Amici Italian Grill & Lounge — Restaurant in Calgary

What a polarizing experience - the 2 stars is for the food, which was quite tasty. The only part of the meal that was disappointing was the prawns (they were not seasoned) and my second daiquiri (which seems much less flavourful than the first).

Now the service…. We were seated at a booth, which we were told to pick one of 2 available. We were brought water almost immediately by the sweet bus boy, but were not given menus for about 15 minutes and at that point I just walked over to the bus boy to ask him if he could bring us a few menus. We were not given drink menus until later when the waiter finally came by. When we did come in, the restaurant was not busy - we were like one of five tables seated so not sure why we weren’t talked to or given menus for so long. We ordered our food - in which my husband flagged down the waiter to double check the Manicotti didn’t have any meat on it as he is a vegetarian - we waited about 45 minutes for our food to arrive. When it did arrive, my husband cut into his meal to find it stuffed with meat. The waiter was flagged again and we let him know. He took it back to the kitchen and came back apologizing that the kitchen mixed that up with another dish. When he came back he offered to comp my friend’s drink for free (and by that I mean just walked up with a drink and glass and said this will be comped) but I had let him know that my husband wasn’t drinking anything so why is he comping a drink for someone else when his food came out wrong. He then tried to push it again, but eventually said he would comp my husband’s meal for free too, and then asked if I wanted another drink to be comped as well as my friend’s drink. We all agreed, and he brought the right food item and my other drink. Finally when he brought the bill, he just brought it over, pointed at my husband and said the food was comped but then rushed to get out of our area. When we checked the bill, the drinks he said he would comp as well were on the bill, as well as the extra charge for prawns for my dish was charged as another protein which was a higher cost. He came back and I let him know the errors, he tried to push back on the drink topic, talking over me saying that it was a misunderstanding and that he changed it to just the meal. My husband had to ask him to stop talking and stay in place as he was just talking over and rushing away from us and when he explained it, the waiter agreed. He did take off the 2 drinks, but the protein was still incorrect due to an error in their own system where they can’t punch in the right item (why have it on the menu then???).

Too bad! The food was really good, but the service was soooooo bad. We will likely never come here again or...

The food on this night was horrible, but I wanted to commend the staff for how they handled what must have been a very stressful situation.

We went as a group of 4. It was a quiet Friday night, with only a few tables who were mostly finished by the time we ordered. Our waiter was clearly new, but he was positive and attentive. He came back to double-check our orders, saying the system had glitched while he was punching it in and lost everything. OK, no problem. He came back soon after to triple-check one of the side orders. A little annoying, but alright. We appreciated that he wanted to make sure everything was right.

Once the food came out, things started to go downhill. The mozza sticks came out slightly burned. They were still edible, but it wasn't the greatest start to our meal. Next, they forgot my entree. I'm not sure how that happened, considering how many times our order was rechecked, but it did. By the time we asked where it was, everyone else was well into their meals. I said if it hadn't been entered to just cancel it.

This was when the staff showed how much they truly care about their guests. An older lady came out and apologized profusely. She said the kitchen was preparing the entree right away. I said it was OK and to cancel it, but she insisted that I pack it up to go, free of charge. She also offered the table a complimentary dessert.

A short while later, we ordered another round of drinks. The waiter brought it out, but unfortunately ended up spilling a beer onto the table and partially onto one of my friends. He was mortified and brought us another right away while the older lady cleaned the mess.

Then, when my friends were on their last slice of pizza, one of them unearthed a hair baked right into the cheese. He tried to pull it out but couldn't. We felt quite bad at this point, as it was clear they were having an off night, but thought we should let them know so no one else had to eat a hair-pizza. The older lady was aghast and brought the pizza to the kitchen. She took that off our bill. By the end, over half of our bill had been comped and the staff apologized again.

Overall, I hope the staff don't feel too terribly. We still had a great time, and we were all understanding, but I sincerely hope this reaches management. I manage a team and how they reacted that night is exactly how I'd want my staff to handle an issue. Because of that, we'll...

July 2025 visit - This restaurant has changed management/staff and I felt I had to revise my review to align with our latest experience. While the pasta was okay, the veal scallopini was too thick and chewy, the garlic butter for the bread was too garlicky, the waiter was very inexperienced and we had to ask him many times for items (bread, ice bucket for our white wine, a missed topping for baked potato), he spilled water on the table when refilling water cups, and spilled leftover food when clearing plates. They have removed seats to put in an Indian/Italian lunch buffet which is odd when there already is an Indian restaurant that has a lunch buffet 2 doors over. We used to find it hard to find a table as the regulars where always there, and the place was almost bare the I've evening we attended as you could tell that the regulars have stopped coming. I really hope they focus on working hard on getting back to the quality of Italian food and service that many expected from this location, however I suspect their focus of expanding to include a separate cuisine that is already available 2 doors down will not pan out in this location. I will try this location again in another month or two to see if they have improved, but if not - I will sadly have to say goodbye to our old favorite location and find another Italian restaurant for when we feel like a great bowl of Italian.

Original (5 years ago) Love this place! This is our go-to of you want a hearty and delicious Italian meal and feel like you're having a family dinner at your Nonna's. The staff is always friendly, food is hot and fresh, and the kids always love their ice cream at the end. There are smaller booths that seat 4, and various larger tables...