Amico Bio

I don't usually write reviews for restaurants, in fact this is my first. I felt compelled to as our experience at Amico Bio was unbelievably bad. Table of four friends. Took over 20 mins for us to be even given the menus after being seated and the service staff weren't friendly at all. Not rude, just no smiles or welcoming personality. I have a feeling the management must not know what they are doing and possibly treating the service staff like crap. I had a pesto fried gnocci for a starter and boy was it pretentious, bland and impossible to eat with a knife and fork. It was basically crackers with garnish on top. We all had to eat them with our fingers. Didn't look fresh or even made on site for that matter. disgusting! For a main I had tempura vegetables. I chose this as I was interested to see an Italian take on a classic Japanese dish. This came out an hour after ordering. The tempura fried vegetables came wrapped in a tacky paper cone and tempura wasn't made properly and far too oily. Dish was warm. Not hot. For everyone else at the table, their meals were just as bad. One of my friends described the mushroom pasta on a par with a pot noodle. It was embarrassing to bring people here and certainly embarrassing for both Italian and Vegetarian cuisine.

No wonder they are reeling people in with groupon vouchers. I doubt there are many returning customers.

I dined in Amico Bio in January. I was new to Groupon and received vouchers for a deal. My friends had been travelling over the christmas period so thought it a great idea to meet up somewhere and catch up over a meal somewhere new. My husband and I are vegetarians; we love good food and love trying new restaurants. As any vegetarian will know, creating a meal is about spice and flavour and creativity. Never have I tasted more bland, plain, dull and unattractive food in a restaurant IN MY LIFE. By far the worst dish at the table was the mushroom pasta- basically dish water would most likely have more flavour- truly appalling.Cold and congealed. Service was disgraceful- always a different waitress who seemed clueless when asking about the menu- luckily we were catching up with friends as we had a lot to talk about- as the meal took over an hour after the starters came!!! Not only that, it was delivered by a filthy handed, sweaty and angry looking chef with no explanation of the meals. Prior to us arriving, we were late due to train failure. Our friends had been waiting for us at the table, and were the only people in the restaurant. They had tried time and time again to get the attention of someone to serve them a drink while they were waiting, which took 20 MINUTES!!! That in my book is disgraceful- it may be cheap but that doesn't mean the service should be like this. In fact there are so many better vegetarian places to eat that I'm surprised they haven't lifted their game. DINERS BEWARE- in summary, Amico BIO might be just the thing for you if you enjoy sweaty and angry slow service followed by cold, congealed dish watery fodder- I wouldn't feed it to my dog.

Food on the menu wasn't very inspiring. When the food arrived it was basic with no real flavour. Came away wanting to like it as atmosphere was great but food was too bland. I have been a veggie for over 10 years and I have to say there are far better vegetarian places in London than this.

Very dissapointed. The food was very bland, unimaginative and meagre. Sort of place to give vegetarian food a bad name. I am vegetarian and have had much much better elsewhere. The wine was OK and atmosphere average.

At this restaurant where the food comes straight from Italy. Literally. The Amico family sends a truck from their organic farm outside Naples each week. This week it brought pumpkins, escarole, mushrooms, aubergines, and incredible pecorino cheeses. Step inside the restaurant and you feel like you are in Italy. The wine list is short but contains some well-priced gems. A sniff of the Brumaio took me to Tuscany. The pasta is home-made by chef and owner Pasquale Amico; the Paccheri alla Zucca e Salvia were thick tubes served al dente with a crushed pumpkin sauce flavored with sage. Robust and delicate all at once. Luca Amico greets diners, explains the menu, offers advice on the food, pours the wine. Go there immediately. Talk to him, eat something wonderful, meet Pasquale. Lunch is £12.50 for 3 courses. Dinner is delicious. Oh, and I nearly forgot; it's a vegetarian restaurant. Even devoted carnivores will not miss eating meat at this hidden Smithfield gem.

I went to Amico Bio for lunch today and ordered both a starter and main course. It is one of the best vegetarian restaurants I have ever been to. The dishes are less complicated than those at The Gate, being purely Italian. Each dish is perfectly composed, with seasonal (and therefore flavourful) ingredients, all fresh from the chef's family farm in Italy. My main course was an Italian, meat-protein substitute that was a much finer variety than any I have tried elsewhere and perfectly cooked in a light, lemon sauce; delicious. With an extensive and changing menu that introduces you to the glorious variety of Italian foods as well as a list of choice wines, all reasonably priced, this restaurant will be one that I will be returning to regularly, for lunch and dinner.

When I saw that in this quiet thoroughfare an organic, vegetarian Italian restaurant was planning to open… well I thought that this would be a short-lived venture. Having lunched here on an almost weekly basis since Amico Bio opened, my sincere wish is to be proved utterly wrong.
First, the food is delicious. It is fresh, simply cooked, imaginative, light and just so out of the ordinary; it really is a pleasure to eat. I recently for the first time also tried the wine (I try to go easy during the week…) and I can testify that the organic Sangiovese was quite impressive – especially after about 20 minutes when the bouquet and taste started to open. Second, the service is friendly, knowledgeable and genuinely keen to please. The chef is also clearly very committed to his craft with much of the more exotic ingeredients (sorry to show my lack of veggie credentials, but I had never even heard of “Seitan” before… its colour is pastel green, its consistency reminds me of mushrooms) sourced from the family in Naples. Third, the value for money is exceptional. An old friend (who is quite demanding in terms of food and drink) and I ate what was essentially a three course meal (two “starter” courses and a light “main”) with wine (see above) and service… for well under £30 per head. By the way, the zucchini fritti were, my friend declared, the best he had ever tasted. I say the same for the Arancini…
The drawback has so far been a slight lack of atmosphere which is partly a reflection on the newness of the business, and partly on what I perceive to be prejudice on the part of meat eaters to forego meat – but both my friend and I are meat eaters and we made no sacrifices in satisfaction to eat at this little gem of a place.