Amada — Restaurant in Atlantic City

First let me say that we came here during AC's restaurant week. This is advertised as " a multi-course prix fixe meal", and that price is $35.21 per person. It's not advertised as small plates or tasting menu, but this seems to be what we received at the Armada. We had full meals at the 3 other restaurants we dined in this week. I did a little research before deciding which restaurants we wanted to try that we hadn't yet tried. Amada looked fabulous with wonderful reviews. Seeing the pictures of the food from management and other reviewers, we thought for sure it was a great choice. I have a longer review in TA but it's too many characters for here, so here's my shortened version: App: I ordered the Garlic Shrimp. 4 small shrimp in a dish with 3 tiny rounds of bread.  It tasted very good. My fiancé ordered the Aged Manchego with truffle Lavender Honey. 2 painfully thin slices of cheese with 2 equally thin apple slices w/ a dab of the truffle lavender honey. Entrée: I ordered the Lamb Chop"s", plural. Description from the menu: Lamb Chops, Colorado, half rack of lamb, chimmichurri, romesco, guindilla aioli. I received one tiny lonely little chop on a plate with the sauces on the side. ONE lamb chop was not appropriate for a meal and is not a "Half rack". It greatly differs from the lamb chops shown in another reviewer's pic for their Lamb Chops (please see my picture). It was tender and very tasty, both bites of it. I ordered the wild mushrooms as my side. I didn't receive the dish with my meal. My fiancé ordered the Langosta Maine Lobster. It was half of a 7" lobster from head to tail (look at your cell phone, about that long), cut lengthwise. It was very shallow. We noticed another patron's much larger lobster on the way out. There is no consistency whatsoever in their portions. My fiancé ordered the crab-stuffed peppers as his side. Two cherry tomato sized peppers stuffed with crab, and almonds tossed over them looking like an afterthought. Please see the pics for comparison. One pepper was a bit mangled but looked like it was fully there. My fiancé said they were very good. Afterwards it occurred to me that I never received my wild mushrooms side dish. We had to flag down a different server since ours never returned to our table since serving us. He then got our server who barely stood long enough to say "yes your mushrooms" turned and left. No apology for forgetting them. Had he returned to the table to see how our meal was going maybe he would have realized they were forgotten. The mushrooms came and they were fine. Nothing special. After about 20 minutes we again asked another server to get ours. Our server came over and we asked him about dessert. He said the pastry chef was getting it out as fast as she can. We waited in total 32 minutes for dessert. The cheesecake was very good with drizzles of syrups (maybe passionfruit & caramel?).  I don't know, he just dropped the plates on the table and left. My fiancé got the Spanish custard, which looked and tasted exactly like Crème Brule. There was no berry- fruit on it like advertised but there were a couple tiny slices of apple stuck in it. We didn't feel they added to the custard at all, they just didn't match the creaminess, so they were just pushed aside. Our check came quickly. I tipped 20% which is an absolute minimum for me. I would have asked for a manager if I felt I needed to tip lower than that. And maybe I should have done that anyway. The food at the Amada is very, very good. Delicious.  But the portions were ridiculous for a full meal and the service was awful. The restaurant was not full, maybe 2/3's, so even if that is more than usual for a Thursday night, they should have been prepared for restaurant week. It doesn't excuse the "tasting" sized portions. the presentation, or the service. 2 stars. Shame...

Amada is an excellent restaurant to visit for a special occasion. Despite the higher price tag, the dishes are tastefully prepared by the chefs maintaining flavors true to Spanish cuisine. The original Amada brought to you by Iron Chef finalist Jose Garces is in Philadelphia, but this seaside location offers a finer view! A new location recently opened in Delaware County in Radnor as well. Visit Amada for tasty tapas for an authentic Spanish culinary experience.

Enter the chic and moody Amada restaurant in Atlantic City for elegant and upscale Spanish cuisine served in the form of “tapas”. Tapas are best described as “small Spanish savory dishes” but not to be confused with appetizers as these can be entree or main course dishes served in smaller portions that are meant to be shared. Dining with my family of four and no kid’s menu in sight, I felt this was an ambitious undertaking but rest assured for the “Charcuteria y Queso” or simply translated: “Meat and Cheese Plate” delivered tasty familiarity. The fancier offerings of Manchego and Mahon cheese paired with Serrano ham and Chorizo de Pamplona were delicious with toasted bread crudites to accompany this first course. The White Sangria Honey was a nice touch and devoured by the whole family including the elementary aged youngsters. The cool thing about tapas is that they come out as they’re ready so there’s a steady stream of food delivery all set to share with your table. The free range organic chicken was succulent and juicy and the meat cut right off the bone. It was a perfect dish to enjoy solo or for sharing. The steamed Langosta or Lobster was halved in the shell and accompanied by drawn butter to please all at the table for the ninos might wrinkle their noses at the parsley puree that was slated to come with the dish. The Fideos or vermicelli pasta dish was a people pleaser with sophisticated flavors due to the pistachio crumbles atop the goat cheese puree and truffle butter. Gambas Ajillo (Garlic shrimp) came out piping hot swimming in a ceramic dish filled with a garlicky coq au vin sauce complete with a nifty little fork skewer that reminded me of a Spanish version of the fondue. The shrimp were cooked perfectly; tender and juicy and enjoyed by all.

The dining room is dimly lit and a perfect atmosphere for either an intimate date or warm family meal. Soaring views of the ocean don’t disappoint as the restaurant is on the 5th floor of the hotel/casino. If your dinner is after dusk, then you’ll enjoy the illuminated Ferris Wheel from the Steel Pier Amusements adjacent to the casino. If you’d like a cozy corner booth complete with your own mood lighting, our server told us that “reservations are required for those seats” but noted for next time! The prices were a bit on the pricey side with larger tapas around $25 but this was a special occasion as it was our family’s spring break and the chef’s preparations made it worth it. Our server was an Oceans employee and both she and her partner took turns tending to our table. My six year old daughter spilled not one but two sodas (while awestruck by the Ferris Wheel) and our servers were really attentive and understanding despite the mess. They did need a reminder about the garlic shrimp tapas order but perhaps it was just lost in the ordering process. The servers seemed knowledgeable about the wines from the wine menu. Pairing them with the small plate dishes when my wife was ordering went smoothly and of course a variety of Spanish reds...

When you think of restaurants at the casinos in Atlantic City many of them cannot achieve that “ All around five star menu and service “ at the same time.

Well after walking into Amada two weeks ago on a Saturday night I’d have to say that they covered all of the bases and all of the stars. The place was packed and everywhere you looked people appeared to be happy as they were eating and drinking away.

Let’s start with the greeting that I received from our favorite wine Director Anastasia whom we run into when we dine at Ocean Steak. She gave me one of her patented hugs and actually walked me over to the table where my friends were waiting. I was in the restaurant once before years ago but I really didn’t have any recollection of the food or my experience the first time. All of this was about to change.

Anastasia was nice enough to sit down for a few minutes and took the time to introduce us to the menu. Then our waiter came over whose name is Cheech and between the two of them they decided what we were going to eat and drink. Now mind you I have an extremely simple pallet. At birth my three favorite words were steak and potatoes. This has followed me around till this day but tonight it was all about trust in the two professionals that were guiding us through the menu. Between the both of them I just sat there and listened to their suggestions and just went with the flow.

The Mojitos started flowing and then the parade of appetizers showed up at the table.

We had bacon wrapped dates which was probably something I would never order but they were fantastic. A charcuterie board was presented with all of the accoutrements. The garlic shrimp with the little pieces of toasted bread that ended up being used as a sponge to soak up all that garlic we’re just as good. The crispy potatoes had an aïoli on them and they disappeared just as fast as everything else.

Moving on to some entrées they brought out Langosta lobster, a NY strip, roasted pork with a nice char, and this phenomenal risotto with wild mushrooms. We actually ended up ordering more of the risotto until it was all gone. Overall all of the dishes were way above average with great flavor and prepared the way they were ordered.

Obviously we had to wash down all of this food with more drinks and Anastasia had them bring us out some Cava to sip on.

Well just when you think you can’t eat another bite of anything you know what showed up next 😁. No matter how full you are you know that there’s always room for hot mini donuts with chocolate dipping sauce. Now while I was swallowing donuts my friends were devouring an ice cream sundae with chocolate filled churros, whipped cream, Walnuts, two different kinds of gelato, berries, caramel sauce, and even cinnamon. It looked great but my friends would not let me near the bowl and it disappeared in about three minutes (No exaggeration) You can figure out how good the dessert was based on their desire to act like being an only child and not sharing.

So to sum up this experience Anastasia and our waiter Cheech were the consummate professionals and made the dining experience that much more.

Thank you!!!!! to the both of you for being so down to earth with us and making this dining experience one of the top two...