Portofino Ystrad Mynach — Restaurant in Wales

Very mixed views of this restaurant...The food/cocktails themselves were amazing...I have absolutely no fault with them..I booked a table for 7 for lunch, weeks in advance and had to use messanger to book/communicate as my calls (a number of times) were unanswered. We booked for friday lunch time...On booking I had asked for a menu which they said could be found on their facebook page so I downloaded the lunch menu which was two courses for 13.95. There was no mention on the face of the menu that it didn't apply on a friday and looking through the comments someone had asked on a post of the lunch menu if they did it on weekends too, to which portofino's replied yes, so I forwarded the menu to all my friends & told them the amount/we all choses 2 courses off the lunch time menu, as that was the deal and put in pre-orders. During the messaging conversation I actually mentioned that I felt a 10 pounds deposit per person was alot for a lunchtime menu of 13.95. Surely they should have picked up on that and told me it wasn't 13.95 at that point and we would still have come and just had mains. They have since posted on their facebook page that it is Mon to Thurs and posted a new menu which applied from 4/7. We went on 8/7 but had booked weeks before and I don't follow their facebook page for updates so did not see that. I was told on explaining my situation when the bill arrived that nothing could be done by the manager/owner and we basically had to pay up. It left me feeling very gutted for my friends...instead of paying 13.95 for 2 courses ..i ended up paying 16.95 for a main course plus 6 pounds for a starter...which I feel is alot for lunch in ystrad mynach. So in summary, Food lovely, communication needs working on and adding Mon-Thursday on the face of the menu would prevent this from...

Edited for the 3rd time due to owner response:

Maybe you should train your staff to be more attentive and ask customers if their meal was OK. They didn't.

Maybe next time you hire in an agency chef you should try their food first.

If you have a family emergency maybe you should just close for the night instead of letting customers spend their money on food that was not palatable.

You've just reaffirmed my reason for not returning to your establishment. Good luck & best wishes for future endeavours.

Hwyl Fawr

Edited review after second visit last night

Saddens me to be writing this because I try to support my local restaurants but after my visit last night I won't be returning. Warm welcome, staff pleasant and also nice decor. But you simply can't put some passata on the cheapest you can buy dried pasta, stick it in a bowl with 2 cherry tomatoes and call it penne pomodoro. The dish was bland and underwhelming and and my thoughts were I can make this better at home ☹️ Pains me to say it but I'm not sure this restaurant will be around in the not so distant future. Italian recipes use simple ingredients but they are usually, tasty, filling and moreish. If you have a craving for an Italian meal out and can't make it to Italy then I'd suggest you go a few miles up the road to Blackwood.

A message to the owner: do better.

First visit review:

Had a real nice meal here last week. Lovely food, great service and atmosphere. Highly recommend a visit if you're in the area however would advise to book if planning on visiting Friday or Saturday as it...

A disappointing experience as we looked forward to dining here for so long. Two out of a group of five had the chicken and mushroom creamy sauce dish only the sauce was extremely watery and not at all creamy although its flavour was okay. The chicken very tough and not at all tender. We could barely cut it with a knife. The vegetables and potatoes didnt taste wonderful. However, the lasagne was very nice and the other ravioli dishes were tasty but portion sizes were on the small side and ravioli pricey. The desserts were OK but not consistent with the previous occasion she visited. The pistachio icecream was lovely as was the cheesecake. The tirimisui was a very small portion. We had booked for 5 people but the table was for four people smd so was very squashy. Don't feel like the table situation is right quite yet. Also one of the group was gluten free and another vegetarian the staff weren't 100 percent sure about these dishes without going to ask. The ambience of the restaurant is pleasant. Perhaps air conditioning or fans would cool it down in warm weather. I'm only leaving this review so Portofino can take on board constructive criticism and improve quality for...