Amici Italian Osteria + Wine Bar — Restaurant in Abbotsford

I really want to leave the restaurant a good review given that I was looking sooo forward to dining in this restaurant however, we didnt have the greatest experience.

The restaurant is fairly new and had just opened. I knew about the restaurant through social media. I had a reso for 4 people and we were seated as soon as we came to the restaurant. For drinks, we started with 2x aperol and 2x negroni. The aperol was kinda flat. Negroni as per my partner was great and not too bitter. For appies, we started with meatballs and foccacias - classic and rosemary/garlic. And for mains, we ordered the mushroom gnocchi and added chicken (as recommended by our server, Miranda) and rigatoni al pesto. The meatballs were good and delicious. The crostinis that came with it were flat out burnt. The focaccias were soft and delicious. The butter that came with the foccacias were amazing. We asked for balsamic and oil to be paired up with foccacias. the balscamic + oil came too late - we were almost done with the focaccias and theyre already cold. we were not told it would cost us $3 dollars/balsamic + oil. so we were surprised when we saw our bill. the lady that brought out the balsamic+ oil spilled it on the table and spilled it on my friend's aperol. Although the girl that spilled the oil cleaned up after, it was never told to our server. The server also never checked in on us as to how the food tasted or how everything was going.

After the appies, our mains took approximately an hour to get to our table. We witnessed three tables who were seated long after us get their food before us and had to speak to our server about the missing mains. The server actually walked past us many times but never noticed that we never had the mains. The pastas were great and delicious. Very flavourful. The gnocchi was pillowy soft, but was missing the chicken. And the rigatoni was cooked al dente.

Also, when we spoke to the server about the spilled balsamic + oil in the aperol, she was nice enough to change it and get a new one for my friend. The new aperol tasted great.

Lastly, my partner and I had the tiramisu and we ordered 2x french pressed coffee, which tasted great and very strong as per our partners.

Overall, this place has a potential. Communication between the servers, hostesses, and other staff definitely could use a lot of improvement. Customer service was okay. Although the first experience was not good, me and my partner are down to go back as the food were actually great.

UPDATE My partner and I came back over the weekend, and we have noticed a lot of improvements since our last visit.

The service was a lot better, maybe a bit too fast, but definitely better. Our appies came on a timely manner. The main came halfway through our appies, which i think may be a bit fast, but it is not a problem. On top of this, our server was attentive! Repeated the orders to confirm, checked in to see how the dinner was going.

Their menu was updated and stated the price for add-ons like the balsamic+olive oil (which was a surprise for us last time)

For appies, we had meatballs and focaccia (rosemary and garlic). The crostinis that came with the meatballs were perfect! The edges were cripsy but yhe middle part was still in between soft and crunchy (if that makes sense). The meatballs were cooked great, not too dry. the focaccia and butter were just as amazing as our first time.

For our main, we had the peperoncino ( came with italian sausage). I think it was the only pasta that came with protein (im not too sure, but the other options we had did not have). The pasta was cooked al dente. The sauce was creamy, a little spicy, but the spicy-ness does not linger that long, and was very flavourful. Over all this dish to us was a 4.5/5.

We had tiramisu again, and it just never fails :). Not too sweet, very creamy, and just the right hint of coffee.

Overall, this was a better experience for us. A lot better than the first one.

I would rate the...

I had high hopes for our dinner at Amici given the many great opening reviews it had. For us, the food was good, but the overall experience/service fell short.

We were seated at an odd 4-seater table in the middle of the upstairs dining room, even though I had made a reservation for 2 people. All other tables were booths against the walls, so our table felt awkward being the only one in the middle.

It took a while for anyone to come and help us once we were seated, but there were many service staff walking around. We right away ordered our drinks when our server came. The same server came back 5 minutes later and asked if we wanted to get started with anything and we ordered an appetizer and said we were ready to order our mains as well. She then asked if we wanted to order drinks, but we had already ordered drinks from her earlier. She left to figure out what happened to our drinks, without taking the rest of our order. Literally 30 seconds later our salad was at the table. We asked if it belonged to someone else as there is no way it could be sent out that quickly unless it was pre-made or meant for another table. It was also odd to start the meal without our drinks.

We were halfway through the salad when we finally got our drinks. The amici spritz that I ordered was great – the highlight of the meal. The Amici Italian Salad was also good especially the dressing. We then had to flag down our server to finally order our mains. The ricotta and lemon stuffed pasta was tasty. The portion was small, but the flavor was there. Could have used more sauce as some bites had no sauce. The Bolognese and meat balls had good flavor but didn’t feel much different than a plate of spaghetti at home and the texture of the meatballs was very dense. I was also disappointed that they were sold out of the marinated olives. The Italian dinner experience was not the same without.

On the reservation it asked if there was an occasion and I noted that it was for a birthday. This was not acknowledged by anyone at the restaurant. Usually, there is some acknowledgement such as a glass of champagne or dessert or even just a Happy Birthday by the server. It was odd that this just went unnoticed considering it asked on the reservation platform.

If the experience would have been better, we probably would have stayed and ordered dessert or another drink, but we just wanted to leave. Overall, we were not wow-ed by anything. For a dinner that cost over $100, we expected a...

Let me start by saying that this is my very first 1 star review. I never understood why people would ever take their time to leave a negative review until today, I felt compelled to leave this review for the diners to be aware. As I’ve worked in service industry myself, I’m quite forgiving in honest mistakes, as long as it’s not intentional.

Quick summary:

I mentioned to the hostess that I am part of the ‘Supper Club’ ($350 upfront membership), to receive the 15% discount. Food was good, although a bit on an expensive side. ($60+ before tip for 1 cocktail, 1 cocktail, 1 light snack & a serving of pasta) After paying the bill, I quickly confirmed that the discount was applied to my bill. I was told by my server it was applied to individual items and not to the whole bill, as in the discount was taken care of. I felt a little strange and checked the menu price. In fact, I was charged the regular pricing and the discount was never applied. I mentioned that, and the server went to talk to the manager. Manager was on her POS for 5min or so before ever coming to tell me what was going on. I stood up and was about to leave as I was frustrated and no longer wanted to waste more time when it’s apparent that they cannot communicate between colleagues and to the customer. She, the manager stopped me and said ‘I need you to stay and pay, since I refunded you’, seeming very annoyed (which I was not told of, since she never decided to take time to explain why I was charged the incorrect amount and was caused inconvenience). She also went on saying that I am partly at fault for not mentioning to every single one of the staff that I am a ‘Supper Club’ member. It was my assumption that a hostess would communicate such information to the relevant staff. At this point, not wanting to spend another second conversing with this lady, I told her to charge me the regular amount. She still looked and sounded very annoyed and basically said ‘I still have access to your credit card so that’s okay’.

I don’t understand why she had to stop me and tell me to transact again, if she had the ability to charge without me being present.

This was my second visit and I feel ashamed of the fact that I’ve recommended this place to a few of my friends after my first...