Amaro Bistro — Restaurant in Bothell

I went in to Amaro really looking forward to a great experience. I had read the reviews and talked to some friends, who had really nice things to say about the customer service. My friends were right about the customer service. Everyone was attentive, service was quick, we had multiple people check on us and offer us bread and water, our questions regarding gluten intolerance were answered well and what wasn't known was found out. We felt really cared for...until the food came.

I ordered the crispy brussel sprout appetizer. They were not crispy at all. They were extremely oily and burnt. I actually like burnt flavor so I was ok with them until after a few bites I started getting pains in my stomach and I have a stomach of steel! I sent them back and my server was apologetic and kind and seemed genuinely shocked that we didn't like them.

For entrees we ordered the gluten free fungi pizza for my friend and the mahi puttanesca for me. If you are gluten free you are much better off giving the pizza a pass because they do not know how to do it properly. It looked very much like an Udi's preformed crust and they didn't defrost it because it was burnt on the edges and raw in the middle. My friend took a bite and was grossed out. I put it to my face to take a bite and was immediately repelled by the rancid oil smell coming from it. I thought even bad pizza is still good so I actually took the bite. That was a big mistake. It was horrible! The absolute worst pizza I have ever had in my life and I was giving them a pass on the crust because gluten free crust is a pain in the ass to make if you don't know how to do it right. The rancid oil taste was overwhelming. I set it down and felt immediately sick in my stomach on top of the greasy brussel sprouts. I was off pizza for a week after that. Just walking by frozen pizza in the grocery store later that night sent me reeling. It was so bad.

I double checked my mahi mahi and while it was overcooked it seemed fine so I asked them to box only it and get rid of the rest. It took me 4 days to open that box again and even try the fish. I paid 32 dollars for it so I wasn't going to waste it. It was just ok. I did not reheat the fish because it was over cooked to begin with. I did reheat the pasta and it had a nice chewy texture, but was OVERLOADED with salt and capers. There was a layer of at least 30 capers on my plate when I was finished. That is almost half a jar full for 1 plate of food. That is ridiculous! Luckily I normally have low blood pressure so the HUGE sodium hit didn't cause me any lasting damage, but my tongue definitely hurt from all of it.

I am really hoping they were training someone who got excited with the salt and capers. The service was so nice and almost all the reviews are 5 star that I really am hoping that this was just a crazy off night for the kitchen. I will try Amaro again, but it won't be for a few...

At the recommendation of a client I stopped by this restaurant in downtown Bothell for lunch since it's a short walk from my work (my first time wasn't recently, but I have been back recently because they have a really good lunch menu and their service and food was still fantastic!) Last time I got the lunch special - I picked out insalata cesare and rigatoni bolognese. Love that it comes with a soft drink or ice tea. The ice tea was perfect to me because it's not sweetened or bitter and comes with a slice of lemon. The cesar salad is good - I love being able to taste anchovies in the sauce; it's creamy, but doesn't taste like it comes from a bottle so it's likely house-made dressing. Though the romaine lettuce comes in full leaves so you will have to manually cut them up. I try to cut back on carbs by avoiding the croutons, but I can't stay away from theirs! They're crunchy yet soft, buttery and flavorful (not just toasted pieces of stale bread). Oh and they give you a basket of bread and butter when you sit down. The rigatoni was delicious - huge portion (I could only eat half of it and packed the rest for later), perfect al dente noodles, and the sauce is meat packed and seasoned impeccably. There are some popular pasta places out there that taste like the sauce came from pre-made in a bag and the noodles aren't fresh, but this place you can taste the quality. I also like that you can see the kitchen and I believe they have a brick oven; I look forward to trying out their pizza. The layout of the restaurant is great. They have a bar area, indoor, and outside seating. When it's nice outside they'll have the doors open and I was sitting inside but it wasn't loud or hard to converse with my friend. The staff is friendly/smiling and attentive, easy to wave...

I just wrote this review on yelp but I also wanted to write the review on here as well: This is probably the worst restaurant experience I've ever had. My waiter (his name on the receipt was Sherman), was the worst waiter I've ever had. First of all, I had an appetizer that was the calamari and I had assumed that it was just fried calamari dipped with marinara cocktail sauce; but when it came out I was in shocked of how disgusting it looked. The calamari was soaked in marinara dipping sauce. It was like I had ordered spaghetti without noodles and with calamari instead. Then my main course came in and it looked decent, I had ordered the "salmone" which was basically salmon with potatoes and a sauce which tasted average. Honestly the food was comparable to a chain restaurant like cheese cake factory. My total was 44.41 which in my opinion I'd rather spend somewhere else. Now, back to the waiter, he was barely present with our whole meal and I felt like the service was just like Red Robin's on a busy day. I saw on the receipt that there was a surcharge of 3.5% for the waiter and I felt he deserved that much. He also gave me a dirty look which was unprofessional. I then proceeded to leave and I heard someone call my name but I didn't acknowledge. Turns out, it was the waiter Sherman screaming and yelling about how he deserved a better tip! This restaurant is unprofessional, impolite, rude, mediocre food who does not deserve more than 2 stars. It says a lot for me to compare this type of restaurant to a mediocre restaurant, I mean, McDonald's could've been...