Amare La Cucina Tagaytay — Restaurant in Laurel

My family and I ordered 5 pizzas and pasta, dine-in, for our group. During a previous visit, our kid was allowed to toss their own pizza and place the pizza toppings. It was a great experience that didn't interfere with our order. This time around, we asked if we could do this again, and the staff said yes. More than 30mins went by and we still didn't recieve our pizzas nor was our kid called to help make a pizza. We even saw customers who ordered after we did recieve their pizzas already. Turns out, the kitchen, as per their policy, was planning complete the orders of all other customers before preparing any one of our 5 pizzas, even though we made it clear that only two kids from our group would help prepare 1 pizza each. So Amare's mistakes:

Why didn't they tell us of this policy beforehand? Had we know, we wouldn't have opter for our kids to make 2/5 pizzas. Why is this even a policy; with their logic, we'd be waiting way too long for our pizzas. Why is this their policy when they said it would take 30mins to prep the pizzas, but their very own policy prevents them from doing so? The staff and manager showed no accountability, no customer care, no empathy. They seemed stand-offish, unwilling to conceed that there was any room for improvement on their part. No apologies whatsoever. Servers also told us there was no arugula for the arugula pizza only after we had been waiting for 20+ mins already.

Bottomline: The staff and management at Amare Tagaytay near Twin Lakes did a TERRIBLE job. What a terrible experience from a restaurant that I hope does not last much longer. Your staff refleft your brand and how much you value your customers. Now we know...

Kudos sa Food, its delicious. But most of the staffs we encountered are rude. They have the “mayabang” attitude towards the customers. I was going to order for take out, then they told me in a not so good tone “wait lang maam, sa tabi muna kayo” so I stepped aside. But she was so hyper, na parang hindi alam ang gagawin and her tone is in an annoyed manner. I waited until she ask me for my order then when paying, via bank transfer because they dont have available card machine, I showed her the confirmation, she asked me to send it on their viber account in an annoyed manner again. Then I just stepped aside trying to wait for my order, then my partner told me to just wait in the car so we dont need to wait aside in there, looking pathetic. I ask another staff in reception/reservation if they can atleast kindly call us in the car if our order is ready(our car is parked just almost in front of the reception areaand theyre just talking with each other not doing anything) but they dont know what to do and telling me to tell that in the counter because my request is not under them. So I just told them, “no need, we will just come back, thank you”. Well, I am a first time customer there that time so I wouldnt know the rules or system they have. It must have been better if they can atleast assist the first timers in a good manner. Im just disappointed. I will never come back in this restaurant again even if its just 5 minutes away from our house.

Maybe they dont like to assist me in a good manner because Im just wearing “pambahay”.( our house is just a few minutes away) Customer...

Tl;dr place seems like a clone of AMICI. But the food here is WAY better

We ordered

Spaghetti with meatballs I liked this very much. The sauce is very tomatoey / sour. The meatballs tasted like it's full of meat and not exgenders. So far removed from Filipino spaghetti. Blows Italliani's spaghetti out of the water.

Aglio olio I cannot comment. I was not able to taste as none were left for me. Mybe that in itself is an endorsement?

Penne arabiata The highlight is the toasted bacon on top. Very crunchy. It's not that spicy. I also would have liked it more if they used spaghetti instead of penne. Not bad, and you should order it for the bacon. But not my favorite.

Pizza Quattro formagio with spinach Like angels' version. I mean, how good can cheese and spinach ultimately be?

Pizza con prosciutto I liked it. The fresh basil were...fresh. The prosciutto was like ham. Not really mind blowing.

Pinoy Boy Pizza It's all meat. Nothing special. Order it if you are fans of Mikey Bustos

Spicy honey The spiciness is mild and not oppressive. It can be complementary to some of the pizzas and pastas. You can buy a smaller bottle for take home.

Their Gelato (coffee and strawberry oreos) Hmmm... this is where Amici is WAY better. The ice cream wasn't quite up to par. It's not bad, but the flavors were meh. The selection was very limited and did not have fresh fruit flavors which I like.

I know, i may seem. Underwhelmed, but I'm not. DEFINITELY eating here again. Overall food quality EXCELLENT. It just comes down t if you enjoy the flavors or not. I feel it's...