I have been to Amarcord many times in the past (pre - baby) and was always satisfied with the service and food. I've raved about the restaurant to friends and tourists since they were reasonable in price for quality. My auntie also goes at least 2x month since she works in Yaletown and has many business lunches there.

But since having a baby, I have not had much time to eat out. But we decided to go to Amarcord when we received our Entertainment book a few months back and were utterly dissapointed. I usually would not go to such extent as to write a review (I don't have much time - toddler mommy now) but felt very frustrated at my recent and last experience there.

Firstly, we had a party of 4, 3 adults and my 2yr daughter. We ordered 4 entrees. The service was slow and we were the 3rd table filled during an earlier reservation. When we finally received our food and had our first tastes, it was extremely salty. My daughter who loves to eat did not have more than 5 bites of 2 entrees. Everything was too salty. (We tried to give her some variety but due to her egg allergy we were limited in choices) She ate the foccacia for the rest of the night. Previously, the food was so tasty and above average but this time it was certainly below par.

At the end of our meal, we had 2 entertainment cards to use and the promotion was "Buy one entree, receive one of equal or lesser value for free". The manager came back and told us that we could only apply one promotion to the bill b/c my daughter was not considered an "adult"! How ridiculous is that? The promotion is for "entrees" NOT people. Although my daughter is 2, she is big for her age and it's b/c she can eat almost adult size portions.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, we guess that the ownership/chef has changed from some tell tale signs. We could forgive the saltiness but the customer service was horrible. We won't be going back there again...their loss.

After we sat down, we're left unattended for a good 10 mins. Then the sever came to let us know the special and asked if we would any drink. We just had ice water. It took another 10 mins before she came to take our order. We order the pasta only and skipped the appetizer coz we would like to the have dessert afterwards, the sever showed her attitude right away. Our pasta came after another long wait, tasted ok. Becuase of the poor service, we just ask for the bill after finishing the pasta!!!!! The sever didn't even asked if we would like to have any dessert!!!!!!

A small restaurant with fantastic food and service! Have been here several times and it is always fabulous. The bread here is to die for and every entree i have ever tried has been delicious and cooked to prefection. I brought my family here and everyone was impressed. Make sure to finish your dinner off with an espresso and a piece of tiramisu.

We really enjoyed our meals and we agreed that we would have loved the setting and ambiance if it wasn't so crowded... we were there on a Saturday night but even so, the seating isn't spaced out very well.
The waitress was friendly enough but she spoke very softly and couldn't quite remember the specials. Maybe she was new?
We were very upset though at the end of the night because when we were paying our bill our bank's system was down so our debit card didn't go through and the hostess was VERY rude and very vocal about it. It was very embarrassing. We had another form of payment so it shouldn't have been a big deal.
If you are just looking for good food and good wine... this is the right place.

Stopped by on limb to try this place out.

Food was excellent and service was truly outstanding. Even though Yaletown is overun by more expensive trendier establishments Amarcord has its own small village Italy feel to it.

Had the Tagliatelle Bolognese and it was superb. The servers were on point with service and I left feeling I got great value and an excellent meal. In comparison the prices are very reasonable.

Will be back for sure.

Good meal, Hostess was very friendly and the wait staff was very attentive and efficient. Food was good and reasonably priced. Nice ambiance. We haven't tried the higher priced more well know local Italian restaurants yet so have no comparison to offer. We made a reservation early mid week and had no problem getting a good table. Will return.

We used to frequent this restaurant frequently in the past. A friend of ours was visiting Vancouver for the first time and we decided to take him out for dinner last night for some nice Italian food. We were careful to make reservations for dinner and got a table right away. Rob, the waiter who served us was very unpleasant. Our friend, being in Vancouver for the first time, was not sure what wine would suit him and was studying the wine list. Rob became impatient and showed it. He took our wine orders and left and seem to have forgotten all about us completely. It took several minutes before he realized that he had not taken our orders and quickly came back for them. The restaurant was bustling last night and very noisy, but almost every table was being attended to, except ours. Rob could be seen at the bar carefully wiping down glasses and putting them away, but definitely not preparing nor attending to our orders. It took several minutes before we were remembered again and our orders served. The soup was very bland and tasted like warm water with a few toasted croutons thrown into it. The veal was decent enough but very salty! When Rob returned with the desserts, he unceremoniusly plopped the Tiramisu (the only item on the menu that made any sense!) down and (get this!) reached over the table, across our friend's face and plop my dessert down in front of me!!!! How rude was that? All in all, it was a very disappointing night. I would not recommend this place, again, to others, and would not return for such rude service! Diners beware.........
Amarcord would well remember that good food is essential to the success of a restaurant, but good service is critical to bringing the customers in and back again to taste their "good" food.

My friend made a reservation for the two of us. When we showed up, the bug-eyed server asked if she could help us; when we informed her of the reservation she said "oh, ok, well we're very busy...but ok" (?). Then she sat us at one of the two available tables. And left. We were there for about 15 minutes with no water, no drinks and no attention. The servers were running around serving everyone but us. Finally, when I reached for my coat, one of the servers stopped by and asked if we wanted a drink.I was so furious all I could mumble was that we were leaving, after which he became very sweet and apologetic, and started begging us to stay. Literally, begging. He claimed to "not forget us" and "get us back" and "get something on the house"...he was really cute so finally we decided to stay. Started off great...nice bottle of wine with a starter, pretty good. Their bread is delicious. The dine out menu looked weak, so I decided to try their halibut, which was highly recommended to me by a friend. Well. The halibut comes with a weird caper-wine sauce which in my mind does not work with fish at all; I could just write that combo off as a masterpiece too complex for my plebeian palate, had the fish itself been well prepared. Instead, it was rubbery, dry, very thin and way overdone. Ew. And it came with steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Also ew...for a $25 plate I'd hope they put a little more thought into the accompaniment. Perhaps the chef's creativity ended on the caper-wine sauce. ANYWAY! After all that, our server popped by and asked if we wanted some coffee; when we declined, he generously offered to "take care of it"...uuuh...so you're saying, after being ignored for an unacceptable amount of time, then agreeing to stay, then eating the crappy food, you are saying you'll cover the $4 coffee? Seriously. Not that I expect freebies, but I definitely expect superb service and food in an upscale restaurant, and if it's not, I expect them to compensate!

We had our first Dine Out meal last night at Amarcord. We had been there for lunch a couple of times before and this was our first experience for dinner.

We ordered a nice wine in the Sandhill Pinot Blanc which went very well with the Brodetta all’Adriatica (Seafood & Vegetable Soup), which had a very nice flavour. The broth of the soup was outstanding. We also ordered a couple of salads on top of the dine out appetizers. They had an outstanding Tomato and Cucumber salad that a couple of us had and one other person thouroughly enjoyed the Caesar Salad that he had ordered.

For the mains, I ordered the Bistecca alla Boscaiola (Sirloin Steak in a red wine and mushroom sauce). It was cooked to the way I liked it and the sauce went very well with it. One of my friends had the Flatano con Gamberetti (Halibut with shrimp & champagne sauce) and he liked the flavour along with the texture. The other two in our party ordered the Scaloppine alla Valdostana (Veal stuffed with prosciutto & fontina cheese). They enjoyed it and from the taste I had, thought it was probably the best of all the dishes.

For dessert, I had a simple Lemon sorbet, which proved to be a great way to finish the meal. My sister ordered the Tiramisu, which she finished off quite quickly. My friends ordered the three layered sorbet, which they said had an eggnog flavour to it. They enjoyed it.

Looking around the restaurant, there was a mix of people who ordered off both the main menu along with the dine out menu. The regular menu items looked good and they had a Lasagna special that looked like it should have been part of the dine out menu as well. It looked that good.

The service through the night was attentive and did not obstruct too much, though we could here some cutlery being dropped every once in while.

We are now looking forward to the next time we come here. We are definitely going to try and come back for their regular menu.

After hearing so much about this restaurant we were quite disappointed by what could be called nothing other than very mediocre Italian food. One thing is for sure at these prices there is no excuse for what we received. I know Jolly Green Giant frozen mixed vegetables when I see and taste them and they have no place in a pasta dish! At least not with the label: mixed seasonal vegetables! Won't be going again. The service was notable, though. The atmosphere: Homey.