Portofino — Restaurant in Thalwil

I’ve been to Porto Fino in Thalwil several times before and always had good experiences, but unfortunately, my visit today at lunchtime was extremely disappointing. Everything felt different — completely disorganized. I noticed several other customers complaining about the same issues, which shows this wasn’t an isolated case.

It seemed the kitchen was having serious problems, as the food took ages to arrive and, when it finally did, it didn’t live up to the restaurant’s usual standards. The waiter was very attentive and did his best to explain the delays, running around trying to manage the situation, but it was clear that there was a complete lack of organization and, most importantly, leadership.

At no point did we see a manager step in to handle the chaos. It’s obvious the restaurant is currently lacking proper management, and that’s affecting the whole experience. Making customers wait that long for lunch, without any real solution, is simply disrespectful.

It’s a shame to see a place that used to be good fall...

Starters are really bad. You might as well buy tomatoes and burrata at the supermarket and eat it yourself because that’s how low the quality is

Mains are decent. The truffle pasta is good But nothing special you get the same at cantinetta

The veal is good but the way they serve it is very heavy , not very refined for an Italian

Drinks are not good either, they served me one cocktail initially with no Gas/sparkly , they used plastic bottle with soft drinks to mix your cocktails or they leave it on the side for too long with too much ice, not sure what they do but definitely not good for 15 bucks a drink

Dessert nothing special - not homemade cake but processed desserts - they had 5 birthday in one night and even when you email them a week before to put one candle on your dessert they manage to forget about it

Overall the location is good and I guess when it’s sunny and day time you can have a nice view

But for Italian food i wouldn’t go there

The vibe is nice inside tho - our waiter was...

Portofino has a sleek and retro-chic ambiance that I love. Add to that a staff that combines professionalism, warmth and fun plus a great chef you’ll like me want to come back often. I had dinner with a colleague and we both started with carpaccio pimentos which embodied perfectly the elegance and simplicity of Italian cuisine. For the main we chose the branzino in crosta di sale -sea bass in salt crust and lemon herb aioli- with grilled vegetables and truffled potatoes on the side. Deceptively unassuming this course was a delightful surprise.The fish was wonderfully fresh, perfectly prepared and forged a very happy synergy with the lemon herb aioli. We ended our dinner with dai dai, a delectable ice praline coated with chocolate. Worth mentioning is also the wine list -pairing food and wine after all is an integral part of Italian culture- where the franciacorte and the merlot both turned out to be...