Yelp

Chris L.

Reviews
Written: 206

02/25/2006

"A cleanly designed Italian restaurant featuring Pugliese food, Ama is a great alternative to Lupa just around the corner. The room is long and narrow, decorated in white with candles and the food is unique. Although the crowd waiting for their tables can make the standing space overcrowded at times, the overall experience more than makes up for it. Every member of the staff does everything - from the hostess to the bartender to the owner/chef to the waitor - they all took turns helping us with our orders, checking up on us, refilling the drinks, and chatting with us. The familial feel of the place makes Ama a lovely place to enjoy dinner with friends if you want friendly waitstaff in a trendy atmosphere - and that's even before we start on the food! The appetizers and pastas we tried were great. A highlight includes the octopus salad served with slices octopus, red onions, capers, and celery. It was cooked exquisitely, not too chewy, not to soft, and the flavors intermingled in a light but interesting dish. The waitstaff was attentive. Two of my friends shared an appetizer and without asking they had split the dish into two so that the hassle of transferring food to plates or reaching was removed. The pasta was also delicious. I had the espresso tagliolini with lightly cooked shrimp and grilled porcini mushrooms in a light tomato based sauce. The espresso pasta gave the dish an extra punch and kept things interesting - I kept eating it even when I was past the point of being full to try and figure out the complexity of the espresso pasta-mushroom-shrimp combination. One of my friends ordered the spinach and ricotta gnocchetti which was a bit on the heavy side but very well made. Gnocchi can sometimes be very bland - relying heavily on the sauces to complete the dish. In this case, it was the opposite. The sauce was a simple tomato based sauce while the melt-in-your mouth gnocchi tasted strongly of a blend of spinach and ricotta - a delight! One downfall was the dessert - we chose the molten chocolate with ice cream which was tasty but small and overly chocolately and rich. Ama is a great little restaurant that has not gotten too much hype yet - but it's following is growing so visit soon!"

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