Although V-day is hectic and all who dare celebrate on this day should expect some glitches, it is also true that prices and wait time make it possible for customers to demand a minimum level of satisfaction. Having said that, Del Porto ruined my celebration. Someone definitely f...up, and the main problem was the lack of empathy and poor skills to deal with the situation making an already difficult night, a night to forget.

We arrived on time to our reservation, but as I expected we were told there was a wait time. We were told the list was backed up 45 minutes. The young lady who sat people, seemed confused when picking the couples to go seat. ~40 minutes later I thought we were ready to have a great night. We were taken to the second floor and were given a wobbly table. Again, at the time, I smiled and told my wife "don't worry, I'll step on the legs and we will be fine". It was now ~10:20...

We ordered the King Octopus as an appetizer, a rose, and a beer. The appetizer came fairly quick, 10+minutes I'd say. Unfortunately, the texture of the meat was not at all what we expected. It was overcooked, super hard; but once again, I tried to make my wife smile by cracking some jokes and trying to focus on other things. We proceeded to place our main order, and time passed and passed as we saw other couples who came after us get quick service. Perhaps they had inside information on what to order lol. Anyhow, 1+ hours later, we were still waiting. At this point, we had already spoken to 4 to 5 different waiters, including a young lady who seemed in charge of the second floor. She approached us at ~11:30pm to tell us that one of our dishes was no longer available and that she was sorry. I told her that this was already a bad night, since I assumed placing a new order would leave us waiting again. She reassured us that our food would come at the same time and that it would go in front of the list and that she would give us 50% off one of the dishes. I said, "we are still here, let's see...". Mind you, 9:45pm was the reservation, the octopus was not good, we had waited and waited, and it was now 11:45pm when we once again spoke to the waiter and nothing was out yet. A couple next to us came in and within 30 minutes they were already eating their main dish. This is when my wife sounded the alarm that all husbands know is not to be ignored...she said "I'm hungry!"

At 11:50pm I called the waiter and told him we needed the check. I called the manager and she said she would come to us, but she didn't. I got the bill and noticed there was a 20% tip included. Now, I'm all for paying the waiters and waitresses, but the fact that it wasn't left up to me to give a tip pissed me off. I stood up and approached the main area and asked for the manager to please come talk to me about the final bill.

She came looked flustered and annoyed. I said "how dare you place a 20% tip as if we had a great time? This should be left up to the customer especially when we wasted 2 hours here and didn't eat a main meal" She got upset and responded "it's not our fault sir, but you want me to take it off, I'll take it off!" I said "I know, but it isn't our fault either".

We left, and ran to Rancho Mateo, where we were treated amazingly well, we were fed within 25 minutes and they saved the night.

Del Porto, I'm sure you guys are great; but the staff needs to be trained on what to do on holidays or special occasions. I was truly disappointed, I had chosen your business and I was left scrambling on Google as we waited for our car. Not cool.