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Portovino, the newest restaurant to open in Midtown Crossing, has some things going for it.

It has a great location, in the heart of one of the city's hottest developments. It has a casual, approachable vibe and a well-designed bar area.

But before any of that matters, it needs to work on its menu, its atmosphere and, most importantly, its Italian-inspired dishes.

During three visits to the restaurant, which replaced Loft 610 in November, we found food that didn't live up to our expectations. In Omaha, where diners can find good pizza and hearty Italian food, Portovino falls short.

I enjoyed one of the two pizzas I sampled. A lovely roasted beet salad was the highlight of all my visits. If more of the food would have been similar to those dishes, it may have changed my opinion.

Meals begin with a wire basket filled with two warm wheat rolls and a number of crunchy and skinny seasoned cracker sticks. It comes with a dish of warm marinara sauce topped with a round of seasoned goat cheese. I liked the warm, herby cheese but found the marinara thin and bland.

Because pizza makes up the bulk of the menu, I ordered the arugula pie, topped with the spicy salad greens, roasted pears, Maytag blue and mozzarella cheeses, balsamic vinegar and prosciutto ham.

The greens came in a big pile in the middle of the pie, surrounded by the meat, sliced much too thick for my taste. The balsamic had been drizzled straight onto the ham, so the flavorful vinegar soaked into the meat and never made it to the cheesy base.

The pie had a bland, doughy crust. The arugula added a nice bite after I spread it around the slices by hand, but the soft pears seemed to disappear into the cheese, and the entire pizza was strangely devoid of any visible herbs, salt or pepper.

It didn't compare with pie I've had elsewhere in the city, and it didn't even come close to the powerfully flavorful pizza I've eaten at Pitch in Dundee.

Chef Rocky Rocha told me in an interview later that the prosciutto should have been cut so thin as to be almost transparent.

The seating arrangement at Portovino is new.

The east side of the restaurant — the main dining room at Loft 610 — is curtained. Cristophe Thomas, regional director of operations for Levy Restaurants, which owns Portovino, said the curtained side wasn't renovated because of cost.

Diners can sit in the main level bar or on a second level that's been renovated from a private party space to an open seating area. There also are a few tables in the hallway that leads to the curtained-off dining room, which will be remodeled later, Thomas said.

The new portion of the restaurant is sleek and modern. Four flat-screen television sets tuned to sports hang above the bar. A chef works in an open kitchen space next to the bar cooking pizzas and sandwiches in a large oven with tiny iridescent taupe tiles on the front and a shiny copper hood.

When I saw the big oven, I assumed it was wood fired, and I remembered reading as much in a Portovino press release. But it's actually gas. I was expecting pizza flavored with the essence of a wood fire, and when I peeked inside the dramatic oven — which dominates the restaurant — and saw a gas flame, it was a surprise and a letdown.

Thomas said Midtown Crossing regulations didn't allow for a wood oven.

At the waiter's recommendation, my dining partner ordered the chicken farfalle pasta. When it came to the table, the appearance caught me up short: It looked sort of like a frozen dinner.

White bow-tie pasta was coated with a wan white sauce that tasted mostly of cream, not Parmesan. A handful of snow peas, cut asparagus (which I first took for French cut green beans) and a few sweet red peppers were mixed in through the top.

The pasta was overcooked, and the chicken was so pale it appeared steamed — I expected the breast to arrive with at least a bit of a saute.

My dining partner asked the waiter for pepper after we noticed there was none on the table, and though a grind of fresh pepper helped, it wasn't enough to salvage the disappointing dish.

Thomas told me later that the restaurant doesn't have salt and pepper on the table because the tops got too crowded along with shakers of Parmesan, pepper flakes and an olive oil can.

Chef Rocha said the chicken is pale because it is cooked in the sauce, Portovino's take on the classic Alfredo sauce with a mixture of heavy cream and Parmesan. Levy introduced the dish in another one of its restaurants, where it's popular, he said.

Rocha said he planned to make sure the Omaha version of the dish gets seasoned properly in the kitchen.

The bar was noisy on a Friday night visit with blaring music that could have been straight off the "hits of the '70s, '80s and '90s" radio station.

We wondered what was up with the noisy soundtrack. Was it to make the restaurant seem more like a sports bar? (If so, it worked.) I'd have happily exchanged those tunes for a song by a member of the Rat Pack or anything remotely Italian-inspired.

Thomas said the music — which was the same on three visits — shouldn't have been so loud. It's streamed into the restaurant from an Internet-based system, which sometimes gets stuck on a genre. Other diners have also complained about it.

"We're trying to incorporate more of the crooner-type music," he said.

A lunch delivered better results.

I went with the pollo pizza, part of the restaurant's $9 lunch deal that includes the choice of a salad or cup of soup and an 8-inch pie.

My chicken pizza was flavorful, with a red sauce, sweet caramelized red onions and shredded chicken that Rocha said is cooked and then mixed with a basil pesto sauce. Torn fresh basil covered the whole pie and added lots of flavor. The crust was a bit crisper this time, with some blackened edges and a bubbly top.

My friend had the roasted beet salad, beautifully presented: a mix of roasted beets, carrots, purple greens, goat cheese, pistachios and a red wine vinaigrette tossed together in a wide bowl. She said she liked the textural mix: smooth cheese, crunchy pistachios and soft beets. It was hearty without being too filling.

Rocha said the rustic appearance of the salad was something he strived to perfect before it went on the menu, and it worked.

At another dinner, I went for a sandwich: the grilled zucchini and mozzarella, which is as basic as it sounds: mild peppers, zucchini and sliced and shredded mozzarella heated between a flour-dusted hoagie bun. The sandwich came cool in the middle, and the bottom of the bread was soggy with olive oil. It could have used some salt, pepper and other seasoning on the vegetables, which were plain.

Rocha said the sandwich should have been heated all the way through and that they've had challenges getting it hot without toasting the bread too much.

It came with a tasty side, though: a pile of thick-cut homemade potato chips coated with sea-salt and pepper, which I polished off.

My dining partner took another go at the pasta: this time, the traditional Bolognese. The penne pasta was again overcooked and the Bolognese was a solid, chunky mass of orangy-red sauce. The pancetta and ground pork flavor came through strongest in the sauce, which again could have used some salt and a grind of pepper.

I've eaten excellent Bolognese before — most recently at Dante Pizzeria Napoletana in west Omaha — and this sauce didn't resemble the one I had there in appearance, texture or flavor.

Thomas said some customers have complained about the limitations on the menu and the pastas. He said he was in the restaurant before Christmas, tried some of the pastas and wasn't happy.

"We have some new items — some new entrees — that we'll be introducing in January," he said. "The pastas are the Achilles' heel of the menu right now, and we're trying to resolve that."

Midtown Crossing is one of the city's newest destinations for food and is home to some great restaurants, some popular ones and a variety of price points. The well-priced Italian at Portovino could fit into that mix with improvements. Changing what's already there — before turning to new menu items and remodeling — seems like the way to go.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1069, sarah.bakerhansen@owh.com