Amber Restaurant — Restaurant in Halls Crossroads

I waited a bit to write this because it's not often I feel this way after eating in a restaurant. I love Halls. It's my home. I honestly want every local business to succeed here. However our experience in Amber's was terrible. How can a newly taken over and improved restaurant be this bad in every aspect??? Reading the other reviews I see that 3 weeks ago they say they're putting in an ice cream bar. Didn't see that however what I did see was a full restaurant of people waiting on their food and servers offering 20% off discounts and apologizing for the long wait. The decor is straight out of 1982 complete with depressing music, wood paneling, baby blue walls, horrible lighting and what looks like a shower curtain hanging in the dining room. In fact my wife looked at me partway through our experience and said this place makes me feel depressed. I feel bad being here. We waited about 10 minutes before someone sat us and then another 10 minutes until someone came around to take drink orders. Unfortunately they were out of the diet soda I asked for.. so we ordered our drinks. About 10 minutes later The server came around and asked about our food order. First off..the menu is TINY. It says it's the limited lunch and breakfast menu from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. . Which raises the question when do they have the full menu? The restaurant closes at 3:00 p.m.???? It had 3 sandwiches, a burger, a salads and breakfast. And.. They were out of mashed potatoes.. This is like 11:55 on a Sunday morning. How are you out of mashed potatoes before noon? Did someone just not bother to make them? Run up to food City and grab some potatoes if needed. I guess taking care of customers isn't what they do here (obviously) they even had a meatloaf with mashed potatoes special for lunch. But..no mashed potatoes. I quickly looked over at the table next to us and saw their soggy fries that looked like they were briefly dunked in dirty fryer grease and since my choices were french fries mashed potatoes or hash browns...and they're out of mashed potatoes.. I went with the hash browns (this was also a mistake- more on that later) to go along with my roast beef sandwich. Wife had biscuits and gravy.

30 minutes passed before our food arrived. We had been here an hour now. What we got was: Biscuits and gravy that were luke warm ( a skin had formed onto of the gravy! 🤢) Hashed browns that were barely cooked. They're were still white, cold inside and tasted like they had absorbed whatever cheap oil they had briefly been in. My roast beef sandwich was simply two UNTOASTED pieces of raw white sandwich bread with a few ounces of sliced beef between them. This was then covered with gravy that tasted straight out of the McCormick packet. It was like warm and the gravy was getting gelatinous like jelly and had a skin forming as well. Mushy. Cold and gross. Needless to say, we ate half our food and wanted to just leave. I would've mentioned this to the server but no one came by to check on us

Finally our server came back around and dropped off the check and said thanks. Our bill was under $30. We were there 1.5 hours and proceeded to go elsewhere to get some better food. I feel sad. Angry. Depressed. Halls deserves better than this. Amber's should be ashamed. Zero chance I would go back or even consider suggesting this to anyone as an option. As much as I love supporting local, I wish someone who knew what they were doing had...

My boyfriend and I were out and he suggested this restaurant which he had been to several times. This was my first and probably last time coming here. We arrived about 2:10pm and took a moment to decide were to sit as there were closed sections, un-cleared tables and other guests. Once we found somewhere to sit the waitress came over took our drink orders and handed us menus. Came back with our drinks we said we needed another minute and she said to let her know when we were ready. Once we had decided I called her over, I ordered the Crispy Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and mac and cheese which was all good, then the boyfriend ordered the Amber's Pot Roast with Vegetables and the waitress recommended not to get this, so he ordered the Chicken and Dumplings to which she responded with no that it was Sunday and they closed at 2:30 pm (which is the first time we were informed of the time they closed, we were under the impression that they closed at 3:00 pm since that is what was on Google which was updated 2 weeks ago, there was no sign anywhere with the time and again there was ample time for them to tell us that. We are not those people, if we had known that we would have been like okay we will come back another time, but I guess that would explain her attitude the whole time we were there.) So then she went on to explain that the Pot Roast was more like soup and small chunks instead of big slices, he went with it anyway and ordered double mashed potatoes. Once we received our food the mac and cheese and potatoes had no taste whatsoever, I had to add 2 packs of salt and 4 butters to the potatoes to get any sort of taste and the boyfriends Pot Roast with Vegetables was more like Vegetable stew with 2 tiny slivers of meat. When we commented about it to our waitress she went to find someone else who came over to tell him that the Pot Roast was shredded and put in there, but he could get something else. He ended up getting the Crispy Fried Steak as well. The time really needs to be posted properly or the guest needs to be informed when they come in if it is different than it has been for the past few years. (They were not short staffed either, because when we left there were 3 sitting and chatting 3 or 4 were cleaning and it seemed like there were 3 in the back cleaning there.) If that is how the Pot Roast always comes, that is a rip-off. I understand that it is lateish in the day, but the attitude for all the servers needs to change. If you have carpet you should really not sweep it right next to the customer while...

Sat Aug 10, 2024 I went back a few times and the service has gotten better and the food was good. It's best to pay by cash otherwise thet charge you a CC fee for the machine. Will be coming back.

Sun June 11, 2023 The first review was about 2 weeks ago (May 24, 2023) and I gave it a 5 star rating (see below). Now I am giving it a ONE star review. Why?

Not because the food was bad, in fact it was good. The coffee good, eggs, potatoes good. No problem there. But because were devious between charging me one amount when I was there and then charging a different amount with the credit company.

On my receipt today it says $14.37 + $2 tip in which they gave the paper tip to the waitress instead (I'm starting to doubt it now! However, when I got home and checked my credit card company was BILLED $17.02 (which I will be disputing and see pictures). On the receipt, the final amount is scratched out.

I just looked at the one from 2 weeks ago and found out that they had overcharged my bank $13.66 when the receipt said $10.19. If alone I usually give $2 tips, but if d If not alone I give more. But both times I was alone.

This was the first review from 2 weeks ago May 24, 2023:

I had given them a 5 star review even if the waitress was a sourpuss.

The handicapped parking is on the side of the restaurant and you still have to walk. It would have been closer to walk if I had parked in a regular parking space in front. The doors are not handicap friendly for people in wheelchairs. You have to pull them open so better go there with someone to open and hold them for you. But there is space inside for a wheelchair.

So far prompt service as soon as I arrived. I asked for coffee since I was having breakfast. I ordered 2 eggs over medium, toast and home fries (the square fried ones).

It came as asked and the food was good. The coffee was ok. Not anything to write home about. The waitress was nice and prompt. I did not have to wait long to get my food. Good temperature.

The bill was not detailed though. There was only 1 set amount on it. I...