When you first walk into Amici's, it suffers from what I call Frontin'; it looks like an establishment too fine to be dined in by a boy wearing a turquoise t-shirt or a kid in ice cream sneakers...but you'd be wrong. The staff was friendly, courteous, and showed us to our table quickly. We ate at around 2pm, which was just enough time to catch the lunch special; easily one of the best deals I've ever had in a restaurant. $5 gets you two slices and a soda. Not a can, but a glass, with refills. Also, this restaurant caters Coke products, which immediately puts it a step above in my book. The slices, however; holy shit. They're as big as your head twice. I've never seen two slices of pizza that large before, and I've been eating pizza for some 19 years now. But the important question is at hand: How did they taste?
Pretty damned good, yo. I ordered pepperoni and pineapple, unofficially known as the Dynamic Duo of pizza since the day I tried em. What is it about grease that blends so well with sweet? We'll never know, I guess. I presume the explanation is much too complicated to sum up before even my notably tolerant attention span were to wane. Amici's had a stone oven taste to it...I think. The crust was delicious, and crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. This caters to my taste, so be wary if you don't like crusts. Albert has a Chicken Parmigiana sub that was supposedly too delish. Ryan stood out though, for being in the middle of his food experiment, so he chose to order lentil soup. He also throughly enjoyed it. I try to stay away from lentils for no particular reason, so I was wary when the plate placed before him looked like a watery stool sample. However, it did smell delicious and Ryan could not stop talking about it, so I suppose Amici's has all its bases covered when it comes to general dining.
However, nothing can be perfect, as simple logic dictates. My few quibbles with Amici's:
Price: I lucked out on the lunch special, but the entrees all seemed to be in the double digits. Definitely not for people on a budget after 3pm, but I'm lead to believe that the quality would be worth it.
Time: We were seated quickly...but that was about it. Our waitress took our order, but our drinks didn't come for about ten minutes after we ordered them. Also our food came out roughly half an hour after it was put in...but it did come out at the right temperature with no sign of having been waiting. I suppose everything must have been freshly prepared, which makes this minus more of a plus, really.
To break it down to a numerical scale:
Atmosphere: 8
As I previously mentioned, the place seems a bit upscale upon first inspection, much like the Beverly Hills Cafe, but ultimately it just means that it's a pleasant looking restaurant.
Food: 9
Amici's isn't the best pizza I've ever had...but fuck was it good. The pie had the right amount of cheese, and the toppings were plentiful and also well spread, which gives the food a good distribution of flavor was well as an appetizing appearance. Truthfully, I probably like it better than the world famous Satchel's, but mostly bc the value of an Amici's slice greatly outweighs Satchels. However, if you want a calzone that will make you believe in a higher power...you take it to Satchel's in beautiful, scenic Gainesville, FLA.
To sum up, this is one of the better Foods of the World locations we've been at. The food was great and the price (at the right time) is on point. I would definitely go to Amici's again, and I'd really like to try out their entrees.
Final rating: 8.5/10 of the cornrows on Xzibit's head, pre X-Files.
This post has officially been pimped:
PS: I almost forgot the Girl Report: the cast of the Golden Girls and the cast of Cocoon apparently reunited the day we went; we probably pissed them off with our coarse language and jokes. I bet they were wondering what us whippersnappers were doing out of school.
PPS: Two Don Ameche references in one post: this could be a personal record.
