Trattoria Amici

We went here on a whim and it was delicious. Alessio was a great server and VERY attentive. Our drinks were always filled and food came out in a timely manner. I’ll definitely be coming back. Though the weirdest thing is the music, it was 80s music. Not really what I want to listen to while eating pretty authentic Italian food.

Great quality food and excellent service. Trattoria Amici is mine and my husbands favorite dinner spot. I always get salad or sea food and its always fresh and delicious. My husbands favorite is there steak. We are now locals here and I cant say we’ve seen or experienced anything negative, from the front desk to the waiters and waitresses, everyone is wonderful. If I could give them 10 stars I would.

I’ve never used Unilocal before but this experience compelled me to write something. I normally keep. My bad comments to myself but this particular day just stuck with me:
This place seemed nice when I was walking around the Americana. Everywhere else had a long wait and this one did not so we decided to dine here. There were 3 of us and we were told by the hostess (straight dark long hair) there was no wait. So we decided to come back in about half hour to go to Sephora since we weren’t that hungry. We come back then and it was a different hostess. She was on the phone and instead of acknowledging us, she just looked us over and then looked back down to her iPad. No «Give me one second», not even a single gesture to say that she will be with us. Nothing. Just a look over and ignored. It was very rude. The previous hostess was kind enough to acknowledge us right when we walked in with a «HI how are you?» with a broad smile that even touched her eyes! Wow!
But this one? No. Rude blonde lady. If you’re reading this, know how to acknowledge your patrons.
Finally she gets off the phone and goes «okay 3 people?» and even before we could respond she goes around the podium and walks right ahead. We follow her and we get seated inside on a decent sized table. The restaurant really is beautiful. It’s a bit rustic and has a beautiful wine cellar. We get seated and she just DUMPS the menus on our table and. Walks. Away.
What…
My friend, being much nicer than I am, said she may just be so overwhelmed and having a bad shift. So I let it go. (clearly I didn’t but you’ll know why later)
Our server Alessio made up for the rude blond hostess. He was quite funny and had a personality! Not just boom bam gimme your orders and heres your food! He chatted with us and complimented all of us! How sweet of him! He also has such a cute accent!
Our food came and I got the calamari salad and it was delicious! My friend got the rigatoni with the Italian sausage, and my other friend just got a Caesar salad.
It was fabulous! Except for the fact that my friend that got the Italian sausage got food poisoning the next day and I took care of her all day… But it was just her so we know it was her food. We definitely threw out the leftovers right away.
Anyway, our meal was amazing we got dessert. We got the tiramisu! It was great but it was so small for the $ 9 price tag.
We decide to leave and we just walked out the way we came. She didn’t say «Thank you come again» or «Have a good night!» Nope just standing there, on the iPad. I mention this to my friend and I tell her «look, she doesn’t even look like she’s overwhelmed. Maybe she’s just doesn’t know how customer hospitality works… Then she shouldn’t be a hostess». She was sad to agree with me.
Look, if you’re the first person the customer sees, you should know how to do your job. At least just smile and acknowledge us. If you don’t know how to act then go work in the back.
Sad. She was pretty too. What a waste of a face.

This is my first time here celebrating my birthday with hubby. Our waiter Tony was very friendly and professional. He made us feel very comfortable there. The food was great — not too oily and not too salty like some other restaurant food. I am on a detox diet which only allows me to eat certain food, and I was able to choose some healthy sides such as sauté mushroom and vegetable soup. We enjoy the atmosphere and would love to come again!

We came here to celebrate my brother’s birthday on a Thursday night and I’m glad we picked this place because the food was delicious and the service was great! We walked in for a party of 10 and got seated within 10 minutes. We ordered a variety of dishes and our favorite were the boneless short ribs, seafood linguini and the grilled beef tenderloin.
We will definitely be back.

Didnt have a good experience with hostess. All but 2 tables outside were full, yet refused to sit a party of 4. Venue has 2 outside seating areas and yet we weren’t offered any seats. 90% empty and yet no accommodations made to satisfy us. Oh forgot to mention, it was a Thursday night.
Glad there are other restaurants near by that sat us down within 5 minutes.

Overall Pretty nice place :) pleasantly greeted walking in the door and was seated (for 2) rather quickly seeing how busy the area was. Hostess was very nice and sociable; food was pretty tasty.
3 Stars just based off my personal preference towards taste of meal as well as price, but for sure will make second trip to try out some more of the food that looked better.

Been here a couple times. The jalapeño margarita is spicy and delicious! The food is delicious! Everything I’ve tried has been great! The service is fantastic. Husband and I checked in on Unilocal and got the vip treat, focaccia bread and proseco. It is pricey but I would recommend it for a date or occasion. Would have been 5 stars, but there was leftover focaccia bread and they didn’t ask if we wanted to take it home, I’m sad for the delicious food wasted.

First Alessio is a great waiter who was attentive and gave great suggestions! We had three appetizers the Burrata, the charcuterie and cheese, and MY FAVORITE Squash blossoms.

So first things first, checkin and you get a free prosecco if you are over 21. That was a nice treat as I checked in. They have a kids menu which we asked to see for our kids, but unfortunately our kids tastes in food have grown in size and complexity so the menu didn’t seem to appease their hunger lol. Don’t get me wrong it was a good kids menu for Italian food.
We went straight into ordering the meal. Both kids got the Agnolotti al prosciutto which is a nice ravioli filled with marscapone and prosciutto and sits atop a creamy Marsala wine sauce with walnuts. Very good balance of flavors in this dish making you want more till it’s all gone then you wonder where it went. The pasta of the ravioli was very tender and tasty, it seemed a little salty in some portions than other, must be the prosciutto, perhaps smaller pieces mixed more with the marscapone filling, that may help balance the flavor out more. It tasted very good other than that. Yes I snuck a taste.
My wife had the spaghetti al pomodoro which was soooooo good tasting when there was the fresh basil in the bite. Needed a bit more basil but other wise it was cooked very well. Close to stuff we’ve tasted at other well known chef’s trattorias.
I had the lenguini al frutti de mare. The sea food was sooooooooo fresh that it wasn’t like eating Santa Monica bay like in other restaurants. I mean you can’t taste the old brine taste of seafood that’s been sitting a few extra days. Where ever they sources their muscles from keep getting it from them, it’s not like other muscles I’ve had that is not as fresh tasting. The calimari was not over cooked but tender. Only concern was one of the clams I had was crunchy I mean sandy or what ever it was turned me off, but as a trooper I didn’t make a big deal of it spat it out since it may have been a clam that was missed in the cleaning. This dish over all was pretty solid, I even used the bread to sop up some of the sauce in the end, I would have like a little bit more sauce though when it was served. Not the best but very close to the top since the seafood was so fresh but bumped down because of the grit in one of the clams which was surprising since the restaurant seems to have their food all done good.
The desert we ordered were two crème brûlées. When they were served I notice once being more dark than the other. My son took the darker one and daughter had the lighter one. Presentation looked nice. Served with fresh whip crème and a raspberry on top. Both kids started cracking the sugar. Daughter started in no problem, son took his time getting into it when he finally started to try to crack the brûlée when he tapped it hard and it would crack or break. He tried again and that’s when I notice it being very thick. This made me wonder what was going on with it but didn’t didn’t stop him from enjoying it till when I took a taste after he started in. Brûlée was over done and bitter like very burnt bitter where I called our waiter over and had him bring us a new one which they comped. Very nice gesture to make up for a poorly made dish prepared by kitchen staff. I’m surprised it made it out, I wouldn’t have allowed the dish one step out and have a new one immediately made.
I done out a lot and know what goes on when places are slammed but to let the final note of your taste symphony be a bad note was not expected. It’s in all the details in all dishes served to the staffs attention is what makes a restaurant good to James beard great, not expecting JB great every where I go but with this style of dining and feel of establishment I thought the support staff would have helped the waiter better when we asked for a spoon for our noodle dishes. We asked a few times till we saw our waiter and flagged him down which he immediately got us our spoons. Over all though the food was very good, our waiter was very pleasant and nice and very helpful with food recommendations. We all still enjoyed our meal here even with a few minor detail tweaks which I feel would the food better and the experience near high end fine dining like. So I give this 4 star review for the collection of minor details that need attention. They showed they owned up and took responsibility of the desert by comping it which shows they have a high level of expectations they hold themselves up to. Well done!

Loved everything we chose tonight…
Adrien, the waiter recommended the gnocchi and the grilled calamari salad, both were great. All four of were happy with our meals. Cannoli was recommended by Adrian again, yummy! Will be coming back again soon!

Alessio, molto gratzi! We had a lovely evening with good food and great service.
If you dine here, do yourself a favor and ask for alessio, straight from the mother land, Florence baby.

Lilia our server, Beto and Luis the manager made sure we had an excellent experience.
The spinach ravioli and lasagna with a glass of Italian beer was on point.
Be sure to try the volcano chocolate cake with a side of ice cream and the crème brûlée.
As a restaurant owner/​operator myself, we sometimes don’t receive the service that we strive to provide.
Thank you for a successful date night.

It was my first time coming here last night with my boyfriend. Our waitress was very nice and if you check in you get a glass of champagne and focaccia bread – realllll good! (FYI:if you’re 2 people, you each have to check in on separate phones!)
We both ordered pizza, his was with broccoli and mine was with prosciutto. His tasted kind of weird. The broccoli threw it off. Mine was definitely better. We also ordered a Caesar salad but we never got it lol! Kind of got relieved though because two pizzas were more than enough.
Service was great and the atmosphere is very nice! I will definitely be back to try their pasta :)

The service and food here is great. Not the most authentic Italian but still delicious especially their sauce. Where this place truly shines is the ambience. Request to sit outside and enjoy the water fountain, jazz music playing in the Americana, and the soft breeze blowing behind you.
They validate for parking and if you check in, you’ll get a free glass of Prosecco.
Also, back patio (other outside eating area) is not as chill as the front round outside seating. Just trust me and go with the circus tent looking outdoor seating.

Exceptional food, service and view. Everything is fresh fresh fresh… parli italiano? Even the server speaks Italian. Quality of food is 5 stars– everything else ⁴⁄₅. Law of averages. Make sure you save room for dessert. NOT sweet like American desserts. And YES! They have an espresso machine… And the right coffee to compliment it. Recommend Tiramisu… (I will defiantly lift you up-​) Typical Italian service: very accommodating! Will definitely come back-​probably would get 5 stars at dinner if the lunch rush (not their fault) was absent.

I’m going to start off with the one negative about this restaurant. One of my friends was running late, so the other 3 of us went in at 6:30pm to make a reservation for 7pm. For some reason, they said they weren’t taking reservations for that night specifically. It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of people around, so we left and came back at 7pm when my other friend arrived. Went in to get a table and they said it will be a 30 – 45 minute wait! Since they didn’t take reservations, I wish they told us at 6:30pm to put our names down on the waitlist.
We got seated at 7:30pm in the heated patio with the gorgeous views of the Americana fountains. (By the way, there were lots of open tables around us…) Our waiter, though, was friendly and attentive throughout the entire evening. We checked in on Unilocal to get complimentary rosemary focaccia bread AND a glass of prosecco! Bonus points for that!
For food, we shared family style the Cioppino, Gemelli Regina, and their special of the night Lobster Gnocchi.
Cioppino: My friend told us to come to Amici because of this one dish. And it did not disappoint! Plenty of fresh seafood, but the broth was the real star. We had to order extra bread to soak it all up.
Gemelli Regina: Spiral pasta with chicken and broccoli in a «pink sauce». Sounds simple, but it’s anything but! You can really taste the difference between hand made pasta vs. dry. Plus it was cooked perfectly al-​dente with still a good bite to it. I have no idea what the pink sauce was but it complemented the chicken well.
Lobster Gnocchi: Gnocchi is always either a hit or miss for me. This unfortunately was a miss. It was overcooked and mushy. There were plenty of large pieces of lobster though, so that was the only redeeming factor of this dish.
I barely ever make the trip out to Glendale, but food, service, and atmosphere will have me considering to come back to Amici when I’m ever in the area.

This restaurant is on prime real estate. It’s located smack dab in the middle of the Americana courtyard – in viewing distance of the fountain! It’s an absolutely beautiful venue for outdoor dining.
Everything else about Amici’s is just okay. The food was pretty expected – nothing wowed me nor made me cringe. The lobster gnocchi special that I tried last time was interesting. It had generous lobster chunks in it and a great flavor, but underwhelming, overboiled gnocchi dumplings. I will say that I’ve had a good experience with their salads.
You can only order wine by the glass (unless I’m blind and missed the bottle menu) which is really disappointing seeing as I hate buying wine by the glass (terrible value and I always want more than one glass). The selection is pretty tiny too.
Overall, pretty underwhelming food and drink selection, but fantastic venue in a beautiful courtyard. There isn’t much restaurant competition in the area either so this option is pretty viable.

The good thing about this restaurant is that its in the americana so you can dine and eat whenever. This is my 3^rd time here and I still think its pretty good. I think they took some things out of the menu because I was looking at the menu yesterday and they didn’t have the salmon farfalle pasta that I usually order.
If you check in you get a free glass of prosecco and focaccia bread. The prosecco is delicous and goes great with your meal. They also give out bread with butter and/​or balsamic vinegar & oil.
Prosciutto Pizza– We asked our waiter which pizza is their most popular dish and he said this was the most popular. Honestly for the price, it was not worth it. It was just a regular pizza, marinara and cheese, with prosciutto on top. Like what? That’s so plain!
Risotto Al midollo– This was part of their special fall menu. It is bone marrow on top of a bed of risotto. The risotto was really good (kinda salty), but still really good! The bone marrow was delicious as well, but they only give you 1, which isn’t really worth the price either.
Rigatoni alla norcina– This was a pasta with sausage, mushroom, and truffle sauce. This was the star of the night! You can smell the truffle and it goes so well with the sausage and mushrooms! I would RECOMMEND this dish if you want pasta.
Vegetarian Pizza– It was better than the Prosciutto pizza… because it had more toppings on it.
Spinach Ravioli– When it first came out it was kind of cold, inside and out. Like it has been sitting on the counter waiting for it to be delivered to us. When I told the waiter he immediately made us a new one and it was hot! The ravioli was delicious and had the right amount of stuffing. I would also recommend this dish if you want some sort of ravioli dish.
The check came out to about $ 100. To be honest, the food was good but it wasn’t worth the price. It is pricey for the quality you get. But it is worth a try :)

Happy Hour every day at all hours only at the bar which is in a pleasant setting adjacent to the patio that can be seen through tall glass windows. There is plenty of indoor dining also on those colder nights. k Wines by the glass are kept fresh w/​a wine dispensing system that fills the wine bottles w/​relatively inert nitrogen gas as the bottle is emptying.
We ordered the wine of the day which was a California Cabernet Sauvignon which was full of cherry, blackberry, touch of leather, low tannins & acid that made it a bit jammy. Decent glass of red for only $ 5 in nice stemware that was thin lipped for a more refined mouthfeel.
1) Nice Italianate bread that had a nice chewy, brown crust & softer yeasty interior still warm from being placed in an oven accompanied by butter was free.
2) Calamari Fritti e Contorni: light battered small «firefly» squid, zucchini & carrots. Nice crispy batter fried in sweet fresh oil which complements the sweet meat of the squid. There is half a lemon which I squeezed into the Salsa Marinara (mah ree nah rah) for more citrus gastrique since pouring lemon juice over the battered squid would have made it instantly soggy & mushy. It’s a good rendition of this classic antipasti dish for only $ 5.95.
3) Insalata di Carciofi (car choh fee): Julienned artichoke heart, slices of heart of palm tossed in a bit of a light cream dressing shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano/​parmesan cheese, walnuts was a delicate flavor that was made even lighter by the addition of refreshing greens. It was a great interplay between the hearts of palm, artichoke, cream dressing, & Parmigiano Reggiano since this cheese added a fermented dairy Umami. It’s a deal for $ 6.95
4) Polpette (pohl peh teh)/Italian meatballs: Standard beefy ground meatballs in a Salsa Marinara & Piselli/​peas paired w/​a thick slice of a toasted brown bread scattered w/​Grana Padana cheese. $ 5.95
5) Pizza di Funghi (foon ghee): Pizza w/​mushrooms slathered with melting mozzarella cheese & salsa marinara was the least interesting of the items we ordered. $ 5.95
6) Schiacciata (skee ah chee ah tah): Tuscan flat bread similar to what we Americans may know as Focaccia topped w/​sliced tomato, melted burrata cheese, Ruccola con Folie Argente Verde/​arugula & a thin slice of Prosciutto. The melted burrata added the creamy dairy Umami while the Prosciutto had the aged porkiness. The bitter, peanut oil taste of the Ruccola is a counter to the flavours mentioned above. The bread is chewy, rustic, hearty, & the tomato adds a sweet gastrique. This gestalt went totally well w/​the Cabernet Sauvignon for a complex synergy of flavours. $ 8.95
Trattoria Amici (ah mee chee)/friends provided truly generous small plates that tasted very well for the price taking the effort to create a Happy Hour menu that included good flavours, good ingredients, good preparation. Our waitress was fast, efficient, friendly w/​a fast wit. Four of us shared all the above with one person having two glasses of the Cabernet Sauvignon instead of one. We still paid only $ 20 per person including tax & 20% tip. 4– Unilocal stars for a truly great deal.