Trattoria Aroma — Restaurant in Town of Amherst

Best Italian-Italian (as opposed to Italian-American, which is also great) in town. I love Italian-American food. I also love Italian food in Italy. I recognize that they are different, though related. I'm reasonably well travelled (including four trips to Italy, though my own heritage is not Italian) and a decent home cook and a bit of an Epicurian. That's the context for this statement: no restaurant I've been to in the US captures the Italian restaurant (in Italy) experience as faithfully as this place. By restaurants in Italy I don't mean the tourist joints on the piazze but the neighborhood places that you go into with a friend or family member who is a regular. Here's why:

1. It isn't just the menu, though that's part of it (carbonara and not chicken French),
2. it is the pacing of the meal which is all important. My wife and I took our time through all the courses and never felt the slightest bit of pressure, which is built into American restaurant culture and not a thing at good places in Italy (or Europe generally). We never felt like we were squatting on a table that needed to get flipped. I can think of another restaurant in town, excellent in its own way, which is in this same space and is much more expensive and fails to get this right.
3. We had a couple cocktails at the bar after dinner (this was a Saturday night and we were Ubering) and it was clear that a solid proportion of the customers were regulars; despite this, we were made to feel like we were part of the crew. Whether fancy bars and restaurants or simple neighborhood joints, something that great joints in Italy and Ireland and England in my experience have in common (which is too often missing in American restaurants) is a genuine feeling of true hospitality, that doesn't feel fake, and this place definitely has that. Now, some notes on the food, not covering everything: Cacio e pepe: It isn't rocket science, but places get it wrong and they got it right. No clumpiness or other off textures which from the cook adding the cheese while the pan was still on the heat or silimar errors. Veal Saltimbocca: an innovative take that knocked it out of the park. They folded the veal over and had the prosciutto inside and there was a light texture on the outside that I''m guessing was something more substantial than the conventional flour dredge but not as stodgy as a three-part breading. The key to this dish anywhere is 1) did they overcook the veal and 2) can you really taste the sage; and 3) together with the salty ham does it "jump." They absolutely got those things right and the crunchy texture on the outside (recalling a cordon bleu but lighter) was great. Risotto: It came with the veal. Texture was perfectly toothsome and there was a hint of acidic brightness that lifted the whole thing up. Again, cheesey but not clumpy because they clearly know what they are doing. Tiramisu: Neither soggy nor dry, all the distinct flavors stood up. Faithful to the Treviso original in the ways that matter Charred romaine salad: an italian twist on the wedge. Thoughtful. Wine selection: In the summer, when I'm in Italian mode, I like a nice light, crushable white, maybe an orvieto or a lugana. They had a couple orvietos on the list and we had the classico and it was great. Espresso Martini: I sampled my wife's and it was great. The helpful and friendly bartender explained that the espresso is chilled without ice to avoid dilution. We're on the other side of town so we don't get here often but it is a real treat and it reminds us of visiting our aunt several times when she worked in Rome; it reminds us of of cool neighborhood joints where she had...

This was truly one of the worst experiences I have had in a restaurant, in my life. My husband made a reservation for 7:30 and when we got there on time there was already two other couples waiting to be seated. We were understanding as it was a busy night for Valentine’s Day, however, no one was asked what time their reservation was but rather was seated in order of when they arrived. This meant that the two other couples with reservations for 7:45 got seated before us… which completely defeats the point of reservations.

This wasn’t even where the night turned badly. After standing and waiting near the bar for about 20 minutes, the owner tried to stick us in the booth next to the bar despite multiple nice tables available in the dining room. We expressed that we would not like to sit there (because we had heard how the owner/manager spoke to his staff, and the multiple curse words shared among staff, and we just wanted a calm romantic evening). This was met with some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. The owner/manager became angry at this and told us that the booth was what was made available to us and if we wanted something else we would have to wait (after already waiting and having people seated before us). He was rude and very disrespectful about this. After waiting even longer, he brought us to a table in the dining room. Before allowing us to sit, he essentially cornered me by blocking our seats (in front of everyone in their tightly packed dining room) to loudly scold me about requesting a different table. I was left in tears- feeling so disrespected and embarrassed after simply hoping to have a peaceful valentines night. After leaving me in tears he never said another word to us the entire night, and our waiter barely did either.

The food itself was average, not bad, but certainly not worth dealing with the horrible treatment we received. This is truly disappointing considering we live 5 minutes away and would’ve likely been a repeat customer.

TLDR: average food, slow service, disrespectful management. Save yourself the stress, time, and money, and eat elsewhere.

Management- you need to work on how you speak to customers and your staff.

Edit- I will add, since the owner seems the believe I just “took it wrong” after I was cornered in front of everyone in the dining room- another couple who was sitting near us even said to us how rude and disrespectful that was. They ended up leaving shortly after I believe due to...

If I could rate this restaurant no stars at all I would. My friends and I made reservations for Valentine’s day (well in advance) for 7:45. I checked in at 7:40 and then we waited until 8:30 to be seated. We were slightly aggravated but still gave them the benefit of the doubt seeing as they were busy. By the time it was 9:20 we had only gotten our drinks. We had waited almost two hours to be seated, place our order and only get drinks. Our server was one of the owners, she was nice but the other owner who I’m assuming is her husband was far from understanding and completely rude. When they brought our appetizers out right as we were getting up to leave, he asked us what the problem was to which we explained we’d been here for almost two hours with nothing but our drinks and we wanted to go. He made a comment that we should notice that they’re busy to which I told him it isn’t justifiable and he told us to get up and leave so we did. Other customers in our section were also as disappointed with their experience. We asked a couple who was there well before us if they had gotten their food and they said no. The other couple beside us applauded us for leaving because the service was just absurd. They also mistreat their staff—I noticed how they talk to one another while I was waiting at the host stand and it was unbelievable. I’ve worked in the serving industry and I couldn’t imagine working under management like that let alone being the owner and thinking our experience was okay in the slightest as well as the way he spoke to us. The picture was our server placing our drinks down at the table beside us and then leaving them there so she could go tend to another table. I’ve been to Trattoria down town and had a great experience but this place is beyond poorly managed and would never recommend to anyone. First and last time I’ll go there and I didn’t even eat anything. What a joke

Edit: We didn’t eat any food or finish our drinks nor was there any mention of paying for anything when the owner told us to leave if we didn’t want to...