Il Portico - STRESA

We ended up here on our first night in Stresa. Unfortunately it was really terrible and disappointing. The food was like a joke, really small portions and to be honest it didn’t taste anything. We had 3 different dishes of pasta and none of us could eat because of the lack of flavor. Telling the waiter how we felt was I mistake when they 15-20 min later delivers new portions of the same food, even though we said we didn’t want any. This was our most expensive dinner during our 3 day stay in Stresa. The waiters were really rude, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to waste neither time nor money here.

Owner Antonio really knows how to treat his customers. You are always greeted with a smile, and welcomed back like an old friend; he can speak at least four languages fluently and has a great sense of humour – and on my birthday, and on our last night, we were treated to complementary glasses of limoncello. Oh, and the food is great and reasonably priced!

As you walk past, they 're charming, but once your bum is on the seat it 's different. The service is fast and furious, the food poor and when you 're nearly at the end of the meal, they bark: 'Cash or card? ' at you. We had a chicken salad and an octopus salad to start very little chicken and the octopus stank. We 're used to seafood: the octopus wasn 't fresh. The sea bass main course still had some of the gallbladder inside, the veal milanese was tough, the steak strips were swimming in fat. Only the steak was edible. The staff weren 't bothered at all, just took the meals away and got us out of the seats as fast as possible. The restaurants either side of this one are lovely we had great meals at both.

Excellent restaurant with gluten-free spaghetti or penne options for their pasta dishes. The owner and the staff are usually energetic and enthusiastic. We ate there twice during our stay and the food was amazing. I'm glad we reserved the second time when people for a table are silent

Simple, clean, pleasant kitchen, classic dishes. also the special and good pizza. white lane moved and pleasant. friendly, attentive and helpful staff.