Ember

Met friends for drinks and appetizers last Friday. Caught happy hour at the bar and they have five appetizers for five bucks each. The wife had the grilled Caesar salad and she thoroughly enjoyed it, claimed it was the best Caesar salad she ever had. They have a good drink selection and a pretty good selection of craft beers.

Great new restaurant. They do a lot in the wood burning over. Best thing was grilled caesar salad and we added georgia will shrimp to it. Fabulous. Pizza was good too. Lettuce wraps just okay.

Worst meal I have ever eaten. Farm to table? Camel? I think not. Think Mary may need to go to culinary school before calling herself a chef because putting unusual pairings together does not equal good food.
Rude staff, nice ambience if you like crowded corners. There are many great places to eat on this island and this is not one of them.

Ok. So I read the reviews and decide to try this place. We go in and sit at the bar were We met the entire staff. Jason, Mary, I think Tiff and Debby from coastal real estate. Everyone was just so full of information and great recommendations. I just love these farm to table places that are popping up everywhere. We tried a bunch of stuff like the egg roll, tuna, duck wings, that’s all just for starters. Oh yes, everything so far is good. The folks next to us ordered everything on the menu. They had the pork rind, rice, eggs, etc. We then ordered our entrée which consisted of pizza, steak, bowl, OMG. So many things already. And again, everything was top notch.
So, if your wondering were to eat and what to eat, this is the place for you. The menu changes everyday. That’s what it’s nice about farm to table. You just never know what your gonna get. I recommend highly. You won’t be disappointed.

The restaurant’s kitchen is focused around their wood oven. It’s a great idea. I had a wonderful northern Italian style white lasagna that was unexpectedly delicious. I also had a wonderful Malbec with my meal. The rest of the menu is very diverse. It’s kind of like the United Nations. There’s entries and appetizers from all over, Mexico, Italy, Vietnam, the «Mediterranean,» etc. This sort of thing annoys me, much like the UN annoys me. It’s week and all over the place. I also found the waitress to be very nice but not well informed. Again, much like the people who think the UN does good things in the world. I’d go back for the lasagna, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this place was on one of the failed restaurant TV shows first.

We absolutely love the fresh and unique dishes created at Ember! I recommend this restaurant to all who visit St Simons Island.

Love this place! Amazing and interesting cocktails and great pizzas. Mary (the chef) and Jason (the bartender) are very nice and always welcoming.
Definitely recommend the caesar salad, the bahn mi, and a cocktail of your choosing.
The main plates are good, but expensive for small portions. Stick to the appetizers and pizzas.

Ember is an awesome restaurant. Appetizers, entrees, deserts were delicious across the board! Add this as a must place to eat. Our waitress, Mirie was delightful and very attentive.

Ember is just what it is… a hot little restaurant …
The aromatic smoldering hard wood in the pizza oven permeates your nose the movement you enter. The oven rises like an Easter Island God Head in front of you… almost looking at you… mouth agape.
The room pops an envelopes you with a one of a kind vibe. Where to go… the dining area or the bar… each will pull you evenly.
Bar tops are bad-​ass…
You judge for yourself.
Oh…and the Goat Tacos were dynamite.

Went with a group of friends. My girlfriend and I loved the Sweet Heat ginger infused vodka margarita-​ish spicy cocktail — -so yummy! A must in my opinion. Other than that I could not remember any dish worth mentioning. It was not bad but not memorable. It’s a little small so it’s best to make reservations. We had some olives, several fire bread pizzas, duck wing appetizer, grilled tuna and a lemon tart dessert… triple chocolate martini — all were just okay. One thing that was very annoying was the slabs used for the pizzas were huge and they used oblong plates for most dishes — annoying because the table was not that large and we all had to constantly move stuff around to fit everyone’s dish.

Overpriced and not too impressed. Good for drinks with the ambiance… otherwise I think Fox’s pizza (downtown) is better… the chicharrones looked they were out of a Wise food products bag and meh! Don’t believe the hype — not much bang for the buck.

Definitely the new hot spot and will remain so for quite some time. The wood burning oven offers a wide array of freshly baked and roasted goodies sourced from local farms. The menu changes daily with a wide variety of options without being overwhelming. One of the best tuna dishes I’ve ever had was here recently. The duck wings are a great beginning to a delicious meal.

This place has an amazingly creative menu, great staff and comfortable atmosphere. I have been here several times and have enjoyed each visit.

Casey C.
Atlanta, GA
Visiting family on the coast recently, we found an evening at Ember an unexpected delight. Though the approach is nothing special (end unit in a nondescript strip mall), we already began warming to the place upon reaching for its impressive front door. What the door promises, the décor supports – a serious wood burning oven, open to both the kitchen and the dining room, is flanked by heavily-​grained, glowing, amber-​colored stone counter tops (cut thin and lit from below) leading to a well-​appointed dining room with seating both attractive and comfortable (our party ranged in height from 5’1″ to 6′). Most importantly, though, what the door promises and the décor supports, the menu delivers in spades.
The focus here is farm to fire – local and regional ingredients exposed directly to flame and ember – and the approach is thoughtful – it’s evident in each dish that consideration is lavished from concept through presentation. Among the items we ordered, the caprese salad included lovely roasted onions and the roasted beet salad was nicely balanced with citrus, goat cheese and arugula. The confit duck wings were unbelievably delectable. The «lambpops» in sour cherry sauce were cooked to perfection (though the sauce was a bit bombastic for my taste). Pizzas: the green was very nice, the bahn mi was lovely, the Danny Boy was amazing. The spaghetti and meatballs, completely house made in all its elements, was a real treat – lamb and goat meatballs with a sauce built on oven roasted tomatoes. For desert we had a chocolate something and a cheese cake, both of which brought accolades from my companions (while I was just too over saturated to go on).
The wine list, a bit different than one generally sees (sourced from bio-​dynamic and/​or organic producers, our server explained), provides surprisingly enjoyable wine at remarkably good prices. The service was as it should be, the bill was reasonable, to say the least. Our hats are off to both owner and chef – we look forward to returning at first opportunity.

Tonight was our first experience there. Overall, quite good, but with some «notes.»
When one enters one sees a very cool/​creative interior and one is overwhelmed by the smell of smoke. (Actually, as I write this, a couple of hours later, my clothes still smell like that smoke …) Kudos to the interior designer. [Their HVAC guy, well …]
We had the fingerling potatoes, the bahn mi pizza, and the Cesar salad, splitting everything. The potatoes were quite good but the sauce was not as excellent as two staff members proclaimed. The pizza was incredibly creative and tasty! The salad was grilled and creative — really nicely done.
I had a beer (tasteless and way overpriced); the other person had a glass of wine («acceptable»).
Here’s a summary …
— Food quality: 4.5
— Food creativity: 4.5
— Food quantity: 3
— Service: 4.5
— Interior/​ambiance: 2.0−4.5 (depends on how much one likes smoke, I suppose; the tables are rather close together)
— Value: 3.5
All-​in-​all? It was a good experience! We’d go back. But, in no way was it a «5.» We’ve been around the block with so many restaurants so I think we have seen the top and bottom of the scale. (Sorry for not gushing — as some other reviewers have …)
Side note (NOT a factor in my review): When you enter — check out the large wooden door with the offset hinges (hinges not at the edge of the door as one would usually find. It’s beautiful — and nicely designed to crush or amputate hands — if caught between the part of the door between the hinges and the jamb — tremendous mechanical advantage there. Don’t let your small kids play with it. (Really, it is a VERY cool door, if potentially dangerous.)
Did I say the pizza was REALLY good??? [yum]

After hearing lots of great reviews around the island, I had to stop in and check out Ember! Very welcoming atmosphere and positive energy from the moment you walk in the door. Came in on a chilly evening, and nothing was more inviting than the wood burning oven. Attentive waitstaff, and great service overall.
I was thrilled to hear that the menu changes almost daily, based on what the chefs get in fresh and locally. Great variety of tasty starters, salads, fire bread pizzas, and entrée options. Didn’t have room for dessert this time around… just an excuse to come back again soon!

Dined there for the second time last night. Good service, excellent pizzas, interesting salads. Pizza was large enough for ladies to share one if ordering a salad too. Beet salad yummy. Fingerling potatoes outstanding. Terrific redo of space in a strip center. Lots of familiar faces, so locals like it already.

A modern open space acsented by a glowing tortoise shell bar greets you as you enter Ember. A stoked pizza oven warmed us on this cool night of our first visit. The margherita pizza and lamb, that was cooked in this oven, was fantasic. Chef Mary seemed to be grilling hundreds of heads of romaine lettuce, one of which ended up on my plate providing one the the best cesar salads I’ve had in a long time. We sat at the bar where we were served like royalty by Jason and Rich. Great specialty drinks, decent wine selection and beers on tap kept us satified. Very cool place to hang out with freinds, as we did. Ember is a great addition to the growing line-​up of restaurants on Saint Simons Island. We’ll be back… soon.

We came to ember for the first time last week. The atmosphere is so different than anything else on the island. The craft cocktails were excellent and you could watch your food being cooked in the wood burning oven. We can’t wait to go back you have to check this place out!!!

After learning that they were finally open to the public, I made a reservation to check out this soon to be hot spot! Chef Mary Schowe is back on the scene with a Farm to Fire approach to cooking local and regional ingredients utilizing a large wood fired oven, which is also a focal point from the bar and dining area. We started off with a couple of Ember’s specialty cocktails, The Southerner and Sweet Heat. Both were spot on! Highlights from dinner were the truffle salt roasted fingerling potatoes with black garlic aioli, speck pizza with caramelized onions, black mission figs & local honey and «Sapelo Farms» goat meatballs with fire roasted tomato sauce & eggplant chips. The grilled Caesar salad was also a hit! It is my understanding that the menu will change while maintaining a few staples. I can’t wait to go back and see what’s next on the fire!