Dale B.

Amore - gourmet Italian in a fine dining atmosphere Amore is not for everyone. It is expensive and the portion sizes are smaller relative to the entree cost. Slow paced-finer dining is not everyone's cup of tea. However, these are things that I enjoy and I chose to celebrate my birthday at Amore! Amore is located on the renovated Pearl Street. This has been an amazing transformation for those of us that remember the days when Pearl Street wasn't a family friendly destination. You may park free on the street or free in the large parking lot west of the restaurant. Making reservations is very easy via the website. I would definitely encourage you to make reservations if you want to eat during the prime dinner hours. The host and wait staff are professional and very friendly. The facility is beautifully decorated in a modern decor. The large bar and bottle rack is very attractive. You will find the seating to be very comfortable. The table linen, dishes and glassware complement the whole atmosphere. At least I feel all these things set the foundation for an excellent dining experience. Dining at Amore was about a two hour, relaxed and enjoyable experience. We started the night with the small focaccia bread. The bread comes cut into tall cubes that can be pulled apart and dipped in the Parmesan sauce. The crust is a bit tough with a soft inner breading. It has a classical Italian bread flavor. The olive oil dip has a thick bed of Parmesan at the bottom. Thick enough that you need to use the spoon to apply the delicious mixture to the bread. Definitely a must get!! The small size is perfect for two people. My wife ordered the mushroom ragú campanelle pasta dish. The pasta is made on site into a special "cone" shape. It is perfectly cooked to a firm but tender consistency. The mushrooms tasted very fresh and comprised a thinner sauce. The sauce had a bit of that mushroom-beef taste along with a moderate amount of Romano cheese taste. This dish was topped with an innovative cashew ricotta cheese dollop. The ricotta accented the noodles, mushrooms, Romano sauce nicely with a slight hint of cashews. Excellent dish! I went with the meat lasagna. The homemade noodles were very thin - perhaps 1/2 the thickness of a normal lasagna noodle. This made the dish lighter and moist. The noodles were perfectly cooked and layered with a bed of beef, pork and cheese. The mixture, while prominent, didn't over power the noodles. The lasagna was surrounded by a moat of white wine crème sauce. I was a little skeptical of this as it isn't usual. The white sauce was very smooth with a moderately thick consistency. It adds more moisture to the baked noodles and pulled out the meat and cheese mixture tastes. Another outstanding dish! Amore made the birthday dinner special with a complimentary personalized birthday card and chocolate lava cake. The card was individually signed by many members of the team - never seen that in my years of dinning out! The lava cake is not to be out done! The cake was firm on the outside but moist and warm on the inside. The cake had a rich chocolate taste. It came with a lava sauce baked inside and a container of extra sauce to pour over the top. That sauce had a more mild chocolate taste but still delicious. It also came with a small cup of olive oil gelato creme. That was light and thin such that it flowed over the inviting cake. The gelato provided an ice creme appeal without piling on more sugar or dairy. We definitely recommend the lava cake!! Overall, Amore met exceeded my birthday expectations. The food was creative and delicious! The team made us feel welcomed and served us professionally and well. The atmosphere helps make your two hour dining experience enjoyable.

Tera E.

Our second trip, the food was amazing both trips and the service was much improved this trip! We are glad we went back. The space is beautifully done. The braised beef is so very tender, flavorful and delicious! I had it the first visit and my husband ordered it this time. I tried the mushroom ragu this trip and was not disappointed. Do not leave without the getting the affogato, the espresso over sweet gelato is being my favorite. I was too busy eating to take photos of the food. Our friends ordered the salmon and chicken and very much enjoyed their meals. Two of us had leftovers to take home.

This was our first time back and thanks to Kristen at the bar, we will return! Our first visit was awful and it took us over a year to finally return thanks to the local influencers... Service was on point, a little side chatter from various wait staff that probably wasn't necessary for patrons to hear but Kristen remained dialed in and on her game. Ordered meatballs and focaccia which was delicious. Our entrees were the peppered spaghetti and eggplant parm. Both served hot and tasty. House wine was good price point. While I would never reserve a table, a lovely dinner at the bar is the way to go. Well done Amore and Kristen!

Linda S.

Second visit to Amore last week, with friends who had never been there. Food was okay...a bit disappointing this time, so consistency may be a problem. Atmosphere is still beautiful. Staff and server were kind and friendly. Husband got the rigatoni bolognese pasta, which was $24 and come with no accompaniments. The portion on the plate was extremely small, only 8-12 little rigatonis. Nothing else. My flat iron steak was tough and portions were literally raw. Very unevenly grilled. Friend got the sea bass which she enjoyed but skin was not at all crispy and she had to remove it. Fish was paired with an odd chilled cucumber side, which she did not eat. We had bragged Amore up, but needless to say, it did not at all measure up. We'll likely try it again sometime to see if this second visit (on a Thursday evening) was a fluke.

Morgan C.

Amore was really good! I think the restaurant was beautiful and the service was really good! We enjoyed a handful of entrees. The bread was so tasty. It was crispy and soft at the same time. I thought the chicken vesuvio was very tasty.

Michael D.

I in no way want to leave a bad review for a new restaurant as it might've just been a bad night. This place is beautiful and the staff is friendly and helpful. We started the night with the garlic and oil fries and the focaccia bread. Both were good as the bread was super fresh and somehow fluffy on the inside yet crispy on the outside. The fries were good but the oil just ended up being hot honey so I didn't understand it being in the plate. As a creamed spinach junkie,I was most likely excited about the spinach fondue listed in the menu. Keep in mind that the steak comes with 2 sides but each side is listed for 10$. The level of disappointment I had when I got my plate I hadn't had in a while lol. The spinach was absolute trash. No cheese flavor and barely any cream smh. My steak was salty for some reason and didn't taste grilled at all. My wife got the rigatoni and because there were plenty of pics of it already I didn't take a pic but it wasn't pic worthy either..this 2yr age cheese was no where to be found and no lie there was like a fancy chef boyardee flavor to it. I did not want to sound mean and maybe we just went on a bad night. They need to expand their menu and because the bar is so beautiful.. add a burger to the menu just because. I'll give it another try but will never order the items we got again.

We went last night for the first time which was unusual as we very rarely eat bread or pasta but we heard this was not your average Italian restaurant. We arrived early for our reservation and were promptly seated in the side room, which was lovely with high ceilings, beautiful decor, and a great view of the bar area. Rachel was our server. She helped us choose the best drinks and food for our tastes. I had their Manhattan and my wife had a Prosecco drink. She helped us select amongst the appetizers, tempted get several, we decided to go with the Focaccia and save some room for later. The drinks were perfect. We found the Focaccia to be the best of what bread should be - nice caramelized, brown crust, with a warm steaming center. Seasoned perfectly and matched well with the oil, salt, chili, and parmesan dip. Appetites were now ready for our main dishes - a side cut of lasagna and the Ribeye steak. Who knew we would be asked our preference for a side, corner, or center cut of lasagna? Rachel explained the hand made lasagna noodles crisp up and caramelize on the sides and her recommendation for one of these was spot on. The meat sauce was delicious and complemented by a delicious white wine cream sauce. This was easily the best lasagna we have eaten. The Ribeye was cooked perfectly and delicious. It was complemented well by the crispy fingerling potatoes and seared green beans. All of this was capped by a true highlight of the night recommended by our wonderful waitress, Rachel. She had explained the molten lava cake is made from scratch and required ~ 20 minutes to make. We were so pleased! This came out straight from the oven, hot and steaming, with molten chocolate poured in the soft center of the cake, accompanied by delicious ice cream. The service was incredible from start to finish. She listened well, educated us to what was offered, and helped us choose what we would love. Attentive, polite, not rushed, and joyful. It was truly delightful and we will be back soon!

Katie B.

A very elegant atmosphere inside. Definitely one the nicer, upscale restaurants of Fort Wayne. Megan our server was very friendly and attentive. Food was very good, portion sizes are small for price though.

Darren L.

A Disastrous Dining Experience from Start to Finish I want to preface this by saying I've spent 21 years dining in top restaurants across New York, Los Angeles, and beyond. I judge restaurants based on their location and price point, not by Michelin-star standards. When I saw Amore's menu and pricing, I was eager to try it. Unfortunately, from service to food, the experience was appalling. From the start, the setup made no sense--menus were leaned against the table on the banquette, meaning they fell to the floor as soon as we sat down. Who wants to start dinner by reaching under the table or stretching across a long banquette just to grab a menu? This bizarre design choice set the tone for an afternoon of frustration. Service was chaotic. Appetizers arrived midway through our entrées. Servers awkwardly reached over banquettes to serve food, asked guests to hand plates to each other, and generally lacked professionalism. Worse, we witnessed restaurant staff eating fries over the kitchen expo pass--unsanitary and a major red flag. Every dish disappointed. The burrata and beet salad was flavorless. The meatballs (which oddly resembled falafel) were dry, with no fat content. The sauce was equally bland. The hanger steak was completely inedible--tough, low-quality, and lacking the crust and tenderness that should define the cut. It tasted like a food-service product rather than something prepared with care. The shoestring fries were cold and hard on every entrée. The chicken sandwich was unevenly cooked, with some pieces undercooked. Despite the long wait, everything tasted as if it had been sitting under a heat lamp for too long. Upon arrival, I asked the hostess to take my coat since we were a party of five at a banquette. I assumed it would be stored properly. Instead, when I went to retrieve my wallet from what I thought was a coat check, I found my coat turned inside out and balled up on an unattended banquette at the front of the restaurant. It had clearly been left there the entire time. Completely unacceptable. Did I expect Amore to be Osteria Mozza or Osteria Francescana in Modena, rivaling the great Italian restaurants of the world? No, absolutely not. But I did expect a well-executed dining experience. Instead, I got one of the worst meals I've ever had. The biggest red flag? On a Saturday during prime lunch hours (11:30 AM - 1:00 PM), only one other table was occupied. That says everything. Save your money. Amore makes Catablu or Black Canyon (both local recommendations I quite like) feel like Eleven Madison Park or Alinea. (Attaching a picture of the "coat check" so you can see how wonderful the service truly is at Amore.)