Buon’ Amici

Did not notify us of special RIDICULOUS menu for christmas eve. Not even a pasta dish! No stars!

Buon’ Amici close to my office and thus, is one of my go-​to venues for quiet, leisurely dinner with a friend. The food is good, though not great. (Full disclosure: my friend’s husband is an excellent cook and I often leave restaurants thinking, «Manny’s (fill in the blank) is better.»)
On my last visit, the asparagus was uninspired and the eggplant was not spicy, as promised — — but the calamari, cannoli and drinks were spot-​on. For the life of me, I can’t remember the entrees anyone in our party ordered (at least none of the dishes was memorably bad). As I not great, but can’t beat it’s proximity to the office, so I’ll be going back.

Excellent food! They give you the option to build your own appetizer which i think is real smart. Def recommend and i will be back.

so they offered a groupon now today from 12 – 3. i bought in and was there a little before 3pm (probably 2:50) and they were closed!!! thanks for advertising that you would be open. not like it took me any time, planning, or effort to get there. :-(

Great place to kick back and enjoy some great Italian dishes. good wine selection.

The restaurant was empty of customers when we walked in for lunch today. What looks like the owner/​manager was chatting with friends, who all had thick New York accent. I felt like I was in a Woody Allen movie.
The venue does not stand out much specially when it is right next to a pet store where beautifully groomed and well fed happy doggies (well you know what neighborhood we are in right?) are busy socializing behind the glass to distract you. So doggies… lookie! Ohh I want one…
Anyhow…
The service was good and the food was too. There was no lunch specials. But the overall price was fair for the setting, the location and the amount of food served. I had the honey glazed salmon over couscous risotto, while M. had crab cake over pesto risotto. Flavors were not delicate, but they were homey good without being heavy.
3.65 stars.

This is a charming place. Most of the work crowd has not discovered it, as it’s tucked around the corner from the main eating corridor. It’s tiny and inviting and the food is very fresh and delicious.
We always started with a garlicky pizza bread from the (I think) small plates menu and then got pastas or risottos. Everything was excellent. It really feels as if you’ve stepped out of the city and into something lovelier.

Service: excellent! Very nice and accommodating.
Food: spaghetti and meatballs were good. Sauce was great.
Atmosphere: can’t tell your a block away from highway. Music is authentic. A good vibe place to be.
Price: extremely reasonable.

great! cozy, friendly & delicious

Omg loved the restaurant. We closed the spot down. Great singer showed up. Authentic italian! Great choice

Saw all the stars (4.5 on Unilocal) and had to make an adjustment. The restaurant has all the charm of Mulberry Street circa 1985 – still very old school in attitude and ambience. Good pours of wines by the glass, nice bread with good olive oil on the table, but the food ordered??? Not so good. Had the special salad with some kind of fried cheese brick, balsamic reduction and baby arugula. Misguided at best. Ordered the risotto with asparagus and frutti di mare. I specifically asked the server if the risotto was prepared al dente, to which she replied yes. It was mush. The toothiness was in the asparagus, which consisted of the bottoms of the stalks. Not one tip to be found, and the pieces in the risotto had the consistency of bamboo.

Excellent meal! The specials are tasty and the portions are just the right size. BTW take Nichole’s sage advice about the menu!

Ya’ know the saying «Don’t judge a book by the cover». Well, I have passed this spot by and looked at the red nylon tableclothes covered with glass, the slightly mismatched chairs, the net curtains on the windows, all as signs this would be an average spot.
Well I will tell you now how wrong I was. It’s a rustic atmosphere to be sure, but the food is absolutely beautiful. I had lobster filled pasta, amazing creamed tomato sauces, cheese with balsamic glazes, seriously my head was in heaven. This feels like a genuine Italian family business, with warm (even cheeky) service, beautiful classic Italian dishes, all set with views over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Yes this area is slowly building up a great range of restaurants, some that are more polished for the modern mind-​set, some that are more adventurous in food interpretations, some that are simply more hip — but Buon’ Amici is a gem that I will be frequenting far more often.

good italian food; super slow service

Great little Italian place. Was quiet when we went, which made it comfortable. Great service. No complaints. Food was fresh and enjoyable. Warm bread was nice. Ravioli is great, and so is the Gnochi which is smaller than regular Gnochi making it more enjoyable in my opinion.

This is one of those restaurants that would make you wonder WHY some people think that there are no decent places to eat in FiDi. People would be going CRAZY over this place, if it were located in TriBeCa or SoHo.
Their food has been consisitently good, although their open ravioli, I felt, was a bit over the top…

It was a great family place. The food was good, and the service was very cordial.

Decorated for Christmas, Buon Amici had a warm and cozy feel and though we sat by the door. heat blasted from above. Cute little place I went to for lunch with a group, a number of tables were occupied with what looked like businesses lunches. That said, Buon’ Amici is a restaurant, not a pizza joint, which on this particular day, had an out of order ladies’ room — and after telling me, asked for my drink order… HELLO! ;)
While Buon’ Amici serves warm bread which is pretty good (and they’re very generous with it as they kept refiling the basket), there are a number of tasty appetizers to choose from. We had stuffed mushrooms, baked clams oreganata, spicy shrimp, eggplant parmigiano, and bruschetta. I’m a vegetarian so I didn’t sample many of the offerings, but I have to say the eggplant was really tasty — could’ve been a bit warmer though… the cheese on top wasn’t hot and gooey either.
The entrees are attractive to look at and large portions, The dishes at my table included the open ravioli (lobster, asparagus and wild mushrooms in a pink truffle sauce under two homemade pasta sheets), risotto, capellini al frutti di mare, and my gnocchi, The gnocchi looked like those tiny marshmallows and weren’t very good or gnocchi like. While it comes in a pesto sauce, I asked for a red sauce which was the garlicky marinara — -again, it would’ve been better if it were hot.
We finished off the meal with espressos, capuccinos, and coffee with complimentary biscotti… but we also ordered tiramisu.
What I wore to Buon’ Amici: Light green cordoroy blazer, chili red button down shirt, black shirt, black heeled loafers