Portofino's Italian Restaurant Arboretum — Restaurant in Charlotte

Dont go to this place. Bunch of guys with no character or dignity in my opinion. The guy answering the phone and working got everything wrong he could. (The lady in front of us literally told the “‘manager” she didnt care if her garlic knots werent cooked all the way and to just bag it up, thats how long they were taking. LOL bunch of jokers) Us- Placed a to-go order for two checks. Two lunch orders, for TWO people. TWO PHILLYS. Get there and its on one check. They try to separate it. Oh wait. They cant figure that out. Say we cant do it, that they just got a new pos system. (Me holding back laughing or crying at how trivial that is for a “restaurant” to not know how to do).

Hmm. Ok thats fine we say, we can pay in one check, we are cool. (We’ll make this our issue and spend time splitting it up because yall are bad at what you do) Its two phillys how hard can this be right.? Wrong.

Then leaving i am oddly enough just triggered to check the order because they dont seem so sure of what they are even doing in this place. I am looking for some lettuce for my sub. Some lettuce on the side. Simply. A ramekin of it or something… After not seeing it. I ask about it and he says “oh they must of just put it on the sub”… I say yes lets check the ticket because if it says add lettuce and not on the side then its on there. He's oh oh well remake it we will remake it. Well again like i said im cool and i can just take off the hot, wilted, pointless lettuce and put the lettuce they gave me on. (Ill make this my issue and fix the sub) Well i get to work back like 15 minutes away and open the sandwhich and theres no lettuce im like ok sweet this worked out. Oh wait. They did put lettuce after I look closer theres plenty of lettuce but its on the bottom under the hot greasy liquidy philly meat and cheese. Ok so for me to take this lettuce off I've got to remove all the meat and cheese from soggy bread and rebuild it. Picture that people. Oh wait whats this. A bunch of tomatoes! An ingredient not even mentioned whatsoever they honored me with and added. Simply because the california philly has it & we are working on auto pilot not paying a lick of attention to what we are doing. So now i do want a remake. A little communication goes a long way. After calling the guy on the phone he just shrugs it off and blames it on me that he tried to remake it. While saying “its all good, its all good” Well hey Sherlock. If you notice I'm with another person and while we waste work time for your error and his food gets soggy and cold while mine gets remade… never mind. I digress. That is probably a concept far out of understanding as well.

Just refund the entire meal yes at this point. Heres the check. Oh wait look a $1.00 up-charge for adding lettuce to a sub. I bet if i asked for no mushrooms id still get charged for adding lettuce by these penny pinchers. The other reviews here are correct. They do try to nickle and dime you. Not create customers. CHECK YOUR RECEIPT. Sad because i GREW UP off Eastway in the 90s and ate the other location many many times as a kid at my mothers. Those guys back when and then did things right and cared. Guys here now …. No comment. Cant get it right from the get go. Just ruin the whole name because you have no empathy or accountability in things…

Incompetent, classless, tasteless the customer service is from the gentlemen and his manager 10/3/23. White guy and latino guy. Take your time. Listen to people. Be consistent. It really IS that hard for yall to do, quit playing yourself. You proved it. Wont be back sadly :(

Thanks. Hope the owner sees this. If...

First and foremost our server, Tyler, was and has been fantastic every time we have been to this restaurant. Mimi, the hostess was not. Lot of crazy makeup going on there. I felt like I was revisiting a live episode of the Drew Carey show. Possibly too many youtube tutorials. Anyway, it was a beautiful day so ofcourse we preferred the outside seating. We inquired about outside seating and she point blank told my husband no because it would mess up the floor seating rotation. Completely wrong response for any hostess. It should always be let me see what I can do for you and be with you momentarily at your current table. Or something along those lines. Any guest could care less about your seating chart flow, and news flash, you are in the service industry "Mimi". Another negative is the only Tv playing, facing the seating, is not in English. That is primarily the language in The United States of America. Which means to most of us just sounds like a bunch of noise inturrupting your conversation/meal. After my husband asked No, concerning outside seating, she spoke with the server and they were able to work out some outside seats. Which was so nice. The food was delicious. Zero complaints there. The food is alsways delicious. The experience not so much, hence the 3 star rating. To add to this review, it may have been the head cook, not sure, he was wearing a white apron and coming in and out of the restaurant, either way he was an employee. RIGHT IN FRONT of the restaurant where we were sitting he lit up a looked like swisher sweet or small cigar of some sort. WHICH WE SMELLED OUT ENTIRE MEAL. Smoking in front of any restaurant is just tacky. For any employee. Nor do I know of any that allow that in 2020. Gross. Thank you for the delicious food, and also your service...

The meal that was requested to be made different than asked. I asked for light mushrooms and heavy sauce. Received the meal with extra mushrooms and light sauce. We told the waiter, he said we were wrong it was made correctly. When I asked for our waiter to come back later he was no where to be found. I asked the person who stopped at our table to fill up our water glasses if she could get him. She said yes. Left and the waiter did not come back to our table but went outside to take care of another customer and talked to them for over 10 minutes. At this time my meal could not be corrected before it was cold. Had another person come to the table, we explained what we had asked and if we could get the extra sauce and to-go containers for our other meals. They said it would be $5 extra for piccata sauce. They said there would not have been a charge if we asked for this at the time of ordering. We told her we did. We said ok to the charge since without it, it would be dried out. Then they put it in a container and had it in a bag and said it was hot and they placed it in our bag with our other food. It leaked all over, so half was wasted and the butter/wine sauce went into all the all food we took home. It was so salty from the capers it could not be eaten later. We asked that a salad that was included in our meal be a take home. They forgot that and when we got got we realized it and it was too late to return. After visiting their restaurant over 30 times in the last couple years we will not be returning. The service and food is not worth the cost of getting things wrong and being charged for something that leaked all over the other food and bag and...