Amore Restaurant
Welcome to Amore Restaurant for Portuguese and Italian Cuisine and great entertainment at their new location, 180 N. Lime Avenue, Sarasota, FL.
Owners Tito & Liana Vitorino purchased Amore Restaurant from Howard Rooks in 2019. Prior to purchasing it, they opened Amore in Longboat Key in November 2014 and were the managers of Amore before relocating the restaurant to Burns Court.
Tito Vitorino started his restaurant adventure at the age of 16 in the South of Portugal (Algarve, Vale do Lobo, Hotel Dona Filipa) and has been a Sarasota resident since 1991. Prior to Amore, he was a previous manager for 14 years of the famous The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Restaurants.
His vast knowledge of the restaurant business was built from hard work, but mostly the passion for the business itself. Tito Vitorino says, “Make sure you love the restaurant business. This business is hard work, and you must love it to be successful. Also, you must have passion and vision for the concept you create with your restaurant. Anyone can copy another restaurant concept. It happens all the time, but your passion and culture are what set you apart from your customers and will make you successful.”
Liana Vitorino (Tito’s High School Sweetheart) arrived in Sarasota in 2003 and was introduced to the restaurant business in 2005 at Bella Roma Italian Restaurant (now: Flavio’s Brick-Oven & Pizza in Siesta Key Village). She learned the restaurant business through Tito’s knowledge and dedication. It is Liana’s warmth, and her vivacious personality that greets customers to the restaurant. She is gifted with making her patrons feel at home and treats them as good friends.
This dynamic couple’s sole mission is to make Amore Restaurant one of the most unique and pleasant restaurants in Sarasota.
The owners Tito and Liana Vitorino are looking forward to welcoming old as well as new customers to Amore Restaurant!
Customer Reviews:
“This is one of the best restaurants in Sarasota, fl. The food, staff are outstanding.” – Susan Pound
“Everything about Amore is absolutely excellent. The service is impeccable; no detail was missed by our server. As for the food it was out of this world. This was our first time dining there, you can trust we will be back again and again.” – Tom D.
“It’s almost like being in Italy. I rarely call a place a “Hidden gem”, but this one was a total surprise. It’s a Portuguese Italian restaurant and the food and decor is very authentic. Nice selection of wines and excellent dishes. I never would have thought of going there due to their location, but what a pleasant surprise! Live music too! I felt underdressed without a dress shirt. A little on the high end $$$, but they definitely delivered!” – Dima Gar
“We came for the Portuguese menu. And we were not disappointed! Very tasty and well spiced chorizo and shrimp appetizers. Very nice and reasonable wine selections.” – Steve Block
“Mom loves this place so we had her 75th birthday dinner here. The food, service and atmosphere were all fabulous. Told them ahead of time and they also did some special decorations for us. BIG birthday balloon and some tabletop party favors!! We had a party of 7 and sat at the large round table in the back corner which was perfect for us and could still hear the music entertainer up front, but not too much. 😀 Had several bottles of the Bin 302 wine and it was a solid choice for a fair price. Started with apps, seafood soup of the day, mussels tarantina and beef woodpecker 🤷♂️. The mussels were great, and the beef woodpecker was the favorite. Note, I am not a big bread eater, but the bread was Fabulous! Dinners were a variety with only one duplicate, the octopus lagareiro, and it is a spectacular dish! We also had the chicken livornese, the lobster only pasta, beef short ribs and a seafood rice. While hard to pick a winner, I lean towards the seafood rice, with the lobster pasta, octopus bacalhau and grouper oreganato all close second right behind it. Of course, we love to support local so that’s an added bonus for dining with this small local place run by a husband and wife very friendly duo! – FL Coast
Address:
180 N. Lime Ave,
Sarasota FL 34237
941-383-1111
Website:
Amore Restaurant LBK Facebook Page
Amore Restaurant Instagram