Adamo's Restaurant — Restaurant in Sacramento

This restaurant is deceiving! From the outside, you think it that might be a simple looking, slightly shady restaurant in a shady-ish area of town. When you enter, it transforms into a chic, cosmopolitan little space that looks very inviting. I would recommend getting a reservation especially if you are a bigger group because they were busy on a Friday night! Thankfully, we could get seated at the bar.

The menu is well-thought out. It isn't extensive, but we liked that they offer some classics and some of their own culinary fusions. We think they are attempting to create their name in the Italian cuisine industry here in Sac, as they seem to have updated menu items, they serve wines from their family vineyards in Italy and are also promoting pasta making classes. I love that!

Ok, onto the wine and food. I ordered their classic white, which was 50% Chardonnay and 50% blend and my husband ordered their classic red, which was a red blend. I don't know which component of my white was buttery, but the wine wasn't as crisp as I was hoping for. The red blend was better.

Food wise, they did a good job overall. We ordered their stuffed cherry peppers as an appetizer, the gnocchi, and the four cheese ravioli. The stuffed cherry peppers were simple, elegant and delicious! The plate was a few cherry peppers stuffed with goat cheese served on a bed arugula with a drizzle of an excellent balsamic vinaigrette with some black pepper. The simplicity of the components made this plate even more delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed it! Highly recommend ordering this appetizer.

Onto the pastas: the gnocchi was excellent - light, melting in the mouth with ample amount of delicious sauce. This is one of the best gnocchi plates my husband has had, and he is particular about his gnocchi! The garlic bread was a tad disappointing because it could have done with a more butter and garlic. It felt a little dry and didn't taste like fresh bread. Dipping it in the gnocchi sauce helped, but I would've liked better bread.

The four cheese ravioli took some bites for me to like it. My main issue with it was that I thought the ravioli was slightly undercooked but my husband felt it was ok. The pastas are all handmade so we commend them on making the ravioli but maybe we needed to boil it for a couple more minutes? The sauce for the ravioli was very good - spicy thanks to the peppers, lots of pine nuts and spinach. The cheese inside the ravioli was decent, but just that - cheese, no additional flavors there. I had the same complaint about the garlic bread not being buttered/garlicky enough. I think this dish is almost there but needs a few tweaks.

For dessert, we got the tiramisu. The look of it was disappointing because it was not made as a big portion but constructed in a jar. The look was aesthetically pleasing for a flair but this meant that the dessert didn't come together like a normal tiramisu does. It was also overtly sweet. The color was quite pale. We would've liked more coffee. We've definitely had better tiramisu desserts before.

I think this is a great restaurant. Their service is fast, the servers are friendly and once inside, you forget how the outside is! They have some cool decor like the wall of $2 bills. Their food is definitely hitting the mark for the most part, but they need a few tweaks here and there. A few weeks ago, we went to Paesanos where we had a great experience. Between the two, Paesanos leads currently because of their garlic bread and the tiramisu but I think Adamo's has a higher quality of pasta.

We will be back to try more...

So I'm sad to post a negative review because I've been here before and my experience was pretty good, but its been pre covid since I've been, and it's gone significantly downhill. Gnocchi was terrible, loaded with bacon fat, and literally no taste other than bacon. Risotto was undercooked and very watery. Sad, because I love a good Risotto. We ordered a salad as an appetizer, only to find out later we all got a side salad. Would have been nice if the service had been better and told us, we would just have ordered another appetizer. Not to mention the salad was supposed to come with candied pecans, which really adds to the flavor. They forgot to put them on. When I asked about it they made a lame excuse that sometimes they substitute nuts, which they didn't. Any service worth their weight would apologize, offer something else, or remove it from the bill. What a waste. The polenta with meatballs was absolutely tasteless. Sad, because polenta can be a real treat. This was not. :( My friend normally cleans his plate but he left half his noodles saying they were overcooked. Calamari appetizer was sooooo chewy, with few pieces of calamari, but mostly potatoes, and over garlic ed. And their configuration makes it sooooo loud, you cannot even hear your tables conversation. They brought us someone else's bill, then 2 servers brought us our bill minutes apart. Then minutes apart they both brought us our receipt. Poor communication on their part. And lastly it felt like they were rushing us out of there. Their pace for our meal was terribly rushed where we had to actually say something. Just a really poor experience all the way around. Pretty sure after this poor meal for all 5 of us that we will take our...

I was excited to try Adamo's with my family for my eldest's birthday celebration, but unfortunately, our experience fell short. Despite seeing great reviews, we encountered several issues.

The hostess and staff were pleasant and friendly, which made the initial impression positive. However, things quickly took a turn for the worse. Our table was clean, but I spotted a lone gnocchi under the table that had been there for some time. My silverware was also dirty, with something stuck to my knife.

We ordered appetizers, including fried mozzarella risotto balls (delicious) and bruschetta (cold with cold toppings). The bar started filling up, and I noticed people coming in to pick up takeout orders while we waited for our entrees. It took about 30 minutes for our meals to arrive, which was a long wait considering the restaurant's small size.

The ravioli and gnocchi were well-received, but the chicken panini was cold, with rubbery "grilled" chicken and stale bread. The accompanying fries were warm (not hot) and over-salted. When clearing our plates our waitress accidentally dropped a metal cup of ketchup on my father-in-law's leg.

The experience continued to decline as we waited for the final entree, during which time more takeout orders were being picked up and served. The birthday kid was understanding. However, this same kid, who was not sick before or since, ended up puking that night.

While I appreciate the friendly staff, the multiple issues with dish handling, floor cleanliness, and cold food made our celebration disappointing. Given the half-and-half experience we had, I'd normally give 1 star, but some of our appetizers were good, and two people enjoyed their meals.

Overall...