Every patrons experience and opinion are important, especially at these prices. My experience and restaurant experience: In addition to working at every position in the restaurant industry since 12 years old, I've managed a High-End Continental style, white table cloth restaurant on the Upper East Side of NYC for two years, where if you're not really good, with exceptional food, and great service... you're usually out of business in 6 months. I also managed a 230 seat Italian restaurant in Seattle, which was owned by the same owner of the number 1 Italian restaurant in the city.
I also grew up 30 minutes from The Bronx NY and 45 from Mid-Town Manhattan, and lived in Philadelphia and Chicago, which as you may know, has a coupla great Italian restaurants ... Additionally, in my current profession with a great expense account, I search, read reviews, and dine at top Italian restaurants in most of the major cities throughout the country. During my recent 16 day trip throughout Italy, I had dinner at Pier Luigi (look it up) Cipriani in Florence, and many other great spots....
Further, when I read that this chef attended Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, and worked at LeCirque in NYC (I just ate at their Las Vegas restaurant), and he started Amore in Naples, I was very much looking forward to a fantastic experience...... NOT!
The place is perched on a pretty bay just outside of Marco Island. I took my Italian momma for our weekly Sunday dinner out, which is always at a top-tier restaurant in and around Naples, ie; Molto, Campiello, Bar Tulia, Bellini, Amore...) Our waiter who was relatively new there was a lil over anxious at first, but settled in and so far as the service provided by him, he was very good and attentive. We started out with a House Mista salad, which was very good, with a nice chunk of quality blue cheese and fried calamari (a good barometer of an Italian restaurant). It was plentiful, cooked well, but bland. Our waiter brought bread to the table.... bland, mushy, and cold.
We then ordered Cacio e Pepe and Veal Saltimbucca. The Cacio Pepe, a Roman dish was served as if we ordered fettucine alfredo, soupy, wet, and very little attention or care put into the dish - Bland! Cacio Pepe is a dish that does not call for butter or cream. The thick sauce should come from the heat of the pasta and pasta water melting the Pecorino Romano cheese and a fair amount of black pepper. Saltimbucca: Nothing about this dish was any good. The veal, although very thin was overcooked to the point that it "tasted like shoe leather". The waiter boasted about the potatoes that accompanied the dish, they tasted like mush and again, bland.
Dessert: We ordered Key Lime Cheesecake and a cappuccino. You can get decent Key Lime Cheesecake all over Florida, a pretty easy desert to make... except here. It was not made "in-house", and frankly was a pre-packaged, stiff as a rock (cheesecake is typically creamy), bland hockey puck. Having lived in Seattle for 7 years, the cappuccino was watered down and terrible as well.
When the waiter brought us the check: $160 (we had three glasses of wine), he said; Hope to see you again. I said; probably not! As we were leaving, my mother went to the rest room. As I was standing in the lobby, a grumpy looking man was standing behind the bar, scrolling through his phone. I said; are you the owner. he replied, Yeh. I said, aren't you going to ask the customer how his dinner was... he said, NO! read more