Ambra Restaurant 705 South 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147

"An amazing experience. My sister booked the private room with the wine pairing for our party. The staff was amazing. Chefs Chris and Ryan do an amazing job and our bartender, Aden, was also fantastic. Usually these fancy tasting menus can be pretentious and not that good but the food was delicious and the staff was warm, welcoming, passionate about what they do and everything but pretentious. A wonderful evening, would love to go back."

"We had a perfect evening at Ambra. We had the opportunity to sit at the kitchen counter to watch the food prep. Our mouths were watering as soon as we walked in! The food was exceptional. Each course had just a terrific balance of flavors. And the wine paring was ideal. Marina and Chris were the perfect hosts and the service from everyone was just great. I promise that you will leave with a highly satisfied palate and a head full of amazing memories."

"We decided to have a small wedding dinner at Ambra with immediate family in their private dining room. Not only was the food amazing, but we left FULL after 7 courses and a couple extra amuses. Our families loved everything, all food was well thought-out and in-season, and communication between us and the restaurant prior was perfect. They accommodated a variety of dietary restrictions, had mock tails for those not drinking, and even made us a small wedding cake. We had never been to Ambra before this dinner but will definitely be back for a chef’s table and/or to their sister restaurant"

"Ambra remains a shiny beacon of great, careful, & thoughtful food in this city. I would say even more so now than when we visited pre-pandemic. Each dish comes with loads of backstory if you want it, and an insane level of technical know-how. The wine pairings are fantastic, and we were lucky to have an extra glass or two of some fairly unique bottles. Sitting in the kitchen watching food preparation for both Southwark and Ambra was exhilarating and certainly worth doing for date nights, or just spending quality time with a friend. Just don’t take any photos of the actual kitchen (it’s a rule!). The dishes were well rounded and fulfilling - however I can’t help but feel the plating and / or combinations could be even more inspired. They’re clearly striving to do some of the best culinary work in this city, and are succeeding, but some dishes could use a tad more oomph. The pasta could have used a bit more acid (more lemon perhaps), and the sauce for the brined fish (I don’t recall if it was mackerel) was a tad too light. The radicchio was less bitter than usual but still a chore to eat. We could have used regular bread for the fish course to mop up the oil / butter - but what I really wanted was for all of it to be grassier. The sauce had very little taste considering it’s vibrancy. We recently had a dessert dish at Story in London that was almond and dill prepared in various ways. The dill oil looked similar, but was miles more flavorful. I wonder if the oil needs to be worked on - because the fish was outstanding. It might be that the kitchen has mixed focused on Ambra since they’re having to do Southwark plating as well…but I expected a few more surprises. Breaking the structure of a tasting menu since we were literally in the kitchen would’ve been nice. A surprise taste of some extra thing that they whipped up, even if that thing was for Southwark. I’ll tell you one thing, we left quite confident we need to come back and try Southwark after seeing the chefs make those lower priced dishes. Very exact and professional work from this kitchen. A solid choice for a very consistently good dining experience…though not quite as ground breaking as I know they have the skill and passion to be. I just noticed they totally listened to (or at least intuited) the concerns from my previous review. Ambra now leaves you with a bag of something to take home. For us it was granola, the most delightful house-smoked almonds, two scones, and lemon curd. A VERY lovely reminder of the wonderful night we shared in the kitchen. Thank you for being in Philly and striving for excellence. —- Pre-pandemic review (5 stars): Among the best Philadelphia restaurants - though the tasting could benefit from greater pacing and an end-of-meal treat (WILL BYOB did Madeleine's, Eleven Madison Park does granola, Vespertine does a custom perfume, etc.). Other than these two comments, Ambra is a spectacular experience worth revisiting at least twice. Run to Ambra."