Ambry Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

I saw this place offered several steak options, but I wasn’t sure about getting a steak dinner at a German restaurant. The reviews seemed pretty good, so we decided to try it.

My wife and I went for the early bird specials. There were several options, but we were focused on beef. I couldn’t find the hours for the early bird dining, but when we arrived, I noticed a sign that stated it was from 5:00-6:00, which was the first hour they were open.

The meal came with soup or salad, a main entree, a side of potatoes (4-5 options), tea (iced or hot), and dessert. The menu doesn’t state what dessert there is, so if you’re curious, you might want to call ahead.

I had the French onion soup, which is probably my favorite soup overall. The other soup was listed as the soup of the day, but I didn’t even ask about it. My wife had the German house salad, which was like most salads, but had a side of beets. We both enjoyed our selections.

For the main entree, I picked the prime rib with a side of spaetzle, which is basically noodles. My wife had the filet mignon and home fries. Both steaks were perfect. My prime rib was flavorful, while the filet was extremely tender. My wife didn’t care for the seasoning on the home fries (fennel maybe?), and I thought the spaetzle didn’t have much flavor, so I simply added some salt.

For drinks, we had ordered 2 Cokes, but no one came to refill them. When I asked, we were told there were no free refills. If prices were on the menu, I missed them, but considering most places offer free refills, it would have been nice to have that clarified. And by the way, those drinks were $3.00 each for a glass of soda filled with lots of ice, plus the soda was a bit flat. But that’s really my only complaint about the meal. Since we didn’t get free refills, I switched to iced tea, and my wife had coffee, which she thought was quite good.

For dessert, they offered coconut cake, and if that wasn’t to your liking, you could have vanilla pudding. Just don’t look at the main menu and think you can order any dessert you’d like. I like coconut, so this dessert sounded great to me. It came out chilled, and while it’s not something I would order by itself, I did enjoy it.

We liked the atmosphere of the place, kind of rustic. The outside looks a bit like a castle, but the interior felt warm and inviting. There aren’t any windows, but I thought the interior lighting worked well. It wasn’t overly dim, so I didn’t have any problems reading the menu.

One other note about the parking. The spaces on the same side of the lot as the buildings have meters on them. While it didn’t look like adding coins to them would work, you can download an app to pay online. Payment is required until 7:00 pm. However, if you find a space facing the main road where there are no meters, parking is free.

For the price of a steak dinner, I’d definitely go back, especially for the...

I just had a most amazing meal here.

Where to begin…

I haven’t visited in over a year, so I was very excited to finally get back here. My favorite dish is sauerbraten, so of course I had to get that.

I arrived at around 6 PM on a Friday evening. It was not busy at all and I was seated right away in one of their little rooms (only three tables). I had the room to myself.

The service is excellent. The servers were very nice, and let me know they all work together, meaning that I could ask any of them for assistance. That’s different than a lot of restaurants. I believe that’s the way it should be, and tonight’s experience supports that because my drink never got below half full before it was filled again.

Although they have some excellent German beers and a wine menu, tonight I went with simple iced tea-mostly because the server let me know that it was freshly made. I’m glad I went with that choice because it was excellent!

After I placed my order, I went up to the salad bar and it was just as I remembered from over a year ago. Everything on it was fresh, and they had a good variety of items to choose from. I grabbed a little of their potato salad, and some of their pasta salad as well. Both of those were amazing!

They also keep their bread at the salad bar, which is one place I think they fall a little short. The bread as always was excellent-I had one that has cinnamon and raisins in it. Where I feel it falls a little short is in its freshness. It was a bit dry, I presume because it had been sitting out. But nonetheless, it was delicious.

When my sauerbraten arrived, it came with spatzel, and a side of warm sauerkraut. It was a deep red color, and is served warm.

The sauerkraut was tangy and I could taste cloves in it. So delicious!

The spatzel, while simple, is so tasty, and goes great with the gravy that comes on the sauerbraten.

The sauerbraten is fork tender. You don’t even need a knife to slice it even though they provide one with the dish. What I like about the dish is that there’s a slight sourness to the gravy. That must be the “sauer” part of it. ;-)

In my opinion there’s definitely enough to share between two people if you are not big eaters. I ended up taking half of it home so my wife could try it too.

In conclusion, between the friendly service, the authentic German atmosphere, and the delicious food, I highly recommend The Ambry. They can accommodate small parties or large, and there’s even a small bar up front for those wishing to quench their thirst.

I look forward to...

The Ambry came highly recommended by a friend so we decided to try it together. It was a Wednesday evening and busy but not full. We were promptly seated with menus and greeted maybe 5 minutes later. My friend ordered an American beer they didn't have so asked the waitress to pick a German beer. She suggested Oktoberfest so we both ordered one. The beers arrived quickly along with a strange introduction about how they all work in teams but someone else would be taking our order. We had been deciding on our apps & meals while waiting for the beers. My friend said, "Great, send her over. We're ready to order." We sipped our beers and looked at the menu some more. Closed the menus. Looked around. No servers anywhere. Someone finally came, but to the table behind us to take the order of 2 older gentlemen. They asked for separate checks and she starts yelling at them that they should have ordered their wine on separate checks before ordering the food. She was very belittling & rude. She walked away without taking our order. At this point, it's been 30 minutes and we had only had 1 beer & still haven't placed our order. My friend went to the hostess to ask for our check for the beers. Miraculously, 2 servers show up to take our order but we lost our patience at this point. With the apps & entrees we chose, our bill would have exceeded $100 and my friend owns a restaurant & tips generously. We left irritated, disappointed, & hungry while the server was yelling excuses about how busy she is when she clearly wasn't because the dining room was filled with empty,...