Dine About Winnipeg 2015 - Amici

The recent spree of fine dining has been taking its toll on my wallet (and waistline). Stepping on the scale this morning revealed a modest weight gain, but a gain nonetheless. It was to be expected with the majority of high end restaurants disproportionately high on butter and low on vegetables. Nevertheless, when one of our co-residents wanted to celebrate their birthday, we had to go somewhere fancy. Their dining place of choice, Amici.

Amici is an interesting restaurant. Just off of Broadway street, Amici shares a location with its sister restaurant, Bombilini, with a shared kitchen and bathroom. Serving similar dishes, Amici is designed to be the fine dining fancy ballroom while Bombilini's has a modern lounge feel to it. It certainly does have an air of sophistication with handsomely dressed busboys, knowledgeable wait staff and elegant decor.

The menu of choice today was Dine About Winnipeg. Amici seems to the perfect type of restaurant for Dine About, as the main menu is rather prohibitively priced and although they tout fine ingredients and exquisite preparation, there needs to be some persuasion to attract diners. Amici serves modern Italian cuisine and offers a variety of classic and exciting Italian dishes.

I decided to order a Carpaccio off the main menu to start for the entire group. The service staff thoughtfully divided the dish into halves so the whole table would be able to have a bite. Razer thin slices of beef are topped with garlic, lime and lemon and served with pickled onions and toasted bread. I enjoyed the mix of flavours in the carpaccio and thought the citrus added much needed sweetness and tartness to the beef.

The starters included a Mussels, Tequila Lime Pepper Cream Sauce. A handsomely presented dish with a boatload of mussels in a pepper cream sauce. The shellfish were prepared well but was overpowered by the cream sauce. The peppers added a nice touch of colour to the dish but overall I felt the emphasis was too much on the sauce and less on the mussels.

The other starter was Mixed Gourmet Greens served with mandarin oranges and almond crusted goat cheese. The deep fried cheese balls were the best part of the dish which added a sharpness and smoothness and elevated this past just a regular salad.

The main of choice was the New York Striploin Della Nonna. A large striploin cooked to your liking and topped with potatoes, mushrooms and bacon all wrapped together by a beef (?veal) sauce. This was marvelous. The generous portion of beef matched well with the starch and the fatty bacon, but it was the deep, full bodied and rich sauce that brought the entire dish together.

For my main I had the Arctic Char wrapped in Smoked Salmon. Served on the side with a red onion salad, this dish was simply average. The moderate portion of char was well cooked, but I did not enjoy the pairing with smoked salmon. The salmon while texturally a bit firmer and more flavourful seemed to overpower the char. Finally, the onion salad was a nice citrus-y fresh addition to the dish.

Side Vegetables (Brocollinin, roasted yams and beets) were served with every main course. I appreciate Amici for adding some vegetables to the dishes but thought it was smart to serve them on the side. Doing this allows you to showcase the main as a self contained dish without confusing the diner with additional vegetables. They themselves were nicely roasted and went especially well with the sauce in the striploin.

Espresso and Chocolate Panna Cotta was the dessert for everyone. A hint of espresso was present in the soft and smooth panna cotta. Topped with cream, chocolate shavings and strawberries this was a great way to finish a meal.

Overall Amici provided good Italian food. I was impressed by the decor and excellent service staff and feel they have the food to back up their claim of being fine dining. Although the prices on the normal menu are higher, the Dine About menu offered great value for the quality of the food. Amici is certainly an option for anyone looking for a classy night out.