Pietro’s Ristorante & Martini Bar
5841 Transit Rd., East Amherst
(716) 639-8940
http://www.pietrosristorante.com/
Restaurant in general: :tup::tup::tup::tup: (out of 5)
Bar in said restaurant: :tup::tup::tup::tup::tup:
Price: Expensive – Entrees $16-$45
Attire: Business Casual
Reservations: Highly Suggested
Parking: Large Lot
Menu: Fine Dining Italian-American
Service: Top-Notch
Noise: Moderate Weekdays, Live Music Weekends
When you walk in the door of the dimly lit restaurant, you are greeted near immediately by a hostess. Most nights the hostess is the ever popular Linda Gerace, the proprietor of the Restaurant. There has only been one occasion where I had to wait for a table, yet I was still seated within 10 minutes of my reservations, and offered a drink at the bar. Upon seating, you will notice the table cloth is topped with a sheet of paper. It seems a little un-classy for a restaurant of this caliber, but it quickly becomes a minor detail as you are very quickly presented with menus, fresh bread on a wood slab, and the water glasses are filled. On most occasions we request a very specific server, but I have met or been waited on by the majority of the staff, and the service is as close to NYC as you will find locally. Lets go into depth of my last experience with three friends; Sarah, Marshall, Dawn and myself. Right off the bat we ordered two bottles of wine, and as Craig swooped off to retrieve them, another server placed two win glasses in front of each of us. Craig returned, and followed the wine procedure perfectly opening the La Crema, Pinot Noir first, presenting me the cork, and pouring a small taste into the first glass. He then opened the Dr. Frank Riesling, and presented it to Sarah who had ordered it. About five minutes after the wine was opened, the appetizers arrived on the table. We ordered the famous seafood martini, and even knowing the accolades would have never expected what we received. It is a foot tall martini glass that is filled with lobster dainties, crab claws, shrimp, oysters & calamari salad atop shaved ice. The calamari was a bit chewy, but the rest of the seafood was delicious. The other appetizer was on the nightly specials list, and is called ‘Fried brie’. It is a log of fresh French Brie breaded with panko and peanuts then deep fried. It had a spicy sauce drizzled over it, and was served with garlic ‘croutons’. I would recommend trying this if you have tried brie in the past.
The second course is the salad course. We don’t typically order from this menu since the dinners are so large, but I have had the caprese salad, and I will say that it is just as good as any other. There really isn’t too much to it, some tomatoes, some basil, and some fresh mozzarella. Pietro’s chef has taken this classic and made it into a tower on the center of the plate. Attractive yes, original and exciting, no.
Between the appetizer and the main course, we ordered a round of martinis from the massive book they call the menu. I wont recommend anything specific on this since martinis are a to each their own type of item.
For our main Entrées, Sarah ordered her usual homemade ravioli which is made fresh by the owner himself. She always raves about it, but I see it to be no more exciting than the ravioli and red sauce available for half the cost at your local olive garden. Marshall ordered sea scallops with a butter cream sauce atop angel hair pasta. I ate one of his scallops, and was blown away. I haven’t even made scallops so perfectly myself. They literally melted in your mouth. As for Dawn, she ordered the chicken Picata which is a breast of chicken with a lemon butter chardonnay sauce. While she loved it, from my seat it looked like a standard run of the mill Italian dish. Personally I ordered the sesame crusted tuna, Rare. I asked Craig to talk to the chef, and substitute the lobster risotto in place of the standard risotto. He didn’t even blink before telling me not to worry they will just take care of it. My tuna was perfectly cooked to temperature, and the risotto tasted like it had just been prepared, and possibly was. The owner personally makes the risotto just like the pasta, and as much as I would love to say it is the best I have ever had, I know that I have had and made much better. It was a little on the dry side, and really could have used a bit of heavy cream or some butter, but that is mostly just differences in cooking techniques.
I can’t even begin to explain how well the plates are presented; without even tasting the food you can tell that it is going to be exceptional. In lieu of wine since it is a bit on the pricey side, we stuck to martinis for the rest of the dinner.
For desert, we decided to not go with the signature bananas foster, but rather to order individually. To start, we ordered a bottle of asti champagne, as it’s sweetness helps intensify the desert. For the actual dish, I myself had the crème brule which is served in a very large dish and would be considered a generous portion. Marshall had a tiramisu which was smaller than my desert, but every bit as flavorful. The ladies both ordered the cheesecake, which is my least favorite food item, so for me to say how it tasted would be unfairly biased. By this point in the evening our server had punched out and joined us for a drink along with the owner Linda. In the end, we were there from 7 until about 1am, enjoyed a great live band, and some amazing food.
All in all I would have to give Pietro’s a 4 out of 5 only because it is a bit noisy, and although the food is great and the service is the best in town, it is still a bit pricy.
I could continue, but this is long winded enough, so ask questions if you wish.