pepperandchips
[melinda]
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2014
Despite having several choices for Italian cuisine at the Portofino, we wanted to try Vivo Italian Kitchen due to it getting great reviews on the podcast and the price range being much lower than Mama Della's or Bice.
It was a lovely, comfortable evening and Vivo's outdoor patio was bustling. The hostess stand was set up just outside the patio and there were a few families ahead of us checking in. Hearing that the wait was 20-30 minutes, I remembered to use our status as hotel guests in order to request priority seating. The hostess asked if we were okay with outdoor seating (yes, obviously!) and set us up immediately with a table that was being cleaned. While we waiting for them to finish the bus service, we went to get a drink at the bar.
[Indoors at Vivo]
The bar was busy but we had no problem grabbing a couple of seats. There were two bartenders and we had a couple glasses of red wine in front of us in short order. We enjoyed the Carletto Ricco red blend at $7 per glass. We thought this was a decent wine and would order it again.
[wine]
[lots of wine choices behind the bar]
Once we settled up with the bartender, we got a text letting us know the table was ready and to check in with the hostess. We did so and she asked where we'd gone since she'd been paging us...
okay, but she was the one who suggested we go to the bar while we waited and it's not like we were gone long 
Anyway, we were seated at the promised patio table immediately and we started checking out the options for dinner. Everything looked great! We each had to narrow our choices down to 3 or 4 options and then we bounced a few choices off one another to eventually select our food. We ordered the warm caprese salad ($9) and the meatballs ($10) for appetizers, and the lamb ragu ($16) and pasta puttanesca ($15) for entrees.
[warm caprese appetizer]
The warm caprese appetizer was actually fried green tomatoes layered with fresh mozzarella, drizzled with balsamic and a basil olive oil and served with a sauce that was tomato and maybe eggplant? It tasted like red sauce. This was pretty good, I would give it three stars out of five but would not order it again. We finished it, so it wasn't bad by any means.
[meatball appetizer]
The meatball appetizer was three very large meatballs (hard to tell from the photo but they were somewhere between golf balls and tennis balls) served with a small amount of thin red marinara. These were heavenly! Where I gave the caprese three stars, these were an absolute 5. We had been starving when we arrived (hence ordering two appetizers) and I had already been thinking I'd wanted meatballs when we discussed Italian for dinner. I was pleased as punch that these were an appetizer (I think I remember the podcast team waxing poetic about these as well in their review, but I don't remember exactly), as it left my entree selection open to try another scrumptious sounding menu offering. These were just divine
light, flavorful, and satisfying without being heavy or chewy. 
[puttanesca, sorry, it looks like we may have tasted the left side before I took a photo
]
R selected the puttanesca, described on the Vivo menu as olives, capers, tomato sauce, oregano, and paccheri tubes. I know Vivo makes some pastas in house, and these paccheri tubes tasted like they may have been some of the house-made fresh pasta offered. We both really enjoyed this dish - it was light and tasted very fresh. I would definitely order this again. The portion size was exactly right, but by American Italian restaurant standards, it would probably be considered a small portion. I think we finished this dish, which is saying a lot considering we finished both appetizers as well.
[lamb ragu]
I am a sucker for all things lamb, and since we were having the lighter puttanesca, this seemed like a good option that would be different enough so that we could enjoy a variety from the menu. It was described by Vivo as traditional slow cooked, marinara, and spaghetti. That's pretty much what we got, except with very thick spaghetti noodles. This was good, again I would give it 3 stars and probably not order this again, but we did enjoy it. It was your garden variety spaghetti with meat sauce, but in this case the meat was lamb. I would have liked this dish better if the lamb was braised or slow-roasted and served pulled rather than as browned ground lamb. Nevertheless, it was good. Maybe three and a half stars
We tried to order dessert to go, but the desserts are apparently pre-made in their containers so the options were very limited.
We declined dessert (much to poor R's chagrin). The annual pass netted us a $5 discount, and we paid $62.84 with tax for two entrees, two appetizers, and two glasses of wine. I would definitely come back and am looking forward to bringing my sister here, who's our family's chicken parmigiana expert. (She samples that dish at every Italian restaurant we visit 
)
[patio at Vivo, looking toward the Universal store]
We took the boat back to our resort, pleased to see that we had just over an hour left on the pool hours when we arrived at the Portofino. We quickly slipped on our swimsuits and beelined for the hot tub near the Villa Pool. There were four older teens plus a dad in the hot tub when we arrived. They weren't together, but chatting about video games or something when we added ourselves to the steamy water. Both groups eventually cleared out and we enjoyed the last 20 or 30 minutes of the open hours in the peace and quiet of a beautiful Florida evening. About 10 minutes before 11:00, the security guard came to (somewhat curtly) inform us that the pool area was closing at 11. Since we knew this and already planned to clear out in advance of official closing time, it sort of felt like we were being kicked out. It was my one and only complaint about any interaction we had with the staff at Portofino in the 4 nights/5 days we were there, so that should give you an idea of the service we experienced on the whole.
We donned the Portofino bathrobes provided for us and headed back to the room, quick to slip off to sleep after a great afternoon of activity.
[citywalk at night]
It was a lovely, comfortable evening and Vivo's outdoor patio was bustling. The hostess stand was set up just outside the patio and there were a few families ahead of us checking in. Hearing that the wait was 20-30 minutes, I remembered to use our status as hotel guests in order to request priority seating. The hostess asked if we were okay with outdoor seating (yes, obviously!) and set us up immediately with a table that was being cleaned. While we waiting for them to finish the bus service, we went to get a drink at the bar.
[Indoors at Vivo]
The bar was busy but we had no problem grabbing a couple of seats. There were two bartenders and we had a couple glasses of red wine in front of us in short order. We enjoyed the Carletto Ricco red blend at $7 per glass. We thought this was a decent wine and would order it again.
[wine]
[lots of wine choices behind the bar]
Once we settled up with the bartender, we got a text letting us know the table was ready and to check in with the hostess. We did so and she asked where we'd gone since she'd been paging us...
okay, but she was the one who suggested we go to the bar while we waited and it's not like we were gone long Anyway, we were seated at the promised patio table immediately and we started checking out the options for dinner. Everything looked great! We each had to narrow our choices down to 3 or 4 options and then we bounced a few choices off one another to eventually select our food. We ordered the warm caprese salad ($9) and the meatballs ($10) for appetizers, and the lamb ragu ($16) and pasta puttanesca ($15) for entrees.
[warm caprese appetizer]
The warm caprese appetizer was actually fried green tomatoes layered with fresh mozzarella, drizzled with balsamic and a basil olive oil and served with a sauce that was tomato and maybe eggplant? It tasted like red sauce. This was pretty good, I would give it three stars out of five but would not order it again. We finished it, so it wasn't bad by any means.
[meatball appetizer]
The meatball appetizer was three very large meatballs (hard to tell from the photo but they were somewhere between golf balls and tennis balls) served with a small amount of thin red marinara. These were heavenly! Where I gave the caprese three stars, these were an absolute 5. We had been starving when we arrived (hence ordering two appetizers) and I had already been thinking I'd wanted meatballs when we discussed Italian for dinner. I was pleased as punch that these were an appetizer (I think I remember the podcast team waxing poetic about these as well in their review, but I don't remember exactly), as it left my entree selection open to try another scrumptious sounding menu offering. These were just divine
light, flavorful, and satisfying without being heavy or chewy.
[puttanesca, sorry, it looks like we may have tasted the left side before I took a photo
]R selected the puttanesca, described on the Vivo menu as olives, capers, tomato sauce, oregano, and paccheri tubes. I know Vivo makes some pastas in house, and these paccheri tubes tasted like they may have been some of the house-made fresh pasta offered. We both really enjoyed this dish - it was light and tasted very fresh. I would definitely order this again. The portion size was exactly right, but by American Italian restaurant standards, it would probably be considered a small portion. I think we finished this dish, which is saying a lot considering we finished both appetizers as well.
[lamb ragu]
I am a sucker for all things lamb, and since we were having the lighter puttanesca, this seemed like a good option that would be different enough so that we could enjoy a variety from the menu. It was described by Vivo as traditional slow cooked, marinara, and spaghetti. That's pretty much what we got, except with very thick spaghetti noodles. This was good, again I would give it 3 stars and probably not order this again, but we did enjoy it. It was your garden variety spaghetti with meat sauce, but in this case the meat was lamb. I would have liked this dish better if the lamb was braised or slow-roasted and served pulled rather than as browned ground lamb. Nevertheless, it was good. Maybe three and a half stars
We tried to order dessert to go, but the desserts are apparently pre-made in their containers so the options were very limited.
We declined dessert (much to poor R's chagrin). The annual pass netted us a $5 discount, and we paid $62.84 with tax for two entrees, two appetizers, and two glasses of wine. I would definitely come back and am looking forward to bringing my sister here, who's our family's chicken parmigiana expert. (She samples that dish at every Italian restaurant we visit )
[patio at Vivo, looking toward the Universal store]
We took the boat back to our resort, pleased to see that we had just over an hour left on the pool hours when we arrived at the Portofino. We quickly slipped on our swimsuits and beelined for the hot tub near the Villa Pool. There were four older teens plus a dad in the hot tub when we arrived. They weren't together, but chatting about video games or something when we added ourselves to the steamy water. Both groups eventually cleared out and we enjoyed the last 20 or 30 minutes of the open hours in the peace and quiet of a beautiful Florida evening. About 10 minutes before 11:00, the security guard came to (somewhat curtly) inform us that the pool area was closing at 11. Since we knew this and already planned to clear out in advance of official closing time, it sort of felt like we were being kicked out. It was my one and only complaint about any interaction we had with the staff at Portofino in the 4 nights/5 days we were there, so that should give you an idea of the service we experienced on the whole.
We donned the Portofino bathrobes provided for us and headed back to the room, quick to slip off to sleep after a great afternoon of activity.
[citywalk at night]
. They looked super delish. I adore Italian food though!!
........nor a fan of hot tubs.......lol.....but still enjoyed the updates.......nice pics too!!
) it had a lovely almond flavor. I am a huge fan of almond pastries and this one was moist and scrumptious. We both agreed this would likely not be the only pistachio muffin we'd enjoy this trip...
Well this was it. It was mass pandemonium in the Wizarding World... these crowds are the reasons I do not do theme parks at the holidays, a very convincing reason to get up for early entry, and a trigger for my mild claustrophobia 
It was gorgeous...
Thank goodness. The studios was looking much more serene (I didn't check in on the frenzy at Diagon Alley, though I can only imagine)
and sought out this guy...
Well, once we saw the crowd soaking up the last of the rays around the beach pool, we knew we weren't interested in fighting for a lounger or enduring the noise. 
(muahaha evil laughter)
. It must have been a tad harder to get a really GOOD stretch when the pieces were round versus stick-shaped, though. Being the meatatarians that they are, and who typically love a good sloppy burger, I think Teak would be right up their alley. Sorry it didn't live up to the pre-visit hooplah for you.
.
