That's Amore — Restaurant in Hales Corners

First off, read the entire review to get to CURRENT REVIEW (or just scroll to the bottom). Rewind to over 15 years ago... Great food, but only half of my table got great service out of a parry of 2. My husband was treated with so much respect and attention, while I had to ask multiple times for things like a water refill or a new glass of wine because there were fruit flys just hanging out in thr glass. I am sure there has been plenty of staff turnover, and she probably doesn't work there anymore. I vowed to l never go back. BACK TO CURRENT DAY... I had a work meeting (8/16/2023), and we went to That's Amore at 11 am when they opened with a group of 7 people. We called ahead and was seated at the long booth in the front of the restaurant, right near the front door, which was difficult to have lunch and a meeting with all of the foot traffic. The restaurant filled up fast (so I knew it was going to be good food again). Our server and the hostess were very attentive to our entire group, even ME! Our drinks were immediately brought out, our order was taken, and we we're ready to start off our meeting. Before we could, our appetizers and salad/breadsticks came out. There was so much food that we pulled the next table up to ours and spread out a little to give us space. We talked while we ate, and we didn't want to hold her table hostage, like I have seen and dealt with many times in the industry. She checked in on us multiple times but never interrupted while we talked and ate. Our waitress and the hostess were top-notch! Everyone had enjoyed their food, SO MUCH FOOD! especially from the lunch menu, and we had leftovers, too. As soon as everyone had their food boxed up, they left, leaving me and one other to pay. I was all packed up while the table was bussed, and I tried to put the table we pulled over back to its spot, but the hostess was so kind and came over to help. She mentioned to me that if we needed extra room, we should ask because they have a specific table that fits there instead of pulling the table over and taking away the servers table. She was so polite about it and I felt horrible. I never intended to take a potential paying table from her, but I don't see how they could sit 2 people on the table next to us, especially because we called ahead and for reservations and to let them know it was a luncheon meeting because we didn't want to bother any patrons. I felt horrible and gave the server an extra tip on a large tab because I know if that table was sat for her, she wouldn't have gotten as big of a tip. (I love being able to tip above and beyond what I could afford - it helps when it's on the company card)

1. FOOD WAS GREAT & HUGE LUNCH SERVING! 2) SERVICE WAS ON POINT & VASTLY DIFFERENT FROM MY FIRST EXPERIENCE - SO KIND, POLITE, PATIENT, & ATTENTIVE 3) ATMOSPHERE WAS POSITIVE AND HAPPY. 4) I WILL BE BACK FOR A DINNER DATE...

The layout and décor are just fabulous. Very Rat Pack with lots of Dino. There needs to be more soft services to help absorb sound though. People can't hear each other, so they talk louder, increasing the volume, forcing others to talk louder to be heard, and round it goes again until the entire dining room is just shouting at each other. Is it a deal killer? No. Just really uncomfortable for those of us with excellent hearing.

The service was impeccable. Never needed to ask for dishes to be cleared, water to be refilled, or the need for boxes for left-overs - and there were a lot. Very friendly but not fake trolling for increased tips. Though if she WAS faking, you'd never know, so it wouldn't matter anyway. She was great.

The food is delicious. I AM disappointed they don't make fresh pasta, however what they do with boxed pasta is wonderful. Unlike an East Side Italian eatery, they do NOT price gouge as if they are putting in the time and attention to make it fresh. The prices are appropriate for the portion size received. We both took home enough left-overs for two more full meals. So lunch yesterday and today made everyone else in the office suite jealous. We started with the Arancini and Mozzarella Marinara, Mom had the Sicilian Pork Tenderloin, and I had the Chicken al Pietro. You start with the family style salad and breadsticks. Speaking of breadsticks, what is the purpose of serving 3 breadsticks to 2 people? Serve 2 or serve 4. Three is idiotic. Although the Arancini was creamy, it was NOT filled with any short rib meat. There was barely a drop of a reddish colored sauce in the middle. This WAS over-priced. To spend $10 on two golf ball sized fried rice balls instead of the menu description is QUITE a let down. The mozzarella marinara was served in an interesting format. Not sticks, not nuggets, but as (the best description I can say is) "planks." I really liked it that way. It took out the finger food aspect of the appetizer. Mom let me try her pork and the seasoning was aMAZing. So delicious. The chicken I had was also VERY good. I'm not usually a fan of sundried tomatoes but I figured I could pick them out if I didn't like them in there. They are just the right amount of sweet to balance the bitter in the wine sauce. Even though the arancini was a huge disappointment, I'm going to still give food five stars as everything...

We have been meaning to try this spot for such a long time, but always forget about it. We finally went this evening with a group (11 of us). My husband and I usually dine the two of us so we know coming in with a large group can sometimes have its hiccups, but I think that we came with level patience. Also important to note that we were seated in the complete rear of the restaurant in a room where it was just us and another table. The meal started off great. The salad was delicious, as was the fried eggplant - if I were rating on that alone, it would be a solid 10/10, so definitely try the eggplant. Marinara dip was also good. The issue was our waitress. We all got our food except my husband, who ordered the AYCE shrimp. Obviously you can’t take leftovers home in these scenarios, we understand that, however everyone got their food, including two other AYCE orders and then the waitress just walked off. We assumed she was getting my husbands food, but she didn’t come back for a good 15-20 minutes and finally one of the other people at the table got up and got another server to ask. Then our server comes back and says “oh we had to drop more shrimp” as if it wasn’t their Monday special (shrimp doesn’t take that long to cook) and she never communicated that nor checked back in to let us know it would be out shortly, so I’m assuming that was a flat out lie. Also no apologies for forgetting, because she also said “who didn’t get their food?” Which she would have known if it was only due to dropping more shrimp to cook… By that point the other people got their second round of shrimp. When it was time for my husband to be asked if he wanted more, everyone was already done eating so he asked if there was any way to get some to go to make up for getting his food halfway through dinner. The waitress snipped “no” and from there her attitude was just terrible. I don’t appreciate entitled customers, but his question was completely reasonable. We’re paying $20+ for all you can eat and he sat there without food for half the entire meal and she never even came around for us to ask where his food was. Being in a large group is no excuse for a server to treat us as if we are the problem. We have reasonable expectations and patience, service should be better than that. We were...