Portofino West Ristorante — Restaurant in Surprise

My wife and I had been here 4 times and were very pleased. We loved the food, we loved our waiter, Jerry, and always asked for him. We enjoyed the live music. We enjoyed the little bar with good Martinis and wine. We were happy campers. Then .....

Fast forward to Thanksgiving dinner, 2016. It all went to hell in a handbasket!

We arrived and were "greeted" by Simone, whom we had encountered with no ill effect on other visits. Although the room adjoining the main dining area was totally empty. No one was seated there. Simone told us we would be accommodated shortly, twenty five "shortly" minutes later, we inquired again of Simone and suggested we would be willing to be seated in the still empty but very visible and easily accessible adjoining room. She curtly unleashed a host of reasons that would be unacceptable and we became more insistent to the point she reluctantly agreed.

We were seated at a table just inside that room and although otherwise empty, it was almost like being in the main room since it was fully visible. Jerry was not available due to the circumstances but we were assigned a very pleasant and knowledgeable lady and were at that point OK with the day as it were.

She promptly served our wine and we anxiously awaited our "Traditional" Thanksgiving dinner. Our nice waitress got it out to us in short order and we were ready to dive in.

I suspected something was awry the minute my fork went into the piece of "breast" awaiting the knife to descend upon it. My wife and I looked at each other and carefully transported the forked piece to mouth. As we put the tooth to it, we looked at each other and said, "this stuff is processed meat. It's not real Turkey". Likewise the potatoes were of the packaged variety as were the green beans! I can only describe it in Italian. Merda. Plain and simple, it was Merda.

We summoned our nice waitress for the check she offered condolences and alternatives but we politely declined. Paid the check with a 25% tip attached for the nice lady, who was the only good thing in that place that day and ...... We went to Denny's, never to return to Portofino West.

Sorry Jerry. Sorry nice waitress. We...

First of all I am so embarrassed at how my friend and all of us were treated.. this was our friend's surprise 90th birthday party. When we arrived we were told we could not enter the restaurant until 11:30 even to put our cake and gifts on the table.. By the way, no one else was beating down the door to get in. The hostess was so RUDE.. She asked who was paying for them to slice the cake we had brought? I explained that I brought plates, napkins and would slice the cake. OH NO YOU WON';T she said. Also, if she had been nice I would have accepted her "policy" to charge each of us a $1.50 per slice to cut our cake. She told me if I didn't like it I could go elsewhere. I tried to explain that our friend had been a long time patron of their restaurant and perhaps the manager would let us take care of the cake. NO WAY. She said the manager was not available to talk to. Not only was he there but he was our WAITER. When we asked him why they wanted to charge for the slicing of the cake he started to yell at us all. The thing he did not realize is that 13 people will no longer patronize his restaurant and we will tell 13 of our friends who in turn will tell 13 of their friends. Lesson learned.. Kindness goes along way.. There are many better Italian restaurants then this one and we will make sure we give them our business. Food here was just...

No reservations required, seated immediately. Tables spaces apart. There is a bar with 2 seats available, no bartender, servers mix drinks if needed . Entertainment was an elderly man at electric keyboard, voice sounded like Dean Martin, pleasant. He played requests did not sing all the songs. Our server very attentive, pleasant and with the assistance of the other staff , we recd water, complimentary plate of bruschetta and our plates were picked up , very good service. We ordered calamari, which was very lightly breaded and fried perfectly. Not greasy. Entrees come with choice of soup or salad. And choice of pasta or sauteed, seasoned vegetables. The chicken , mushroom Marsala usually is lightly breaded and fried, the chef accommodated my request for no breading .and I ordered the veggies. Recd 2 thin chicken breasts, cooked perfectly, in the Marsala wine sauce with lots of mushrooms on top, and my veggies of sliced zucchini, carrots were tender and seasoned .my husband ordered eggplant parmigiana, served with spaghetti. Said it wasn't heavily breaded and cooked perfectly, with a delicious red sauce. We both ordered the salads instead soup, very good Italian dressing. There is good choice of desserts and pictures of them on 3 separate menus. The lemon cello cake was light, refreshing. Excellent food, service. Will pay a higher price but...