Ambassador Restaurant — Restaurant in Houghton

We visited the beautiful Upper Peninsula on a snowy winter day. We only had a few hours to spend in Houghton and, after a little bit of searching, we were convinced by the internet that the Ambassador was THE restaurant to visit if you could visit just one place. So we went.

We went on a weekday during the lunch hour and during some inclement weather, so the shop wasn't busy at all. We sat ourselves down and our waiter was with us in just a few minutes. Throughout the whole process, she was attentive, helpful and very kind.

The restaurant itself was really quant. It's located inside an old building and there was enough wood flooring and paneling to make my grandfather very happy (he likes wood, okay).

The restaurant offers a number of different food items but they specialize in pizza, so that's what we ordered. Being from D.C., I've definitely become accustomed to a certain level of speciality pizza and so I was a little underwhelmed by the lack of options (no margarita pizza felt like a glaring omission). But then I remembered we were about as far north as you can go in the continental United States and didn't press the issue any further. Plus, they let you build your own pizza, which is what I did.

For all my bluster of wanting a speciality pizza, I just ended up ordering a basic pepperoni, but I added some cherry tomatoes and went off-menu for the addition of a little basil. I felt like I was being pretty trendy, maybe even showing them how to make a new speciality pizza that they would name after me...but I would come to regret the decision.

The one real qualm I did have with the menu is that they charge $1-2+ for basically every item you add to a basic pizza. So pepperonis, basil and tomatoes clocked me an additional $5 on top of a $12 pizza. It's not crazy, but it does add up.

The pizzas came out pretty quickly and were piping hot. They're circle pizzas with square slices which means you have the classic slices in the middle that have no crust and destroy your hands with lava-like oil. But, otherwise, I'm pretty ambivalent towards them.

The pizza itself was good and there was plenty of it. We ordered the larger pizzas (I can't remember the exact size) and we had more than enough. We came hungry and left with extras.

That said, the cherry tomatoes were a mistake to add. The menu said that they were soaked in some sort of flavoring but I didn't really take that warning seriously. I don't know what the flavoring was, but it was not my jam. It almost had the flavor of sun dried tomatoes which may be enjoyable to some, but wasn't ringing my clock; if you know what I mean.

We wrapped up and left after paying about a $40 bill; pricey for two pizzas and water.

All in all, I think this place is worth the visit. It's a cool vibe, the staff is great and the food is pretty good. If you want my advice, avoid the cherry tomatoes and maybe order the smaller...

Yikes...

My wife and I are on our first trip together through the UP. Everywhere we’ve eaten has been amazing. Great pizza at Milly’s and Pizzaworks, great coffee at KC Bonkers, an amazing bakery up in Eagle Harbor.

Then, we went to the Ambassador.

The food was... well. My lasagna immediately brought me back to a childhood of Chef Boyardee. Nostalgic in a bad way. My wife’s nachos looked like school cafeteria food, complete with a styrofoam container of canned cheese sauce. She said the best part about it was how finely shredded the lettuce was.

The atmosphere was tense. A bartender very loudly told the host that she’d been there since 10 in the morning. Our waitress spent more time chatting with her coworkers clustered at the end of the bar then she did with us. The manager took the cake though. For about ten minutes he split up tables that had been put together for a large party with a stone grimace on his face. Then he fidgeted with a chair for two minutes. He walked by our table twice and didn’t acknowledge us once, even though someone else had left a spill right in front of our table (I watched him sidestep it rather than clean it up) and didn’t see my empty water glass, despite the fact that our waitress had gone MIA. As the manager, you should be working the floor if you’re going to be out there. If you’re going to be morose and, quite frankly, discomforting to be around because you’re in a bad mood, you should go chill in the back. I also watched him dump a food service can Into the soup pot. Classy.

We’ll be back to the UP sooner than later. We will never be back at...

We were up at Houghton visiting MTU, and decided to go here after our guide recommended it. We entered the restaurant and waited to be seated (it took about 5 minutes before the host showed up). It was reasonably busy, but there was a lot of open tables. Then we waited about 10-15 minutes for our waitress to come to our table and take our order (there were about 6 of them and most of them were standing at the bar). Finally, our waitress made an appearance and took our order. We waited about 15 minutes for our food; we ordered their smallest BLT pizza ($13) and a plate of spaghetti with 2 meatballs ($6). When the food arrived, we were disappointed with what was there: an average tasting BLT pizza (Jet's BLT pizza is better) and a small plate (6" in diameter and 1.5" deep) of spaghetti with 2 small meatballs and 2 small discs of garlic bread. It was an average tasting dinner-- nothing spectacular. 10 minutes after getting our food, the waitress came back and asked us if we needed a box (I was confused since we had just started eating but still agreed since I was already getting full). Then she brought us a box and the check for $24. We paid it and grudgingly gave an undeserved 20% tip, then left. Overall, the food was over-priced, had small-portions, and was average tasting. The service was bad ( I understand they were college students, but they must not have been trained all that well), it was dimly lit, and loud. However, the architecture and art was quite nice, but I would still not recommend this to people looking for an exceptional...