Sorrento Italian Dining & Wine Bar — Restaurant in North Island

Thought we'd go to Sorrento for my birthday dinner and could not have chosen better. Our entrees of bruschetta and garlic bread were amazing and the garlic bread was perfectly soft and fluffy. We all ordered pizzas except me who chose the chefs special of the night which was a risotto with pork belly and sundried tomatoes. The pizzas were all devoured with not much left to takeaway and being gluten free my mum absolutely loved her pizza base which she couldn't believe it was gluten free. I snuck a piece or two from the pizzas and they were amazing and the risotto I ordered was the perfect winter warmer for a cold night and tasted really nice. For dessert my brother had eyes bigger than his belly and went for the dessert pizza which we didn't expect him to get through by himself but he absolutely devoured it and loved it. I got the tiramisu which is my personal favourite dessert and anywhere that serves tiramisu I can not miss out on having it. It looked like it was individually crafted and tasted incredible I just wish there was more but it was the perfect size and hands down the best tiramisu out there. The staff at Sorrento are really kind, friendly and helpful and made for a really nice evening despite us being a tricky family with some of us having dietary needs, but we were thankful with the amount of options there were and all in all we loved our night and we will definitely be back next time...

Had a mid week dinner at Osteria Taupo. Calamari was thin, greasy and chewy. I set it aside while my partner enjoyed is pate. Had to call servers over as they were too busy wiping down glasses and chatting between themselves at the bar. Manager finally came and calamari take2 arrived, same rubbish as the first time. So either cooks or manager or both aren't bothering to taste the food they send out, don't know what good seafood is meant to taste like or maybe don't care. My main was unremarkable and my partner's smoked salmon and pene pasta looked and tasted like something a 5 year old would whip up for mum on mother's day (Sorry to any 5 year old's- I'm sure mum would love it coming from you!). The final straw was the deer head trophies, they didn't blend with the restaurant décor in any way and they were covered in cobwebs. My sinuses went mental that night and for the next 2 days. Overall a completely underwhelming experience, not in any rush to go back. Given 2 stars as we did get a table quickly and the initial table service was prompt...

Woah! Okay, first things first! As most people have commented before us, the staff is incredibly sweet and thoughtful. We had a killer 14 mile hike and craved carbs and came here to enjoy pasta. I altered the penne pasta on the menu to have fettuccine and chicken, and LET ME TELL YA - my tastebuds were so happy! Delicious wines were on the menu. OH, and my partner ordered the carbonara and LOVED it. We totally discredit and completely disagree with the recent comments that said the food had no flavor - we found that incredibly hard to believe. Also, giving a restaurant a 1/5 stars when the staff is so stellar is a sign that the person leaving the review is just…unpleasant 🫣🫣🫣. Pro tip- if you click on the profiles of those people, they tend to only leave bad reviews…never good reviews. I wish Google would flag them!

Thanks for making our night so wonderful.

**If you own this restaurant you need to help your staff and hire another head or two - these humans are working HARD, and when it’s ‘that’ obvious it makes...