Amber Ox Public House — Restaurant in Williamsburg

As a disclaimer and for starters , I am from out of town , born and bred in NYC where I had the luxury to dine at multiple winning chefs establishments (courtesy of my * innovative * food-obsessed mother, at times), but now having been influenced by her prestige, I do venture many places and seek out what might appear to fit my palate. I take risks when traveling out of town, but Amber Ox was a risk worth detouring to instead of getting home from a long drive (NC to Philly). I am in awe that this joint has not attained, at bare minimum, a 4.7 or up, but leave it to spoiled, entitled folks to denigrate a clearly beautiful, relaxed, and off-the-cuff fine-dining establishment . I am a “Woman of Color” —{ugh to that terminology} and my husband is a white man, and our experience was neither less nor more than based on this (just in reference to some insecure folks).

Chef McClure is the Exec at this place, I have learned tonight, and he was overseeing all of the flow for a pretty popping Monday night with such ease and chill. His flavor profiles matched mine and my husband’s perfectly. I thought the dishes were a splendid combination of savory and tart, and that also pertained to my watermelon slushie. I joke that Slushies are a Southern thing, but it was worth the sugary indulgence. My husband also enjoyed their Blueberry Amber and the Smash and Sting while I imbibed the delectable Painkiller.

One thing we fortunately had NO trouble with was finding a table pre dinner hour, 4:30ish, on a Monday. We also opted to sit at the bar because I wanted to see the kitchen at work. It was funny to observe the amount of burgers being pumped out, but I fully think this place is BEYOND a burger 😝, pun intended. My husband had Shrimp and Grits whose Tasso Buttery sauce made me want to weep tears of joy because it was that perfect. I ordered the Rockfish whose skin was also seared impeccably. Before that, we ordered Fried Green Tomatoes, coated graciously with goat cheese, and Biscuits which were scrumptious, not under done and accompanied with in-house churned butter, ricotta cheese, and homemade jams. What also hit the spot was the beet greens salad because , again, I have a penchant for tart flavors and their beet labneh plus yuzu-miso vinaigrette was a winning combination, the rice paper crackers adding a crisp touch. Our bartenders’ (we had two for the duration) service was top notch, checking in on us with thorough yet efficient explanation of the menus. I spoke to the chef briefly about how much I appreciated his palate matching mine, and he was engaging and appreciative from afar while still managing the increasingly busy hand outs from the kitchen. The place was packed around 6:30/7 Pm when we were gearing up to leave. Some of those hand outs were grilled cheeses and basic burgers so they also were accommodating of families because kids’ menu was NOT included in what I had seen. Another fun fact is that they have something different going on every night (tonight was Tiki Monday with tiki cocktails and nice spin on some apps, and all servers were wearing fun Hawaiian shirts!)

I wish the place nothing but continued success. I long to live closer because I seriously wish to live INSIDE this menu or join their dinner club. I even made up a song about it to my husband. Were I a food critic, I would give it great accolades and hope for it to remain reputable for years to come. I loved this place so much that I even f*ng bought their trucker hat.

(Sidenote, automatic tipping 20% is not what prevents people from giving you decent service, it is often how you treat them in return. I liked that their service is genuine and not working hard for their money. Equitable treatment of hospitality staff and any employeed who does laborious work for a living is good management...

I gave a previous review of 5 stars. I've eaten numerous times at Amber Ox while visiting my daughter at W&M Law. We like Amber Ox so much we made a reservation for brunch today for 8 people following law school graduation. We had guests from 2 different states and looked forward to our brunch. We were warmly relieved and our table was ready. From there things went downhill. Our server didn't seem to be able to remember our orders . He seemed very rushed despite the fact that there was plenty of wait staff on duty. Coffee and other items were requested and forgotten. When requested again the answer was I'm sorry I forgot it. We ordered a featured cocktail that was $15. It contained coffee and rye whiskey. We were told it would be awhile bc they had run out of coffee. It's hard to believe a place that specializes on brunch runs out of coffee. Seems like there would be 2 large urns and 1 would always be full. We also ordered 2 usually delicious brunch boards. These were my go to. Not any longer. The usually generous portions of country ham and smoked salmon were truly skimpy. There were lots of spreads but not enough flat breads, no bagel, just 2 biscuits. We asked for more flatbreads from another waiter bc by now we had 3 waiters and they weren't communicating with each other. The young lady returned with exactly 8 flatbreads - 1 more per person. So basically our boards had a lot of food left on them when they were taken away. I mean nobody eats cream cheese or pimento cheese with nothing to spread it on. 3 people had entrees that were delivered hot and good. 5 of us got French Toast. It came put later. The 3 waiters could not get all our food to the table at the same time. I would blame the kitchen but then discovered the French Toast was cold. We ate it anyway. It was okay. It needed more fruit and cream. It had a ton of butter piled on top of it which seemed strange. I think it was supposed to have melted but was probably added to late after the Freench Toast had cooled. 20% tip added bc of the size of our party. I tip 20 anyway but felt robbed bc of the poor service. To be fair, the service here is usually excellent. Not today. Drugs are a problem in this country. That's all I'll say about it. Anyway, very disappointed that the graduates that were wearing their law graduate tams weren't recognized. The place we dined on Saturday night gave our group a complimentary champagne toast to honor them. It was just all around a sad experience on a day when we looked forward to a...

Amber Ox is our new favorite spot in Williamsburg! Having enjoyed living and eating in Richmond for many years, we were excited to find a farm-to-table style restaurant that reminded us of home (anyone remember The Blue Goat?). I booked a reservation for my wife's birthday and from start to finish the food and service were outstanding. We had a great time and I highly recommend checking them out if you value high-quality local ingredients and are looking for something new or different.

Every Monday is "Tiki Night" with a special menu featuring wood-grilled food and fun cocktails. We were quickly seated outside at large, covered picnic tables so we could enjoy the live music (a good mix of beach tunes with enough Sublime and Bob Marley covers to offset Jimmy Buffett and Eagles). Having this option was great for us since we still prefer to eat outside due to COVID. Our server, Chris, was new but didn't miss a beat - he was super friendly and checked on us frequently, as did other staff to make sure we were enjoying everything.

We started with crab dip and house-made chips and oak-smoked chicken wings - both were outstanding and the portions felt just right. For drinks, they brought us complimentary champagne (for my wife's birthday), and we tried a solid hazy DIPA from Precarious Brewing (also highly recommend visiting since they're owned by Amber Ox and located right around the corner) and a bourbon-based cocktail, "There's Always Money in the Banana Stand" (Bowman Brothers bourbon, St. Elizabeth allspice dram, and a delicious "banana bread" syrup). It tasted like vacation but wasn't overwhelmingly sweet, so I could still taste (and feel) the bourbon.

For our main plates, we went with a beet salad, tomato toast (house-made sourdough toast, eggplant goat cheese spread, fresh tomatoes, onions and micro greens), and we split the venison rack from the tiki menu. Everything was top notch - ingredients were fresh and worked well together and the venison was juicy and tender with a well-balanced smoky flavor. My only criticism would be that the venison seemed closer to medium well to well-done, though I never specified a preference for doneness, so that's entirely on me.

Thanks again to everyone at Amber Ox for all the hard work and passion that goes into your food and for helping to make my wife's birthday a special night! We definitely plan to come back for another Tiki night. Or maybe Chicken and Waffle Night? Smash...