Amici: Please Don’t Sell Out

Contrary to what we think, a mark of a great cook is not how creative he / she is.  It’s not just about being able to whip out the best recipes.  It’s all about being consistent.  Each time you visit, the taste and the emotion of every bite should be the same It’s all about execution, execution, execution!

Amici originally opened up as a small canteen-style Italian place near Don Bosco in Makati.  Now, it’s evolved to a chain of restaurants with 7 branches¹ all over the Metro.  I’m pretty sure that number will increase within the year.  I’ve been there before, but now was also an excuse to try out my new camera.

We got there and was immediately told that orders would be 15 minutes delayed because their ingredients were just delivered.  This was around 11:30AM.  Eventually we picked our orders and they were fairly simple.  2 pastas and 1 pizza.  Not a traditional Italian meal, but the place doesn’t exactly scream “Florence!”

First pasta dish was a Spinach Fusilli² Montanara — a tomato-based pasta which is cork-screw in shape.   As the name suggests, the pasta was made with spinach instead of the traditional dough.  Cooked nice and al dente.  Came with Italian sausages and mozzarella.

Next was a classic Spaghetti alla Bolognese, which is your basic meat sauce.  Classic and hearty.  Most important of all, the pasta is cooked al dente. Lacked a bit of the kick, so my Spaghetti alla Bolognese had to be sprinkled with a fair shake of dried chili flakes. Taste was nothing really special, but I’m glad that it didn’t taste anything like a Jolly Spaghetti.  I hate those sweet pastas!

A sure sign of a sell-out is that the quality and quantity of some dish you’ve had before has greatly diminished.  I’m sure that you’ve noticed that your chicken may have been cooked while they were still chicks.  Or maybe you tempura seems to have too much batter.  Amici’s pizzas have none of those. At least for now.

We ordered a Tutta Carne, which is an all-meat pizza.  Keep it simple with good ingredients — Italian sausage, ham, and pepperoni.  Solid, but not the best.  Marc might disagree, but (especially) for P295.00, it’s a HUGE upgrade from Pizza Hut!

We got a scoop of gelato for dessert — a Mocha Straciatella.  Didn’t like this, but the price is fairly reasonable.  A scoop of gelato in Italy would cost you around the same.

Sold out yet?  Well, the signs are there, but it hasn’t crossed over to the Dark Side yet.  For one, they serve you the bill now instead of the old canteen-style pay-at-the-register concept.  I liked that more.  There’s the whole feel to it being a restaurant than a canteen, which I thought made the whole thing work from the very beginning.  That’s just me, though.  But still, if you churn out fairly good food at these prices, people will come.

Amici: Please Don’t Sell Out 2011-04-26

ontrary to what we think, a mark of a great cook is not how creative he / she is.  It’s not just about being able to whip out the best recipes.  It’s all about being consistent.  Each time you visit, the taste and the emotion of every bite should be the same It’s all about …