Amber Dhara

I have no clue how in the world this place is open!!! Food was horrible! Waaaaaaaay too expensive! what a joke!!! I took my food back twice and now im writing this review on the bathroom toilet, after i threw up! Worst Indian food in the bay area. Presentation was nice, bar was aesthetically pleasing, the forks and spoons had a perfect length to weight ratio, napkins were folded wonderfully the employees were very nice and the customer service was yatta yatta yatta, and bla, bla, bla, but if you don’t care about that nonsense and want to know if you should come here for the food… the answer is unequivocally NO!!!

The food is good but they are rip offs. I ordered kadhai jhinga which is shrimp as when I got the food it was only five shrimp n I had to pay like $ 23 for five shrimp n bell pepper n onion it’s ridiculous. They should clarify on their menu only five piece of shrimp

C’était notre dernier soir dans la région après une courte escapade. Très beau restaurant indien. Le service était excellent; les serveurs étaient attentifs à nos demandes et nous ont bien renseigné sur le menu. Nous avons même parlé de l’Inde avec l’un d’eux!
Nous avons commandé une entrée de fromages pakora avec trois sauces. Une délicieuse option à partager car l’assiette était grosse. Puis, un biryani au poulet et un curry d’agneau. Je vous recommande fortement le biryani: servi avec un pain naan cuit sur le dessus, le mélange était épicé à souhait, avec de généreux morceaux de poulet et un riz fondant. Gros coup de coeur! Pas étonnant que ce soit le plat vedette le plus apprécié de la clientèle! L’agneau était bon, mais sans plus. Le dessert était une kulfi, bien présentée, mais plutôt ordinaire. Les gulab jamun étaient meilleurs. Pour terminer en beauté, nous avons opté pour un masala chai, bien dosé.
J’ai passé une excellente soirée et mon repas était parfait! Par contre, les portions sont énormes, alors partagez ou commandez moins de plats!

This was our first time even though we have been in the vicinity a number of times. Did not know what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. Bhindi (okra) was probably the best I have eaten at any restaurant in USA.

I was expecting this place to be as good as Amber in the city but was severely disappointed. The empty restaurant should have tipped me off and looking at the buffet I realized we had made a mistake. Everything looked mushy with no color… Then we actually tasted the food and it was all terrible. Many items were cold.
The servers were friendly and attentive but what a waste of money!

When I think about Indian food in north america, I think more about cheap buffet than «haute cuisine» so it was a bit of a shock to see the prices on the menu outside. So we walk around the block and nothing else in the area really inspired us that night so we decided to try it nevertheless.
I fell in love with Biryani (a rice dish) in Mumbai but never manage to find one remotely as good in the west… that is until now! I tried the «Hyderabadi Dum Chicken Biryani» plate, it was a bit of a surprise as it comes with a naan style bread on top. A bit like french «pâté en croute» it keeps the CO2 trapped inside and makes for a more tender and moist dish. It is really fabulous, even more so than the ones I had in India and really a «haute cuisine» dish.
The rest of the food was also great and so is the service.
I learned after that it is part of a small chain of Indian restaurant in the Bay Area which is even more surprising given the quality.
At the end, the price is really not that expensive if you consider that it is a gastronomical experience!

Save your taste buds and your money!!! The food was not great at all! Especially for their prices!

Came during lunch.
Good ambience.
Found ant on the table.
We ordered for appetizer and then main course — within a min or so we requested some change in main course and they would not honor it.
The appetizer was decent.
I guess it may be a fine place — our experience was not.

Nice atmosphere. Food had its own individual taste which is always a good thing. Generally indian restaurants have a ‘base’ sauce/​stock and each dish is a slight variation of that. With a blindfold, you won’t be able to tell the difference. Amber Dhara didn’t have the one-​sauce-​for-​all flavour and the food was quite good. I’ve been here twice and would probably visit again when I’m in the mood for Indian.

$ 21 Butter Chicken tasted like tomato soup. No Indian flavors and the chicken was very dry. The chicken biryani was very good.

It’s so expensive, Cheating!
The food «MUGHLAI SALMON» should looks like
, but it’s nothing, only a cup.

Upscale restaurant
Wow
Fabulous location.
You will love their presentation.
They have very good bar.
But the food is completely out of league.
Please don’t eat anything here.
We tried karaikudi shrimp, Chicken Biryani, Tandoori Chicken.
Somehow the second order of Chic Biryani was a better.
Worst indian food i ever had in Bay Area.
If anyone reading this review have a problem, please contact me. Will recommend u better indian place based on the dish u wanted to eat.
Please if u want to treat someone with nice dinner, this is the last option to choose.

We came to celebrate one of our friend’s birthday.
I gave two stars to the location, service and cleanliness.
Taste of food– Hello!!! We are talking about Indian food, it atleast requires salt and more spices which were negligent here. Atleast they should ask the customers about level of spiciness .
Plus, food here is $$
I feel like paying extra for the food which doesn’t tastes upto the mark.

We came here with my fiancé’s family to celebrate our engagement so we ordered up a few meals and shared it family style. Amongst what was ordered was the Badami Baingan, Lahsooni Saag Paneer, and the Kadhai Jhinga — all of which we loved. This restaurant had great service, good food, and a wonderful chai.

Although I did not personally enjoy this food, I am writing on behalf of my colleagues. We catered Amber Dhara via a 3^rd party delivery service and they did a great job! Although they were the latest arrival the food was worth the wait. My colleagues highlighted the taste of the food! And I can speak to very professionally packaged catering :)!

too expensive for the quality of food received. No much to really rave about, except the naan and customer service were both great.

Nice place, convenient, good service – then there’s the food…
Unfortunately, Indian fusion isn’t as easy as falling off a log. I’ve now eaten here twice, and I’m giving up on Amber.
The cauliflower was bathed in cream and bland. Ordering a lamb curry, the waiter warned «its very hot». .. It’s actually not very hot; not much taste, not a hint of heat. Stuffed naan is hard to mess up, but the garlic cilantro pesto naan was more reminiscent of a kitchen accident than something cooked intentionally.
Its a nice location, an attractive and mercifully quiet restaurant space, the staff is diligent. .. this one calls for some attention to the kitchen. There are thousands of restaurants serving pretty good Indian food, and hundreds serving excellent Indian food.. . wouldn’t be hard at this price point to improve into that category, if Amber felt like making the effort.
As it is, I can’t recommend this place.

Let me start with the pro’s first. The locality of the restaurant is awesome and inside the restaurant is very neat and hygienic. The staff is also very friendly and are informative about the dishes. I ordered tandoori chicken and chicken dum biriyani. The taste of the food I felt was pretty average. It’s not the worst but definitely not the best indian food. The price range is also on the higher side.
There are way better restaurants for a lower price in Bay Area.

I wanted to give this restaurant 0 stars, but Unilocal does not let me.
The one star also goes to the ambience of the restaurant, not the food. The taste is below par, almost like they do not know the ingredients of the dishes that are on the menu.
We ordered a aloo tikki, dilli ki chaat and paneer platter, none of which had salt or any other spice for that matter. For the main course, we ordered butter chicken (the chicken was dry and not marinated well and the gravy tasted bad), saag paner (bland in taste) and malai kofta (I think the koftas were stale, if they were not, then they were prepared really badly).
For the cost of the food there, approximately $ 27 per person, I would expect a LOT better tasting food.
I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. There are far better restaurants on University Avenue that I would rather spend in.

I ordered pickup via Eat24 as I was craving some Indian food, but was too jetlagged to be out in public. I wanted something that was close to my hotel, but also tasty. I ordered the samosas and the butter chicken. The samosas were just okay, and they were definitely filling, but nothing memorable. Now the butter chicken was another story. It was delicious. It was creamy, a little spicy, and definitelty hit the spot. I love butter chicken so I can be picky when it comes to my favorite dishes. This was great.
I was tempted to give them four stars for the butter chicken alone, but the meh samosas and them not giving me any eating utensils made me deduct a star. Bothering the frontdesk for silverware while I’m in jetlag zombie mode was not fun. Overall, I liked this place.

3 ½ stars? Why oh why? Navin and his staff made for an amazing night as our group started off in the bar with appetizers and then into the dining area for the rest of our meal. We had several items from the menu and I’ll just highlight my favorites:
From the Appetizers–
*Sesame Cauliflower: Crisp fried cauliflower flourets with soy, sesame, garlic and ketchup. This was so tasty. I’ve never had fried cauliflower before (only steamed) and it almost tasted like tempura broccoli. The sauce was slightly sweet from the ketchup but tempered with the garlic, it tasted great.
*Bhel Puri: Puffed rice chat, onion, tomato and chutney. This was my first time tasting this dish and I was nicely surprised at how refreshing this tasted. The puffed rice was crunchy and light. The mixture of flavors made it almost like a summer salad. Loved this.
From the Entrees: (They don’t have an online menu so I’m just guessing as to what the names of these entrees are. The staff is great so if you ask for something that I’ve described here, I’m sure they’ll know exactly what it is.)
*Chicken Pot Pie: I’m not even sure if this is on the menu but it was one of the most fun to eat. They baked naan bread over the bowl and once you peeled it back, you could see rice and chicken steaming up from the inside. Once you started to eat this stuff, you knew at once why it was so good. The chicken was nice and tender and the seasonings in the rice were just subtle enough that you kept going back for seconds. And thirds.
*Rack of lamb: OMG. So tender and good. If we didn’t have 6 people at our table, I probably could have eaten the entire plate. I held back however and had my share so that we could all have a piece.
*Sea Bass: My mouth is salivating just thinking about this. They slice the sea bass and sear it on the outside. What you get is moist, tender and flakey fish that just melts in your mouth. Note to self: Get this AGAIN.