Amici Italian Eatery — Restaurant in Graham

Amici Italian Eatery has been one of my favorite dining establishments since moving to this part of South Hill/Graham. It has been a regular go-to for both my neighbor and me. Usually, I have nothing but glowing things to share about this establishment. However, this last Wednesday...things changed.

To begin our evening, we ordered the Spinach/Artichoke Dip. Typically this is served with an Italian Seasoned flat bread. When it arrived, it looked and smelled amazing. The problem? It was not a dip...it was a soup. It also appeared not to have much in the line of spinach nor artichokes. Okay, it was really like a cream soup...only not so creamy but more runny. Every time I put a scoop of this dip on my bread, it immediately dripped off. When we shared our disappointment about this with our server, she headed back to speak with the chef. The result? She stated the chef told her that batch was just a bit thinner than normal. That was it. Had we been given the choice, I'd have said no thank you and returned the appetizer in exchange for something else.

For dinner, my friend ordered Chicken Parmesan and I ordered Chicken Fettuccini. She loved her dinner and said it was her preferred go to because she knows what to expect and the serving was large enough to have for dinner the next night. For me, my first bite was shocking. It was so salty that at first I thought I just got one bit that may have salt that wasn't mixed in well. I took a second small taste and no...it was WAY over salted. Now, my friend loves salt and without saying why, I asked her if she'd like a taste of mine and she said yes. After the bite, she looked at me wide eyed and said...wow, that is REALLY salty. Of course I knew this. So, we called the server back over and shared now about how awfully salty my dinner was. The decision was to say no thank you to the meal I'd been looking forward to and requested a new selection...a beef French Dip with fries. Clearly not the meal I'd been hoping for. Sadly, the rush on the meal took abut 15 minutes and by the time it arrived, I was no longer hungry and my friend was done eating. I brought the sandwich home thinking to have it for dinner the next night, and I did. Uhhh, where was the meat and cheese? The cost of that sandwich was as much as the fettuccini and yet was equally as unsatisfying as fettuccini was. Perhaps this was a fluke night as I've never had a meal like this before at Amici. But it was sorely disappointing given they'd already set such a high standard all the other times we dined there. The server did a good job but certainly, overall I was most frustrated that I couldn't have a meal there and one that I would have enjoyed. A note to the chef. Taste your food before serving it. If you smoke, you must know your taste buds won't be as strong as someone who does not smoke so go light. It's always easy to add seasoning. But once overdone, it's hard to remove. Will we visit Amici again in the future...I'm debating. Sometimes one poor experience can...

The resteraunt was overall okay but had several things that were questionable for me

Astmophere: Pros.Nothing overly fancy quaint restaurant friendly staff overall decent spot tad on the pricey side for what we had but not outrageous

Cons: walked in around 2pm only 1 or 2 other tables in the entire place empty dinning room so I was a tad confused when they sat us in the only booth overwhelmed with sunlight had lunch with the sun in face entire time . Also brought my toddler to the bathroom to change her and the changing table is not short people friendly, it was hung so high the table laid flat at my chest and im 5'2 seemed super odd.

The food: Started with appetizers I ordered the fried zucchini chips and they were neither bad or good they were kinda bland supper mushy inside perfectly crispy outside? Lacked over all appeal but the ranch was on point!

My husband ordered the calamari starter. He enjoyed most of it what I tried was less than desirable the fried calamari rings were weirdly pale and wildly over cooked so chewy tough and bland! The deep fried baby squid things were cooked absolutely perfectly texture was perfect flavor was nice and balanced the dipping sauce was the best part of it !

Main course was okay. I ordered the seafood manicotti First off you expect manicotti when it is supposed to be stuffed manicotti but it was a lasagna noodle with ricotta folded over and topped with chucks of what might have been salmon but can't confirm because I've never had salmon with that texture or super salty flavor be but it was definitely only slightly above "edible" the shrimp were neutral nothing notably bad nothing notably good and the sauce was so stringy and also weirdly runny and overpowering on the dish 0 out of 10 would not recommend this dish

My toddler ordered Mac and cheese with French fries pretty simple right!? And it's an Italian resteraunt with Mac and Cheese on the pasta menu so I thought it would be like good homestyle Mac and cheese... It was not it's was kraft Mac and cheese like you'd find at Dennys. But that didn't stop it from being almost 11 dollars

My husband ordered the prime rib and gnocchi. Over all according to him everything was good prime tips were overcooked and super tough so that was a bummer but everything else was cooked perfectly great flavor only big complaint was apparently some type of crumbled cheese in the sauce that was very sharp but he ate all of it said 7out of 10 he'd...

Amici Italian Eatery was quite busy as it was EASTER Weekend & Saturday night. We had a early evening reservation but our party increased by two. The staff was GREAT on accommodating us.

The service was GREAT as we had a group of 7 people. I WISH I could remember our waiter's name but I know you will know who it is as he was wearing a LAS VEGAS nostalgic button down shirt. Which I shared with him that I have the exact same shirt & that I'm from VEGAS originally. His service was GREAT especially for the time of day & Saturday night before Easter 🐰🐣 We had a variety of dishes which a few had the Fish N Chips which had Good reviews from our friends who has this. Which I was surprised as we were at a ITALIAN restaurant. Everyone else had Italian dishes that were filling. I also had the lemon 🍋 cake that our waiter said was worth ordering. Which I agree as we all got to have a couple bites. That's how BIG it was. The servers were on top of making sure our orders came out efficiently & our drinks were ALWAYS being taken care of.

I was noticed that they had DAILY SPECIALS which on Saturdays is Prime Rib. I was tempted but didn't have a BIG enough appetite that night.

Hopefully I will get the chance to go again, especially on a Sunday as the SPECIAL is STEAK. Which is my favorite entree.

Once again THANK YOU to the STAFF & I HIGHLY recommend AMICI Italian Eatery as FOOD, SERVICE & ATMOSPHERE was worth it.

May they have a WONDERFULLY BLESSED...