Amalfi Cucina Italiana - Carmel Valley — Restaurant in San Diego

Despite Reviews suggesting poor service, this was not my experience. If anything, service was exceptional.

If I could have given half stars, Flora would have received a 4.5 from me...now on to my review:

The pros: The flora pizza was delicious and came out promptly. At 15 dollars, it was a reasonable price and I would order it again. (5 stars) Service was excellent. The Sea Bass was really good. (4.5 stars) The Steak and Fries were good (4 stars)

The cons: When we entered, the host greeted us and asked "How may we help you?" It was an odd question and we weren't so sure we were welcome. He later clarified if we had a reservation or not. We didn't, but it was no problem to get seated anyways. I ordered a white wine, and it came out room temperature. Typically, they're chilled. The Steak and Fries needed something else other than just fries on the side. Maybe asparagus or some other veggie. It was an overly generous amount of fries, but for the price, they really needed one more side. They offer bread and butter for free. Unfortunately, the butter comes in packets. For a place with such high prices, they really shouldn't be serving them in packets, just seemed to bring the restaurant down a bit.

All of the cons, I consider minor, but would have elevated the restaurant to a 5 star. Overall, yes, I would...

12/2022 Dropping to 2 stars. They do not honor their reservations!

Last night I made a reservation for two for 6:30 pm because they had Roman playing. I received a confirmation text from Flora restaurant immediately after my call. When we showed up at 6:25 for our reservation, the maître d’ said “all tables are taken. It’s out of my control”. I asked the owner what is the purpose of a reservation if you do not goner it? And he just threw his arms up in the air and mumbled “ busy one day- not busy another day- I don’t know”!!!

We were offered a table outside which despite the heaters was still uncomfortable. We also noticed at least two other couples going thought the same.

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Last year’s review:

This place is an absolute gem—great service, excellent food at unbelievable prices. We briefly met with the owner and Elias, his floor manager, and were warmly welcomed. We have visited this place several times, and it has always exceeded our expectations. Authentic Italian dishes, excellent taste, and service with a smile. They have outdoor seating with comfortable social distancing implemented. Some weekend nights, they have bands and performers that add up to the quality and value of the visit. Highly...

We happened to find Amalfi while looking for someplace a bit “quieter” on Super Bowl Sunday. What a find. The food and service were outstanding! Gennaro was our server and he added to the experience by speaking with us about his native Naples. The menu contains pasta dishes that allow you to pick the pasta you want with any of the listed sauces. There are pizzas, calzones, a variety of meat and seafood entrees. We started out with very crusty wonderful bread. We were hungry and it was terrific! Two companions shared the beet salad that had multicolored beets, blue cheese, lentils (of all things) and it was delicious. Entrees were the lemon chicken that came with the veggie du jour, potatoes and butternut squash. The chicken was done perfectly. Our vegan companion had pappardelle with marinara that got a great review. The pasta is homemade and is available in several varieties. I had pasta primavera with shrimp, also on the pappardelle. The wide noodles were cooked perfect Al dente. The sauce was red and creamier than I had hoped but it was delicious. A nice variety of veggies. Shrimp were plentiful and perfectly cooked. A great meal. We did not indulge in the “dolci” menu,...