Review Portofino Bar & Restaurant - Devonport

Delicious food, friendly staff, reasonable prices - all in the middle of one of the oldest Auckland's suburbs. Highly recommended.

We have been coming here for years and I thought it was about time I did a review. We went for Father's Day & the food is really great. The steak was excellent & pasta dishes were also very good. Nice relaxed atmosphere and the service and staff are great.

Had birthday dinner there and was so good, the food was amazing, had fettuccine chicken and steak, absolutely delicious. The dessert is keto friendly and so tasty. Recommended 100%

Popped in for a family dinner on Sunday night whilst visiting Devonport. Friendly staff and wonderful food. Definitely worth stopping by.

Amazing experience. Quick table service and yummy food. Our new local favourite Italian restaurant in North Shore. Buzzing after Alert Level 2.

We went to Portofino on the worst possible day. There was a lights show at the Viaduct and tenths of thousands of people were expected to attend. Every restaurant was packed. However, Portofino helped us to a table, without booking, after we failed to find a table at other restaurants. Once inside, it was clear they were quite busy, but the waitress was very nice to us. Once we ordered it took 50 minutes for the food to arrive and we complained. The waitress was kind and offered the kids ice cream as a compensation for the wait. I ordered the red wine steak. It was great, as seen on the pictures. I enjoyed the taste, although I prefer a bit more quantity. In summary, on a very difficult day, we were satisfied and would happily keep coming to Portofino.

Great Italian restaurant. Tasty delicious food at good value. The place serves drinks and wine. Beautiful place to have dinner.

Amazing food and service.highly recommend

Nice and cozy restaurants for family/friends gathering. Very good customer service

The staff was really kind and food also was amazing!! Especially, I really recommend the pasta!!It was awesome!!I will visit there again👍👍

Amazing Italian restaurant, a true gem of Devonport. Friendly and nice staff/owners and you can see plenty of locals on weekdays which is a great sign.<br/>We love the steak with plenty of mushrooms, it is a delicious main!<br/>And having Zomato gold is quite a treat. A no brainer really, we will just keep coming back for more.<br/>Thanks, Portofino!

One of the place to try around devonport! They serve good steak and pasta! The service is amazing as well! Great location to relax and eat good food!

Little trip to Devonport and give a try to this great restaurant, i’m ordering seafood risotto and seafood fettuccini. Taste really nice and also the place really cozy to spend time for either lunch or dinner. Recommended

Nice and quiet environment. Food was good but small portion. No issue to redeem Buy 1 Free 1 on mains with Zomato Gold. Use YUHE1513 for 20% off joining Zomato Gold.

Great location, nice to look out over street. Was very quiet when we went on a Monday night, but staff were very friendly and the food was delicious, we had a pizza, risotto and crumbed brie. May be a bit overpriced if wasn’t for the zomato deal but will definitely be back!

Beautiful food, the meat was melting into my mouth!! nice and charming environment and I guess the owner is the chef too, he was really kind and attentive!

Such a lovely restaurant. The staff were very friendly, the location is beautiful, and the food was absolutely delicious. We can’t wait to go back. Highly recommend!

Beautiful view, great service DELICIOUS FOOD and to top it all off Zomato gold. My partner and I both really enjoyed our meals and wine of course. What an amazing authentic italian destination. Would dine again!

Been here few times and we always get their 3 course meals deal for $39. Such an excellent value of money especially when you come with big group. Recently we had a rehearsal dinner with 18 people and one baby. We were seatead all in one row, and everyone had a lovely dinner and had happy tummy. Great service. Highlights were steak, chicken, pasta, mussels and those chocolate cheesecake is rich and indulgence.

Came here on a Sunday afternoon. Very tasty and authentic food and nice environment. Sat by the window on a bright and sunny day. Friendly staff.

Great food, reasonable prices depending on what you get. Always consistently good so we eat here once a week. If you get take-away the prices are super reasonable and a lot cheaper. Friendly hospitable staff, authentic chefs. Very nice sauces on all their dishes and yummy garlic pizza bread. My kids finish their meals (win) and everyone enjoys the experience.

First impressions of the restaurant was very good nice and clean and fancy. It has good warm vibes and the waiters are very attentive and kind thry always make sure there customers are good and make sure everything is running smoothly. The food was really really good i ordered steak which was cooked to perfection and i tried my friends pasta which was very lovely. Will be back again cheers!

I ordered takeaway, and it was ready in 10 minutes! I was really surprised, great service. We ordered spaghetti bolognese, fettuccine di pollo and brandy snaps (dessert), all the food was great quality :) Fettuccine sauce was very creamy and delicious. I loved the brandy snaps as well. This was very cheap for me, only $40! I recommend coming here

You must have their chicken liver in marsala sauce. The sauce alone, it's the best marsala I've ever had, and probably will ever have. Plus, the pasta we had tasted authentic Italian. Noodles and sauce tasted freshly made. Will come back here.

Fegatini Di Pollo is a must! The Marsala sauce was creamy and didn't overpower the chicken liver which was cooked perfectly. I've had the Seafood Marinara for mains and the mussels and fish were so fresh you can taste the sea from it. Definitely coming back again and try out more from their menu!

Came here for our friend's birthday celebration. About 40ish people in the group. Took the 3 course menu deal. It's really nice. Had the ifegatini di pollo as entree. Its basically chicken liver with onion, mushroom. Its rich and a bit heavy but still very nice if you are a bit adventurist in meals. Had the 300g bistecca al pepe nero as main dish. Got that really catch me so then I forgot to capture it as photo. 😂 Its nice its hot since the black pepper is really working there. I love spicy thus I add more tabasco. End up with a nice experience of having steak that was prepared as medium rare. Love it. Finished the dining with gelato ice cream where 3 scoops of vanilla coconut ice cream was served. All in all well served, recommended and will come back.

My  wife and I discovered Portofinos way back in 1990 when we first arrived from england and have been visiting ever since. We live in Manukau , south auckland so travelling to the north shore to eat tell you how good this restaurant is...The recent refurbishment was a plus ...the service is always friendly and prompt without being pushy..the only quibble I could possibly have is the menu...just so many good dishes ..its so hard to choose... If its the mingon or the risotto that I  order I always find myself looking at all the other gorgeous dishes that go to other tables...and for those who want more of a change to the menu which has basically stayed the same forever is If its not broken don't fix it...Will be visiting soon

Really enjoyed dining here, clean and good ambiance. They currently have a special going On 3 course for $35 super sweet deal! Our meals were all lovely and top quality. Service was great and food were fresh and yummy! Will definitely be back for sure!

A staple in Devonport. Very well done comfort food. I always order the seafood avocado, filet mignon and a bottle of Chianti. Always consistent and always tasty. Staff are friendly and helpful. Nice sunny spot in the evening.

Family favourite for birthday dinners! Nestled upstairs on Vauxhall street Devonport. Window seats are ideal if you can get them!  Not to be mistaken as part of the mediocre Portofino chain in Takapuna and Auckland's CBD as this Portofino is independent. <br/>Recommend the chicken fettuccine! I am a small give girl so I am never able to finish it but who doesn't love leftovers for tomorrows lunch.<br/>Close to the ferry if you are coming over from the city

Sometimes it is worth time travelling back to the 1980s to a good local more about substance than style. The veal dishes are superb and it does the Italian standard fare really well. Great for a family get together.

Had a lovely meal here on Saturday night. We had a nice table by the window, it can be a little loud when busy. We shared the mussels and garlic pizza bread for entree which was nice. Quite a rich tomatoey sauce. For main I had the pasta arrabiata- this was ok, a little too over sauced, I would've liked whole olives instead of tinned sliced olives. My husband had the smoked salmon pizza which was absolutely gorgeous! Beautiful crispy traditional base with flavourful toppings! Used the entertainment card discount so very reasonable!

Food was great and presentation nice. We were seated quickly even though we did not have a booking. Everything we ordered, and there were six of us, was great! We recommend their food and by later in the evening they were doing a booming business. We will go again, but probably on a week night as it will be a bit more quiet.

My favorite restaurant! My family have been coming to dine at this establishment on birthdays and other occasions for the last decade. The owners are lovely people and the food is always fantastic. The garlic pizza bread is a must and the antipasto platter is a great starter. Can not recommend this place highly enough for a comfortable, informal dining experience

What a gem. Yes maybe a tad retro but for us that was part of the charm. <br/>Service was prompt and professional as was arrival of food. Staff very friendly.Entrees were delicious especially my avocado lashed with oodles of seafood.My wife's Prosciutto entree was thoroughly enjoyed and of good quantity. She had Scallopine Marsala for her Main and declared it very tasty and filling. I was impressed with my choice... Risotto Genoese. Generously filled with seafood and of delicate flavour it was warm till the last bite.<br/>Overall a wonderful experience.

One of my favourite places to eat, the staff are always friendly, food and prices are always very good.<br/>Love it

Dined here for dinner first for starters had GARLIC PIZZA BREAD,which was tasty but perfer if it was cooked abit longer for the main I ordered FRESH FLOUNDER Pan-fried traditionally with lemon and parsley with rice,i really enjoyed it and for dessert i had Strawberry Gelato absolutely superb all round excellent,relaxing atmosphere,and service was great too.

As much as I want to give this restaurant a 5 star rating I'm haunted by the after taste of our last experience. <br/>This restaurant isn't bad as such and there food isn't the worst I've had, however the experience lacked a lot of what Italian culture is all about. <br/>while there food and decor resembled retro-traditional Italian cuisine there service did not. And unfortunately left a family of 6 people over the age of 18 feeling as if they had been neglected and poorly treated. This unfortunately impacted our whole perspective on the restaurant, food, decor and all.<br/>Which in my words is a pity, However I am not put off by the experience and will return sometime in the future to see the improvements- Good luck, signed Anticipated Customer.

We are fun of Portofino Devonport with the friendly and great customer service.<br/><br/>They serve al dente pasta and we are always filled with delicious food and relaxing atmosphere.<br/><br/>Reasonably priced. Their Italian wine list is great as well!!

My Wife and I are regular visitors to Portofino, and enjoy the welcoming friendly atmosphere. The food is of a consistently high standard, and we enjoy the fact that the menu remains the same, as we like to come back to our favourite meals. BYO makes a big difference to us, and bringing our own special wine tops off the experience.

Have been going here for many years with my family and have been extremely satisfied with the Portofino experience. <br/><br/>The meals are generously portioned and always delicious, with the chicken pancake being one of the many highlights of the menu. <br/>Service is always prompt, staff are friendly and meals are well timed. <br/><br/>I cannot remember a time when I've ever left Portofino unsatisfied and i whole heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a great Italian restaurant on the North Shore.

My wife and I have been going to this Restaurant for years and the reasons are many.<br/>We have always received first class service.<br/>The staff are very polite and helpful no matter how busy.<br/>The service is always the same, which is faultless.<br/>The food is exceptional and most enjoyable.<br/>The timing of meals is also very good.<br/>The condition of the restaurant is always very clean.<br/>Everyone that works there and including the chefs have always had a friendly smile and made our stay perfect.<br/>I have to try very hard to find fault and if there is, it could be the noise level is a bit high on occasions but that's what you can expect when a business like this is so popular.<br/>Keep up the good work.

Portofino has had a modern decor makeover and the food was a big improvement from last dining there. Went there Xmas eve with a group and it was a great evening.<br/><br/>Well done, would recommend.<br/><br/><br/>----- 20 Sep, 2009 -----<br/><br/>Have been going there for several years. Great because of BYO and location.<br/>Menu has not changed for years and needs a big revamp. Food last time, in last month, was very average.<br/>Decor needs a makeover.<br/>Give yourself a revamp and you will be a major northshore restaurant again.

I have also been going to this restaurant for many years and have never been disappointed. Sure, the menu may not have changed but that is precisely what I like about it - I keep going back for my old favourites and there is something to suit every member of the family. Consistently good food at a reasonable price

I have dined at this restaurant on a twice yearly basis since 2003 and don't think the menu has changed since then. I'm vegetarian and so have one selection from the pasta menu - vegetarian fettuccine. The food is good but come on guys, put some variety in it!

Portofino is a great place for hosting friends for lunch or dinner. I organized a birthday lunch at their Mission Bay restaurant, and a group of 15 of us had a great time. Their staff are super friendly and efficient. They even allowed my friends to sneak in a birthday cake through the back-entrance of the kitchen :)<br/><br/>Portofino is located in some very nice locations. I have been to the Mission Bay, Viaduct, and the Takapuna restaurants, and have received the same level of service and quality at each venue. The meal portions are good sized, and the food always tastes great! Last time I checked, they only allow one bill per table, so just remember to advise the staff if you wish to split the bill.

Located in an upstairs location on Victoria road in Devonport, Portofino is in nice location, positioned a short walk from the ferry it is convenient. Portofino is an “Italian” restaurant. It serves food that is at least reminiscent of actual Italian food. The service is reasonable and I had no complaints on that front. The thing that really sets Portofino apart is its food.<br/><br/><br/>I love Italian food and I freely admit, New Zealand is not home to many decent Italian restaurants, but most provide food that while not great is not embarrassingly bad. Italian food is what I taught myself to cook on and to understand the importance of subtlety of palate. The real key is good ingredients and taking time to get the techniques right. Less if often more and despite similarities to French cuisine most Italian food has a markedly different philosophy, relying on a handful of ingredients of quality to provide depth and complexity in their flavours. <br/><br/><br/>I normally try to write about the food in detail, but for this review I want to clearly list out the character of the dishes.<br/><br/><br/>Spaghetti Bolognaise<br/><br/><br/>I love spaghetti bolognaise, that rich concentrated ragu with lovely buttery hand made pasta and a touch of parmesan adding to its understated complexity. Sadly this is not quite what portofino delivered. The Problems:<br/>• Relatively cheap store bought pasta - Pasta does not have to be hand made, I prefer it for ragu, but people’s mileage may vary, the point is if you are going to use store bought pasta, buy something half decent, especially when charging through the nose for it.<br/><br/>• Inadequately reduced tomatoes - While the sauce was reduced and so not watery, ragu is supposed to be a very thick sauce. It normally cooks for 3-4 hours at the simmer, once all preliminary reduction has taken place (of wine, milk, etc…). The concentration of the taste of tomatoes and the development of the sugars is absolutely essential to a good ragu. The sauce here was to acidic in balance, indicating lack of adequate reduction (total acid may not actually change, but the development of other flavours compensate for it on the palate). <br/><br/>• Poor flavour complexity - I am not sure what was added to the sauce exactly, but I doubt any milk was used, which helps add sweetness over the extended cooking time and also if wine was used it was so sparingly as to add little to the complexity of the sauce. The sauce lacked specific character or complexity that a half decent sauce might have.<br/><br/>• Poor colour - A small point related to the previous few, the colour was not a rich deep red-brown colour, but a lighter red, again indicating lack of cooking time.<br/><br/>• Undercooked meat - The meat was not dangerously undercooked, but a ragu is effectively a braise. This is necessary to get all the fat and connective tissue to melt. Given the inadequate cooking, these had not done so, as a result the texture was less pleasant, as you bit into bits of connective tissue. Furthermore the sauce was less gelatinous because of this, reducing the mouth feel.<br/><br/>• Poor quality of parmesan - One of the things I try never to skimp on is Parmigiano Reggiano. This is because you use very little of it per serving and good quality is so superior to poor quality, that I fail to see the point of a cheap one, which lacks any complexity. The Parmesan in this case, carved in large-ish chunks, lacked any real depth.<br/><br/>• Poor Quality of Ingredients - Despite all the technical problems with the dish, it was obvious to me that the actual quality of ingredient, even excluding the pasta and parmesan, was poor. This to me was evidenced by the lack of any distinctive flavour to come from the sauce. It tasted much like a canned sauce, but lack of homogeneous texture indicated it was not. Italian food does not boast massive intense flavours, but they should still be underlyingly delicate and complex, an expression of good ingredients.<br/><br/>• Large Garnish - The pasta was “garnished” with a large piece of Italian parsley, far too large to actually want to eat, without cutting it up. A small point, but a choice I find difficult to fathom.<br/><br/><br/>Overall I would rate the dish as bad. I would say most people can cook a better ragu at home, even if you are an average cook. The only upside was the pasta was not over cooked, so because of that, this was the best dish, given it was edible.<br/><br/><br/>Veal Marsala<br/><br/>I do not think I have ever had such a train wreck of a dish. Truly, one of the worst things I have ever been served at a restaurant. The problems:<br/>• Veal was not veal, I’m pretty sure - The first most obvious problem, is I think they served me pork and not veal. I was so stunned after tasting the poor quality of the dish, that this did not occur to me immediately. However several tell tale signs were evident. The meat was white not pink or grey (in the case of over cooked veal). Secondly while the cut had obviously been chosen for its lack of flavour and cardboard taste, it did not taste like veal at all. Lastly it had the texture and taste of pork, although given how bland it was this was harder to tell. If I was a betting man I would wager it was almost certainly pork. I find this incredibly frustrating because the reason I ordered veal is that it was actually in season. <br/><br/>• Overcooked - The “veal” was so overcooked that it was completely dry. I admit it is hard to cook thin pieces of meat, but that is no excuse to cook them well beyond what anyone should have to eat.<br/><br/>• Flavourless - This was partly a result from overcooking, but the meat itself tasted like very little. This to me was an indication of the poor quality of the meat itself. The fact it was under salted did not help matters, as of course the over cooking made it worse still.<br/><br/>• Sauce too strong - Marsala is a pretty bold flavour. It can dominate dishes and this is part of its charm. One got the sense that in this case though it was used to shield the diner from the absolutely horrible “veal”, regardless I found the over abundance of Marsala and lack of balance of flavour an overwhelming problem in the dish. Veal itself normally has a characteristic flavour that I think is supported by marsala, less so say with pork. This did not help matters.<br/><br/>• Terrible potatoes - The potatoes that accompanied the veal, were pretty poor. On the plus side they were not undercooked, which given the poverty of cooking, was perhaps a plus. On the downside they seemed to be just steamed? or maybe boiled and chopped. These were big floury potatoes and so such a preparation, seems to be minimising the point of such potatoes, that is their ability to take on fat or other flavours. So we got a flavourless potato beneath a flavourless bit of meat.<br/><br/>• Terrible green beans - I am a stickler for green beans, so perhaps it is unsurprising I did not like theirs, but what is surprising is this, they were well cooked. Out of all the food I had, this was the best cooked item along with the pasta. However, the green bean itself was of such a poor standard, thin, flavourless and old that it did not matter. I cannot understand why you would take care in your green bean cooking, only to serve, the worst, oldest, green bean to your customers.<br/><br/>• Zucchini was actually ok - The best component on the plate was the zucchini garnish in a simple tomato and butter sauce. I love tomato butter sauce, it just wins. The zucchini while not beautifully cooked, were not terrible and mushy. I would gladly have eaten say a dish of the zucchini with some pasta and thought the meal was ok, if over priced.<br/><br/><br/>The veal was a spectacular dish, a spectacle of abject failure. I might add as well that while my dishes were not terribly presented, they were not very artful either. Those around me had much worse looking dishes, although much of this was because the presentations looked about 30 years old. A small point, but it added to the absurdity of the meal as a whole. I declined to pay an extra $10 for dessert. The cost was $45 for two dishes on a set menu. I would say the value for money was terrible. To give a comparison I could go to O’Sarracino, what I think is Auckland’s best Italian place and get the Antipasto and say the beef for $44 and the quality of the food is far superior. While Portofino is probably slightly cheaper, overall, I cannot see why you would ever go there. <br/><br/><br/>Ultimately I find food like this sad and depressing. The idea that such terrible food can be offered up, makes me think how sad it is that the wonderful cuisine of Italy, is being presented with no care or thought; and cooked by hacks with no apparent love of anything but their bottom line. You know what, we still buy it, lapping it up, giving legitimacy to this caricature of a restaurant and of an entire culture. It is an indictment of our own culture as much as anything.