Amici Italian Restaurant 

1915 A1A S, St Augustine Beach, FL  32080

By Irene Merenda (April 2021)

Editors Note: Irene Merenda, a frequent restaurant diner, is debuting as the Spoonbill Courier’s new Restaurant Critic.

In the six years of visiting, and ultimately living in St. Augustine, my family and I have dined at Amici’s 3 or 4 times with mixed results.  We had stopped going there because we found the food and service to be inconsistent and we discovered other Italian restaurants in the area that we liked better.  However, we heard that the restaurant acquired new owners (Freddy and Jennifer Underhill) about a year ago, and so we decided to give it another try.

My husband, my mother-in-law and I arrived at the the restaurant on a recent Saturday evening around 5:15, giving us plenty of time to get to another commitment we had at 7:30.  We did not have a reservation, but the restaurant was almost empty at this early hour.  We were greeted promptly and seated outside, at our request.  One of our party thought it was too cold to sit outside, so the hostess graciously moved us indoors.  There were only about 3 or 4 other tables of diners at that time.  I was pleased to see that the tables were spread out to allow for social distancing and the employees all wore masks.  The ceilings in the restaurant are high and there are few soft surfaces to absorb sound  and as more diners came, it quickly became very loud.  At times, we were unable to hear our own conversation.

Our waitress came over quickly to take our drink orders and to let us know that it was happy hour, so that drinks were discounted.  The house chardonnay and pinot grigio were brought quickly, along with the restaurant’s signature warm bread and roasted garlic with oil.  We ordered fried calamari which was lightly breaded and served with a mild tomato sauce and fried cherry peppers.  As the specials that evening did not appeal to us, we placed our order from the regular menu:  chicken marsala, fettuccini with meat sauce and meat ravioli. House salad was served with a homemade ranch dressing that was delicious.  My mother in law’s soup, chicken florentine, which was strangely served with a teaspoon, was creamy and nicely spiced, but there were very few pieces of chicken.   The bread and appetizers were delicious, which is a very good thing, because that is all we got to eat that evening.

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After the appetizer dishes were taken away, we did not see our server for a very long time.  We waited, and waited, and waited for our entrees.  We asked several people to check on our orders and were repeatedly told, “They’re coming right out!”  After being in the restaurant an hour and 10 minutes, the server came to our table and asked, “Can you please tell me again what you ordered?”  We asked to speak to the owner and was told that Jen would be right out.  She never came.

After an hour and 1/2 and no dinner, we left money on the table for our wine and appetizers and left, as we barely had time to make our 7:30 commitment.

We noticed a “Help Wanted” sign in the restaurant window, and help is definitely needed for this restaurant. 

I give the new Amici’s 1 spoonbill out of 5.  I doubt that my family will give this one another try.