Best Modern European Restaurants in Columbia Heights / Brightwood

Wonderful evening. Many small plates, each one better than the last. Finished with the Baklava and a scoop of vanilla ice cream...fantastic. highly recommend! My wife is Bulgarian and they had Bulgarian wine! When you go look for Nemanja. A great guy who was great at his job and, very friendly, made great recommendations. Thank you Nemanja!

The experience was amazing for a date night. Truly enjoyed the service, food and atmosphere. Hidden gem

I always enjoy my time at Ambar. I’ve come several time with my job at Project Create and recently took my husband. He really enjoyed the food and variety.

I was excited to come here especially given I had just been to Spain, but was sadly disappointed. Service was attentive, although the sommelier seemed a little stuffy. Drinks by the glass were limited (only those offered for the wine pairing) and pricey for either a 2 or 5oz pour; mostly bottles (all high $$$). Surprisingly there were no cocktail offerings, which was also disappointing. Some dishes were delicious but some hit the mark. The first course/Act 1, which was a platter of small bites, was a bad start. The rose water apple had good texture but was overpowered by rose water…it felt like I was eating a grandmother’s old perfume bottle. I suppose if you like rose water you might like it but it was a terrible first bite (instructed to start with apple rose, followed by another; and the rest in the order of our choice…didn’t finish a single one). It definitely made us worried about the rest. Thankfully the octopus dish was much better-but I’m a sucker for Uni and who doesn’t like beurre blanc sauce?!? The star of the show was the paella…perfection! Could have eaten that all day! The pork and waygu beef dish was also well executed but not a wow. The dessert assortment was eh…the main one was some sort of chocolate donut-didn’t finish that one; however the little bites in the box-gelee, pistachio, and some other tiny bites were pretty good. Overall I was disappointed for a Michelin star…not worth the price-point, and sadly would not return.