother who has been to Italy said it was very authentic. The service was great and I liked their wine selection. We don't have the Portofino chain in Australia but I can definitely say it's better than La Porchetta.