Amory's Seafood Restaurant

For our second "A" restaurant, we stopped into Amory's Seafood Restaurant. I love seafood but I am always disappointed by the chain seafood restaurant by the mall. We went to the Chesapeake Square location after reading about this local gem. We were very pleasantly surprised. The food was excellent!

I ordered the fried bit of everything platter (that is not what it is actually called sadly.) The tilapia was okay. The crab cake was very good. But the shrimp and scallops were amazing. The shrimp had a very mild taste. Scallops are often rubbery or slimy but these were done exactly right. The sides were also delicious. For the finish I had a tiny red velvet cupcake which was the perfect size.

I had no problem with the atmosphere but if you are coming here looking for white cloth table clothes and romantic candle light you will be disappointed. If you are looking for great food and good service in a no-frills atmosphere, this is your place.

Overall we give Amory's 4.5 out of 5 stars.

2449 Taylor Road
Chesapeake, VA 23321
Phone: (757) 488-9488

Amici's Pizza, Suffolk

For our first "A" we decided on Amici's Pizza in Suffolk. Jimmy is a big fan of Italian and it has scored lots of good reviews online, so it seemed a good place to start. The restaurant has a really nice atmosphere. You can see the woodfire pizza oven when you walk in, which I liked. It has a cute little patio, but since it was January we didn't go that route. We got there around 6 and had no trouble getting in, but by the time we left it was hopping.

They have a large selection of beers, as well as wine and martinis. We started with the meatball appetizer off of recommendations I read online. They were delicious! It's something neither one of us would have ordered, but we were glad we did.

Jimmy ordered the lasagna which was large and yummy. There was lots and lots of cheese which is always a plus. Whoever is a friend of cheese is a friend of mine. I ordered the magic mushroom pizza. There were lots of real mushrooms and cheese and the crust was delicious. However it had a balsamic vinegar sauce drizzled over it which I was not a fan of. The waitress said people either love it or hate it, usually based on that sauce. If you're not sure if you're a fan, you might ask for it on the side.

Overall, we would give Amici's 4 out of 5 stars.

157 E Washington St
Suffolk, VA 23434
(757) 923-5300

$$ ($10-15 average entree)

Have you been there? Let us know what you think.

And so it begins...

"What about eating dinner at every restaurant in New York?"

I checked out the book, "The Know-It All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World" by A.J. Jacobs because the title captured the attention of the part of me that loves to be on a quest. I've never been happy just going about my everyday life. I like to have a goal, a dream, the stranger and more impractical, the more it tends to appeal to me. I knew I would never read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. But I like the idea of someone who would. So when his wife suggested the eating out scheme, I knew that I had found my new quest.

My patient boyfriend (recently turned fiance, poor thing) agreed with the scheme, with a few reservations. Perhaps eating at EVERY restaurant wasn't the best idea. Plus I tend to have a short attention span. There may be some that just don't appeal to us, so I would end up putting it off indefinitely. So after a day of thinking on it, I came up with a compromise.

At least 10 restaurants in each letter whenever possible (I'm talking about you "Q.") Anywhere in Hampton Roads, but it doesn't take much to talk me into a bonus road trip selection. If it starts with a number or a common, essentially meaningless first word (El, La, The, A, etc) that word doesn't count, i.e. El Azteca would be counted as an "A."

So that's it! Please let me know if you have any recommendations. Make sure you let me know what is especially yummy. Feel free to comment on any review if you've been there. And if you would like to join our party, let me know.

Enjoy!