Amici Ristorante

12/30/2008 Posted by QueenVictoria

I have dined at Amici a few times and had a decent experience. The food is good but overpriced and the atmosphere is generally pleasant. My review today has nothing to do with the food/ambiance of the restaurant. This is because I never actually made it INTO the facility. I made a reservation on opentable and received both a confirmation and a reminder. It shouldn't be necessary for me to confirm with the restaurant as well while using this service. Apparently no one from Amici's thought to advise opentable that they were not open for lunch the day after Xmas and took reservations anyway. I arrived for my reservation early and stood outside looking at a sign on the door stating that they were closed for lunch that day. I called while standing outside and the girl than answered was no help except that she was sorry and didn't know what happened. I didn't have time to deal with her since I had to call 5 people to reschedule a location within 15 minutes. I was fairly livid. I made a call to complain in the next couple days and spoke to Bruno(?) who stated he was the manager and I explained my situation. I fully expected to receive my opentable points since I was there for my reservation even if they were not there to serve me. This simple concept took me 10 minutes to get through this man's head. He just kept telling me that they were closed that day. I obviously figured that part out on my own! Finally he seemed to understand and said he would have to call the home office the next day to see what could be done and that he would call me back the following morning. I have not heard back from him, but have since received my opentable points and nothing further. That will be my last attempt to dine at that facility. I suppose I should have known better - must be a reason that Vallone establishments couldn't sustain themselves and have been bought up by others.

Pros: location in Town Square

Cons: poor management

12/07/2008 Posted by gerardj

Made reservations for 8pm on my birthday, Saturday. Arrived 15 minutes late, parking, even in free garages, was full. Upon arriving was told our table was being cleaned off. Fifteen minutes later we asked about our table and were told they were getting us a really good table. A few minutes later we were seated. The noise was so bad we could not well hear the specials. We chose italian sausage stuffed mushrooms, prosciutto wrapped melon, lamb shank, and trout special. The mushrooms were good, 3 for $9. The wrapped melon was good and unique, also about $9. The trout was thin on a thick bed of wilted spinach, with a seafood sauce. Was good enough but expensive at $26. The lamb shank was totally worthless. It reminded me of ordering a roast, a mass of meat with the bone sticking out, extrememely overcooked. Served with risotto, which I am not a fan of anyway, the rice had a chaulky center (not cooked enough). The shank dish was $25 and I would have preferred a good sandwich. The wines were so-so. The waiter asked if we wanted desert, we said no. Waiter then showed up with strawberry italian-style cake, complimentary. Make me think, what if we had ordered desert? Why would they ask? The service was average. All in all; expensive, need to choose your dishes carefully, too loud for anything but an outside voice (at least on Saturday nights between 8 and 9. Don't bother with reservations, they don't know what that means.

Pros: Location

Cons: Price, dishes, noise