Comments on: A Pizza from Rarotonga

By: JC

JC — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:10:54 +0000

We visit Raro fairly regularly, so we’ll certainly keep an eye out for you, Johnny. Pity you can’t take over the Portofino, though – it’s a great site. In the mean time, I’ll be satisfying my love of good pizza at Trader Jack’s. (I had to say that, or he’d do me bodily harm!)

By: Johnny Boston

Johnny Boston — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:35:28 +0000

Interesting article. As a former pizza/sub sandwich restaurant owner, and an American, I can assure you the pizza you describe is NOT commonly found in North America. The way you’ve described North Americans as “impersonally pleasant” seems a little sour, BE. As does your comment about the tasteless looking pizza you’ve seen in American sitcoms. You’re not British, are you?

The Portofino is currently for sale, and having visited Raro, I’m currently looking to open a pizza shoppe there myself one day. At over $1.5 million, though, I won’t be buying the Portofino.

If you ever get back to Raro, look for a restaurant with the name Boston in the title. That means we’ve made it there and I’d love for you to sample one of our pizzas. I hope you’ll write us up in your blog afterwards. Cheers!

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:12:42 +0000

we were there a few weeks ago. sign outside said open at 6:30 called in at 6:15 for dinner and was told basically we are not open till 6:30 so we went else where.

Wasn’t welcoming at all

Could have welcomed us to the bar for a few drinks prior to dinner…

By: BE

BE — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:11:44 +0000

I first experienced such astounding arrogance – minus the bad pizza – in holiday resorts along the Adriatic coast.

My son Ollie, who runs a restaurant in Wellington – Trade Kitchen – always says that a restaurant can get away with indifferent food, but not with bad service. He may well be right.

In this case, we’d have been less annoyed if Nancy had accepted that maybe this wasn’t a great pizza, had apologised or made some attempt to put things right. She did none of these.

After the blog appeared I had a lot of comment from locals and visitors about the Portofino. There was general agreement that the pizzas were awful. BUT most people spoke highly of the rest of the food and especially the ribs and steak.

But if you want great pizza, check out Trader Jack’s

By: Sylvie

Sylvie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:48:56 +0000

I first experienced such astounding arrogance – minus the bad pizza – in holiday resorts along the Adriatic coast. Childhood memories if you like. I remember my mum explaining that it was the inevitable outcome of high tourist turnover coupled with operator ineptitude.
It didn’t take long for me to realise that there was indeed a correlation.

While restaurateurs in ordinary locations will typically do their best to get your return business, establishments in prime tourist spots, especially those with high foot traffic, couldn’t care less, knowing they’d have new bums on seats the next day, regardless.
Reputation used to mean little in this type of environment, hence the arrogance (or thinly veiled contempt).

I actually thought (or hoped) that this type of behaviour was perhaps less prevalent these days. After all, people now blog and twitter with reckless abandon; and let’s not forget, tourist numbers are dropping, so you’d think it would make people like Nancy contemplate their approach, not to mention their competence.

When I did a quick google search, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to find that the business is for sale. Moreover, the listing also said that it’s profitable; but probably not for much longer I thought.
Maybe Nancy had time for some quiet contemplation.