Ambrosia Taverna — Restaurant in Columbia

Completely disappointing experience and absolutely do NOT recommend. If I could give zero stars, I would. The restaurant is stunning..... and highly deceiving. The old adage, "Don't judge a book by it's cover" comes to mind. We made reservations since the website seemed to make this mandatory and it looked like there were very few slots. When we arrived at 6:30, the restaurant was a ghost town.... as was the bar. That should've made us turn around at the door but we figured it was just after Christmas so maybe people weren't out as much.....Our waitress was friendly but didn't seem overly professional. I wanted to order wine, but there were only about five wines you could buy by the glass and all others were by the bottle... all were ridiculously expensive by Columbia standards, unless in fine dining... which they clearly believe that are... and we learned they aren't. So no to wine. We ordered calamari which was ok... nothing special.I ordered pastitsio as did my friend. I love "Greek lasagna." I have lived in Europe and have many Greek friends so I have eaten this often... in private homes , in restaurants abroad and in restaurants in the US. It is ALWAYS made like a lasagna... layered with a creamy bechamel sauce. Ours cones a bowl with a heap of rigatoni (?) pasta that looks like it has been drug through red sauce and a couple spoonfuls of some kind of horribly dry meat bound with cheese (?) on top. It was dry, gross and had absolutely NO resemblance to pastitsio. I took two bites and decided I'd rather be hungry. Absolutely terrible. During the time my friend and I were catching up over our (not much of a) meal, the noise in the restaurant was ridiculous. Three separate times someone dropped what sounded like an entire box of glasses near the bar area and twice it sounded like the staff in the kitchen was dropping boxes of utensils. It was so loud, it made the few patrons in the restaurant jump and look around at each other. Not relaxing at all. When the waitress came to check in us, naturally, she noticed I'd barely touched my food and asked if there was something wrong. I told her it was absolutely horrible and why. (By the way, this bowl of rigatoni with maybe three tablespoons of meat was about $24 if memory serves) she asked if I wanted it boxed and I told her absolutely not. When she brings the check, she tells me she's given me a 25% discount on my meal. Whilst I appreciate the effort, I would have done something different. And had she, MAYBE I might have tried again in hopes it was a one off (and enjoyed my wine at home.) But, given the prices, and what I experienced, I'm not willing to spend hard earned money on bad food. I can make better pastitsio at home. Heck, Grecian Gardens makes better pastitsio for half the cost! Not going back. They rooked me for all the money they will be getting. That location has had a history of terrible restaurants we since the wonderful Elite Epicurean left the site. I had hoped an upscale Greek place might break the curse. Instead, it is just a prettier version of another bad restaurant at that location.... you can put lipstick on a pig....And apparently others have their number. It was a Friday night and we say MAYBE a dozen guests in the two hours we were hanging out talking. There are much better places to eat in Columbia. Find one. Maybe the next restaurant at this location will finally be the one that gets it right.....

UPDATE: My review clearly says I was at Ambrosia right after Xmas. I opened my review later to correct misspellings in the review. I have since received a nasty and very accusatory response from management at Ambrosia... clearly unhappy that I said the food was terrible and we were unhappy. I'd expect an apology for the experience and a hope I'd return, rather than an unkind response. The response I received to my review reinforces my belief that my money is better spent elsewhere. Never, ever would I spend money where someone responds so unprofessionally. Good to know you are more concerned with reviews than poor food and...

Party of 8. Sever took too long to take our drink order - hostess came to tell us there was another large party and we might want to place our food order to get it out before the other party . So we placed our drink order, server put it in then came back for meal orders. Eventually we had to go ask for our drinks. Food arrived in normal amount of time - except one person’s. When we finally caught the servers attention she brought it out cold. Several other server issues. We spoke with manager and told him we felt it was training issue - he agreed - he did state he took something off the bill for the cold steak (good flavor by the way - just should not have been forgotten in kitchen) Manager also offered future discount. We saw many other dinners get their food in a reasonable amount of time so it is obvious they can’t handle larger groups. We did hear multiple times about the other large party. In the end the checks came out and there was no discount for the cold steak. The future discount card was left on the table - no desire to use it. We made our reservations on a Tuesday for a Saturday at 7:00 After reading other reviews it is obvious they have a service issue. That night they lost the sale of an additional round of drinks and future customers. I am not one to normally write reviews - I have experience in fine dining (management) and I know there are always off days. I was happy to see the hostess was helping out by the time we left. This is just a warning for parties over 4.

Since I can only edit my review and not reply I will let you know - my friend is too nice and when he did not receive the discount we were all irritated. I am sure you did address the issues but obviously there was not follow through. Marketing hat on now - simply thank a person for a positive review and nicely eat humble pie and apologize with as few words as possible for a negative or not so glowing review otherwise it comes...

I have put off this review for a week but decided to post it for information for some Diners. I know there are a lot of people that have enjoyed Ambrosia but I had a less than spectacular visit. The staff and our waitress, Amber, were extremely nice and caring. The food was not up to my standards but we only had salads and appetizers and no entrees. I had a Greek salad that was small and had an exteme amount of raw bell peppers, 2 small grape tomatoes and 3 small pieces of onions for $19 which is the highest I have ever paid for a salad only. It was OK but not great. But, the fried calamari I had was excellent and the same price. I definitely would get that again. My Bride had a pear salad that had it’s shortcomings. It was not sweet but bitter and acidic. She also got an appetizer of what we thought would be the highlight of the day, Scorpio Shrimp. We have eaten many times in the past at the Elite Epicurean, which was a predecessor of Ambrosia, and always got the Scorpio Shrimp dish known as The Shrimp Island of Scorpio. Ambrosia boasted that they were bringing the recipe back from Elite as a major selling point. Our jaws dropped when we got an unrecognizable plate of noodles with 3 shrimp. Nothing even close to Elite Epicurean’s Shrimp Scorpio!!!!! The original Shrimp Island of Scorpios was tomatoes, onions, shrimp etc and Ouzo blended in the their sauce and all grilled or broiled. No Noodles!! Extremely Great!!! Huge disappointment here. BTW, I have semi duplicated the Scorpio dish with a Greek recipe, Garides Saganaki, and love it. In addition we did share the dessert Towering Gelaktaboureko, $12, which was 1 1/2 inches tall. It was very good but pricey. Our neighboring table was highly disappointed in their food also. I’m sure some people love the food and respect that. But, at $120, including tip and their credit card charge, is pricey so I will give them some time to solve their problems before...