Amalfi Cucina Italiana - San Marcos — Restaurant in San Marcos

I had an experience here that I thought was unethical and reflects poorly on the ownership of the restaurant.

The restaurant highlights its gluten free options, and as I am celiac my wife and I were looking forward to trying the pizza. After ordering dinner a manager came over and said that the food would not actually be gluten free. Yes, it is labeled gluten free on the menu, but there would be 100% chance it would contain gluten due to cross contamination.

I am of course familiar with the possibility of cross contamination in a normal restaurant kitchen, but what was different about this scenario was that the manager explained Amalfi makes no attempt to mitigate it. Gluten free pizza is prepared at the same station where they use wheat flour, the gluten free pasta is boiled in the same water as the wheat pasta, etc. They still label it "gluten free" because they start with gluten free dough, but everyone in the kitchen and on the waitstaff knows it won't be gluten free anymore by the time it reaches the table. This is all happening behind the customer's back, so I do respect the manager and waitress for speaking up about this laissez-faire approach to food prep rather than just hiding behind the label on the menu, but it should never be allowed to occur in the first place.

Ultimately I think this is a serious issue because the restaurant either doesn't understand dietary restrictions, or doesn't care enough to follow them - and either one is bad. No one is forcing them to offer gluten free options, but by putting it out there that they offer them, it creates the reasonable expectation that they'll actually serve food that is gluten free. As mentioned earlier I am celiac and have a lifetime of experience with cross contamination and mixed kitchens, but the difference in this situation is that almost every other restaurant with a mixed kitchen is at least trying to prepare the food without gluten. What Amalfi is doing is like labeling an item as vegetarian on the menu but then preparing it out of sight from the customer with meat.

The reason I mentioned ethics up front is because I'm left with the question of who exactly this restaurant is attempting to serve by claiming to offer gluten free options. Even if a patron is not celiac and just has a gluten allergy - or is not even avoiding gluten for a medical reason at all - if they order food labeled gluten free here, they are still getting served gluten. Every time. And please also keep in mind that Amalfi charges MORE for its gluten free options. Usually this charge covers the extra care in preparing them safely. But not here. Here it's just covering...what exactly?

Ultimately the manager agreed it was misleading to claim to offer gluten free food that would not actually be served gluten free, and said he would raise this topic with the owners. I hope he does, and I've left a lengthy review here to try and save others who are avoiding gluten from making the trip to...

If we hadn't been invited to dinner by a client, we would never have considered eating here. Shame on us! What a revelation. If you drive by during the day, you might think it was the association center for Lake San Marcos. At night though, you'll see all the lights sparkling on the water, you may have a little difficulty finding parking but you will find it and you won't have to walk too far. If you walk along the water as you walk to the front door, you will begin to realize this is more than just a local Italian restaurant. That is reinforced as you walk up to the 20 ft? 25ft?, okay, massive glass doors. Walk in the door and the place is ALIVE, laughter, clinking of glasses and wait staff criss crossing everywhere. Reservations highly recommended and probably required (our hosts had to change their reservation to accommodate adding us). If you can, request an outside table or at least one by the windows. At regular intervals the dancing water off the shoreline transforms into a light show. It's no Disney Fantastmic but it's a unique experience. The menu is very simplistic. There are variations of standard Italian fare for appetizers (Bruschetta, Calamari, meat and cheese platter for appetizers). Note: they don't automatically bring out bread, you have to ask for it and i found it a little chewy. My favorite part was selecting my preferred pasta and the sauce I wanted. Everyone at my table had Gnocchi prepared four different ways (3 with different sauces and 1 that was a prepared entree). Everyone loved their meal. Portions were generous. Three of us took home some of our meal in a box. You could also order a wood fired pizza. There are probably a dozen entree options and many other options in all categories on the specials menu. Although I was tempted by the lobster ravioli special, I stuck to the regular gnocchi with a spicy sauce (because I'm all about the heat and it didn't disappoint). Their alcohol menu was pretty extensive as well, similar to building your own pasta dish, you can build your own old fashioned from the drinks menu, which our host happily did. If you're looking for a quiet meal, I definitely recommend trying outside seating, we were inside and the wall to ceiling glass and high ceilings bounced the sound around us. One other tip, you can take a Gondola ride on the lake, the ramp is right next to the restaurant, if you're planning a special meal check out the gondola schedule and try to wrap that into your visit as well.🙂 Bottom line: decent food, great atmosphere and an attentive wait staff make this a great...

We dined here the night before Mother’s Day so we understand it’s a busy weekend to eat at a restaurant but we were very disappointed with our service, the quality of some of our food and the overall area of where we sat. It took almost 15 minutes to get greeted by anyone and once our water was brought over, another 10 from our actual server. This was before our server got sat with 2 larger parties so the service timing was even worse after that. He was helpful at first with answering some menu questions. The calamari came out cold, our pizza was just okay and the bread the smoked salmon was on tasted like cheap, low quality toast. We were halfway through the meal when my husband finally got someone’s attention for a drink refill. My handmade pasta was to be expected, pretty yummy! But on my husbands $70 steak, at least 1/3 if not more was not edible, all stringy with ligaments and fat. This was completely unacceptable. We understand ribeyes tend to have a small portion of fat on them but it was such a significant amount it made us question if the cut was even ribeye it was that disgusting. When the server came to ask how everything was and I started explaining to him what was all left on the plate, he didn’t even give us the courtesy to finish listening to what I was saying before walking away. About another 15 minutes later, he returned with their cheapest dessert (that was NOT good), & two shots of limoncello as a way to make up for the steak, knowing my husband was only drinking Diet Coke, I can’t wrap my head around a server being that delusional that it would be a good idea to bring a guest that’s not drinking, an alcoholic shot. When he said “is this okay?” And my husband said no I’m not drinking, he slid it over to me, laughed and said yeah my manager said fat on steak is normal and walked away, completely rude and such a lack of care. Not to mention our seating location was probably the worst in the restaurant, it was right next to where they take dishes after bussing tables so between the extremely loud ambience of people talking throughout the restaurant, we could barely hear each other speak over the sound of crashing dishes and glasses breaking quite a few times during our 2 hour experience. This was our first date night out kid free in a very long time and to say we were disappointed with the entire experience is an understatement, holiday weekend or not. The price, especially for the steak but even for everything overall is NOT worth it. Shown is the aftermath of him giving up on the stringy fat filled portions left...