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Amorosa Pasta House is an Italian eatery in Burnaby that offers a plethora of choices for their patrons. The menu allows for mix and match pasta dishes, choose your own sauce, pasta and fixings.
Had dinner here last night with my wife. It's a nice place and the service was good.
Appetizer - Mussels - Wow, huge portion of mussels in sauce ad it was good 3.5 out of 5 for me.
Entree - Linguine with clams in a tomato sauce - meh, average, 2 out of 5 for me
Dessert - Baklava - it was tasty but it was super hard to cut through, had to use a knife to get through it.
Overall the food was ok-good but the pasta (the main reason I came here) wasn't anything special, average at best so I don't see any reason to return.
I have been a customer for many years now. Absolutely love the pasta, I always get the same meal but it never fails to impress. A seafood fettuccini, definitely my favourite. Service has always been fairly good, average.
The only thing that disappoints is that they don't advertise their hours of operation online, when they aren't answering their phones it can be very inconvenient. They should make up a website advertising the hours and menu in my opinion. Other than that I would definitely recommend this place.
Group of 12 with reservations in our own little room. Restaurant was clean and spacious. Food was quite good as everyone seemed happy and oohs and ahs greeted the pasta dishes as they were served. My only problem was the bread served with dinner. It seemed to be a store bought loaf that had been previously frozen. Cold and almost mushy in the middle. Personally this is the worst bread I have ever been served in a restaurant. Good grief what happened to garlic bread? Don't know how an Italian restaurant could serve this. Pastas dishes were HUGE but not cheap. $15 for a large pasta $12 for a small. There was a little lag in the presentation but just when you are about to downgrade the service another 2 or 3 dishes came out. It took about 7 minutes to served 12 meals. Okay if you are first but sucks when you are last. There is some street parking but there is a lot in the back. Restroom is fine. The food is worth a return visit but the details need to be improved.
We have been going to Amorosa for a number of years, but hadn't been back since they took over the space occupied by the Greek restaurant beside them.
Wow - bigger is definitely NOT better.
We arrived @ 7pm on a Saturday night. The expanded restaurant was half empty. The people that were seated didn't have food in front of them.
That should have been our first warning.
Even though there was tons of room to spare (& tables weren't reserved), the young hostess proceeded to take the names of the couple in front of us, and ourselves. Wait 15 minutes. We are still standing at the door looking at all those empty tables. One of the servers that has been at the restaurant for years then came by & asked why the hostess wasn't seating people. She muttered something about needing to check with a server. We were then seated, in the smaller, original space occupied by Amorosa.
Our appetizer of calamari came out promptly, and was cooked properly. 1/2 full cup of tzatziki, so we asked for another.
We then sat. And sat. And sat. Over the course of the next hour, we were joined by other diners all expecting to get dinner. Finally, when asked how much longer our order was going to be, we were told "It's VERY busy tonight" (restaurant still 1/2 full), and it seemed like no one else was eating either.
Finally, after an hour & a quarter, our 3 plates of pasta arrived. My wife took her first bite of her fettuccine alfredo. The pasta was not even cooked al dente. It was so tough & stiff; she couldn't even twirl with her fork & spoon. Call the waitress over & show her. Then, to end the perfect meal, do you know what the waitress says? "Have you ever had the alfredo HERE before?"... Like my wife was wrong & should have expected it to be tough as leather or something. She sent it back, and because we didn't want to wait another hour for the second coming of alfredo, my wife & I split my plate of pasta.
While we were eating, the table that got served immediately before us were having their plates cleared. I guess that was also the first time the waitress had chosen to ask how their meals were. One of the patrons said, "Those were the worst I've ever had anywhere".
At least we knew it wasn't just us that got lousy food after waiting for way too long.
Come on people - this is pasta, not some sort of exotic fusion.
Then the final hit - our bill - they charged an extra $1 for the 1/2 cup of tzatziki, + $4.50 for three slices of garlic bread, that most restaurants simply include.
So to sum up: poor service, HUGE wait for food, poor food quality, BAD attitude + overpriced = you just lost these customers for life. We will never return.
EVER.
Their pasta's have always been a hit and always such a good deal. You have to order a "large", simply so you can have 3 or 4 meals... The Hot Caesar salad is fabulous. But man did they miss the mark on the Tri-Colour Pasta (red, white, green- italian flag). It is so very dry I almost couldn't eat it and after taking my impressive amount remaining home - it later simply went into the garbage. My sister and I felt the exact same. Just a little ladle of each sauce over top would have fixed it...
It easy to miss this small little pasta house in New West. I started going here about 2 years ago and they never fail to impress. The portions are huge. I ordered the lasagna and packed the leftovers for lunch the next day. Stil had enough to stuff my belly to the max. My boyfriend is real picky about his carbonara, but claims this one to be the best he's had. Look out for their daily specials and if it's your birthday, remember to bring some ID with you as your birthday entree is on the house!
After finding all the downtown places full, it was off to Burnaby to find Amorosa! I knew this place had good reviews, and I found it was worth the drive.
My wife and I started with the insalata caprese which had great presentation, with a nice vinaigrette to give the cheese and tomato a little flavour. Even the 'small' size was enough for two people. Then we had the garlic bread. I was surprised that bread was extra, but it was well worth the money. It was hot, tender and buttery, with garlic and herbs.
After that I had the creola sauce (sausage, chicken, shrimps in a spicy tomato sauce) on fettuccine pasta, and Mrs. Chasiubow had gamberi zia filomena (garlic cream sauce, bell peppers and prawns) on penne pasta. Both were amazing and our pastas were cooked to a perfect al dente. The sauces were truly outstanding and the portion sizes were epic. I also tried the house red (a Similkameen valley wine) and it was pretty good for 4 bucks!
The servers were very attentive, and the place had the requisite checker table cloths and Italian music, etc. Nice ambience.
I looked up 'Amorosa' in the dictionary: "A wanton woman; a courtesan”. Yep, that's about the best way to describe the experience: A satisfying romp with a passionate Tuscan. I felt a warm afterglow from my meal, and a sense of deep contentment...
Highly Recommended.
The food portions are quite large, but its mostly pasta and very little "stuff" in the pasta. Also I found the 3 pasta dishes I tasted from what my party ordered to be all universally bland and not very good.
Service was pretty weak, with the waitress bringing our food and disappearing until it was the end of the meal. Was never asked how the food was, or if i wanted any drinks.
Pretty decent looking inside, it was clean, so no complaints.
Not sure why its so busy here, but i have only been here twice, and both times were poor experiences.
Based on the reviews from this site, I decided to give this place a try. Boy was I in for a ride...
Ordered the calamari, pizza bread and linguine with creola sauce. All three disappointing to various degrees. Calamari dip was great but the calamari itself was sub-par - the coating of the calamari was falling off all over the place and reminded me of the calamari served at Knight and Day. Pasta was even worse! The sauce was runny and flavorless, like it was from those No Name pre-made sauces that come in bottles at Superstore. Linguine was undercooked and the shrimp was non-existent. The only good thing about this dish was the italian sausage. Pizza bread was horrible - I suppose it had been sitting out for a while in the back and when it came to us, the cheese had hardened and the toppings (cheese and everything) fell right off. We only finished half of everything and just left the rest and it's the first time we've never taken food to go.
Service started out fine but when we got our bill, we had been charged for a pizza sub rather than pizza bread. When my bf brought this up, the server said we had gotten the pizza sub so we should pay for it. It was our first time here and we didn't know the difference! Why should we pay for the mistake of the server? How is two slices of bread with old toppings supposed to be a sub??!? My bf then said we should only pay for what we ordered so we should only be charged the pizza bread and not the sub, and the server then claimed we were trying to sneak out of paying for the bill! We were so frustrated we paid and just left without arguing further. No point in reasoning with the ignorant I suppose.
Inside was a nice place to sit, felt really home-y. Now, if they could only do something about the food and service... Would never return and will def. spread the word to friends and others to avoid this place at all costs.
Things are sliding down.
Myself and 2 friends went there a couple weeks back,and,well,quite frankly it was chef boy ar dee quality.
Thin flavorless sauces,overcooked pasta,and tough veal.
2 of us got our orders together,while the third sat for 10 minutes without his salad.Not too impressive.
Very cramped also.
Will not be making any stops at this place anytime soon.
Finally went out and tried this pasta restaurant. There appears to be a higher volume take-out clientele here and subsequently in-house customers have to wait. Well, as far as the extent of the wait goes...for a party of two who made reservations we weren't acknowledged at the door for about ten minutes until I approached a waitress.
Then ordered the hot chicken caesar salad which I enjoyed but my company didn't. It's Chinese/Italian fusion and may not be for everyone.
The bread was nothing spectacular here either and not as fresh as other better known pasta restaurants.
The pasta came forty minutes after the order which I found excessive.
Ordered seafood with penne in tomato sauce and it was diluted/runny.
Ordered a seafood cream sauce and it was alright but I've definitely had better.
Service is really nothing special as other walk-in customers would wait and weren't acknowledged for some time. Mind you I went on a Sunday evening and it was steady but not crazy busy as there were tables available.
Food - Fantastic selection of pastas. Tasty food, and a decent wine selection. Food portions were great value for the price and very flavourful.
Service - Decent, but not anything to write home about. Drink and food orders were taken promptly.
Ambiance - A pasta house in the middle of nowhere. Location would be better suited for a hardware store. Inside is quaint and intimate.
I keep saying I wont go back I wont go back........Well i wont go back!!!! I just hate the service its soooo bad they have children running this place now, you just cant do this anymore I cant even get a decent take out order from these kids... sorry i wont go back......I have been going to this place for many many many years and have watched it decline lower lower lowest
My wife and I along with a friend went to this restaurant just this last Sunday evening. Unfortunately we had to wait around 20 minutes, but we were promptly given a table when one was available. My wife ordered the veal with pasta, our friend ordered the Pestore (clams, mushrooms, shrimps and scallops) with cream sauce with gnoochi (pasta) and I ordered the same Pestore in garlic butter in white wine sauce in spinach linguine. The food came out nice and hot. My dish there could have been more seafood as I noticed that the mushrooms were dominant. The flavour was good. My wife and our friend had the same cream sauce for their pasta and I thought it was medicore. The cream was a bit thick and not too much flavour. My wife's veal was okay. All in all the dining experience was positve. We will try other restaurant before we come back.
Amorosa Italian Restaurant is a nice little Italian Eatery. I like them because they give you a free pasta on your birthday and have wicked Garlic Bread. I have been going here for about 10 years now and I have to say that it's as good now as it was then.
The best thing on the menu is the Hot Chicken Ceasar Salad. It is amazing!!
It's a good idea to make reservations for busy nights as I have seen line ups.
We had lunch at Amorosa last week on my birthday. So I ordered the cream pasta with chicken and my wife ordered the creola tomato sauce with seafood. My pasta came watery like soup. It's like eating pasta with cream soup...even worst than the Campbell cream of mushroom soup which is still thicker than their pasta sauce. This is probably the worst pasta I've ever had. Their chicken is almost unnoticeable, so I ordered an extra meatball side dish. My wife immediately protested and reminded me that it wasn't good the last time we ordered. But I told her that they must have improved and to give them the benefit of the doubt. The meatball came in and it was so bad...rubbery..and tasteless..except the pasta sauce they sprinkled on top of it. They must have bought those frozen meatballs from Costco or something. Try Anton's meatball..and you know what a good meatball is.
At the end they only gave us $8.95 discount although the menu stated for $9.95 birthday discount. They said for lunch it's $8.95 off but it doesn't say anywhere. We definitely wont be back.
** to correct my last review, I meant under $20.00 for a single bill, not for my whole family **
also, the ambiance is meant to be 3: solid. The music is pretty good, just easy listening cds usually playing which I like for a meal. They recently repainted parts of the restaurant to touch it up. They now have a spot on the wall inside of the restaurant where they write the daily special. (Before they only had the outside sign with the italian chef that read the daily special)
Today we had spaghetti with sausage and shrimp and tomato sauce, and it was delicious. The garlic bread was plump and warm. The servers were cheerful and efficient, bringing our drinks quickly, and checking with us. The ambiance and decor was cosy and comfortable. This restaurant suits business people, families, teens, seniors. Cost reasonable. We'll be back.
The hot ceasar salad was a bit odd and not really my thing (it's a regular ceasar salad but with spicy chicken stirfry ontop), but the pasta dishes I tried have all been tasty.
It gets cold when you sit near the door in winter and some areas are quite cramped, but the service is pretty good. All in all I would recommend it. But be warned that it can get pretty busy (especially Friday and Saturday nights) so it's best to either get there early or make a reservation.
I've never been dissapointed going to Amorosa. The large dishes are very generous portions and I typically have about half left over to take home. The pasta always tastes like it was made earlier that day too. Whether it actually is or not, I'm not actually sure.
It's usually pretty busy so I typically phone ahead and make reservations. They're pretty bad at getting people seated, so having a reservation typically helps. I'd have to say that their seating has got to be their biggest fault. There's not a lot of space near the door and it get cramped pretty quick. Which would seem like a pretty good reason to get people to a table quickly and start serving them drinks. Instead they don't seem to acknoledge that people are waiting and you almost have to flag somebody down to get seated in under 10 minutes. I've actually seen people wait to speak to a server, just to tell them that they were sick of waiting and were going elsewhere. Once you're at a table though service is fine.
Logistics aside, the food has always been excellent. I gave it a 4 since I've always been very happy with everything that I've ordered, but I still think that they could improve on their tomato sauces. The cream sauces are always amazing, but I think the tomato sauces are sometimes a bit watery and could richer in flavour. For appies we typically get some calamari which is good (I've had better, but it's still good) and some cheesy garlic bread. Both the complimentary bread and the garlic bread always taste fresh.
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