Amici Ristorante Italiano

Best food on the island, bar none! Very friendly staff. Even the owners are there and very nice! Such excellent food. Don’t miss out! Went back two nights later, didn’t think it could beat the first night, but it did. Holy cow, so good. The primavera is absolutely fantastic. I wish we had such good Italian at home!!!

Hands down the best pasta I’ve ever eaten, delicious and cooked to perfection! Staff is extremely attentive and friendly. The Lemon Drop martini is a must. You won’t be disappointed

Didn’t feel the food quality was worth the price. Was okay Italian food, but no better than Buca.

Pasta vogue… noodles rubbery, chicken very over cooked, the alfredo sauce was more like warm milk drizzled on the noodles.

Outstanding Italian food! Bruschetta was best I ever had! Chicken parm was out of this world, you can taste how fresh the chicken is! Will be back!

We stopped by last night and as usual had a great experience. The food was delicous from the appetizer to the decadent lilicoi tiramisu. Ou server Nick was outstanding despite the restaurant being very busy. Only one thing was missing, a nice espresso to finish our dinner, perhaps in the future … Prices are very reasonable, $ 32 for a 16oz New York steak tender and perfectly grilled was quite a nice surprise. Overall, we really enjoyed our evening and highly recommend Amici’s.

Ate at Amici’s last night and was quite disappointed. The décor as you walk in is, let’s say, quaint. Like your old Auntie’s parlor but in need of a good dust and shine. Didn’t have a reservation and only waited 15 minutes or so, which was nice.
Had the Fritta Misto appetizer to start, which was all fried but not bad. I ordered the lobster bisque which was one of the night’s specials, big mistake. The bisque was badly broken and much too thin. In addition, it smelled off and the one taste I took was also bad. My husband had the lasagna, which had a helmet of burnt cheese over the top hiding overcooked pasta and a very greasy filling. The tiramisu we ordered after the meal was OK, but the ladyfingers were sopping wet and disintegrating and I didn’t get any coffee flavor at all.
The server was very personable but took half an hour to refill the water glasses and never did bring more bread (only 4 small pieces in the first basket) even after being asked. He did remove the bisque I sent back from the bill.
Overall probably not an establishment I will go to again.

Best Italian food, and outstanding service. Caesar salad was very garlicky and delicious. Both lasagna and chicken parm were very well done and delicious. I will come here any time I’m in Kona.

No body waiting, got seated 5 – 10 min. Waited 20 min no service, left the Restraunt! Not impressed one bit.

We had been regular customers. The food was good having ordered pasta with seafood and spaghetti ragu. Our waiter was attentive and kind. However they blew it when they charged us $ 1.50 for oil and vinegar to dip our bread in. The owner undervalues his customers. Really poor choice. For god sake charge more for each meal but don’t charge for oil and vinegar!!! No class sir.

Sunday night, pretty crowded.
Nice atmosphere (nice music, interior).
Bread was not so fresh & warm like I like and didn’t come with butter :(
Eggplant Parmesan was pretty good. Clams were a little rubbery to me.
Service was just ok, pretty busy.
Sorry, but Mi’s is still the best Italian food around Kona ;)
I gave extra star because the chef brought the dishes :)

Excellent dinner last night! My husband and I both ordered the specials. He had the Amber Jack and I had the Braised Rib — so wonderful. The presentation of the dinner plates was lovely, portions were more then enough for both of us. The meat was extremely tender and flavorful. My husband loved his fish. We plan to go back at least once more before we return home.

Excellent!
We live 40 miles north, but frequent Amici’s at least monthly.
Awesome selection, fast service, friendly staff (ask for Kayla) nice atmosphere.
Love the ciopino!
Thanks Amici’s!

Three strikes, you’re out. I have eaten here 3 separate occasions within 1 year. Nothing about this place isn’t strange. From their attempt at European ambiance that results in an over furnished mess to the strange wait staff to the terrible food. I don’t have anything nice to say.
Looking for fresh ravioli I ordered the only ravioli available it came with fish. The fish was so dry I was having a hard time swallowing it, I asked for more sauce to try to moisten it up. The server told me the chef made each batch of sauce to order and I shouldn’t need more sauce. To make matters worse there were 4 raviolis on the plate. 4 small raviolis. When I did get more sauce it tasted completely different than the sauce on my plate.
The other two meals were not better at all. Veal Marsala and a chicken Alfredo that were so unimpressive and unremarkable I can’t even describe them.
Finally their tiramisu has never met any marscapone. It was a layer cake with whip cream layered in. It had no flavor or marscapone flavor or texture. It was terrible and I love desserts.
I will never go back again.

We came here in our last night in the island, preying it will be good. We are the fried mozzarella, gnnochi and see good pasta –we licked the plates! The service was above and beyond. Feels very homey.

We had an amazing dinner here tonight. Two adults two teenagers and a 10-​year-​old son all enjoyed the meal. The extra sauce or creamy sauces were very much appreciated and the lasagna my husband said was the best he’s ever had. The jumbo prawns on my fettuccine were the biggest I’ve ever seen in my life! The pianist playing the piano while we ate was an added luxury. I would highly recommend this restaurant!

My wife and I went on a whim last night, and had a delightful dinner. It’s «shoulder season» here in Kona, which means fewer visitors, and quieter restaurants, at least until July 4^th and the official start of summer. At any rate, it wasn’t at all busy; our server told us that it had been quite busy earlier in the week, and we enjoyed our exclusivity to the max. Since I wasn’t in the mood for the two specials I went with an old favorite, lasagna. My wife had the seafood pasta, and we were both quite pleased with our choices. We started off with caprese; excellent tomatoes and cheese, perfect basil, a great way to start the meal. This wasn’t a light dinner, and we passed on dessert. Service was friendly and attentive, and we enjoyed ourselves. If you have a craving for real Italian food then look no further. Mahalo.

Got recommended here by my AirBnB lady when we were looking for something different than your typical hawaiian fare. I am always down for noodles so we decided to try it.
We actually weren’t that hungry so we decided to go with a pasta and a an appetizer. We chose the Vongole and the Gamberoni di Diavolati.
The Vongole came out beautifully. Surrounded by huge clams, it was a good amount of food. The pasta tho was kinda of drowned in the white wine and butter. There was a good amount of clam pieces within the pasta itself but it mostly just tasted like butter and noodles. The clams in the shells were delicious and juicy tho.
The Gamberoni, these giant prawns dusted in a pepper and tomato sauce was good but not spectacular. The prawns themselves were juice and fresh. They came with the head on so i was able to get to all the cream. The sauce on top was too salty and it overshadowed the taste of the prawns. If I had my way, I’d ask them to hold the sauce and just give me the fresh boiled prawns.
Overall, a good attempt at an Italian restaurant. I’ve heard that its probably of the best you can get in Hawaii but it won’t stand up to anything on the mainland.

We loved breakfast at Aloha Angel, next to the Aloha Theater in Kealakekua. We were stunned to see it closed, but saw a piece of paper lying on a table describing the new restaurant in Kailua. Following up, we had dinner there tonight (despite some concerns about the reviews…)
Well, the negative reviews seem totally unjustified to me. We ate outside, no mosquitoes, very comfortable temperature and good service. Tasty focaccia with oil and balsamic vinegar (room temp) and delicious lasagna, spaghetti ragu, and Ono with pasta were enjoyed by all. Worth the detective work, congratulations to Giovanni on the new location with some of the most comfortable seating I have ever seen in a restaurant, and good luck with the new incarnation. Aloha Angel lives on…

I’ve eaten at Amici’s 3 times including when they were in their last location next to the Aloha Theater. Each time I hope that I will like the food better, but I never do.
I know that the owner is from Milan, but this is just not great food (it’s way too Americanized for one thing). Just because you’re born in Italy doesn’t mean you’re blessed with the ability to be a great cook, right?
I’ve been to Italy, have many good friends from Italy and have eaten at great Italian restaurants where I’m from in San Francisco (ok, ok, I know we’re prone to being food snobs). I want to like Amici better, but the food is just average, it’s just not great.
What I’ve eaten:
1) Frito Misto, $ 17 (best item on the menu). What I like about this dish is the spicy marinara sauce, it’s my favorite thing on the menu. The fried seafood is tasty too, not overcooked and with a nice light batter.
2) Caprese, $ 15. This dish is a standard of Italian restaurants in the USA and it’s a decent version here.
3) Fettuccine de Mare, $ 27. This is an example of what I don’t like at Amici, the sauces are too rich and there’s too much of it on the pasta. Italians don’t usually eat this heavy stuff, this is more like American/​Italian food. Italians also don’t soak their pastas in sauce, they like to taste the pasta too!
4) Carbonara (price is N/​A, item removed from menu). This pasta dish was so heavy I couldn’t believe it! I have been to Rome, I know many Roman people and they do not make carbonara this heavy. I think there is cream in Amici’s sauce, which is not traditional. Chill out with the heavy creamy sauces and I’d like this place much better.
5) Penne Amatriciana, $ 23. I liked this pasta dish pretty well, another Roman favorite, but I still think there’s too much sauce to pasta ratio. Guanciale is the traditional meat, instead of pancetta, but getting that in Hawaii would be really hard. I also wish that the pasta was bucatini as opposed to penne, but oh well.
6) Angel Hair Checca, $ 22. Since I like the spicy marinara sauce I like this dish too. But, again, please cut down the amount of sauce.
7) Special lilikoi cake (price N/​A). Obviously this is not an Italian dish, but it was very good. Similar to a cheese cake, but it had no cheese.
The ratings for Unilocal are 2 stars for «Meh, I’ve had better» and 3 stars for «A-​ok». I’d give Amici 2.5 stars if I could. I like the look and vibe of the restaurant, the wait staff is efficient and friendly, but the food is just ok. I’ve never tried their meat dishes, only the pasta, who knows maybe I’d like a meat dish better?
If Amici would put MUCH less sauce on the pasta and lower their prices I would like it better. It just doesn’t seem right, even by Hawaii standards, to charge $ 23 for a pasta dish (like Penne Amatraciana) — this is a really easy dish to make and not expensive and the portions are normal sized, not giant. In my opinion this simple pasta dish shouldn’t cost more than $ 18.