Amore Restaurant — Restaurant in Sarasota

Last night, my wife and I had another fun evening at Amore Restaurant. New owners (former managers) Tito and Liana are slowly injecting dishes from their native Portugal into the menu, creating an Italian-Portuguese fusion. Trying one of the new Portuguese dishes, I enjoyed the Seafood Cataplana, which the menu calls a “Portuguese Classic.” Sealed in a covered copper pan, the dish contains a lobster tail, shrimp, clams, and mussels (I asked for the calamari to be omitted) and steamed in flavorful broth. The food is served in the unique copper pan and opened at the table; a very nice presentation. It was delicious. My wife stayed on the Italian side of the menu, enjoying the linguini in clam sauce, modified to her liking with less oil and minimal garlic. The ample portion contained a combination of whole and chopped clams. I’ve had this dish without the modifications and found it to be quite good. This restaurant caters to individuals who request adaptations in food preparation.

While the food is excellent, what makes Amore stand out, in my opinion, is its atmosphere. Live entertainment is available most nights, with a variety of local artists performing different genres of music, from piano and vocals to guitar to opera and Broadway. If a more low-key atmosphere is preferred, Amore has two additional rooms that serve that purpose.

We live within walking distance of Amore, and it has become our go-to restaurant. This is where we bring our...

Mom loves this place so we had her 75th birthday dinner here. The food, service and atmosphere were all fabulous. Told them ahead of time and they also did some special decorations for us. BIG birthday balloon and some table top party favors!!

We had a party of 7 and sat at the large round table in the back corner which was perfect for us and could still hear the music entertainer up front, but not too much. 😀

Had several bottles of the Bin 302 wine and it was a solid choice for a fair price.

Started with apps, seafood soup of the day, mussels tarantina and beef woodpecker 🤷‍♂️. The mussels were great, and the beef woodpecker was the favorite. Note, I am not a big bread eater, but the bread was Fabulous!

Dinners were a variety with only one duplicate, the octopus lagareiro, and it is a spectacular dish! We also had the chicken livornese, the lobster only pasta, beef short ribs and a seafood rice. While hard to pick a winner, I lean towards the seafood rice, with the lobster pasta, octopus bacalhau and grouper oreganato all close second right behind it.

Of course we love to support local so that’s an added bonus for dining with this small local place run by a husband and wife very...

We went to dinner last night and were excited to try a new place. We consider ourselves foodies and world travelers, eating out an average of 5 nights a week at all types of restaurants. Based on our experience, we know what good food is. Last nights meal wasn’t good, in fact it was horrible. I ordered Chicken Parmesan and my wife ordered Lasagne. At first site, the chicken looked cooked with the cheese slightly melted. As I took my first bite from the end of the chicken parmigiana it was barely warm . It wasn’t until the next bite that I realized the chicken was completely raw. The manager was notified and offered what I would say was a extremely weak pathetic apology, offered no charge for the chicken parmigiana and a 10% discount equal to $4.50 from the bill (wow). My wife’s lasagne was average, it had an inch by two inch hard substance that could not be cut (it looked like burnt cheese, but not sure). The prices were high for the entrees (I would have expected something special for charging over $20 for average cost entrees). Needless to say, we won’t be back. The only thing positive thing about Amore was...