Amber

You know how whenever you go to nymag.com or menupages.com and you read reviews about sushi restaurants, people always say how it’s the “best sushi ever!” Well, obviously it’s not, because if everything was the best, well then… you get the point.

Amber was one of them. On the first page, there were three reviews that slapped the “best” word onto the review title. And since I live literally about 3 blocks away, I thought why, not? But to further sweeten the deal, www.restaurant.com has coupons for Amber and I was able to snatch a $25 gift certificate for $3. A tip to the frugal- if you’re ever buying anything online (and I do mean anything) and you see that the checkout page has a “enter promotion/coupon/discount code” box, ALWAYS GOOGLE! So let’s say you’re shopping at restaurant.com. Google “restaurant.com promotion coupon” and 9 times out of 10, you’ll be able to find something that’ll give you a discount. There are times when I’ve spent 10 minutes scouring for codes and have found 10-25% off coupons.

But, I diverge. Back to Amber- I took my Little, Suzie, on our second food expedition to Amber and both of us were really up for sushi. We got there around 7pm on a Wednesday and the place was pretty much still empty. There are two floors and most of the diners are on the second floor, which we were led to. There’s this huge Buddha that overlooks everyone dining.

To start off the night, we ordered the Crunchy, Crunchy, Crunchy- crispy wasabi seaweed topped with crunchy spicy tuna & crunchy spicy salmon. I felt the crunch but not the spiciness. But even with the “crunch” the fish was in a sense mushy. This is NOT an appetizer that I would recommend, even though it looks delicious and well presented.

But the night got better after the sushi came out. We ordered a total of four rolls, but honestly, I can’t even remember the first three (like salmon, tuna, ?!) Those three weren’t anything special and I feel as if most of the other rolls aren’t that great either. But, if you look at the long line of what looks like strawberry topped sushi decked with a kernal of corn, you’ll find the Gramercy Park roll, or lobster salad avocado roll topped with fresh strawberry slices & mango sauce. That roll, my friend, was absolutely unique. I can’t believe how well the strawberry played into the flavors!

I think dessert was my favorite. It came in this chocolate shell and once you cracked it open, there were three layers of ice cream- red bean, green tea, and vanilla. It was like a Klondike Bar, but just Asian!

I think that I would have been really disappointed without that coupon. We ended up spending around $64 for two (after the discount), but we had SO MUCH SUSHI! If you don’t want to buy the certificate at restaurant.com, you can also check out diningfever.com, which gives a  15% discount for Amber.

MENU
381 3rd Ave
New York 10016
(Btwn 27th & 28th St)

You should also check out:

• Crif Dogs (take 2)- best hot dogs ever
• Saturday brunch at Locanda Verde
• Bobo in the West Village
• Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill: Brunch
• Five Napkin Burger