Amici has been one of my family's go-to restaurants since my younger years. Now that I have a family of my own, we also have our fair share of memories made in Amici. For instance, the first time that my youngest had ice cream/gelato was in this particular branch back in 2017.
After all these years, not much has changed in the interiors, at least in this branch. Everything looks almost exactly the same as in 2017. They've repainted and added some wall art in one corner, but going there still feels like stepping back in time, and for me that's not a bad thing, actually. I sometimes have a hard time coping with change, and places like Amici, this specific branch in particular, helps me relive some good memories, even for just an hour or so.
I think we kind of stopped going as often as we used to starting in late 2018. I noticed a slight dip in the quality of the food, so I started looking for alternatives. However, things changed when the pandemic hit in 2020 as I started craving for comfort food like a lot of people at the time. Amici's margherita pizza wasn't the best in town, especially if you compared it with the Neapolitan pizzas offered by upstart pizza places that try to be as authentic as possible, but the look and taste of it was familiar, and I was craving for something familiar, so I kept ordering. Looking back, Amici was one of the things that helped keep me sane during that difficult year.
Movement restrictions were eased later that year and well into the next three years (except for some weeks in 2021 when a brief lockdown was imposed as cases exploded due to new variants). Amici was one of the first places we ate out as a family during the pandemic. By this point, I began to notice some improvement in the taste, quality and variety of offerings. Amici continued to be one of our preferred places to eat out.
Fast forward to last week. Me and my wife had early dinner at Amici Tomas Morato after a grueling 2 hours playing tennis. She celebrated her birthday recently, and it was the only time we got to celebrate as a couple.
It was around 5pm and the place was packed. We ordered medium done bistecca (P1,499), their version of a NY striploin steak, and a small serving of spaghetti vongole (P515). Right after taking our orders, we were served some freshly baked focaccia bread and the usual olive oil balsamic dip. It tasted great.
