I’ve been dining at Amore Victoria for the last few years and have always found it to be one of the most pleasant and authentic Italian restaurants in the metro area. This Italian eatery is located in the heart of Uptown right on Lake Street in a quaint and cozy space with a rooftop dining area.

On this outing to Amore Victoria I took in the crisp fall air on the restaurant’s rustic rooftop for the first time and it wasn’t half as delightful as my usual dining experience in the restaurants interior. To start off, the service was absolutely terrible. As my mother, grandmother, and I were sat at our table, our waitress informed us that we would be receiving bread shortly and twenty minutes later with a few reminders to our waitress, it finally came. I also had to ask for my water to be refilled when our waitress only had two other tables and had walked by me at least five times without noticing a thing.
To start our meal off, we ordered bruschetta and calamari. The bruschetta was sub-par. I found the bread to be overly thick and it quickly absorbed the juice from the tomatoes, making it soggy and texturally unappealing. The calamari on the other hand was phenomenal. It was perfectly crisp and served with a robust lemon aioli.

For my main course I ordered Fruti Di Mare. As our waitress approached with our plates, the smells emitting from my dish left me feeling relaxed and at home. The pasta dish was rich and hearty, consisting of clams, muscles, scallops, and shrimp tossed together in a delightfully light lemon, garlic, and olive oil sauce served with angel hair pasta. The sauce added great depth to the dish, making it even more enjoyable to eat. An added perk to the Fruti Di Mare at Amore Victoria are the capers spread throughout the dish, giving the comforting plate a salty kick. As I ate my meal, I occasionally swapped bites with my mother and her dish was quite bad. My mother ordered the Tortellaci Alla Panna, pasta filled with veal, beef, and spinach tossed in a hearty cream sauce topped off with mushrooms and prosciutto. The sauce was cloyingly rich and there was so much of it, muddling the delicate flavors of the veal along with every other component of the dish.

Overall, my experience at Amore Victoria was bad. Plain and simple, I will not be going back for quite some time, though I do encourage you to check it out. This was my first bad experience with the Italian eatery and hope that it doesn’t happen again.