Trattoria Amalfi — Restaurant in Salem

As I was reading prior Yelp reviews from being out of state, I decided to look into Trattoria Amalfi and try it out. Ambiance overall was outstanding, coming into a side of little Italy. The service was outstanding my server was absolutely phenomenal checking on me and making sure I was doing okay. I had come at a rough time where there were 5-6 larger parties. I myself being a party of one. I had waited over an hour and a half for my meal, completely understandable. It's not my first rodeo in fine dining restaurants. Went to use the restroom hoping to be able to have my food come out by that time. I ordered the Chicken Amalfi. I was not pleased with the presentation. The mushrooms were sautéed perfectly, texture, and flavor. The pasta was very greasy and way too tender and soft. The breaded "stuffed" chicken came out fresh, hot, and tender but due to the lack of flavor from the chicken itself and I don't know if I'd even call it stuffed myself as to how small the stuffed portion was along with I had to eat all the way to the half part of the chicken in order to reach the "stuffed" section. A few couple bites into the meal all I feel is my blood pressure shoot through the roof from all of the sodium. Tried putting Parmigiano Reggiano on the pasta yet still lacking flavor. I tried to eat as much as I could to not be rude about my meal but even then it was too much too handle. I could've called it quits in the beginning but that would look as if I didn't even remotely touch my plate. Due to the long wait time for my food (which again is understandable due to larger parties) I had to bring my server over to talk to me privately and let them know that genuinely I was displeased with the satisfaction and overall experience I had endured. They had told me they would talk to management to see what they could do to help my experience. Sitting for about 10 minutes with a grease full stomach and boiling blood pressure. My server came back over very politely and apologized for my experience. Then proceeded to sit the check on the table, yet no complimentary discount or even a complimentary dessert. Management had not even come over themselves to apologize. After paying for my bill and tipping my server very graciously, I proceeded to head to my car where I had thrown up inside of my mouth on the way out from the dish itself. I do not think it is a terrible dish. As I had told my server there needs to be something robust inside of the dish itself to really capture its true form. As I had gotten home I had thrown up in my toilet due to an upset stomach still even after it all. I decided to call the restaurant and speak to the manager myself directly. I had explained in full as to why I was displeased with my meal and upset with how the after care of the service was handled by management. Here is where we are at now. I hope that people know and understand I have no vendetta against this place staff or management and I had tried one of their many selections that they have to choose from but my experience was genuinely awful. I recommend to choose something other than the Chicken Amalfi, until they have readjusted the recipe itself. $40 later, an upset stomach, and very displeased with the management. Service...

This is a very nice place. We went on the whim, trying to find a new Italian restaurant to eat at. So we Google and saw the place has a very high rating. Upon entering, it looks just like any other restaurant. Once we entered, a beautifully dressed hostess greeted us, and we were shown to our table by one of the servers. The place has an Italian feel to it, like we were sitting outside under the grapevines with murals of outdoor pictures on the wall as background, grapevines, and string lighting. We would have liked to sit at one of the private booths, but they were all taken. We got a small table that was set in a row next to other customers (so there was no privacy). Our waitress arrived and offered us some nice warm bread and butter. We ordered muscles and stuffed mushrooms as appetizers. The mussels were delicious. The butter lemon garlic sauce that it was in was very rich, so we dipped some bread in there 😋. I wasn't a big fan of the stuffed mushrooms. They were regular bell mushrooms stuffed with super rich (I believe) breadcrumbs (a no for me). Hubby liked it. I ordered Frutti Di Mare, and hubby ordered Chicken Parm for our entree. The portions were huge and looked delicious! I took a bite and was a bit disappointed. It was a bit bland for me. It seems like my pasta was just taken out of the water, and the water didn't all drain out before they added into the sauce, so it had that bland and a bit fishy taste to it. I took a few bites and stopped. It would have been nice if they had fresh grated parmesan cheese to help the flavor, but they only had the ones inside the shakers. I tried a bite of my husband's chicken parm. Honestly, we've had better. It was just bland as well. It tasted like you opened a can of sauce and poured it over a piece of unseasoned breaded chicken meat. We will try the place again for its ambiance and for different food selections (not anytime soon, though). Oh, the drink, I ordered their Espresso Martini, I can say all you can taste is burned bitter coffee with a splash of Bailey, almost like they had no alcohol in there. Hubby's drink wasn't all...

This place is so hyped up on Merrimack Valley Eats on Facebook and I was looking forward to going. We took our Mom for her birthday. We had a reservation at 6PM. It was very busy and we got seated 10-15ish (?) minutes later. Which was fine.

The waitress eventually came over and took our drink orders without writing anything down and walked away. Several minutes later, she came back to confirm which drinks we all picked. Not sure why she didn’t just write it down the first time - it seems like that would be helpful for all involved.

The Shrimp/Scallop Toscana wasn’t good. For $35 I wished it was fantastic. The scallops should’ve been seared or something; they literally tasted like nothing and the shrimp tasted like plastic - not exaggerating. That’s the only way I can describe it. It simply wasn’t good. My sister ordered the same dish and felt the exact same way I did. I did not eat my leftovers which pains me deeply as I hate wasting food. I heated it up and the sauce split into oil and I just didn’t want to bother. My sister also did not eat her leftovers.

The pasta and sauce tasted good at the time it was brought to the table, though there was not really anything special about it. The bread that came before the meal was delicious and the basil lemon drop was very, very good.

My Mom got the chicken/eggplant parm with linguine. She said it was good. My husband got cheese raviolis which looked fantastic. There were two sizes on the menu, the waitress never asked which size he wanted. There were several sauce options available to choose from to have on the ravioli, but he just got butter on them. He seemed to enjoy them.

When the bill came, there was a $4 “up charge” for the raviolis? Not sure why. Alfredo is an option to put on the ravioli with no extra charge and I can imagine that’s made with cream, BUTTER, cheese…. (?).

The waitress never offered to refill our drinks from the bar. A young man did come over with a water pitcher. She was decent overall but again nothing about our visit was memorable. I would try it again in the future and order...