Amore is the latest new
addition to Whitefield’s ever-expanding restaurant scene. A sister
establishment to the recent Ivory Bar & Grill, Amore is an Italian ‘cuccina
and bar’. When it was getting ready for its grand opening, I wondered if
‘cuccina’ meant it was going to something slightly different, tapas perhaps, but,
as it turns out, the literal English translation of the word is ‘kitchen’.
Amore has replaced The Buddha
Lounge; to some, it seems like a step backwards to move from serving modern
Thai cuisine to plain old Italian, which is much more readily available in high
street chains. Having regularly eaten there during its former days, when I
walked into Amore on Wednesday evening, it was totally unrecognisable and I
found it hard to believe I was standing in what was once The Buddha Lounge. The
interior has been completely transformed into a modern, bistro-type restaurant,
with white bare brick walls and comfortable, sofa-style seating. I was very
impressed with the design and layout of the interior. The shape of the building
has been manipulated to its full potential, with the bar in the middle and all
the tables around the edges. It feels very light and airy inside, which is a
welcome change from dark ‘mood lighting’.
I immediately noticed that the
menu is somewhat limited. There are only five pasta dishes and five pizzas to
choose from. For somebody as indecisive as me, it makes the selection process a
little easier. I regularly skim through the whole menu, looking at three or
four different main courses which I’d like to try, becoming increasingly
stressed as my list of possibilities expands. That said, I would have expected
a wider range of options, given that pasta and pizza are, for most, the go-to
in an Italian.
We didn’t bother with
starters, instead kicking off with garlic breads. It was like a pitta bread
rather than the traditional round pizza-based style; tasty enough but dry and not
nearly big enough if you were sharing it between three or four of you. We got
both plain and cheese bread between three of us, and there was just about
enough.
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| Garlic breads, with and without cheese |
For main course, I had
Tagliatelle Funghi, one of my favourite pasta dishes. Sadly, it was a case of
eating with your eyes, as it looked much nicer than it tasted. It was loaded
with mushrooms and doused in olive oil, so it wasn’t as though the dish was
poor quality, it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting. For me, it could have
done with being creamier, as it was quite bland. Even the mushrooms didn’t have
a lot of flavour.
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| Tagliatelle Funghi: mushroom, porcini, grana ponado |
One of my dining companions
had a margarita pizza with extra red onions. I’m not a pizza lover and would
never think to order one in a restaurant, but this one looked very appealing
and was a generous size.
 |
| Pizza Margarita with red onions |
Oddly, there are more options
to start than there are for pizza and pasta. I already have my eye on a couple
of starters I’d like to sample if I return to Amore in the future. There are
also salads and a la carte dishes, including steaks, chicken, sea bass and
veal, so although it’s slightly smaller, it still offers everything you would
expect of an Italian menu. I’m not quite sure where you would find use for the
majority of the side dishes on offer, which include chilli-infused broccoli,
chips covered in Parmesan cheese and creamy mashed potatoes. The fact that this
kind of thing is available suggests to me that the meat-based dishes are not
served with vegetables, which I would expect if I was ordering from an a la
carte menu.
For dessert, it was a
limoncello meringue pie, which was delicious. The pastry was crisp, the
meringue soft and fluffy on the top and gooey on the inside, oozing out along
with the limoncello liqueur, making for a zingy flavour. A small scoop of ice
cream is perhaps needed to soften the sharp, bitter flavour.
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| Crostata di Limoncello |
We arrived at seven o’clock
and it was gone nine by the time I was tucking into my dessert; the service is
something that needs to be improved upon. I’ll put it down to teething
problems. Amore only opened during the week leading up to Christmas, so it’s probably
still finding its feet, but more staff are evidently needed. There was just two
visible front-of-house staff for most of the time we were there, who were
having to wait on tables and greet people as they arrived. It’s little wonder
the service was slow and our meals were lukewarm by the time they arrived.
As is often the case with
restaurants these days, Amore is open all day from 12 noon, and they offer a
fixed price lunch menu, allowing you to enjoy two courses for £13.95 or three
for £17.95. There’s a good selection of starters, main courses and desserts,
all of which are available on the main menu, making it very much worthwhile.
