Sunday, November 8, 2009

Amalfi Ristorante Italiano- Indianapolis, Indiana


The interior was gorgeous; we liked their tile floor:

From the bread basket:
Marinated grilled eggplant:
Chicken Pesto:
Gnocchi in tomato sauce:

Even though we used to live very close to Amalfi, this was our first visit to the restaurant. It's tucked away in the shopping center at 86th & Ditch by the Cinema Grill and we greatly enjoyed our lunch there.

The atmosphere is elegant without being stuffy. We appreciated the wonderful music that played while we were there (such as classics by Tony Bennett). Service was perhaps a little on the slow side but there appeared to be only one hard-working waitress for a pretty decent sized lunch crowd.

We started with a delicious soup of the day (a vegetable based soup with beans) and the Melanzane Alla Griglia appetizer (marinated grilled eggplant with olive oil and garlic, served cold). We love eggplant and this dish was a winner with us. The chef definitely wasn't shy with the garlic but that was fine with us. There were also a few hot red pepper flakes. We found it to be a very generous starter. We were delighted to be given a basket of 3 delicious biscuit/muffin hybrids. They had a little crunch to them and really soaked up olive oil. They were a nice change from the standard loaf of crusty bread served at Italian restaurants.


For our entrees, we ordered the Mostaccioli con Pollo Pesto and the Gnocchi di Patate Sorrentina. We make pesto sauce at home frequently but we'll confess to using the Knorr packets. That makes getting pesto at a restaurant a treat because you can definitely tell the difference. The sauce covered every bite of chicken and pasta and could not have been better. Chefs who can make good gnocchi amaze us; how can they make potatoes taste so light? The gnocchi was covered in a tomato sauce that tasted decadent but not too rich.

The lunch entrees were $10.50- $16.00 and they only serve lunch Monday through Friday but they serve dinner Monday through Saturday. We were very pleased with the ambiance and the food and look forward to visiting Amalfi again.

Amalfi Ristorante Italiano on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Sarah A.T.J. said...

Looks yummy! Thanks for letting us know about it!

Eternal Lizdom said...

Ironically, I just lunched here for the first time a week ago! My boss took all of his people out to lunch (first time in my 10 years as his employee). I have to say it was delish!! The Caprese is awesome, the onion soup is heavenly. A friend and I split lunch entrees- the special stuffed portabelo mushroom cap and the menu fettucine alfredo. Both tasty but the stuffed mushroom was the hands down winner. Tasty good!!