Portofinos - disappointed

After 14 cruises on RCCL I finally had the chance to try one of the "surcharge" restaurants, Portofinos on Voyager. We were a party of two and booked an 8:30 time on the 3rd night of the cruise. We met someone on the cruise and attempted to add him to our reservation, but were told that they were 100% booked and could not change the reservation. I turns out there were at least 3 empty tables in Portofinos (we were there from 8:30 to after 10:30). Hopefully it was a matter of people who made reservations just being "no shows", however, I have a hunch it may have been a staffing issue (more on that later).

 

Tomato/Mozzarella appetizer - leaps and bounds above the dining room offering (which was the next night in the dining room).

 

The "soup of the day" was that all-time Italian favorite New England Clam Chowder! Guess what the soup of the day was in the dining room and in the Windjammer? yup, the same.

 

The Ceasar salad was identical to the salad in the dining room, including those little packaged semi-stale croutons. It was not mixed tableside but was just brought out on a plate.

 

Our waiter had one table of 6 and two tables for two. There are no asst. waiters/busboys in Portofinos. He was very, very busy. The two tables for 2 (incl us) arrived at 8:30 and the table for 6 arrived at 9:00. He brought out the main course for the two 2's at the same time and set them on the waiters station, than had to deal with the table for 6 for several minutes. I had the beef tenderloin with mashed potataoes. The potatoes were at best lukewarm, The beef was warmer, but not piping hot (leading me to believe the plate was prepped and waited for the meat to finish cooking. My dining companion had the beef tenderloin in the dining room the previous night which I had tried. I am convinced it was the same size, quality and seasoning as my Portofinos steak. I believe they may have been a few waiters short, and had to cover more tables than usual.

 

The tiramisu was much better in taste and in presentation than the dining room.

 

Overall - to bad you can't go there for only appetizers and dessert. Was it worth the $20 per person, in my opinion NO. It did not come close to a 1st class land based restaurant.

That's too bad... my experience at Portofino on the Voyager was outstanding. We had a party of 9 and had great service and food. I guess it is the luck of the draw.

One of our dining room table-mates echoed your sentiments. They weren't disappointed really, but felt that it was really over-hyped, and not worth the $20. They said the service and food was much more enjoyable in the dining room. Of course, we had such great folks at our table, maybe it was just the outstanding company they missed!!! :-)

my husband and I dined at portifinos and we had a great experience. There was also entertainment which would play and sing anything you requested. We had a great time and was stuffed. no compliants. will do it again.

My lamb was much better in the dining room two nights later. The service was good as well as the entertainment.

The only entertainment we had was the waiter running around like crazy and the women who arrived "smart casual" for dinner in sweatpants, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. Come to think of it about half way thru dinner there was some "entertainment" (at least everyone in the restaurant was laughing). From the loudspeaker in the ceiling right above our head --"This is Michelle --COME ON DOWN TO CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE FOR BIG BUCKS BINGO, THE JACKPOT IS UP TO $4000.......". Just what every upscale restaurant should have; announcements for bingo!!!

Sea Island...you are right, the lamb roast was the best meal of the week.

Sorry to hear about your disappointing experience in Portofinos.

This is what we dined on http://community.webshots.com/photo/97526505/97532500TqOKdr

on Radiance. We thought that the food, sevice and atmosphere were great.

We look forward to dining in Portofinos and Chops on all our cruises where the option is available.

We were on the Empress to Bermuda on 8/21 and after hearing our dining tablemates wonderful experience at Portofinos, we booked it for a couple of nights later. We tried to reserve a table at 8pm, but were told that they simply couldn't give us a reservation later than 7:30pm, which we took. We were really expecting a fabulous dinner. I ordered the Caesar salad (even though I had ordered it a few times in the dining room) because the menu stated that it was prepared at the table and with shaved parmesan cheese (Mmm). Well, the waiter brings over the cart and starts to prepare the salad. With a big flourish he scoops some romaine lettuce from one bowl to another, then adds anchovies, grated cheese, croutons and pours on ready-made caesar dressing (Huh? how about freshly prepared dressing?). When he brings the dish to me and asks if I want more cheese... I asked where was the "shaved cheese"? He said that this was it! OK...so the salad tasted the same as in the dining room. Next on to the pasta, for both my DH and I. It seems they place your dishes at exactly the same time on the table... so our waiter walks clear across the room,with our pasta dishes in his hands, to get the other waiter, so that they could be placed together. Yes, the pasta was cool by that point. We thought it comical at the time. Entrees - I had the chicken, my Dh the veal. Both were tough and dried out. This was a big surprise - since I'd had the Rosemary Chicken in the dining room - which was juicy and delicious! The waiter said that he would replace with something else... but it was too late to start ordering another entree at this point. Dessert -- was fabulous. I had the flourless chocolate cake and my Dh had the tiramisu - which was far better than the one served elsewhere on the ship (which tasted like loads of gelatin). My second glass of wine never appeared, we had to ask the waiter twice for it. And he never brought a lemon rind for our espressos. We had to ask another waiter for it, because ours had disappeared. He disappeared often, and we were seated next to the kitchen. Dinner took so long that we were there for almost 3 hours, so we had lots of time to reflect. The couple at the table next to us came in much after us and were finished with their dinner before us. We never received the little plate of cookies & chocolate strawberry treats that all the other tables received.

 

Overall - we begrudgingly paid the $20 gratuity, because we felt our service was not very good at all. I think (or thought) that our experience was a fluke, because we only heard fabulous things from fellow cruisers. The clincher - was that Portofinos never filled up even half the tables that night when we couldn't get an 8pm reservation.

 

Yes, -- some people will say that these were nit-picking little problems... and they were. But when you added them all up, it was pretty disappointing and somewhat annoying.

I 100% agree about the Tiramisu in Portofino's.. I love it in the dining room (I have said before and will say again I can live on the stuff).. Portofino's does not really measure up.

We dined in Portofino's in July on VOS and we were very disappointed as well after have a first-class experience in Portofino's on AOS in March which lacked nothing. It was like two different worlds, and that team should teach every other ship how to do it. The amuse bouche and the menu has changed and not for the better, the service on any ship can be hit or miss, but I would expect for this venue the service would be the best with the best staff simply because it is a premium. On VOS it was not.

 

The disparity between the menu change alone was substantial, coupled with the server issues, it was an ordinary dinner in comparison to hype, and disappointing for the direction this venue has taken.

 

We will try Chops for the first time in April while on board Jewel. We would also try Portofino's again, but only if the menu has improved when we view it. I hope that the cruiseline pays attention to the menu selections and the service bewteen now and then and improves overall in Portofino's.

Sea Island...you are right, the lamb roast was the best meal of the week.

I don't know about the lamb roast, but the rack of lamb was outstanding in the main dining room. The rack in Portofino was lacking in any flavor.

 

I thought the Tiramasu was good in both places.

BaumD, I loved your comparison to the windjammer, the clam chowder. I, too, thought the side dishes smacked of 50 gallon drums of creamed spinach or the soup d'jour. Our experience was in Chops.

 

My shrimp cocktail had the shells on. Not just the tail part but the whole thing. How do you eat that when it has been doused with cocktail sauce? Focaccia bread in a steak house? We were not impressed by our steaks either. They were tough. Our service was slow to non-existant. We left after several hours and still no dessert or coffee.

 

I guess our expectations were for something that tasted entirely different from the dining room or the windjammer. We were disappointed.

 

We are usually not complainers, actually just the opposite but we may try the specilaty restaurants again. Could have been a fluke.

BaumD, great info. Thanks. :) :cool: :D

I couldn't complain if I tried. Both meals were wonderful. Portofino's on the AOS and Chops on NOS. Both meals were leaps and bounds above the main dining room in terms of food itself. Our service in the dining room was a little better though. I suspect the LARGE (18 or so) group that was seated near us was taxing the staff in Chops. :rolleyes:

 

There was also a certain somone from our table that found it was possible to eat at Chops but order dessert from the Portofino's menu. ;)

 

And this is without even touching on the dreaded coffee subject!

I was on VOS last week. Couldn't go to Portofinos because we had children with us under 13. From the sounds of this thread, I'm glad we didn't. I really do not think there should be specialty restaurants on a cruise. The main dining room should offer the best they have to offer, period. What next, no extra charge for eating at the Windjammer and $10 to eat in the main dining rooms? By the way, the food in the dining room was excellent, why would you need to go to Portofinos? If there was something different you wanted from what was on the menu, you got it. We had a great cruise and can't wait to do it again, and again.

We also had a mediocre dining experience in Portofino's. This was this past July on the AOS. The food was about the same quality as the dining room, and even though there were not that many other diners seated when we were there, the service was slow and unattentive. Although no one at our table ordered the Caesar salad, a gentleman at the table next to ours asked to speak to the chef to complain about the poor quality of his Caesar salad. This was the first (and probably the last) time we had eaten in Portofino's. It didn't leave us with a very good impression.

We just went there last week on VOS. There where 5 of us and I did bring my son that was 10 at the time. I have to say I did sit in a area where I watched them make the Ceasar salad, and they do do it from scracth, so it is differnent then what you get in the dinning room. They just don't do it in front of you which makes no sense because I think it would just adds to the moment. I have to say we where on Carnival last year and they have a resturant called the Golden flence which had a live band playing that you could Dance to on the dance floor which was 100 times nicer then this. I was not that disappointed with this resturant but I do agree that there is plenty of room for improvment. It is nice but it could be better I will say that.

Billy

We sailed VOS 8/13 and we dined at Portofinos(all 6 of us) to celebrate my daughters(12th) birthday. WE must have been real lucky as the food and service was exceptional. My boys(23,20 and 16) are the pickiest eaters, but everyone had a complete meal( appy, soup, salad, dinner and dessert) and we were all pleased with and really enjoyed what we had ordered. I must say that the desserts are a work of art, and on top of that they had a birthday cake waiting and they all sang for her. Maybe it is hit and miss(as reflected in this thread) but we talked with others on the same voyage and they seems as contented with Portofinos as we were.

We dined at Portofinos on our last cruise and the service was top notch and the food was outstanding. We let our waiter pick a few things for us and when we told him no to dessert he brought us 4 to take back to our room. I couldn't even pick up the wine bottle without him rushing over to do it for us.

Im sure every ship is different, we had a great time

Weird that you guys took your kids in there. When I went last month they only allowed kids 13 and over. That was the only reason we did not eat there. Of course, after our table-mates review, I was glad we had to skip it since I don't think we missed much Honestly, I can't imagine having any better food, service, or company than we had each night in the dining room. My son and I both loved it.

We've been to Portofino's on Voyager and Adventure and have had a great experience both times. Our salads were tossed fresh at our table and the soups were escarole and minestrone....wine list is great too.

We had a great experience at Portofino's on the Explorer. Freshly tossed salad and desserts that were not available in the dining room. We'll be going back during our Mariner Cruise too. Have fun and Happy cruising!

i ate at portofinos on the explorer last week. both the service and food was excellent. it was even better than the dining room... which was also great.

Sorry you had a bum dinner, our dinner was great!