Ambar

We wanted to get into the super-trendy Rose's Luxury and in our delusion thought we could show up at 6 on a Saturday night and get in the no-reservation place. After they told us it was a three-hour wait for a table and standing room only at the bar, we retreated to the nearby Ambar, a Balkan restaurant, to mull our options and get a drink.

After an hour of sitting at the friendly bar upstairs, sampling their specialty cocktails and the mezze platter, we checked with Rose's that it would indeed be another two hours before we got a table and decided to eat dinner at Ambar. Our helpful bartender recommended his favorites on the menu, and we ended up getting four small plates and two large plates for our party of four.

The food was outstanding. The cheese pie was creamy beneath a fried crust, the sour cabbage stuffed with diced pork belly was scrumptious, the Brussels sprouts with bacon, lemon and garlic was as good as you would expect. The mixed grill was a gourmet version of the Balkan staple, with homemade sausage and marinated steak, and truly a large plate for two as advertised.. Less convincing were the Wiener schnitzel, for some reason served rolled up, and the roasted mushroom crepes, which seemed uncharacteristically heavy.

I ate at many Balkan restaurants during my time in Germany and I'm not sure too many people in the Balkans eat food quite this refined. Ambar is part of Richard Sandoval's restaurant empire (his El Centro DF is also great).

The Piquentum Malvasia Croatia we sampled first by the glass and then with a bottle was a nice balance of fruity and dry, and a great advertisement for the region. I would skip the slivovitz version of an Old Fashioned the next time around and order either the slivovitz straight or a regular Old Fashioned.