Ambar - Arlington

Not quite as good as it used to be, but still a nice meal. Restaurant is very loud.

Good brunch but clearly intended for those that want to imbibe in the limitless drinks offered for $34.

I’m always pleased with Ambar, both this location and the one in Capitol Hill. The food is always delicious and fresh. The cuisine consists of small homestyle plates, that are very flavorful and very unique!

Yuck. We ordered about 10 things and only the Balkan salad was good. Everything else was soggy or bland (rice pilaf, stuffed pepper, asparagus, eggplant dip). Almond crusted chocked was super fried with something like a tartar sauce on top. Chewy beef kabob and overcooked chicken kabob. We basically had no service. Food came out at weird intervals and we got these last 2 things about 30 minutes after we ordered and we had to get going. Do NOT get the Balkan experience. They tell you the a la cart dishes are very small like the ones you get for the Balkan experience but not true. The couple next to us did a la cart and their food looked bigger and service was better since you didn’t have random things come out whenever.

Perhaps we are one of only a few reviewers who can say they've eaten at the Ambar Belgrade AND the Ambar Arlington. I must say, we much preferred the Ambar Arlington. The food was outstanding, especially the mushroom pilav and the quinoa salad. Service was prompt and polite, although there were people constantly removing empty plates from the table, which sometimes interfered with our conversations. Not a huge issue; I understand they needed the plates.

The reason we really preferred this Ambar to the Belgrade Ambar was because if you purchase the all-you-can eat option, you may choose whichever plates you want, as many times as you want. In Belgrade, the restaurant chooses for you. We didn't like that, because we didn't know if we'd like the plates chosen.

Well done, Arlington! We will be back!

Made a reservation to celebrate my girlfriends birthday 2 months ago and got the worst table in the restaurant(high top closest to the front door). They did bring out complimentary champagne. Service was extremely slow, over the two hours we were there we had three different servers although they were all friendly. We did the small plates experience and not once did the servers bring us new plates. Food was not great but not bad, the value is good for 35 dollars but the overall experience is very lacking.

We all got the Unlimited Brunch. The menu selection was good and the food tasted great!

Great brunch place. Delicious food and when you get the price fixe menu you get unlimited small plates so you can try a lot of the dishes. $.25 adult beverages are also a fun value add. Staff is courteous and attentive.

Flavorful food, friendly staff who timed the orders perfectly and were not overbearing while approaching the table. Order the cinnamon puffs with Nutella for dessert, you won’t be disappointed.

Great service, great food, great price. We had a good time ate until we couldn’t and had 25 cent drink!

Best staff!

Amazing, as always. The food, service, everything. It is exactly why I keep coming back. It’s always busy with good reason. The portions are just right to share and still be able to try everything you really want on the menu, then come back again. I also love the recommendations we received. Everything was fantastic.

Loved it! It was truly a great Balkan experience. As someone who is from Bulgaria I appreciated the ambiance they created.

Patrick was absolutely amazing and the food and drinks were excellent!

Large birthday group. Server was very nice and knowledgeable. Food was good to very good. I’ve been wanting to try this place out for the last couple of years. My expectations were for the food to be 9 out of 10 and service at least an 8 out of 10. My actual experience was about 7 for the food and service. Nothing was terrible but nothing was exceptional either. The cocktails were a let down. They were presented nicely but were very weak and lacking depth of the flavors expected. Our server did a very good job of catering to our large group. Perhaps a better experience for smaller groups. I may come again to try brunch which looks good but not sure I’d come back for dinner with so many other excellent options in the area.

Tasting the variety of small plates made for a delicious, and also fun dining experience. We would bring visitors back here for the experience as well as the quality food.

Delicious food, so many varieties, the plates kept on coming!

Was a great food, you can test all the restaurant menu in one order which will give you mini plate of everything in a range of $19.99.

Great menu with interesting choices!

Good food, great service and atmosphere!

Definitely recommend for lunch and will be returning to try dinner!

Good dining experience. If you get the $35 all you can eat special, you will leave full. Only complaint is that while most people are doing the special you can wait a while before you order your next plate(s).

Lunch special was good and tasty. Some dishes were better than others but they kept coming

Excellent as always! Worth the 4hrs drive :)

Great all you can eat for $35

The veal soup, lamb lasagna and muscles are a must

The food was unique and quite tasty. The meats - particularly the lamb and pork were very tender and flavorful.

Our waitress was very rude. Didn’t care about refilling water or pouring wine. Very rude while taking orders.
The restaurant was very noisy and restroom was dirty.
The food was very average.

The food at Ambar was excellent, except the slow roasted lamb which was extremely salty. Our service, however, was quite bad. Our waiter was kind, but no one came over to us for nearly 10 minutes after we were seated, and we weren’t brought water until several minutes after that. As we were finishing up eating, we were left alone at our table for 40 minutes with dirty plates on our table and not a single check in, despite our waiter walking by us multiple times and us trying to grab his attention. When he finally came by again, he dropped the check and never asked if we wanted to see a dessert menu - at that point we wouldn’t have wanted to with the wait, but it was still frustrating as we were there for a birthday dinner. It felt like we must have been seated between sections because we saw other tables getting plenty of attention. Not sure why this happened but it was quite frustrating!

Always a really fun Balkan experience! just sat about 30 minutes past our reservation time which is a little frustrating when on the babysitter clock :)

Love it! My friends were visiting and I have decided to take them to Ambar. They really enjoyed the food! Service was great as well.

This is a VERY loud restaurant. We do not recommend for a date night. The food is on par and amazing. Though, our server was rude, non attentive and acted as though we were bothering him when we made any requests.
The unique food and value were exceptional and we will be back for it. But just expect terrible service.

Best restaurant experience to celebrate something special - like my anniversary!

Always love going to Ambar--always a good, tasty experience!

Saturday birthday brunch. Excellent food and the unlimited small plates for $34 each was a great value. Mezze platter, meat pie, strawberry waffle, salmon Benedict, applewood bacon omelette, Balkan burger slider, veggie flatbread. All outstanding. Service was great. Manager Violeta paid a visit to the table and was delightful.

Outside is always the best! Inside is a bit frenetic/noisy.

Celebrating my moms 85th bday with my son who lives in DC. Loved sharing everything Brussels Sprouts were awesome and breads and spreads and crusted chicken and salmon excellent also. Can’t remember everything we had but we had a wonderful evening and enjoyed sitting outside. A little cramped outside, however so I gave a lower score for ambiance for this reason. Our reservation was ready and they didn’t keep us waiting.

It’s hard not to enjoy the food. A massive collection of small plate options ranging across the entire spectrum will permit anyone to find and enjoy a meal there. Their cocktail and wine menu is excellent as well. The main detractor is the noise level, at one point we had to shout at each other just to say anything and gave up after a while. It’s really a terrible thing and I avoid taking people there who I want to talk to.

Great food and service. The music was a bit loud so we sat outside. We were not allowed to sit on the side street and the main street was pretty noisy. Great meal otherwise.

Had a great anniversary celebration. Great service and great food. Sat outside.... highly recommend this restaurant!

Great experience. Got the unlimited tapas. Food kept coming. Marius was excellent waiter. Great variety. Lamb great, salads, chicken, boar, spreads.

Staff were really friendly and helpful. Brunch plates were substantial size and tasty and priced reasonably.