Amato's — Restaurant in Saco

Came in to the store at 610pm and placed our order at the counter. My daughter and I ordered the chicken Alfredo fettuccine and my partner ordered a small meatball sub. 3 bottled drinks. Total comes to $48. The guy taking our order says “it’s gonna be about 15-20 minutes. Not exactly a big deal. The dining room was absolutely filthy. Every single table was dirty. We gave them some grace because it was busy. I waited at the counter area for a half hour and they FINALLY send out what we thought was my partner’s food. In the meantime I witnessed what I can only describe as complete pandemonium. Multiple people at the counter and no one can find their order, or it wasn’t put in, or they have the wrong food. Several people who ordered after me standing behind me. After 10 minutes of waiting for the rest of our food the guy behind me starts urging me to approach the counter. I say to the kid running the register “I’m sorry, I know it’s not your fault things are going so badly but I just want the rest of our food. I explain that we were only handed a sandwich and what was missing and he kind of shrugs it off as them being busy. Then the snot nosed line cook behind the deli counter pipes in and say “we make it in the order we receive it.” The tone was what I can only describe as impudent. I grit my teeth and remain polite as I tell him that we received 1/3 of our order 10 minutes ago and I have been waiting for 40 at this point. The guy and the woman behind me start spurring me to ask for the manager. Eventually the manager comes over and it’s the same guy who took our order. He asks “phone in or door dash.” I say “Neither. You personally took our order at that counter. We already got a sandwich and I just want the rest of my order. You told me 15-20 minutes about 40 minutes ago. At this point my partner is standing behind me. The guy goes without saying a word, walks to the back counter and picks up a bag that has been sitting there for God knows how long with the rest of our food in it and shoves it into our waiting arms without a single word of apology. Now we sit down to eat. The food is barely warm. My partner realizes that the meatball sub they gave him was not a meatball sub… it was chicken parm. But he eats it because we were NOT going back for these fools to “fix” it. The Alfredo was bland and mushy. If I am going to pay that much for food it needs to at least be as good as what I can make for myself at the house. I ended up throwing it away because it wasn’t worth the hassle and the inevitable argument that I know I would have had to endure to get a refund. Save your money and go somewhere with better food and some actual...

Buyer beware.

I used to live in Saco/Biddeford and would frequent multiple Amato's locations, including on the Amtrak train to Freeport and Boston. I used to work next door and would often come for my lunch break.

However, the last straw was when I bought a pasta dinner special and a soda. I called ahead and picked up my meal, which was inside a single brown paper bag, and I held the bag as instructed. Immediately upon exiting, the bag -weakened from the steam - ripped open and fell on the ground at my feet, spattering my work clothes. I picked up the pasta, put it in the trash outside, and went back in to tell the employees what happened.

"Oh, yeah," the employee said about the bag. "You have to be careful with those. They're really flimsy."

Still, I ordered another meal, not expecting to just have it remade for free (though that would have been nice). This time, I didn't have a soda - but when I went to pay, the total came out to be more than the first time - when I had an extra item. Confused, and at this point irritated, I asked why it was more than the last time.

"I accidentally charged you less the first time," was the response. Having already waited a full half hour for my meal, I folded and left with paying, as I needed to get back to work.

When I had free time, I sent an e-mail to corporate, addressing my concerns, and after reviewing everything - the person on the other end said "we train our employees to instruct customers on how to properly handle bags" - implying that it was my fault. He added insult to injury when he gave me a free spaghetti meal - however, it was not the meal I paid for, twice, and he would also not refund my money for at least one of the meals.

So, in effect - this place uses shoddy bags, so I was forced to wait a half hour. Food splashed all over my legs and shoes and clothes as a result. I was not only charged once, but twice - and the second time was even more despite having one less item. On top of that, I was blamed for it, and then corporate wouldn't give me at least the free meal in the form of what I paid for (and I never went back in to claim that insulting free meal), and also didn't give money back on the one they messed up on.

Used to love them, but they don't care about their customers. There are much friendlier places all over the area, so...

I’ll have lived in Saco 10+ years and have ordered from this Amatos too many times to count. It seems that the quality drastically went down after COVID. I stopped ordering from this Amatos in the summertime, as Saco is overrun with tourists and every time we order in the summer the quality seems to be extremely sloppy and poor, and the wait super long, understandably so. Took a chance and ordered in the fall (heavy tourist season over) and was even more disappointed than I was in the summer. Cold sandwich was hot, hot sandwich was cold. The personal size pizza was cut into pazo bread strips? And extremely burnt on bottom. Both sandwiches were extremely light and all veggies were soft/mushy. Lettuce in the Italian had completely wilted into a giant blob. This can not happen in the 10-15 minute drive from the store to my house, I just don’t get it. What is happening? Many locals I have talked to would agree that the quality has gone down hill drastically. I hope Amatos can step their game back up and be what they used to be 5 or...