Del Forno Stoneridge — Restaurant in Gauteng

We chose this place for luncheon for a party of four. We arrived at about 12h30 and the place was not busy. We initially asked for a table outside (there is a lovely balcony seating area) but there wasn't a table with adequate shade and neither did our waiter offer to move any of the umbrellas that were there for the purpose of creating shade although we observed this happening for other diners who arrived after us. The ambience is casual with aspirations towards more, with "daily offers" on Tuesday and Thursdays and "date night" offers on Wednesdays. We started with the garlic focaccia which was served with butter, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. This was a tasty start. For drinks, the milky bar freezo and a lime milkshake went down a treat! For mains, we ordered the butter chicken pasta, the creamy chicken with pesto pasta with gnocchi as well the large "maserati" pizza (which is a meat lover's delight), to share. The pizza was throughly appreciated. The pizza dough is thin based and the toppings, plentiful. The pasta dishes were very over salted which spoilt the taste. One of the diners asked for extra feta in the pasta which was used as the excuse for the extra salty taste when this was pointed out but this does not account for the other gnocchi dish also suffering from over salting. We did not opt for desert. The restaurant is one of a few good choices in the immediate vicinity with a "Greekish" restaurant, a Rocco Mamas and a Simply Asia right next door, so a diner is potentially...

Great experience! We have eaten a couple of times at Del Forno Stoneridge, tried many dishes, and absolutely love their food. I recently watched the pizza men as they prepared our pizza order in their wood fired pizza oven. From the time they started rolling out the dough ball, until it came out of the pizza oven perfectly cooked, took less than 10 minutes - very impressive! One of the pizza men explained to me that the extreme heat in their pizza oven baked the dough quickly while preventing the toppings from drying out. I find the "perfect imperfections" of toasted spots around the edge and bottom with the slightly smoky taste from the wood fire is what separates their pizzas from rest and makes them super tasty. Anyway, I decided to post this review after I was very impressed by Del Forno Stoneridge's takeaway service which we used because of load shedding. We ordered a large amount of food, which consisted of 6 pizzas, 5 pastas and some desserts for a family get together at our place over the weekend. All the food was fresh and incredibly tasty. Although everything was good, I can recommend the Chicken Mayo pizzas, and if you like a tomatoey pasta with a bit of chilli, the Arrabbiata pasta with penne is delicious. We will definitely be ordering more takeout from Del Forno again tomorrow (more load shedding planned for dinner time) or, if it’s a nice evening, maybe even enjoy it on Del Forno's balcony with the amazing view of load shedded...

Mixed reviews.... I generally go for the same Pizzas and they are really nice. Most time I get a take away and happy with the service and food.

However.... Going to the restaurant has been a different experience all together. Every now and then we go there after work for a quick bite. Invariably something goes wrong, and of the 5-6 times we have eaten in the restaurant, probably 4 times it was not good. This last time I ordered a gourmet pizza, with brie cheese, bacon, honey, walnuts and extra avo. On the menu it was not very clear how it would be made up. There was no tomoto base so it was exceptionally bland. Not even herbs to bring out flavors. If it had 5 tiny bacon bits on it was a lot. For the price, you could have added a strip of bacon on each slice, like you did with e brie. That at least would have been more flavourful.

It took so long to draw someone's attention, that by the time they arrived at the table I had two slices left.

You standard modus of operandi is to offer a free cup of coffee to make up for a bad meal. Well this time was one time too many. Honestly I c would have preferred a refund on my meal, had you actually managed to get there sooner.

Very disappointed this time. I have also yet to see the ownemaking an effort to engage with his clients whether it is to greet them or to sort out an issue. Everything is left up to the very young...