Ambiente Tapas Goodramgate — Restaurant in Great Britain

A friend had recommended this, and we weren't disappointed - my daughter said they were the best tapas she'd ever eaten and I thought they were well up to Spanish standards, putting my local tapas restaurant to shame. The food had an imaginative twist (eg pimientos de Wigginton, meatballs with lemongrass, squid specials) and was obviously freshly prepared - no pre-prepared catering portions here, thank goodness!

The wine-list was extensive, reasonably priced and naturally had a strong Spanish emphasis. The separate sherry list (they're justifiably passionate about sherry) was astonishing, with different examples of each style: Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso, Palo Cortado, sweet...). The staff - who now include a member of the Barbadillo sherry family - were enthusiastic, friendly and knew their stuff (including the ingredients of less familiar dishes).

We had a most enjoyable meal, but did have to ask for an itemized bill (should be standard, surely?). This was handwritten (perhaps they didn't have an electronic till), and showed that we had seven tapas, plus dipping bread and more-ish olives for £32. The drinks bill included a bottle of white Maccabeo (£13.95) - very good for what was in effect a house wine - and £4.50 each for two 100ml glasses of special sherry. I preferred the La Guita Manzanilla to the unfiltered Tio Pepe En Rama, which wasn't as fresh as it might be, as it needs to be drunk within three months and was bottled on 8 April this year (we were eating in mid-August). But it was great to be able to try it, as it's a very limited release.

We enjoyed our visit so much that we came back to the bar section the next night to sample the draught Estrella Asturiana beer and some more wonderful sherry - a Barbadillo Manzanilla and a rare Palo Cortado, both of which my daughter (a sherry novice) enjoyed greatly; although I only had sips, so did I.

Overall, then, a thoroughly recommended experience, and excellent value for money. Whatever you do, do take the opportunity of trying some of their marvellous sherry, but be warned that you may end up drinking and spending more than you were planning! Although they have a branch in Leeds, I very much hope they'll be opening another...

The food was incredible – our favourite of the 6 meals out we ate last week, we had a selection of the meat, fish and vegetarian dishes and really struggled to choose what we had because we thought everything sounded great. However, the service was awful from one of the waitresses – we ordered a wine, a beer and a bottle of water, we were told that the wine I ordered wasn’t available and she would pop back to find out what I wanted as an alternative in a few minutes – I had to get up and go to the bar to order it after 10 minutes, I then had to chase the water as well. When it came to ordering my second glass, I asked for the same as I had previously had – the waitress said she didn’t like to look at our previous order but instead preferred to try and remember what we previously had, in the end I asked her to just look as whilst she was pondering, our food was going to go cold. She was also coughing regularly which was a bit off putting. After our meals we were offered desert but were too full, so we tried to get the bill but, in the end we ran out of patience and just headed round to the bar – the girl at the bar found our waitress who turned up with a bill with a 10% service charge on it, which she told us about. We ALWAYS leave a tip but I asked her to take it off. All in all, the food was incredible, restaurant in a central location and the rest of the staff were let down by this one waitress – we would visit again and just have our fingers crossed we got a...

RUBBISH SERVICE OVERPRICED RUBBISH FOOD FOOD POISONING I went here tonight, and after walking past it many times and wondering what it was like, I ventured in with anticipation and the expectation of a good meal. However,upon entering the restaurant, there was nobody to greet us or ask if we required a table eve though they were not busy. So after seating ourselves in the bar area, someone finally arrived for us to ask to be seated. They gave us the menus and brought us drinks. After being told 3 times that our table was ready, an hour later, we got seated, but we were still looking forward to eating our choices from their descriptions on the menus. Service was prompt, however, along with chicken and the chorizo which had the taste and texture of cardboard, the lamb tasted like it came from a kebab shop, the duck from a Chinese and the black pudding balls with egg like the Tesco Christmas stuffing balls. We left very disappointed with a big hole in the pocket and no attention to detail was given. When you go to restaurant offering a foreign cuisine, you expect your taste buds to be transport to that country of origin, not the local takeaways. Overall, it would have been cheaper and more profiling buying the Iceland tapas range and sadly there are for more superior restaurants in York offering better service and better food of the same value. To boot both of us have contracted food poisoning. AVOID...