Amici's Kitchen and Living Room — Restaurant in Berkley

I have been a ongoing customer for well over 5 years at this establishment and today was by far the worst experience I ever had, I brought in a group of 5 of my friends today to experience how great the pizza is here, before stopping in a few of the guys wanted to grab a entree at Kam's Express. We love food in general and just show love around the City of Berkley. My group had already stopped in before I came in to get us a table and ordered a half veggie and cheese pizza, I came in got the table together and ordered a half mushroom/seafood pizza....this is all going to be eaten here at the establishment. My buddies began to eat there Chinese food and soon after I got my bread sticks, one of the cooks come out by the name of " Tony "and tell us, that the establishment cant have " This " and that he spoke to the managers on it and since we have the outside food we have to leave in a very disrespectful tone, he didnt come to us as adults but as if we are beneath him and very demeaning. All my life if a establishment has a issue with a customer, you come and speak to him or her and let them know theres a issue with what's going on, which is fine and you rectify the issue. Now if it continues then you ask the customer to leave. We never received a warning or anything just we have to go with no understanding we have already paid for 1 pizza and had another cooking. This is not how you handle business we where customers at the end of the day, not someone whos loitering. As I stated I have been coming many years and not sure if I want to return to the establishment with myself or new customers, knowing that this rude, disrespectful individual still works there. I dont know if my food is going to be tampered with or anything, this is a very unfortunate situation because I have been going there for a long time and now dont know if I ever want to return. I hope this individual is replaced with someone who knows how to speak with customers and...

Several years ago my family and I dined at this establishment roughly monthly. That was until we dined in their outdoor area and I noticed a gigantic dead rat on the ground. It was near the wall (so was I) so no one else had seen it. It was clear staff had not cleaned the area prior to opening.

I brought it to the attention of our server softly so that no other diners would be disturbed. However, my family unavoidably overheard. My mother in particular was disgusted and bothered. The server said she would get the manager.

The manager arrived and promptly declared, "That's not our fault. We can't control that." True, but you can control the cleanliness of your outdoor dining area.

We were offered no discount, no apology, no free food, and the entire experience was simply unprofessional from top to bottom. Anyone with even a modicum of customer service would have done something for us. Anything except nothing.

I considered at the time loudly announcing my discovery to the rest of the packed outdoor area so that the owners could reap the wages of bad customer service. I considered calling the health department.

I think an honest and truthful review is much better.

EDIT: The owner became angry with me over this review and sent multiple emails asking me to recant it. They once again denied all responsibility and refused to apologize. They also stooped to personal insults, which you may read below in their response to my review (and others, if you search). I recommend avoiding this place at all costs; the customer service experience has been abysmal twice now, and there's better pizza...

REVISED POST (8/31/20) Based on Chef Tim's thoughtful response and understanding the implications of social ratings, I am altering this review to a 4 - based on past food (if I factor in past service it drops). But I trust Chef Tim and the team are maintaining if not improving on the prior quality of the food AND THE SERVICE.

I did not receive any reparations to alter this review. The only incentive I have is to believe Chef Tim and support this delicious, local institution. We hope to be back soon and the thoughtful response is encouraging.

Good Luck Amici's!

ORIGINAL POST (June 2020) Unedited Below: Context: We've not visited often but are fans of the food. It's pricey pizza and salad. In-person service has been spotty at best with a mix of good and average.

Being fans of the food was enough for me to buy my wife a gift certificate, albeit seven, yes 7 years ago! We called recently and they told us they would honor it, no problem (it's a paper, dated and marked certificate). When we called to place our order this week, one of the new owners (purchased January 2020) told us they will not honor it due to the change of ownership.

I can understand the predicament but how many of these are potentially floating around that they won't accept? Are there that many? Does its value outweigh the potential to maintain a customer base or even bring in new customers? We've eaten their AFTER the gift certificate but kept forgetting we had it - so we are absolutely accountable.

I wish the new owners the best of luck. Berkley needs Amici's to succeed, their customers need it and our...