€€€€ • Steakhouse • McAllen
I am at Ambra, and this is one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to.
Basically, the best of modern-day concepts made popular in places like Miami, Las Vegas, and Mykonos, without the vapid, vacation-like reverberation that spoils so many of those places.
Ambra, despite its intense status as a battleground of the bimborie, delivers a genuinely delicious menu. It’s well-constructed and tempered by magnificent genius. It is as Habibi as it is Mexican, and Mexican it is.
Unlike its offensive and decaying peers like STK and company, Ambra is clearly committed to a mission. Whatever this mission is, it is drilled into the servers. Ours, America, was a most charming emissary of it.
McAllen, Texas, is not necessarily a fine-dining hub, despite having classes of people who can throw bands down with the rest of them. I am not familiar with the origins of Ambra, but it is definitely worthy of being a place to aspire to eat at.
The charred beets and labneh paired with the lamb lollipops are a seriously in-love couple, and it’s obvious that the kitchen has executed aggressively well on these and other dishes thousands upon thousands of times.
The food is really serious and stunning. Share it, eat it all. Nothing on the menu is lying to you.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Ambra is fun. The drinks menu is extravagant, and it’s where the full flamboyance of Miami vibes is unabashedly put forward and shown to you, like a short skirt.
You can be with your raucous friends next to a family celebrating their second-oldest’s birthday, and it’s fine. Maybe it’s because they’re also having a great time, too. Maybe it’s because it’s in McAllen. Maybe it’s because we are Mexican.
Either way, it’s happening at Ambra, and this food is special. And again, make sure to ask for America.
