Amalfi's Pizza Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Statesville

We have just finished our meal at Amalfi's and now it time for the review.

Environment 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 The Environment at Amalfi's was absolutely amazing. Cozy with a perfect low light setting that really feels like you are about to sit down to an amazing experience. Italian wall decorations all around echo the essence of Italy. A beautiful hand made village complete with hand made wooden dolls and lights sits in the view of the dinning area attracting the eyes of all patrons. There was also a beautiful private party room with painted walls to match the Environment of Italy. It was stunning.

Staff 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Our waiter was amazing, kind respectful and answered our questions. He also accepted criticism with a smile. He was a great listener and he was truthful. A really outstanding professional.

Presentation.🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 The presentation of the food was well executed. Each dish came out very photogenic and I loved the choice of dishware for each dish presentation. Everything looked delicious and well presented.

Food 🌟🌟 After seeing the place, being treated professionally by the staff and seeing a wonderful presentation of dishes, we were very excited to taste all of the wonderful dishes we ordered. The bread was the first to be tasted. I would say it was average but it's bread, I wasn't too disappointed. Our appetizer was next. The fried calamari. It was nice and crisp and tasted good. Then things went down hill. We got our salads which were fresh and crisp but not drained. Each salad was sitting on a pool of water and after you mixed the dressing in, it turned into a soupy mess. Salads need to be properly drained before serving. After the salads our main courses arrived. I ordered the lobster ravioli with shrimp. The ravioli was completely tasteless. No lobster taste at all. The sauce was light and tasty and the shrimp was cooked to perfection. I've never had shrimp cooked that perfectly before. However I asked the waiter about the ravioli. Unfortunately it is not freshly made. It is frozen. I can't understand how you could serve frozen ravioli at an Italian restaurant and have the audacity to charge 20.00$ for it. The other main dish was the seafood depeci with spaghetti pasta. The seafood was good but the pasta was over cooked to hell and tasted as it was poured from a chef boyardi can. Again how does an Italian restaurant serve overcooked soggy mushy pasta like that and charge 20$ for it. I wonder if the owner knows that the chef is serving this because every Italian I know would have been embarrassed by it. I was very disappointed with the food.

Cost/worth 🌟🌟 To charge 20$ for something that is frozen and passed on as a special is just terrible. Make it fresh and handmade or 86 it. Definitely don't make it your special. I'm not interested in paying for things that are frozen or overcooked. That pasta was dreadful and I had to pay for it after not even finishing it.

Overall score 🌟🌟🌟 This restaurant has the potential to be the best Italian in the Statesville area. Your environment is amazing. You have skillful dish presentation. Your staff was very professional. But you are a restaurant, people come here to eat. And what we ate today was very disappointing. Hopefully you can take this review and learn from it. I would love this restaurant to be #1 in...

Went there last night for the first time, doubtful I will ever return. We were a group of 26 in the back room. I ordered the chicken picatta with the side salad & pasta SIDE dish of Penne, light on the sauce please. (The entree comes with 2 sides). This was at 6:30ish. I got the salad about 30 mins later. At around 8:00, I finally got the entree, as did a few others sitting with us. At this point, the majority of the group had already received, eaten their entrees & were ready to leave! The person seated next to me was told they were out of what he had ordered over an hour before & was there something else they could bring him. Really? My chicken Picatta looked like anything but. I’m not one to send food back, ever. It has to be really bad for me to do so. I took 2 small bites of it & was done. It was vile! My SIDE dish of pasta was mixed in with the “picatta” sauce. I cook & know capers can be salty, but this tasted like a salt lick drenched in olive oil with a barely there taste of lemon. So glad I asked them to go “light on the sauce”, this mess was swimming in it. It also had mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes & olives in it. I too was asked if there was anything else I would like to have, but I declined & they did not charge us for the order. A few people did say their food tasted overly salty as well. What was most disappointing was the fact that everything smelled so good & some of the dishes others ordered looked & tasted delicious, with generous portions. Such a let down. The long wait was clearly a BOH problem. The cook was overwhelmed by the rush of orders, between our party & seated patrons, that our group was serviced in 3 shifts. Our waitress was excellent! She did an amazing job with little to no help from additional waitstaff. She remained very professional through out it all!

No, not...

When all hope was lost, I found Amalfi's. Why this place doesn't have a line out the door with a 1 hr wait is beyond me. I had been to other "italian" restaurants in the area, let's just say, one rhymed with lorrentos and other with nesuvios. I came out of both of those restaurants sadly disappointed not only by the lack of "authentic Italian" items on the menu but also by the sad excuse of what passed for Italian cuisine in these 2 restaurants. Enough of about them, now that we have a base story of why I was hesitant to try Amalfis let me share with you my culinary experience. Upon arriving I was greeted and sat by the actual part owner of the table, who is not only charismatic but very professional. The nephew of such man was our waiter, who beyond being informative, was also very attentive, courteous, and knowledgeable in Italian cuisine! The food, Dear Lord, THE FOOD!!! AUTHENTIC, DELICIOUS, BEAUTIFULLY PLATED, GLORIOUS 100% ITALIAN FOOD. MY BUTT WAS SEATED IN AMALFIS IN STATESVILLE, NC. HOWEVER MY TASTE BUDS WERE OFF SOMEWHERE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE OF ITALY, EATING WHAT TASTED LIKE A MEAL SOMEONES NONNA PREPARED FOR HER FAMILY WITH LOVE. We found out the CHEFS are not only experienced owners, but also from Italy and the AUTHENTICITY in the taste of every bite reflects that Italian pride. I'm not sure why or how such experienced, professional chefs are doing in this small town in North Carolina, but we are privileged that a restaurant like this is here and I could only hope that this Spectacular Restaurant one day gets the recognition it...