Went here as a group for a friends birthday. Food was horrible and overpriced. Service was even worse. There was another group there for a hens night and the only waiter there was too busy sitting at the ladies table flirting with them. Food took a long time to get to us and was luke warm by the time it arrived. At one point we couldn’t find the waiter who a friend found kissing one of the ladies from the other table near the toilets. Absolutely disgusting service, especially for the price you pay. Have also been to the Portofino in Mission Bay and the manager was extremely rude. I will never eat at Portofino’s again. You can get a better meal at McDonald’s or Burger King!
Don’t waste your money going here!

I am more then four years customer in Portofino Restaurant Viaduct.I live in Ponsonby and many times with my wife we go to dinner in Portofino Restaurant Viaduct.
I was yesterday with dinner with my wife on Tuesday 27 December 2011. We order food, It wasn’t good at all, my wife lasagna is was very cold and dry, and my steak it was to salty. I am disappoint from the menu and food.
I told to the waiter to reheat my wife lasagna, friendly waiter he apologies to us,and he reheat lasagna.
The end of the dinner waiter give us a bill, and bill was with HOLIDAY SURCHARGE on 20% more then regular price.
Tuesday 27 December 2011 is WITHOUT SURCHARGE. I am totally disappointed from management on Portofino Restaurant. I keep my bill, so and I can inform about HOLIDAY SURCHARGE on 27 December 2011.
I won’t back again.

I ordered chicken fettuccine and it was WAAAY overpriced for what it was worth. So average. La Porchetta is much better and it’s half the price. I tried my friend’s steak and it was very average as well. Nothing special about their menu. The potatoes and carrots and beans looked like they were heated in the microwave. It resembled somewhat of a TV dinner. Won’t come here again!

Dined here on Saturday, 8th October.

Booked a table for 10 for dinner/drinks at 8.45pm with a specific request to be seated near one of their tv’s to watch the RWC game.. We turned up on time, and were seated without access to a tv.. Promptly moved our table which was good, however were seated in front of an outward opening closet which the staff use to keep their belongings in! Dinner was interrupted 3 times during the evening so access could be gained into the cupboard – the restaurant was NOT full so I have no idea why they would sit ANYONE there?..

Entree and Mains arrived without much fuss, pizza’s, calamari and alfredo was tasty and came in good time. 3x desserts were ordered and the waitress came back 15mins later with only 2 desserts and explained that they had “run out” of the other type ordered. When questioned why she hadnt advised this when we ordered, she simply gave a blank look and no sorry..

Food was good, albeit pricey, however we will not be returning due to the very poor service. NOTE: we did take our concerns up with the manager on the night, and he gave a shrug and said “it happens” – NOT IMPRESSSED at all.. Disappointing to think we have so many tourists in our country at the moment and that is the standard they are being offered!!

Great location let down by poor food. My Chicken Parmigiana was a $35 TV dinner that had not been in the microwave long enough. Crisp vegetables are good but my three potatoes and one carrot were uncooked. The squid entree looked like it have been sitting under lights for an hour.

My partners White Veal Fungeto was ok and the service was fine.

Expensive and best to walk past to where you can get better for the same money.

Sorry but Portofino you would have got one star except for the fact you let us in for dessert only just before closing.
But the food was not that great. As it was desert only not much was ordered, Coffee, Hot chocolate, Cheesecake and Brandy Snaps.
It was spray cream on the coffee, hot chocolate and brandy snaps that had all but devolved by the time the food arrived at our table. The brandy snaps were nothing special with three supermarket brandy snaps on a plate filled with devolved spray cream. The Cheesecake was at least two days old and quite dry, Hot chocolate was good but the coffee while hot was burnt

Disgraceful. We tried to redeem a Spreets voucher – $29 for “any two mains of your choice and a garlic bread” valued at $60. After we placed our order the woman in charge told us the voucher was only valid for pizza or pasta mains (which of course are much cheaper). It said nothing about this on our voucher but she would not be reasoned with (even the other waiter was embarrassed ) – totally dishonest.
She was rude and we left; obviously a ploy to get people in the door. We won’t be back and we have laid a complaint with the Commerce Commission. This sort of dishonesty is a disgrace to this country.

Booked for 10 ladies for 8:00 o’clock. We arrived at 7:30. No one to seat us so we sat at the large table outside as no wait to be seated sign. Manager came out and yelled like at mad man for us to move as they were expecting a large group. He moved us to wait outside. A large group of about 20 arrived and took the table we were just at. We waited till 8:30 when I asked if we could have a table as we’d booked and he said when this large group has left. I told him we had a booking at 8o’clock and he said they didn’t have it in the bookings. I said I defiantly had booked a week earlier and asked to see their bookings to show we had booked. I suspected they just wanted to take the larger group, he wouldn’t show us? He was rude and unprofessional and told him we thought so. Will note it in our Tour guide to dodge. We left with birthday girl very upset with her potentially ruined evening but went next door and had a lovely time. Shame Portofino. You will never get any of our business or associates of ours. Very ugly experience

The food is really good, we had pizza, some salad and a pasta, it was really tasty but it took really long, i wasn’t in a hurry but you start to feel weird being in a restaurant in the middle of other tables having their meal, so i felt a little bit uncomfortable, about this, but really good food.
Thank you!

We had a delicious meal here but unfortunately it took so long to arrive that we had eat it super fast and rush off to see a show, despite the waiter assuring us that this would not happen.

Went here last night for dinner. The service was utter crap! Have to say that the meals we ordered were delicious. But after we were seated we were not attended to for at least 15mins. Had to go up and ask for our own water. The lady who seemed to be the manager there had a rude attitude when we asked for a bottle of wine. Wasn’t friendly at all. The waiters didn’t check on our meals at all or asked us if we needed more water throughout dining. The waiter also asked to take our plates away before we were even finished eating?!?!?! Found this completely rude. Didn’t feel welcome at all in the restaurant. The only thing saving it from utter failure is the food which was great. We expected a lot more from a restaurant along the viaduct and from what we were paying for our dinner.

Never going back there again.

I went to Portofino’s a few years back for a work dinner and had a great time, mentioned to a few people I was going to go there again this last month, everybody said NO WAY ITS SH*T!!

Couldn’t help myself, went again.
I asked for scampi not flakey torn up pieces of wall paper.

Rude waiter, rude manager, 2.5 hours to get my drywall served..Completely dissapointed.

Saw what one of the waitresses wrote while reading over these reviews just now,
“Some of our waiters are of different cultures and their idea of good customer service is different than ours” (Or something to affect)

PRETTY SURE that arrogance, disrespect, rudeness, abuse among a list of many other things is in no way thought of as good customer service ANYWHERE.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

This place is not worth the money that you pay. The location is great, and the waiters are friendly; but the food is quite expensive and it’s not particularly amazing. If you’re looking for great, authentic Italian food I wouldn’t say this is the place to go to. Not value for money.

my English is not good, but don t belive some ppl saying here is worst Italian restaurant, i tried by my self and my boyfriend last weekend,waiters are not talking much, but they nice friendly if you ask them to do things, i did asked to change seat for 3 times for better view in 1 dinner, and they just happy to do that, no any unhappy face. and the seafood big dish was very very good, price was good for restaurants in place like viaduct. don t understand why above ppl giving bad feed back.

Will never recommend or return to the viaduct portofino.We were a party of 14 for a birthday booked two weeks ahead. the wait staff were rude and inattentive,a man whom we took for manager came to the table and started being aggressive about one of our party who walked out after waiting an hour for the meal to come.The waiter approached our table to defend himself whilst we were eating.The attitude of the staff was appalling and uncaring. We were blamed for their inefficiency and rudeness. This place needs a severe shake up with all needing customer service training.What happened to the saying “The customer is always right”.

To be honest I cant believe im wasting my time on this but people need to know how rude the staff are!! im 9 months pregnant and had my foot stood on, got told with a hand in my face to wait for my water (which i never got!) shoulder-barged when i stood up and knocked everytime they walked past, i was one of 7!! we experienced steak knives slamming then falling into laps.. u name it we got it! we werent asked for drinks till we had to grab the attention of staff some 15 mins after being seated. the food was average the vegies were stone cold. then to top it off complaining to the owner we were told we could have desert and a drink on the house, we had desert no further drinks but were on the bill, when questioned we were told we were lucky we got 10% discount.further more the toilets were disguting!! I hope they shape up for the rubgy world cup as there would be nothing worse for our guests to think NZ restaurants are all like this. My guests from auz and i will never eat there again.

The service in this restaurant is diabolical. If you do not have the capacity to cook for the amount of diners sitting down, why accept more in? what gives you the right to expect people to wait 2 hours for food?. No apologies for the delays, or free drinks/nipples to keep you going.
Would never go there again, embarrassed that any visitors to NZ may go there and think this is the norm.

This was the second time to dine in Protofino for my friend birthday. There were not many guests in the restaurant; but it still took us one and half hours to have the meals. Almost end of my meal, I found a one CM length toothpick in the baked potato while I was chewing it. It almost cut my tong. The waiter was very polite and apologized to me for this and also promised to do something for me. I thought the restaurant manager will come and say something, but no one came. End of paying the bill, the waiter explained the problem in Italian to the cashier and try to ask a discount for us, but the cashier said very loudly in English “So?!” then only took $6.00 off from our bill and looked at me like the one is taking advantage on them. I have been working in the hospitality industry for many years and I have never seen any restaurants deal problems with such attitude. I will not recommend this restaurant to any of our hotel guests and I will report it to the city council.

I enjoyed the salmon pasta although the service was quite slow and it took a while to deliver my meal.However,a friend of mine had a completely different view and didn’t like it at all.

Went with my partner to this place beacuse our friends said it was really good.
1. A waiter showed us to our table as soon as we got there then walked off.
2.Got asked for drinks after 15 mins and we just got water which arrived ages afterwards (water!) and the glasses were dirty and had a smell.
3.It took ages to get the attention of a waiter and we did after 20 mins then almost an hour afterward we got our food.
4. We sat by the door and the waitress stood there for ages with our food not knowing who to serve it to. The food was goos although my lamb was a bit undercooked.
5. People brought their dogs who continously barked at everyone, this was disruptive for a romantic date.
6. No smiles, no thanks yous, no follow throughs.

Never going back there again.

made a booking, stood to wait for a table to be cleaned. was seated, food was bought out within an hour, the meals we had were beautiful and substantial and well priced. service was quick with the mains. it turned after that. no follow threw or dessert menus or coffees offered.had to ask was ignored by 1 staff member. all in all excellent food terrible service

Portofinos. What a blight on Aucklands thriving restaurant scene. I have never encountered such bad service and lack of respect from restaurant staff. Add to this the inedible menu and you have a disaster on your hands. All we can do is tell other people and stay away in droves. This poisonous experience needs to be put out of business. Have a nice day.

Never go to this place! It is a waste of time, effort and money. The manager is ridiculously rude, staff are untrained and rude and the service is appalling. We waited 1 hour and 45 minutes for our meals on a Monday night!! The manager said the restaurant was “busy”. I hate to imagine how he manages on a fri/sat evening?!?! We got no apology which is the only thing we were after, instead we got an arrogant manager who kept excusing his restaurant’s appalling service. Will never ever be back. I have never ever experienced such shocking service

Portofino has expanded and is now a very big restaurant, taking up both sides of a walkway in the Viaduct Basin. There is great ambiance inside with quaint lighting and dark panelling. I walked in for dinner along with half of the audience for the upcoming Simon & Garfunkel concert; needless to say, myself and several tables were probably feeling quite time-pressured. It was difficult to grab the waiting staff’s attention on such a busy night but, apart from some anxious clock-watching moments, I made it through my meal in time for the show. The cheese pizza bread was tasty and I took the leftovers home. I enjoyed my spaghetti alla carbonara; the serving was generous with large pieces of ham and a delicious creamy sauce. I’d be happy to try Portofino again in less-rushed circumstances.

Last night I be with my family in Portofino Restaurant on Viaduct,I am very happy, wonderfull Italian food,best service.Waitter is very happy and friendly.Wonderfull place with happy and smile face on waitters.Will be back soon.

Would give this place no stars if it was possible!! I have never met staff so rude we waited 25 Minutes after being seated at a dirty table just to get the menus!! then once we received them we were left waiting so long for our orders to be taken we got up and left!!! Slack service and after reading the other reviews on here i am glad we didn’t stay as it sounds like the food is just as bad!!!

Poor service from this funny “Italian” restaurant. My family and I do not drink wine, so waiter and waitress were not happy when we asked for ice water. We were treated like second class customers ! Quite rude and unfriendly attitude ! Will never dine there again ! Unpleasant dining experience .

Do not be fooled by the waitresses response to this list of reviews. If you are not able to serve the required amounts of tables ask your Boss for help. My dining experience was nothing short of disgusting. The staff are very rude and have no manners. When we complained about the quality of the food it was met with an irritating reply and were told they were too busy and we were being unreasonable.
We were also forced to pay for food we could not eat. There is nothing Italian in this place, avoid it if you would like to enjoy your evening. Also there seems to be a common trend with people complaining about the staff, maybe it is time to re-train them correctly. Will never see me again.

You all mentioned about dining here, well I tried to phone them for an early reservation for Valentines, sorry I had not read any of the reviews before about this place. Some lady picked up the phone, couldnt understand her english, so she gave the phone to another person.I explained my request. he rudly said, sorry 1st come first serve no reservation. I also asked if there was a menue out for that day. All he said was I dont know! end of conversation….thanks a lot guys, defntly not going here..

Disgraceful restaurant
food below average wait staff unpleasant unhelpful and rude, riding on there location and not the food or experience and im afraid location does not a good restaurant make wont be back

Worst “italian” restaurant in Auckland. First of all I’m italian and I can definately say that this restaurant has nothing italian at all. The owner is from Macedonia and the cooks are from all over the place but Italy. I wanted to order spaghetti al pesto but on the menu it was classified as entree. So I asked if I could have main size instead. The owner simply said “NO”. I asked if there was any particular reason and said that I simply wanted a slightly larger portion and obviously was willing to pay more for it. His response was “We don’t change dishes here.”. I said that I found it a very poor response and that a little flexibility would help. He answered: “Do you think if the owner of the restaurant had started changing the menu for everyone who asked it he would have made so much money??”. At this point I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to spoil everyone’s night so I decided not to walk out. I ordered pasta alle vongole and saying that it was overcooked is a euphemism… The worst eating experience in New Zealand! Don’t go here. There are plenty of decent italian restaurant in Auckland and a few of good ones as well. Don’t waste your money!!

My husband and I had dinner at Portofino on Xmas Eve 2007 and it was the worst Xmas Eve dinner of our lives.

The food was bland and dry. My spaghetti alle vongole was so awful that I asked for parmesan cheese and salt to lift it up. It was so dry that it was just impossible to eat.

I asked for the manager and he told me that that’s how this dish was supposed to be. I was appalled by his response. Anyone who has had a vongole pasta dish before would know that it should be in a lovely white wine sauce and nicely salted with clam juice.

I gave up on the meal and shared my husband’s steak instead. The meat was tough but at least the taste was ok.

The restaurant billed us for the pasta despite noticing that I had not eaten more than 2 bites of it.

It was Xmas Eve and we didn’t want to spoil our mood so we didn’t make a fuss there. But it was definitely the last time we are eating at that restaurant.

Cheers
Karen

I’m a waitress at Portofino Viaduct and i just want to justify your expectations of good service. Firstly, please explain further what you think good service can be when you have 3 tables of 15 people arriving at once, all expecting drinks and so on. It’s not easy. The restaurant seats so many people all with extreme expectations and not only are we pressured from our side (staff wise) but also the customer always comes first. Always. Diners should know that- Gino is our boss, he trains us and looks after us to try make us as friendly and capable as we can be during rush hour.
Secondly, in terms of immigrant workers, keep in mind that they are from a completely different culture to New Zealand- their ideas of good service are different to ours. Try please to be a little more patient. Everyone who’s worked in hospitality should understand what its like to work in the busiest restaurant in the Viaduct.
As for the food, try the Pollo Camembert and Linguini Ginolino. Its a little out of the ordinary, but worth it.
Thankyou to everyone who wrote decent reviews about Portofino.

wow what a great dining experience of NZ. I love the way there are crabs in the mussels – it gives a sense of connection to the food chain. The fettucine is superb al dente and staff are aloof – not overly gushy or fake. I like the way the waiter slapped my face when I called him a wog – good on him for sticking up for himself – too many emigrant workers put up with less than courteous behaviour from the English upper classes.

I have been going to this place for the past few years, and it is a fabulous place to eat at. Great for celebrating couples’ anniversaries and team dinners. Chicken fettucine is my favourite meal, and the atmosphere is very laid back yet styley.

To anyone thinking of eating Italian please find another Italian Restaurant than Portofinos, There are 10x better ones out there.
I will NEVER eat at Portofino’s again! Not only did my food have a baby crab in it which I crunched into, but afterwards the HELP/WAITERS were not the friendliest about it all and tried to act like we should be ok with it, reasoning was that mussels have crabs in them all the time and it happens so that we should be ok with it, but I’m sorry I do not go to pay for a meal to get told that! it put me off my lunch and my friends!
I have told many others about my experience and to my horror many others have had similar experiences not only with the food but also the service and they would never eat there again either.
My suggestion would be to go somewhere else at all costs…

Ordered Canaloni (spelling?) and sent it back because it was over cooked and tough.
$35 meal with rocket and 12 canaloni with not sauce for taste, which you can buy from the supermarket for $6.
Received back our so called freshly cooked, but NO, received the same back with others added and over cooked.
Did they come and ask how this or any meals are? NO. We were on holiday and didn’t want to spoil our night. We shouldnt of paid $35 for this lettuce and 8 squid rings, fried till tough.
Watch out for this TRICK of words.
Would you like any water? “YES” Still or fizzy, was asked. Still please. Received a bottle of Italian still @ $9.50 bottle, and received already opened. Tasted like normal tap water. ASK for TAP water if asked or you will get a $9.50 bottle.
When one asks for water/still/ we all expected our fresh New Zealand water. What about the carbon foot print on sending water all the way from Italy in a glass bottle. Shame.
We have been in many Portofino’s and this is the last.
“How was your meal at Portofino’s” Hope it was better than ours.
I do recommend the Fettichine, not all bad, just lack of service for the price we paid. Come on management, you are better than this.

Portofinos Restaurant was lovely to dine at. I ordered the Chicken Fettuccine which was exceptional and filled all the expectations of it that I had from friends telling me it is their favourite Portofino dish. The service was great and they waited on us hand and foot. Though the meals took a while to arrive, the wait was fully worth it in the end. The only problem of mine that I had was that we were right next to the sliding door which was the waiters access to outside so it was used frequently and caused a draft every time they opened it. Overall Portofinos is fully recommended by me and with all the options on the menu everyone will be able to find something exactly right for their taste, no matter what it is.