Amorosa Pasta House — Restaurant in Burnaby

This. Was. Bizarre. My girlfriend was “allowed” to pick the restaurant on our last day in Vancouver and appropriately searched for the closest one to our hotel. She found two, but which cuisine, Italian or Greek. Which restaurant, Amorosa or Santali? Turns out, it didn’t matter—they’re the same restaurant. And I don’t mean they’re spiritually the same because of shared owners or have matching decors or similar menus. They are literally the same restaurant. Different signs, different entrances, hell even different addresses, all leading to the same building, like budget saving on a movie set. Zomato lists an Amorosa Santali house AND a Santali Souvlaki House. They combined the names on one entry but forgot to delete the other.

I thought this was a joke, like if I pass through the Amorosa door, do they hand me the Italian menu, and the reverse if I enter through the Santali door. Do the accents of the server’s change? Nope, doesn’t matter; they plant you down anywhere and hand you both menus. Why don’t they go for broke, list six different restaurants outside, and turn it all into a food court? Alternatively, maybe just put up a curtain or something. I felt like this was a scene in a sitcom—Jerry Seinfeld must have gotten a few zingers out of this one. I would love it if someone got enraged at the service, stormed out of the restaurant, promising to seek competition, and then re-entered next door back into the same establishment. The idea is funny just thinking about it.

So, after an unnecessary 260 words later, we’ve established Amorosa and Santali are one in the same, meaning the chefs on staff now must commit double duty preparing twice the variety of dishes (and you have to know there are fewer chefs on staff now than when the restaurants were separate). It would be expected that food quality would be compromised as result. And you’d be right. It was an afternoon when we arrived, the only patrons in both restaurants. Since we had previously decided on Italian (my girlfriend select Amorosa), we passed through the appropriate doors and asked for the corresponding menu. On it revealed the customary options seen in every clichéd (see boring) Italian restaurant…as well as every Boston Pizza. One page of the menu is reserved for appetizers, soups, and salads, and the second is all pasta—where you can either pick a premade plate or match a pasta with a sauce and topping. Given that, this one page boasted…running the numbers, 20 + (10 x 5 x [12 x2])…1220 different combinations. (Wait, is that right?)

We both ordered tomato with Italian sausage but with different pastas, her’s rotini while mine gnocchi. The plates arrived quickly, assuring that nothing was made to order. They were also enormous, carrying enough sustenance for that afternoon and for the next meal. Well, I say the next, but in truth, it kept so well in take-away, we were able to enjoy the leftovers a half-week later. I pride myself having a voracious appetite, and even I admit being unable to clean my plate. This was a full pound of starch, not including the fringed garlic bread the size of my forearm. It became clear early on they are supplanting quality with quantity, which, if you follow that formula must mean the food was substandard. I rated it on par if not maybe slightly below Boston Pizza, which I know sounds harsh. The gnocchi was clearly pulled from a factory-processed bag and the parmesan shakers were identical to those found at the aforementioned chain (and I do mean identical).

It wasn’t bad, and a $13 price tag for a plate that immense was astounding. There were no Boston Pizzas nearby, so if stuck in the area, I imagine you could do a lot worse. It’s not an ugly restaurant either—at least it’s not covered floor to ceiling in shades of brown. Just…yellow. The Amoroso half looks better than the Santali half, bringing up the observation discovered later that we had been seated on...

Update: We recently went. Kids now 8 and 11. We didn't dare ordered the soup. We ordered Alfredo, Hot Chicken Salad and Pesto. Food was hot. Quiet but at the two servers kept busy (one of the servers was the owner's wife). Both servers were friendly.

Six years ago: My family and I have been coming to this neighborhood gem. Over the years it was always jam packed. Until they extended the restaurant to next door--left side was Italian and the right side was Greek.

They converted the Greek side to be both restaurants, while the smaller side on the left is now a Japanese restaurant.

The prices have gone up ranging between $1 to $4. So, a large pasta dish, was $16 is now $20. There prices was always on the low end for many years...times are different nowadays!

We have always enjoyed the Hot Chicken Caesar Salad. Go for the large, as the small size is small for two people to share! We did asked if no pepper be added to the salad, as our 5-year old daughter doesn't like spicy food. They got it wrong, and it seem the salad was extra spicy!

I ordered the Baked Lasagna and I had mondo leftovers. My wife had the Tetrazzine with Spinach Linguine. Both dishes were great.

This review would have been a '5' except for the soup we ordered for our 2 year old who loves soup. We got her the Tortellini Brodo. For some strange reason, she didn't eat it. She ate my wife's pasta instead.

We didn't touch the soup until at the end. We ate the tortellini, but that tasted funky. Then we took a sip of the soup. It was sour, sour, sour! What?!

We asked the waiter if that was supposed to be like that. Our waiter came back and said it wasn't, and wasn't going to charge us. The chef/owner came out to apologize. Kudos for that.

What got us, is when the chef/owner said he doesn't make the broth and he gets it from a plastic tub. Great, we thought. He said the chicken broth would normally froth if bad. (I asked my mother-in-law, who used to cook for living, says, you can tell if the soup is bad just by smelling it. Or if its cloudy).

But, the worst thing he said was, he doesn't taste the soup! What? You don't taste your food?!?

The restaurant was not busy at all. We were only 2 tables in there, quite possibly, they were doing more take out orders. Nevertheless, I thought chefs/cooks taste their food before sending it out! We didn't know it was sour. But our 2-year daughter knew something was not right.

On that Sunday evening, eating at this restaurant really left us on a 'sour' note. Although the chef/owner did come out to apologize about the sour aka old soup; they got the order wrong for the hot chicken Caesar salad by doubling the black pepper...too be honest with you, it may be awhile...

One star ONLY for the food we ordered (when we finally got it). I liked the big fettuccine. BUT...Zero stars for service and customer concern. My gf and I ordered a bottle of wine and a large bottle of mineral water. Since it took so long for our server to come to our table after being seated we already scanned the menus and ordered our meals at the same time as the drinks. I'm assuming our server was named Leo because that's what I read on the bill at the end. When Leo brought the wine he clumsily put the glasses on the table. Then waved the bottle back and forth in our faces showing us that clearly he'd seen this done on tv or somewhere. Unscrews the cap and fills both our glasses. Caps the bottle and almost slams it on the table like he has zero depth perception. There was no offer to smell, sip, and approve the wine. After some bread and a couple glasses of wine a different server puts a plate of pasta down in front of my gf. Close to ten minutes later my meal came. No apology for the wait. Just an offer for fresh cracked pepper. After a few bites I'd realized that this was not what I had ordered. In fact, was eating my gf's meal and she was eating someone else's. We had waited so long she had kind of forgotten what she'd ordered and was fine with what was in front of her at that point. I requested that they bring out what I had ordered. I asked to speak to a manager. No one appeared. 15 minutes later my food came. By this time I'd pretty much lost my appetite. I had one bite. My gf was done and wanted to take the rest of her food to go. Leo walked over to our table and asked how everything was. I told him to wrap our food to go and requested a manager again. No manager showed up at our table this time either. But Leo came back at told us they are making my gf a small order of what she originally ordered for free. Really? She just ate a mystery plate of pasta! Why would she want a take out meal on top of it? It'll be a big brick of pasta in an hour. We got tired of waiting for a manager to speak with. My gf's meal should have been comped not replaced after she had eaten. I went to the bar to pay the bill. I paid for our food and gave zero tip. Leo said "I'm sorry. I take full responsibility..." What? Now you're apologizing?? Too late pal. I said "Terrible service" and left. It's a shame. It's only s few blocks away from home and like I said, we...