Amber Asian Cuisine

11501 Busy Street
Richmond, VA 23236
804-897-9288
Sunday-Thursday 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Friday & Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Delivery available


A year or so ago, this very nice, slightly upscale Asian restaurant opened nearby and we decided to check it out.  Everything about this place was right - the decor, the service, the food.  And they had a great menu, offering a wide variety of Chinese, Japanese and Thai dishes.  That was then, this is now.

I had spent the day at work with a splitting headache, and just generally not feeling great, and I wanted something good for dinner.  We hadn't been to Amber in a while, so we decided to treat ourselves.  There were not many diners there ahead of us, but it was a Monday, so light crowds were to be expected.  We were seated immediately, but our waitress seemed more interested in the loudly ringing phone than in us.  Not that she answered it, she just kept looking in that direction.  I'm not sure that anyone ever answered any of the calls that came in that night.  It seemed to me that the phone rang a fair amount, and always more than 3 times per call.

We started by ordering the lettuce wraps and vegetable tempura.  "Oh, we don't have Japanese.  We have teriyaki."  Well then, why is it on your menu?!!  So then we told her we would need more time and to go ahead and put in the order for our appetizer.  She said okay, and asked us what we wanted to order.  It took a moment, but we finally convinced her to go away.  When she came back, I ordered Pad Thai, but not too spicy.  I was told that all Thai food was spicy; that the sauce was already made.  Okay, scratch that.  We need more time.

When she came back again (without our lettuce wraps), Lace and I each ordered soup and fried dumplings.  The kids ordered chicken with broccoli and pork lo mein.  Acutally the lo mein had been ordered way back when we ordered the wraps.  Now, I do understand that the soup comes first, etc., but when you order soup for your dinner, it should come as your entree.  Not here.  We got our soups, then our lettuce wraps.  And she only brought two plates for the wraps.  I asked for more, but never got them.  Unless you consider the plates she brought so everyone could share the dumplings that Lace and I had ordered as our entrees.  You know, to go with our soup . . .

The chicken lettuce wraps came already assembled, and there were only 3 of them.  The filling was mushy, except for the raw slivered almonds on top, and tasted slightly of curry.  Not something I would order again.

The dumpling filling was good, but the dough was quite thick, and the sauce was not right.  They were just like the ones you can get from any of those quick service walk-in Chinese places; I really expected better from this type of restaurant.  The soups were good - standard stuff, nothing unusual.  Macaela's entree (chicken with broccoli) arrived and it looked and smelled wonderful.  Very garlicky.  The sauce was rich and flavorful.  I can definitely recommend this one.  And sometime later, Jake's lo mein arrived - last - way after he ordered it.  I didn't have a chance to taste this dish, but Jake said it was very good (and it did look great) and he ate every bit.

Overall, I can't say I recommend this restaurant.  The service wasn't really bad, but it wasn't great either.  At one point I observed another employee standing behind the bar picking her nose.  That's not something you do where your diners can see you.  The menu still lists a wide variety of dishes, but which of those are still available?  The sushi bar was not open when we were there (granted, it was a Monday).  Oh, and they charged us for the pot of hot Chinese tea, which typically is included with your dinner.  It was not until I grabbed a take-out menu on the way out (for reference only) that I saw the words "new ownership".  I guess that explains everything.