Noor Hewaidi

Review of Al Porto Ristorante

For my combined 25th birthday (last one in Canada ...

For my combined 25th birthday (last one in Canada before I get married and move overseas) and engagement dinner, I looked tirelessly online for a week for a restaraunt that was classy, delicious and suitable for a young ladies' celebration dinner. I had high hopes for Al Porto to come through for me in this very special event, and I must say, I was very disappointed. We had a two hour limit at our table which was fine, except we ordered at 6:40PM and our food came at 7:25PM. Not only that, but four of us ordered pizza (not cheap, might I add) and they were ALL BURNT. ALL FOUR! They were literally brown, and very hard. I have never eaten burnt pizzas at a restaraunt before, and I was shocked that it was the classy "Italian" restaraunt did this. I felt so bad that my friends were disappointed with the food, on the one night that I was reuniting them for a celebratory occasion. Of course by then we only had 30 minutes before we had to leave, so we sucked it up. We very politely and gently "complained" to three people about it, one of them being the manager, and all of them just said "sorry" and didn't try to compensate in another way. Stephany was definitely a lovely and kind waitress and made sure I got a birthday cake with a candle, but she was visibly overwhelmed with the very poor staffing and this negatively impacted our experience. On top of that, we asked for our bills and this took about 15 minutes to get to us, within which the other big party arrived and were seated at a cramped table and STARING US DOWN the entire time, which was also an uncomfortable experience that the manager and waiters could have accommodated for better. We grudgingly paid full price for our burnt pizzas and I felt bad that this was my last ever birthday experience in Vancouver before moving to the UK. I wouldn't choose this restaraunt for a weekend special event again, or recommend for others to do so. The people who work there were very stressed and it clearly affected the customers' energy and...the pizzas. Felt very guilty for bringing my friends here.