L'Amico — Restaurant in New York

On a chain of trips to taste Italian and here I am doing an Italian brunch on Sunday.

First of all, lots and lots of sunlight shining through the glass walls during my brunch. Visually very pleasing.

We got the lemon ricotta pancake that is so instagrammable and it lives up to its fame!!! Honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect initially but I ended up being super surprised by the quality. Make sure you do reservations on WEEKENDS for pancakes. They are not on the regular lunch menu.

The pancakes are jiggly, soft, eggy (in an appetizing way), and have a nice bit of crust on the outside. They are topped with maple crema (which melts when heated) and soft cinnamon apples, perfect for a windy morning. These pancakes remind me of soufflé due to their cloudy, melt-in-the-mouth texture.

We liked to pair savory with sweet (because who doesn’t lol). So we had farmer’s pizza with two sunny side up eggs on top (to avoid the fight for sharing egg yolks). We asked our server to see if chef would be okay of adding one more egg on the pizza and we are happily accommodated.

The pizza dough is got a nice crust with char at the exterior. Cheese was still melting when it came, and the sausage and the mushroom on there are quite umani. It meets the expectations of a good pizza, but not like exceptional. (Also not sure if authentic Italian people would be okay with having sunny side up eggs on pizza, but I am biased on yummy oozing yolks).

So, I would recommend ricotta pancake as your priority brunch item. Their gelato flavors were also interesting: the stracciatella flavor I have never seen in my life and have no idea how it tastes. I, however, wasn’t able to taste due to a stuffed stomach (only if I knew ahead of time, regrets) but maybe others can save the space ahead of the time to try...

I should probably give L'amico a 3-star rating because our visit was quite mixed, so this review will be as well. At the end of the day, the management salvaged the fourth star. The management team was fantastic in responding

First, the place boasts a fun and engaging atmosphere for that any age can enjoy. Secondly, the food and drinks were high quality and enjoyable. Third, the manager and non-wait staff were fantastic and responding to several issues we were having from the wait staff before, during and even after the meal.

It's also important to state that I was visiting New York when we stopped in. So, this is a review of a guest, not a local. We were kicking 6th Avenue and found it was getting late. We happened among L'amico and went right in. We didn't have a reservation and, though the place was packed, we were seated rather quickly.

The meal was really quite good and the price, though higher than many restaurants, fit the quality of the meal nicely. Our problem came in the fact that we literally had no waiter or waitress taking care of us. We sat for an unusually long time, then had a couple of folks who were managing our meal. They were on the leadership team so they were, no doubt, busy with the other guests. At the end of the meal, now one could find an actual 'ticket' and then when we did receive one, it was the wrong meal!

The management team took care of the matter quickly and efficiently and even gave us a discount (as they should) on the meal because of the disruption in the service.

Our visit was during August of 2019. It's likely that whatever problems they were having have been corrected. It's a place I recommend if you are looking for a nice meal in a...

Location, food, ambience and service all are fantastic. Appetizers were excellent as compared to main entrees. We had vegetarian guests in the party and they had good options for them like raviolis in main and lots of appetizers.

Most of the Appetizers were very good as compared to the mains - must try Bruschetta with fresh cut figs was excellent, burrata also very fresh in taste plus the presentation was beautiful! Yellow tail was excellent with a clear tangy lemon like sauce, salad was regular nothing special but good and fresh.

Main entrees were good but we didn’t like as much. The whole fish Bronzino was grilled crisp with skin on and head off but the sauce was a lot like a soup and watery not possible to eat without asking for spoon as it was the consistency of a thin soup but don’t get me wrong very delicious more on the tangy side. No side at all - no veggies, no starch nothing comes with the fish.

Ravioli entrees were smaller portions and not impressive, we ordered it as it was one of the few choices for vegetarian entrees. Other seafood mix entree was a mix of seafood with lobster meat in white sauce and not that impressive as well for the price. No side in any entrees other than chicken. Chicken entree was the best: made to perfection and served with broccolini with a side of starch - great job.

All entrees were smaller portions and ranged from $35 to $45 (seafood on the $40+ price range) (with zero side no presentation, no vegetables no starch nothing on the side). Unimpressed.

Desserts amazingly nice large portions! Shareable definitely with beautiful...