Amalfi — Restaurant in Chelmsford

It was Monday and my wife and I wanted to mark a special occasion. I went on Google maps and chose a place with a good rating. Amalfi has a perfect 5 stars and is alone in this in Chelmsford as far as I can see. Now, a surprise. The bistro is situated on a busy business centre near to homebase. Call it an upmarket factory estate if you will, but don't let that put you off. Andrea, the chef welcomed and seated us, took our orders, waited, cooked, served and generally looked after us. He is a lovely man and deserves to get on. The ambiance is just right. There is something interesting to look at in every direction. You can watch him cook, plate up and gives you an intimate experience that you would not get elsewhere. Andrea is obviously proud of his venture and this shows in his attention to detail. I said to my wife at the time, eating out is about the food and not necessarily the surroundings. One can have the most beautiful surroundings and a second rate chef and your experience would be ruined. Fortunately, Andrea really knows his job and this is refected in the high quality of his food. For starters we both shared a bruschetta which actually was a work of art and truly delicious. I had the chicken escalopes in a lemon sauce with chips and the sauce was to die for. I was debating whether in the absence of bread I could soak it up with my serviette and eat the serviette! It was that good. My wife had pasta with prawns. She loved it. We both finished with a Rum Baba each and I had a double espresso to go with it. The coffee was great and the crema perfect. The price was very reasonable, so reasonable in fact that I thought he miscalculated. The whole experience was perfect for us and I do know a bit about cooking being a past chef myself. We will most certainly be back. Thank you Andrea - bellissima 29th November 2024. Went to Andrea's new bistro in Chelmsford centre. The quality of the food remains the same - outstanding, but the ambience has improved 1000% over his previous premises. Better furniture, nicer decor, staff are very attentive. It was a Friday evening and by 8pm the place was packed. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. The current version of Amalfi is much better than the last. The multi storey car park is only 1 min away. Andrea and his staff are certainly doing everything right. We shall be back soon and I have no difficulty recommending Amalfi to all. Thanks for a lovely...

Poor quality for what was supposed to be a 4 course Valentine’s Special. Disappointed to say the least. -the waitresses forgot to give us the aperetif, which they said at the start was supposed to be potatoes balls (small croquettes I suppose?) with salmon (raw) in the middle. We had 3 balls between 2, not dividable, 2 vegetable spinach? ones, and 1 ball was potato with salmon inside -draft from window, it was really cold where I was sat, the outside temperature was 1.5 degrees. -Everyone else had normal prosecco with raspberry as aperitif, we had rose prosecco, no raspberry? They didn’t even mention it was part of the aperitif, no introduction, -The (German?) waitress asked for us to order dessert as well as Starters and Mains- not standard protocol -We never got asked for main drinks/water -We asked about if the food came with any carbohydrates, sides etc, the waitress said no, ‘just asparagus and fish.’ 2 pieces of asparagus and fish, which easily could have been from a local shop with some lemon drizzled on and the squeezed out lemon slices left on my plate. My partners’ food came with chips, and it doesn’t say it on the menu. I asked the waitress about this, and they said ‘sorry, I don’t make the menu’ -The waitresses forgot to get us cutlery for dessert, she put the plates down and said ‘enjoy’ I asked for some cutlery to eat the dessert.

We got offered limoncellos for the forgotten apertives and we declined politely. And then we got offered another dessert and an extra dessert as my dessert came out frozen with icicles, see photo attached.

-I asked for a glass of house white wine, they didn’t give me an option, no pinot grigio, or sauvignon on blanc…

We’re both very disappointed, we were really looking forward to a delicious meal. When we booked, we weren’t told there was a special menu for Valentine’s, just turned up and had it in front of us for 67£ each. I am half Spanish, and was looking forward to authentic mediterranean food, something to remind me of home, especially on a...

Disappointing Experience at a Supposedly “Fresh” Italian Restaurant

I was looking forward to a meal at this Italian restaurant that proudly advertises “fresh pasta” and “freshly made food,” but it turned out to be a huge disappointment. I ordered pasta with meatballs, and the entire dish fell far short of expectations.

The meatballs smelled bad and were clearly not fresh at all. The sauce tasted like it came straight from a can, with no effort to make it taste homemade. And as for the pasta? It was most certainly not fresh. Labeling packaged pasta as “fresh” is not the same as making fresh pasta from scratch and cooking it to order, which is what the restaurant claims to offer.

Having lived in Italy for several months, I can confidently say this meal was far from authentic or fresh. I tried to eat the meatballs to avoid wasting food, but they were simply inedible. I managed to eat one but couldn’t stomach the other two—they were completely unappetizing.

It’s impossible for a restaurant claiming to serve fresh food to cook everything in such a short amount of time and with only one person in the kitchen. As a cook myself who has taken fresh pasta workshops in Rome, I can say with certainty that this was not freshly made Italian food.

On a positive note, the waitstaff were polite and friendly, but I found it odd that they poured drinks directly into the glass rather than leaving the bottle or can at the table—it didn’t feel professional.

To make matters worse, the owner was incredibly rude when responding to my friend’s critique here on Google Reviews. Such behavior is unprofessional and shows a complete lack of respect for customer feedback.

Overall, this was an experience I will not be repeating. If you’re looking for true, fresh Italian cuisine, this is not the...