We went there looking at the reviews. However, the food was not good at all. The bruschetta was 9 dollars for 6 small slices of bread. The pastas were very expensive, but the sauce didn’t taste fresh, there was so much oil, and no flavor. We had to pay 24 dollars for a shrimp vegetable stir fry looking dish because there were no dairy free options. We bought 3 entrees and 1 appetizer, and 1 dessert and the total was 86 dollars. Food was not worth the price and I could find better, made from scratch pasta in other places for cheaper. Do not believe the reviews and come here.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 2
Marisa Flor
PLEASE READ you’ll want to :)
My experience at Portofino’s in Waco was beyond disappointing — it was an absolute disaster from start to finish. Let’s begin with the first absurd issue: they refused to let my 96-year-old grandmother order from the kid’s menu. A 96-year-old woman. And our waitress delivered this with major attitude, as if basic human decency was too much to ask. You’d think they’d accommodate her out of simple respect. But of course… NO. Next, my brother ordered a basic pepperoni pizza — something a toddler with an Easy-Bake oven could manage — and they forgot about it entirely. My mom had to physically get up because our waitress had apparently vanished off the face of the earth. She finally finds all three waitresses huddled together, glued to their phones, doing absolutely nothing resembling their jobs. When my mom asked to speak to the manager to simply check on the pizza, every single one of them responded with attitude like we were inconveniencing them. Ridiculous doesn’t even begin to cover it. Then the bill comes out completely wrong. Shocked? Not even a little.
And now, the grand finale. The “manager” — and I use that title very loosely — shows up and immediately starts acting rude to my mom. Mind you, my mom is one of the sweetest, most respectful people on this planet. She politely asked the manager if he could remove the pizza from the bill since it never came out. She literally said, “My son’s pizza hasn’t come out, and I just wanted to see if you could take it off the bill.” Right as everyone finishes eating, the pizza magically appears out of nowhere, and the manager has the nerve — the AUDACITY — to snap at my mom with: “Well ma’am, I’m sure your son has made mistakes in his life.”
Excuse me… WHAT? FIRST OF ALL, YOU MESSED WITH THE WRONG FAMILY. I hope you read this yourself. TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY. My brother has nothing to do with your incompetence, your laziness, or your inability to run a restaurant. You tried to justify a pizza that never came out, your pathetic excuse for service, and your miserable attitude. And let’s talk about the food — if you can even call it that. It was trash. Easily the worst meal my family has ever had. The appetizers tasted like frozen grocery-store rejects. Everything was bland, cold, low-effort, and absolutely not worth a single dollar we spent. It felt like nobody in that kitchen cared at all. The staff’s attitude was just as terrible — cold, dismissive, and acting like acknowledging customers was somehow beneath them. Not once did we feel welcomed or even treated with basic courtesy. Overall, this place was a complete embarrassment. Between the rude, unprofessional service and the awful food, I left frustrated, disgusted, and honestly amazed that this place is still in business.
My family and I will never be returning, and I strongly suggest anyone with common sense avoids this place altogether.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Cody Davis
Ordered a order to go. 2 drinks was wrong the pizza bread was stale. The chicken fettuccine Alfredo noodles was bad not cooked at all. Lasagna was gross. 100 dollars worth of food completely gross. If you want good food go somewhere else because this is not the place for you
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Don Woodroof
Lobster Ravioli was delicious. Dissapointed Lasagna was no on the menu
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Julie Dawe
The owners, staff, food and atmosphere of Portofinos are great. We have dined in, held a celebration in their upstairs private party room, had food delivered and even picked up to-go orders. It’s a low key, dimly lit restaurant with nice Italian themed music in the background. Even when very busy it is not so loud you can’t have nice conversations.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Kaylie Jackson
I went on my birthday and they were so so so sweet. I got the tortellini Alfredo and my grandma got the pasta trio. They were both delicious. The waitress (who was amazing) brought out a cannoli for me on a plate that said happy birthday! And had really good New York style cheesecake for only $7 for a pretty good slice!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
taronna whitehurst
Staff greeted us very enthusiastically. He was excited that we hadn't been here before. The portions are plenty! The garlic cheese bread is light & crunchy, but soft as well. I got the shrimp marsala and it was amazing. My daughter had the chicken albanese. She really enjoyed it, but had a hard time eating all of it. If you aren't sure what you might like they are happy to help you choose what you might enjoy.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cat
So I came to this restaurant on recommendation with 2 of my friends. We decided to just purchase 2 dishes and split it among the 3 of us. We weren’t told there was a $10 split plate fee, although I will say it was shown to us that it was on the menu at the end when we questioned the charge on our ticket. Mind you, they aren’t giving you additional food, it was the same amount as the table next to us. We were given the excuse that we couldn’t have another basket of yeast rolls (they only give 1 roll each) because we ordered a pizza. Then they ended up giving us another basket of rolls (1 for each of us) but didn’t say they would be charging .50 cents per roll and on top of that they also charged a no cash fee as well! What about the food? Nothing to write home about and anything with red sauce was very very salty! You should be upfront about your fees! No wonder it wasn’t busy and a help sign on the door. I wonder why? In other words, will never go back.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 3
Mothership Ke
We ordered delivery. Both my daughter and I ordered spaghetti and meatballs. Her meal had very little sauce. My spaghetti was overcooked to the point it was mush. The salad was wilted and gross. I threw the spaghetti away and most of the salad. The bread was the only item I enjoyed. Very disappointed
Food: 1
J Milner
Superb food and service. My wife and I stumbled upon this place on a lazy Sunday drive thru Waco. Our host & server, John, was excellent. We shared an order of tortellini and a margherita pizza, and both were outstanding. My wife grew up in an Italian family in Pittsburgh so she knows real stuff and said it was some of the best she ever had. Highly recommend!
Air conditioner was out but otherwise everything was great.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
John Hughes
I enjoyed this place.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Phillip Littrell
Good selection and tasty food. Place was very warm, need to up the AC.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
TexanTraveler09
Very enjoyable! Server was very friendly and helpful. I had the best carbonara ever! DH enjoyed the lobster ravioli. Nice atmosphere but a little too warm.
We went there looking at the reviews. However, the food was not good at all. The bruschetta was 9 dollars for 6 small slices of bread. The pastas were very expensive, but the sauce didn’t taste fresh, there was so much oil, and no flavor. We had to pay 24 dollars for a shrimp vegetable stir fry looking dish because there were no dairy free options. We bought 3 entrees and 1 appetizer, and 1 dessert and the total was 86 dollars. Food was not worth the price and I could find better, made from scratch pasta in other places for cheaper. Do not believe the reviews and come here.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 2
PLEASE READ you’ll want to :)
My experience at Portofino’s in Waco was beyond disappointing — it was an absolute disaster from start to finish.
Let’s begin with the first absurd issue: they refused to let my 96-year-old grandmother order from the kid’s menu. A 96-year-old woman. And our waitress delivered this with major attitude, as if basic human decency was too much to ask. You’d think they’d accommodate her out of simple respect. But of course… NO.
Next, my brother ordered a basic pepperoni pizza — something a toddler with an Easy-Bake oven could manage — and they forgot about it entirely. My mom had to physically get up because our waitress had apparently vanished off the face of the earth. She finally finds all three waitresses huddled together, glued to their phones, doing absolutely nothing resembling their jobs. When my mom asked to speak to the manager to simply check on the pizza, every single one of them responded with attitude like we were inconveniencing them. Ridiculous doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Then the bill comes out completely wrong. Shocked? Not even a little.
And now, the grand finale. The “manager” — and I use that title very loosely — shows up and immediately starts acting rude to my mom. Mind you, my mom is one of the sweetest, most respectful people on this planet. She politely asked the manager if he could remove the pizza from the bill since it never came out. She literally said, “My son’s pizza hasn’t come out, and I just wanted to see if you could take it off the bill.”
Right as everyone finishes eating, the pizza magically appears out of nowhere, and the manager has the nerve — the AUDACITY — to snap at my mom with:
“Well ma’am, I’m sure your son has made mistakes in his life.”
Excuse me… WHAT?
FIRST OF ALL, YOU MESSED WITH THE WRONG FAMILY.
I hope you read this yourself. TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY. My brother has nothing to do with your incompetence, your laziness, or your inability to run a restaurant. You tried to justify a pizza that never came out, your pathetic excuse for service, and your miserable attitude.
And let’s talk about the food — if you can even call it that. It was trash. Easily the worst meal my family has ever had. The appetizers tasted like frozen grocery-store rejects. Everything was bland, cold, low-effort, and absolutely not worth a single dollar we spent. It felt like nobody in that kitchen cared at all.
The staff’s attitude was just as terrible — cold, dismissive, and acting like acknowledging customers was somehow beneath them. Not once did we feel welcomed or even treated with basic courtesy.
Overall, this place was a complete embarrassment. Between the rude, unprofessional service and the awful food, I left frustrated, disgusted, and honestly amazed that this place is still in business.
My family and I will never be returning, and I strongly suggest anyone with common sense avoids this place altogether.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Ordered a order to go. 2 drinks was wrong the pizza bread was stale. The chicken fettuccine Alfredo noodles was bad not cooked at all. Lasagna was gross. 100 dollars worth of food completely gross. If you want good food go somewhere else because this is not the place for you
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Lobster Ravioli was delicious. Dissapointed Lasagna was no on the menu
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
The owners, staff, food and atmosphere of Portofinos are great. We have dined in, held a celebration in their upstairs private party room, had food delivered and even picked up to-go orders. It’s a low key, dimly lit restaurant with nice Italian themed music in the background. Even when very busy it is not so loud you can’t have nice conversations.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I went on my birthday and they were so so so sweet. I got the tortellini Alfredo and my grandma got the pasta trio. They were both delicious. The waitress (who was amazing) brought out a cannoli for me on a plate that said happy birthday! And had really good New York style cheesecake for only $7 for a pretty good slice!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Staff greeted us very enthusiastically. He was excited that we hadn't been here before. The portions are plenty! The garlic cheese bread is light & crunchy, but soft as well. I got the shrimp marsala and it was amazing. My daughter had the chicken albanese. She really enjoyed it, but had a hard time eating all of it. If you aren't sure what you might like they are happy to help you choose what you might enjoy.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
So I came to this restaurant on recommendation with 2 of my friends. We decided to just purchase 2 dishes and split it among the 3 of us. We weren’t told there was a $10 split plate fee, although I will say it was shown to us that it was on the menu at the end when we questioned the charge on our ticket. Mind you, they aren’t giving you additional food, it was the same amount as the table next to us. We were given the excuse that we couldn’t have another basket of yeast rolls (they only give 1 roll each) because we ordered a pizza. Then they ended up giving us another basket of rolls (1 for each of us) but didn’t say they would be charging .50 cents per roll and on top of that they also charged a no cash fee as well! What about the food? Nothing to write home about and anything with red sauce was very very salty! You should be upfront about your fees! No wonder it wasn’t busy and a help sign on the door. I wonder why? In other words, will never go back.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 3
We ordered delivery. Both my daughter and I ordered spaghetti and meatballs. Her meal had very little sauce. My spaghetti was overcooked to the point it was mush. The salad was wilted and gross. I threw the spaghetti away and most of the salad. The bread was the only item I enjoyed. Very disappointed
Food: 1
Superb food and service. My wife and I stumbled upon this place on a lazy Sunday drive thru Waco. Our host & server, John, was excellent. We shared an order of tortellini and a margherita pizza, and both were outstanding. My wife grew up in an Italian family in Pittsburgh so she knows real stuff and said it was some of the best she ever had. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Phenomenal
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Air conditioner was out but otherwise everything was great.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
I enjoyed this place.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Good selection and tasty food. Place was very warm, need to up the AC.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Very enjoyable! Server was very friendly and helpful. I had the best carbonara ever! DH enjoyed the lobster ravioli. Nice atmosphere but a little too warm.
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