Ciao Amici's — Restaurant in Brighton

Ate here with a party of 7, we made a reservation for 7pm and arrived about 10 minutes late (parking was nuts - but great to see downtown doing well!!). We entered and were greeted warmly by the hostess and enjoyed small talk with the girl who filled all our waters.

When our server arrived, he seemed stressed and unhappy/uncomfortable. We tried to be accommodating and ordered food. We had 4 12-13 year olds in our party who are basically bottomless pits of hunger. We ordered our food around 7:30 and ordered appetizers to share with the table. The appetizers came and we're delicious and we also got (amazing, fresh, hot) bread and oil for the table. The kiddos gobbled that up and asked for more. We asked for another basket of bread and were told by our server that he would do his best to accommodate us, but the kitchen was backed up. We said not to worry, we are patient! He came back pretty quickly with more of the great bread. We shared that and then asked for another basket while waiting for our meals.

My fiance had to leave the table for a bit, and while he left our food came (around 8:20-8:30). Again, we had no issues or complaints about the wait, we are grateful to be fed! His plate was put down, and I was not sure if the food was his or mine. I asked the waiter if it was the ravioli or the eggplant, and he sighed. Before he could answer me ( I did not mean to offend by asking...) the other server who was helping him bring all the food (7 entrees is a lot!) Loudly snapped at me, "MA'AM, LET THE MAN DO HIS JOB!" ...long pause... "Just kidding!"

It really didn't seem like he was kidding. I was incredibly uncomfortable, surprised, embarrassed, felt lower than dirt. Everyone at our table fell silent and it was incredibly awkward. They placed our food down and then left, no one said anything except a quiet thank you.

I don't know what was going on, and I hope I did not do anything to offend or disrespect anyone while dining here. If someone in my party did something rude, I did not see it, and I apologize on their behalf. The evening did not get better in terms of service, we felt rushed and unwanted. We were in the restaurant until about 9? but most of the time was spent waiting for our food, so I do not think they were upset with us about staying late... I don't know. I have never felt so uncomfortable in a restaurant before. We loved the food. The service was offensive.

We were ordering vegetarian meals, because my fiance's parents are visiting this week, and we want to take them out for dinner (they are vegetarian). If the service hadn't been literally offensive, we would have been back with his parents. I am not thinking we will be coming again, which is a shame because the food was delicious and it can be a struggle to find vegetarian meals that taste good. (See update)

We ordered and enjoyed: Bruschetta Burrata Gorgonzola salads Gorgonzola chicken Butternut ravioli Tortellini diablo Eggplant Parmesan Pasta DaVinci UPDATE:

Today I received a call from one of the managers. He spoke to me about the situation and made me feel so much better.

Our server is apparently someone who is known to "just come in and do his job" and his mannerisms/attitude is pretty typical but not because he/the establishment was offended by our party (I was worried they did not want us there because we had kids, but that was not the case). He is someone who is uncomfortable with small talk (which I can respect). I understand the staffing shortages and appreciate people who are willing to work so that my family and I can enjoy the privilege of eating out.

The man who made the joke apologized and told the manager he recognized he said the wrong thing at the wrong time, and did not read the room well. I think if this person had been talking to us from the beginning, there would have not been an issue, but because we only saw him for that brief exchange it was very jarring.

Management offered to comp our next meal. The food is extremely good and we will try them again...

My wife, daughter, mother, and myself wanted to try a new place today and were hungry for Italian food. Love the inside and the decor with the actors on the inside; that was really cool! The waitress we had was punctual and attentive to us, though she never introduced herself. Also, it seemed to take too long to actually place our entree order. What I would assume was the manager, he never introduced himself either, helped remove plates and fill up our water and soda as well. We ordered 2 appetizers, grilled octopus and bruschetta. Their website shows the grilled octopus is at a $16.99 price even though our menu showed $18.99. Now that I'm looking at the price online, I'm noticing our menu was at minimum, $3-4 more expensive on just about everything! Unfortunately, for that reason alone, I am removing 1 star for my review. Chilled grilled octopus with boursin cheese, smoked paprika aioli, and garnished with fresh arugula and pickled onions. The grilled octopus was cooked just slightly too long as it was a little too chewy. The smoked paprika aioli that accompanied the octopus was absolutely delicious and a perfect complement to the octopus! The bruschetta was a little of a let down as well. It is a sliced baguette topped with fresh basil pesto, stewed tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese, balsamic reduction. I absolutely love basil, and unfortunately I couldn't taste it all when it came to the basil pesto. The tomatoes tasted wonderful, but were possibly too many and just overpowered the rest of the dish. I wish the sliced baguette was grilled or toasted as it was soggy and limp upon arrival at the table! The mozzarella that was shredded on top tasted of a higher quality than like store brand cheese. The balsamic glaze was also underwhelming with the tomatoes as well. I got the veal saltimbocca as my entree. It wasn't a very photogenic meal so I didn't take a picture of it. It is veal scaloppine sautéed with extra virgin olive oil, white wine and sage topped with imported prosciutto, vegetables, and smashed potatoes. It was pretty basic but done well. My wife got the chicken parmesano and again, the tomatoe flavor was a little much. It is lightly breaded all-natural chicken breast topped with marinara sauce and Mozzarella cheese. The sauce had great flavor and acidity the dish needed. The breading tasted basic and the chicken was just as bland. The best part of the entire meal was the dessert! It really was the redeeming factor for the restaurant! You could taste the liquor that the lady fingers were soaked in, but it wasn't overpowered. The spumoni had a surprising presentation; it was ice cream in a ball and covered in a chocolate shell cut in half. The creme brule was probably the best thing we all ate today! All together, I found this restaurant to be inconsistent with pricing, wait staff was fair (didn't know anyone's name though) overpriced, and exceptional dessert. Might be back for dessert, but dessert only and probably get it to go. I'd give it a 2.5, but it only let's me do...

Service: Poor Quality

Reasoning: The staff wasn’t useful at providing recommendations or opinions on absolutely anything. They just said everything’s amazing. I’m now realizing that’s also the fault of management because there’s no way they have the urge to be that agreeable on their own accord and have zero opinions on anything. Then I went to speak to them while looking them in the eyes, and they totally ignored me. It was just a casual conversation topic. We were the only ones being served, and zero friendliness was being expressed.

Food: Poor Quality

Reasoning: For $40 for a mid-tier entrée and such a pretentious presentation from the logo to the ambience, you’d expect the same thought to be put into the dish, right? Wrong.

The dishes are crowd-pleasers in the worst sense—designed for people who inhale food without tasting it, whether it’s from McDonald’s, Burger King, or yesterday’s stale fries. Everything was drowned in cream and oil. There was zero flavor balance, zero complementary pairing—just chaos on a plate. It wasn’t just disappointing, it was unskilled and frankly disrespectful. I already suspected palomino sauce wouldn’t pair well with seafood, but I gave the kitchen the benefit of the doubt, hoping for some nuanced execution. No such luck. They smothered mussels, scallops, and shrimp in it, completely burying the natural flavor of the seafood. What’s the point of using delicate proteins if you’re just going to coat them in an overpowering cream sauce? It defeats the entire purpose of working with seafood in the first place.

Furthermore, why is salmon being cooked past 140 degrees internal? That’s not even a reasonable temperature, yet it’s very obvious it was surpassed. It’s honestly unacceptable. Even people who cook salmon once a year have a 50% chance of getting this right. This restaurant should have a 0% chance of ever getting this wrong. Again, it’s completely insulting.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere was fine when the manager came into the room. They came in the room complaining that the lights needed dimming, so upon doing so, the atmosphere was nice, and it complemented and evoked the phenomenology for proper autonomics in a restaurant setting that are conducive to contentment.

Overall

Your food being “edible” isn’t a reason to give you more than 1 star. I felt hostage by your prices to consume my food. If anything, any of your positive reviews are induced by psychological defense mechanisms making people justify why it was good against all instinct and experience. There’s absolutely no way the majority of people are...