Portofino Coal Fired Pizza — Restaurant in Homestead

Absolutely the worst service ever!! We were so surprised at how bad it was.. the server was Jane H. We were her only table.. for appetizer we got a small caeser salad and a kids pizza for the kids. She forgot the salad, which i didnt get until i asked for it after our entrees. When i asked for it, she looked at her notepad like she didnt believe me or something and didnt apologize or say anything, just walked away. She never refilled water, never once asked how everything was, very negative attitude, zero smiling or kindness. While we were still midway eating, she came up to us with the credit card machine and said "$36.11. " No other words spoken... Just those numbers. My husband and I were shocked and just looked at each other and then with an annoyed tone she said, "oh you wanna order MORE?" I said ... "Yea we wanted to order desert.." the italian donuts with the sauce was very low quality. The chocolate sauce that came on the side was obviously mixed with sink water.. then of course she came back with our new total but I wanted a breakdown of the items and she said "ok" and proceeded to slide the card, and I said "before you process it please" (this was just to make sure no errors were made). She quickly scrolled through it up and down and said "you can see it here" but I asked for a physical copy. She brought it and then processed the card while we were still looking at it and told my husband "sign please" and he was about to put a large tip without realizing he pressed the maximum (which was not earned with this zero service)/ and I said "hold on, just read what your pressing" and she again said "please sign" pressuring him again. I said " hold on, wait a minute, take your time make sure you know what it says" and she again was pressuring him to sign it. It was SO incredibly rude, disrespectful, and awkward. Then she never said thank you or bye or anything. She jus walked away. The caeser salad had NO greens, jus all the white parts of the romaine lettuce. Pretty disappointing food quality overall (I am comparing to how it was in 2020). but the service was horrible!!! I think Jane H. topped anything we will ever encounter for the rest of our lives as far as terrible service. She never gave us a bag for the two boxes, so we had to wait at the "To-Go" corner for about 5 minutes where the guy was on the phone and never made any eye contact to say anything to us or the 5 other people standing there waiting. I had to hunt down the server to ask for it. There was another server that was dressed literally like Beetlejuice at a halloween store. This place used to be our special favorite before covid, but wow what a tremendous decline! With this food quality and service... it might be out of business soon. It used to be an amazing place we would always recommend, but we were shockingly disappointed. Never...

MEXI & PIZZA HAS BETTER PIZZA AND THEY’RE IN THE NEXT SHOPPING PLAZA OVER! This place is not recommended! They’re more worried about being right, than making things right with the customer, just look at the response to my review, then look at the responses to the 1 star reviews. Please know, I heard the server tell the pizza maker there was one more pizza, and he said no, the kitchen was closed, so no wifi was needed when I clearly saw verbal communication between the server and the pizza maker. I have a business too, my customers are ALWAYS right, and I make sure they’re happy — with inflation being high they’ve been loyal and stayed with me even if my products are little more expensive, it’s about the service I provide, they can’t get anywhere else. You may have a good pizza, but service and customer satisfaction is what sets you apart, it’s always going to be more important than the food. A negative experience will be told 10 times, compared to a positive experience that will be told 3 times. Because of this, I’ll happily drive to Anthony’s Coal Fired pizza from now on, or pay the $7 delivery fee. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars here over the past few years, and I’ll happily take my money and friends elsewhere, even though I was buying from you because I support small businesses. What a shame. Very disappointed.

*The part above was added after the response to my reply

Original post: I used to be a regular customer of eating here at least once a week. I stopped in at 8:45pm (Tuesday night) and between the server waiting on her tables, answering the phone, and talking to coworkers, it was about 10 min (I’m not in a hurry so no need to rush, I understand being short staffed), so at 8:55pm she took my order of pizza and wings to go. She tells me their Apple Pay didn’t work, so in the 30 seconds that I ran to the car to get my wallet, the kitchen had closed by the time I got back! Mind you, the restaurant is listed that it closes at 10! Between 9-10 is a huge difference and should’ve honored my order that was already placed. Lost my business, I’ll...

New update April 2021: The good: they've got back some more of their entrees which is good and is still tasty.

The bad: the majority of the staff is new, and unfortunately super clueless, even the manager. 3 times I've ordered, they had the order mess up. I ordered the Zepoli, (fried donuts) and no one knew what they were including the manager. Until they asked a older cook and they said yes we have it..

The prices have surged a lot but still very very limited menu,

Some recipes have changed, like the red sauce that comes with the focaccia bread is different, still good but the old version was much better.

We always loved portofino. It used to be a great spot from 2019 and before. It has potential of being a excellent restaurant, I know the pandemic affected many aspects of it, but honeslty I am disappointed because they are hurting themselves. The issues and flaws are due to poor management/staff and lack of items. Hopefully they return to what they were soon!

Update... Nov 2020. This used to be the best italian restaurant in homestead. But not anymore unfortunately. Really sad because we literally ate here once a week sometimes more. After covid, they shrunk the menu. All they have now is basically just pizza. What a shame. Sad to see this happen. I hope they return to a full menu. We've been going to mamma mia now for months because of it 😐

Original reviw: My family and I love this place, we eat here about 3-4 times a month. Delicious!! I really wish they add a few things to their menu such as steak, gnocchi, tortellini and permenatly having basil pesto. That'll be amazing! My only complain is sometimes take out orders...