Amato on Yonge St. is a horrible little hole in the wall restaurant doesn't deserve your money or your patronage! My gripe isn't with the pizza, which was actually quite okay, but the incredible rudeness of the staff. Last weekend, after a movie, we went in using a Groupon for an 18" "classic" pizza. First off, nobody greeted us, in fact, we were ignored until we called them over (they were very busy chatting with each other).
It wasn't clear as to what "classic" meant or what toppings this Groupon entitled us to, so we asked what our options were. We got a snarky response of "anything up here", which I took to mean the top row, but we weren't given any further clarification. We wanted a basic pepperoni, mushroom and onion pizza, but we didn't see one display (and I couldn't discern what some of the toppings were) and some of them weren't labeled, so we tried to get more information. Another guy came over and made some sense so we put in our order--the one without the label and the mystery toppings (additional ingredient was bacon). We sat down to wait. According to my husband (who faced the cash desk and the pizza ovens), he felt that he was getting dirty stares and glares from these 2 guys, for whatever reason. That alone, made him want to get out of there (in addition to the uncomfortable seating and sports TV blaring loudly).
When the pizza was finally ready, we were summoned to the cash desk. I was given a hot pizza tray to take to our table (all of 10-15 feet away). You would think they would put it in a pizza box if they aren't going to bother to bring it to our table. I was incredulous--it was hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold and I wasn't even sure I should take it. And hoped I wouldn't suddenly drop it if it really was too hot. Of course our order came with no plates, napkins or cutlery--we had to ask for those too. These guys shouldn't work in the hospitality industry.
According to other reviews I looked at, after the fact, they don't like people who order with a Groupon! They treat you like a second class customer (should have read these first before buying the Groupon) and dismiss the fact that you could conceivably like their pizza (or other food offerings) enough to come back again and again. Why do they bother offering these deals if they aren't interested in getting new (and repeat) customers?
Also, the Groupon voucher asks Groupon users to be generous with tipping (which we usually are), but these creeps didn't deserve one red cent--you get a tip for good service. Just before we left, the first guy came over and asked how the pizza was (no doubt thinking he might still get a tip--are you kidding me!) Needless to say, we couldn't get out of there fast enough and will never, ever, ever set foot in Amato again. I let Groupon know, but they haven't replied back. Maybe they don't care, even though I mentioned that this negative experience would probably factor into my not wanting to purchase Groupons in the future.
Amato has also had issues withholding staff pay, etc. so that's just another reason to avoid this place if you care about how a company treats its' staff and customers.
Do yourself a big favour, buy your pizza elsewhere--there are plenty of pizza places with great pizza that'll treat you like a human being. These guys don't deserve to be in business!!!