Amber Cafe
| Address: | 600 W El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040, USA |
| Phone: | +1 650-968-1751 |
| Site: | amber-india.com |
| Rating: | 3.7 |
| Working: | 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 12–3PM 12–10PM 12–10PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 11
RA
Rangaprabhu Parthasarathy
The “Amber” name is synonymous with sophisticated Indian dining in the Bay Area. From their iconic Amber Restaurant in Santana Row (review coming soon) to their new Amber Dhara in Palo Alto (erstwhile Junoon), Amber has captured the fascination and wallets of Bay Area folks for a few years now. Surprisingly I had not visited their Amber Cafe in Mountain View until recently and here is my review of the same. We went there on a lazy Sunday afternoon when the place was more than half empty. We had heard a lot about this place and wanted to experience it for ourselves. The menu offered intriguing choices to say the least. We had a hard time choosing between the Indian street food, typical lunch fare and some exotic choices. We went with a combination of everything. We ordered a safe aloo paratha with raita for the little guy. For my wife we ordered a Chilli vegan tofu burrito. Famished, I ordered a veggie frankie and a chilli tofu organic quinoa dosa. We also ordered a lemon mango sherbet. The food took a while to arrive and that was a disappointing start to the lunch. To make Indian street food for a half empty restaurant should not have taken so long. Once the food arrived, the anticipation abated pretty quickly to be replaced with overall disappointment. Where do I start- the burrito was totally without any spice. If I were in Whole Foods, that would be understandable. But in an Indian place where spice is the key, this was disappointing. The burrito and my frankie arrived with a corn salad where it felt like the corn was from a pack of frozen vegetables microwaved before serving. My frankie was listless and the vegetables inside didnt feel like they were cooked very well. The quinoa dosa was the kicker. When I order dosa at a restaurant as I have been all my life, I expect that the filling is inside. Here, the chilli tofu part came in a separate cup and the quinoa dosa came just by itself. The dosa was fine but I was expecting more. The lemon mango sherbet and aloo parathas were the saving grace of the whole affair. Overall, it was a big disappointment for us. We had great expectations of fancy Indian food in an urban contemporary setting. It might have been just a bad day at the office for the chef because I hear good things about the place from a lot of friends. Or maybe we picked the wrong dishes. Whatever be the reason, it came up short.
TO
Tom Mathews
I had gone for lunch during a weekday with a few office colleagues. Nothing fancy about this place actually. We had ordered one veg and one chicken thali and Bombay Lamb Frankie. The frankie wrap was a really good according to me. Quite a simple preparation with really tender lamb and spicy Indian flavours. My colleagues had the thali and as far as they suggested, it was quite decent; nothing special though. We had ordered madras coffee as well. Ordering a madras coffee from a north Indian restaurant is a big gamble which generally always ends up being a failure. A private parking lot is one of the things that should help you decide on this place apart from the good food they serve. This quick lunch place and so dont expect much of an ambience here, not saying its bad. As soon as you get in you look at te menu in front of you and decide on your meal and pay (they do accept credit cards) and then go find an empty seat for yourself. They would bring the food in the order of being made to the table with the respective order number. The prices here on the dishes, I felt, are a bit too much. Our order was worth $52 without any tip, which to be honest didnt feel like value for money.
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Susan Shepard
I ordered take out--a masala dosa and a quinoa dosa with tofu. The order was ready and waiting when I arrived. Service was friendly and parking was easy. It was still warm when my husband got home 20 minutes later. It was tasty and filling--I really like the sweet and hot sauce on the tofu. It came with a tomato-y side that wasnt too spicy. That was great since we were sharing our dinner with our 18 month old. The quinoa dosa was a bit tangier than regular dosa but still good. It didnt seem very greasy. I love that its a bit bougy and so it notes which dishes are gluten free, vegetarian, or organic. Basically, its take out thats reasonably healthy and safe for me to eat. Yay! Well be back.
SH
Shyam Bansal
Food was too spicy for me, too much chili for me. Place is clean though, and neat and tidy. But food like vegetarian thali was very expensive here $12.95 + tax, there are much cheaper thali in sunnyvale for say $7 at kwality sweets and food, or $7.50 at chaat house sunnyvale. similarly, chole samosa was $6.50 + tax, whereas you get much better chole samosa at india cash and carry sunnyvale for $3 + tax. so I am not going to this place again.
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A Private User
I read the reviews and went there to try out the best foods but realized it is not the Amber I was expecting to be in. The food was horrible, over-priced and lil in quantity. I took in my friends visiting me from places to boast about bay area and ended up embarrassing myself. The naan was crisp, chicken tikka not properly cooked and the veggie food was no dreadful. The ambience is of a fast food joint..well it is a fast food joint.
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Suzanne Bloomer
Tasty Indian food at reasonable prices. I usually do take out as the restaurant is very basic - no frills. Quality is good, portions are generous. I always order "butter chicken" which is not officially on the menu- but is an excellent version of that dish. Add rice and garlic naan- YUM!! Dont want to go out- DoorDash covers Amber and you can get it delivered as well.
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Shourjya Dasgupta
Food is OK. I have had better in other nearby Indian restaurants having similar or lesser price. The only reason I went there is that it was open at 4.30pm in comparison to other Indian restaurants which gets closed after lunch hours. Floor wasnt cleaned at all. It was super slippery when I stepped in.
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Zain Dada
The service and atmosphere could be better. When I was at the counter the man at the register hardly seemed to care to take my order. The food was decent, but you can get decent Indian food from so many other places as well. When my friends and I left, they didnt even say "goodbye" or "thanks for coming!"
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A Private User
This place is the pinnacle delicious Indian lunch with variety, freshness and excellent service. I was very surprised to see only 3 star rating as we favor this restaurant over others including their sister location in Santana Row. Even though we live near S.R. we would rather drive to the cafe.
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Ashish Singh
Every time I eat here I have a feeling that people working at this place are not happy about everything around them. For some reason I find this very un-welcoming. Last time I ate here with my friend we ordered 3 dishes out of which two were not good at all. Hope they improve in future.
MA
Marie Dorothy Anne Liamzon
Although they got our orders wrong at first, they were able to give us the right food eventually. The appetizer came out way too late. It came as we were halfway through our entrees, which defeated the purpose. The food was good though, so I give them 4 stars.
