Amber Village

Asian Fusion has always been a hard sell for me, not because I don’t believe it can executed well, but because so few establishments have done it consistently. The circle is probably filled with more subpar ones than truly excellent choices. Amber Village is definitely among the former.
On a food front, there is a lot to choose from. There are interesting options like tangerine chicken or pad thai spaghetti, both of which are as unappealing as they sound. The pork buns and pan fried pork dumplings were also disappointing, more so in taste than presentation for sure. But it may be unfair to base any opinion on these considering a large portion of the menu is dedicated to sushi. Sadly, these have been by far the biggest let down.
For the most part, the sushi is overpriced and mediocre. From the simple nigiri yellow tail and king salmon to the countless special rolls, the sushi seems hastily put together which affects the presentation. AV tries very hard on the presentation front, but looks don’t supercede taste. This is especially true when one decides to shoot for the coveted toro, which hasn’t gotten high marks thus far.
More lackluster than the food was the service. Not a lot of friendly faces sans the bartenders, most of whom were a bit stone cold during my last meal. When the food isn’t much to begin with, service becomes a crucial part of the experience. It’s just too bad they don’t deliver on this account either.
But like many Asian Fusion spots, the ambiance is intimate and trendy enough to warrant decent people watching. Throw in any of their mixed cocktail drinks and now you’ve got a party. Skip the food, stay for the drinks.

I ordered a 2 roll combo. The yellowtail was not whole pieces of fish and instead was the left over pieces, it did not taste that fresh and I hope I don’t get food poisoning. The other is the spicy tuna which was ok.
The food is relatively cheap however, sushi is maybe not something you want to eat that is cheap.
We also tried to do the Unilocal checkin deal, this is deceptive since they have an entire menu with higher prices that corresponds to this deal.

Woah. Save yourself and go somewhere else for happy hour. The minute you walk in the door you are slapped in the face by the smell of fish. I’m sorry are we at the wharf and the fish just got cleaned off the boat? This is why they may or may not have a grade pending rating … fish caaaaaannot be fresh here.
I will say though, they pour a nice Jameson. It’s a big one.
… thats what she said.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. — Hamlet
Do you know what fresh fish smells like? Yup, nothing.
Do you know what Amber smelled like? Not fresh fish.
$ 3 Kirin beer killed the smell for me though. Thank god for happy hour.

This place has been different names I like it because it is close to the path. Perfect for meeting people at the 9^th street path
The décor is beautiful there is a Buddha statue right in the center kind of like Sea in Brooklyn
It’s fusion nothing special but good happy hour mon thru sat
Bartender friendly and attentive.
This place main problem is that NO one knows its here. people walk past it and its
very easy to do so.
but its a good place to take a date .i do recall coming here for valentines day and
arguing with my date. the buddah statute calmed me down.

Nothing too spectacular about this place. Ordered various sushi platters and drinks and honestly, I’m not too crazy about it. The décor of the place is great, location is phenomenal (the clash of West Village and Chelsea area) but the food, ehh… I had better!
The shrimp shumai was delicious.
This is probably the shortest review I’ve done… but honestly the fact that this place didn’t have anything memorable, I wouldn’t make a second trip.

I did a delivery order from here for the lunch pad thai platter. It came on time.
The pad thai was fine. It came with soup and salad. They were also fine. The food was reasonably priced — $ 9 for the lunch platter.
It shall go along with the ranks of the countless other faceless asian fusion restaurants in the city.

I really enjoyed myself– the spicy scallop hand roll was amazing, the green curry tofu– Really Good!!! Even had savingon blanc which I don’t really have because I’m not a white wine fan but liked it nevertheless. There was basketball showcased in the two of their TVs at the bar so that is good entertainment.
So I had great food– service was ok at the bAr but expected. I would come again. :)

My girlfriend took me out to dinner a few weeks ago at Amber. She had purchased a groupon which took 50% off our entire meal. I always knew she was smart =)
We were seated shortly upon arrival on their quieter second floor level; this was good because the main level was packed and loud. We were instructed that with our groupon, the deal was that we could each order an appetizer, a regular sushi roll, and a special roll.
For our appetizers we ordered the Spiced Filet Mignon Mini Burgers and the Tuna Lover Tasting. The mini burger did not come out quite how I was expecting them to look. They were wrapped in the type of buns you would find in the Peking duck sandwiches. They were delicious! The sauce in them was perfect. The Tuna Lover came with four different types of tuna sushi pieces. I’m not sure what each type was called but I remember I liked 2 of them and my girlfriend actually liked the other 2.
Our orders for regular and special rolls all came plated together. We ordered a Crunchy Spicy Salmon (our «safe» choice), a King Crab Avocado, a Golden Dragon and a Triple Toro. The spicy salmon roll was just as expected, nothing different about this type of roll anywhere you go. The king crab avocado roll was interesting. I liked it because I like the stringy texture of the meat in crab legs. My girlfriend, not so much. The golden dragon was my girlfriend’s special roll choice. It wasn’t really anything special to me as it’s just salmon avocado roll with slices of mango on the outside. I have slight allergies to mangos so you can see why I didn’t really appreciate this roll. My special roll choice, the Triple Toro, was good! An avocado cucumber roll topped with tuna, salmon and yellowtail! That’s like three superfish in one!
I took a look at the prices of everything on the menu and came to the conclusion that eating at Amber normally (without a groupon deal) would cost about 3 times the price I’m used to paying for sushi in Brooklyn. Although the food was good, I’d probably not come back again. The décor was really nice though. In the back of the main level sits the iconic giant Buddha statue seem in all the Amber restaurants.

I’m borderline 4-​star on this. I came here for the first time on a Groupon (excellent deal!) and really liked the food overall.
The regular rolls are, as you can imagine, nothing to write home about. The special rolls were very enjoyable (pretty good variety in the selection). The manager was super nice and friendly– came over to our table to ask how everything was. The servers were also pleasant to deal with. Would definitely come back here even without the discount. Glad I tried this place out!

Hmmm… really wanted to like this restaurant more, but…
For starters, really liked the atmosphere… great décor, albeit I was facing the wall and my partner, who was facing the bar, was distracted by the multiple TVs playing (food network and football during our New Year’s Eve meal).
The service? Mostly: YIKES. At least during our visit. The maître d’ who seated us and took our drink order was nice/​personable, but our drinks never arrived. The waitress came 10 minutes or so after we closed our menus and we had to flag down the maître d’ to get and pay the check post-​meal. Other than that, water was always on the table and, once our orders were placed, the food arrived pretty quickly and sequentially.
We really enjoyed the spicy lettuce wraps, but the classic and special rolls were just okay. The salmon avocado rolls were good, but the crunch spicy tuna rolls weren’t really crunchy or spicy, the golden buddha roll wasn’t spicy, and the triple toro roll wasn’t spicy. Don’t get me wrong, everything was good, just not great, given that the menu descriptions (e.g. re: spicy, crunchy, etc.) didn’t really match the food we received.
The price? Yeah, we had a Groupon deal too, so the price was good to go (and factored into the 3-​star rating). We’d probably have been more disappointed had we paid full price.
BOTTOM LINE: When paying full price there are definitely better Asian/​Japanese restaurant options (based on our first experience). We may give it another try armed with another deal, but otherwise will likely go elsewhere.

I really dug this restaurant. I went there on a Groupon deal. I actually ended up buying two deals. I went for the first time on a Saturday & ended up right back there on a Monday.
The sushi martini is phenomonal! I will be going back here again. I’m deducting a point for the loud noise. It’s sort of like sports bar meets asian fusion.

The ambiance is similar to Tao in Midtown East — there’s a big Buddha in the back, with colored lights flashing onto it. Dance slash trance music plays in the background, just like how the monks did it in the land of Asian Fusion.
My friend ordered the salmon/​salad martini, which came in a martini glass. Everything’s better when it comes in a martini glass. I got the black pepper salmon appetizer, highly recommended. What’s cool is that they have both kitchen apps and actual sushi appetizers.
The rolls were somewhat disappointing. They’re not very creative; most involve tempura and taste the same. The fish layered on top of specials rolls is thin, and the fish inside is all ground up. But it is filling.
They auto-​added 20% tip with only 2 people — probably to avoid people under-​tipping with the Groupon deal. The staff there is nice though, and patient with our indecisiveness while ordering.

Went by the other day, The décor is good, but the food is poor. Sushi rice is not really sushi rice, it ruins everything.
No much respect to the art of sushi if they go cheap to get regular rice.

There’s something for everyone here. I like their sushi, husband likes their bird’s nest (a noodle «nest» with veggies and chicken in it). I had one of their dragon rolls (my friend and I split them, one with salmon and one with tuna) and they were very good. Their eel sushi, is OMG delicious! Unfortunately, I discovered that I can no longer eat it because I am ALLERGIC! BOO! Their cocktails are very good too, I think they have a green tea margarita that wasn’t as good as you’d expect it to be, but their martinis were pretty outrageous. I like the ambiance at Amber, there is one in my neighborhood that I’ll frequent (but this one gets the slight edge for the drinks!).

yep, décor is asian, yep they sell sushi and all its derivatives, yep they got a fish tank with tons of fish.
Walked in here after a few rounds at bars around the area. It looked like a decent clean place to have a drink or two or 3.
The décor is modern Asian, the typical décor with slate floors and walls with bamboo divisions…
Did not tried the food, the kitchen was closed at that moment.
They had salsa night upstairs. so walked up and they changed 6 for the entrance and 2 for a coat check, so i said whatever lets learn salsa.
well, like 10 people there, no instructor, the salsa they know its like square dancing style… you know its all memorized, but no feeling. some like 2, 1 Asian dude and 1 European woman knew what they were doing but thats about it.
the end.

I had a groupon for Amber and decided it was time to use it. We started with the Salmon Carpaccio, which was simple, and delicious. The cuts of fish were perfect and the Thai chili sauce was light and complimented the salmon wonderfully. I had the Sangria Crispy Duck. It was in a lighter sweet and sour sauce which was addicting. My only gripe was that the duck was cut into 2″ slices, but half of them were not cut all the way through, making it quite difficult to eat with chopsticks.
My partner had the Chilean Sea Bass, which was exquisite. It just melted in your mouth. For dessert we had the Green Tea/​Red Bean ice cream — the Green tea was overpowering while the Red Bean didn’t quite taste like red bean… I couldn’t quite put my finger on the flavor. And we had the Chocolate pyramid, which tasted like it had been refrigerated for a while. It had a strange pudding/​gelatin consistency and the center (molten? as it was described on the menu) was cold and kind of tasted like caramel? Maybe?
Would I come back? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t pay full price. It was definitely a nice night out and the service was fantastic.

«Meh. I’ve experienced better,» is the most appropriate summary (for those who don’t feel like reading this review).
Positive: I loved the décor. The Zen filled environment was great escape from a stressful day. There was a giant Buddha statue/​fountain in the back. I was very tempted to sit on his lap and take photos. There was also a pretty koi fish tank at the entrance, and the waiter was pleasant.
Negative: The food was overpriced and the quality wasn’t the best. Even the edamame didn’t taste that good. How can anyone mess up edamame? However, the worst part was the music. I wanted something relaxing, not something cheesy like Kei$ha or Drake.

Came here for a friend’s birthday party and they let us have a whole 2^nd floor with 3 hour open bar and food for $ 30 per person. It is a good deal and they play decent dance music.
The food here is affordable at $ 8 to $ 10 per cocktail. I didn’t get to try the food so I can’t comment on that. But it surely is a good venue for private parties.

Former Aja space…
New chef…
Super friendly service…
Food is still a lunch bargain with lots of under $ 10 bentos…
Food is not as good as the former Aja…
Still a relaxing environment with big beautiful budda and calm New York space for an under $ 10 Asian fusion lunch…