Reviews for Amara Madison in Madison, WI
Everything about Amara was wonderful! Fantastic service by our server, Jillian, and others who were attentive by ensuring our... table was clear of dishes we were done with. The food and wine were phenomenal! We had all vegetarian fare and left feelingfull. The restaurant acoustics are such that it feels lively but we could still hold a conversation easily at the table withouthaving to talk loudly as restaurants frequently are. Amara provided a wonderful evening for our anniversary! I\'m excited tohave such a lovely restaurant on this side of town. Read more
Just finished dinner at Amara on a Monday night and we were thoroughly impressed! The decor and bar area was beautiful and... clean. We ended up arriving early for our reservation and got drinks at the bar; my only complaint the entire night was how longdrinks took. The bar wasn’t completely full and there were 6 staff behind the counter but drinks took >20 minutes to receive.I had to go to my table as my fiancé finally received the drinks and brought them over. That’s the amount of time I’dexpect for an entree, not necessarily a cocktail. No point in waiting at the bar then! Cocktails were also pricey, but tastedamazing! Think $40 for two cocktails plus tip.\n\nWe started with the fried mozzarella balls - pretty straight forward and donewell! There was a slight amount of spice at the end that made them different than other similar appetizers like that I’ve hadbefore. We then split the avocado bruschetta, i can’t recommend this enough! The grilled bread alone was probably one of myfavorite parts of the nights (this isn’t even something I’m usually drawn to)- perfect amount of char, salt, and crispness.The bruschetta does come deconstructed, something I wouldn’t normally prefer, but it totally worked and made sense with thedish. We then split the cacio e pepe and chicken agrodolce and WOW you need to try both. The pasta was perfectly al denté andhonestly better than Food Fight’s Cento in downtown Madison. The chicken had perfectly crispy skin and was super moist. Therewere perfect levels of salt and acidity in both dishes. Unlike cocktails, the meal came out extremely quick.\n\nOur bartenders,wait staff, and hostess were extremely friendly and helpful. I would recommend a reservation even on a weekday night. Most everyplate is meant to share if wanted. I will definitely be coming back soon! Read more
My friend and I had dinner at Amara on a Friday night, we were pretty excited to eat here based on the reviews! Also the... restaurant and bar were packed when we arrived so we thought it’d be a great experience. Unfortunately we felt a bit slightedby one of the staff members. Everyone else was incredible! But this staff member made us feel unwelcomed and chastised how weordered our dinner. We decided to eat at the bar, we placed our appetizers and asked to check back in with us in 10-15 minuteswhile we decided our main dishes with our bartender. We had another staff member approach us to let us know that’s not how theservice is completed at Amara and we should have been ready to place our whole order. It was relayed to us that we are meant tohave a fast dining experience in order for other patrons to order. It felt extremely uncomfortable and weird for us, weapologized for our mistake and said we didn’t realize we were meant to order everything at once. It just felt really strangeto us because we were 2 of only a few people of color in attendance, unsure if it was just us who were meant to be rushed.Anyway! Hoping that the service improves and that the atmosphere doesn’t feel constricted for some of its customers. Read more
First time trying this place and honestly we were impressed, especially considering they just opened a week ago. We went for... their date night, which is a starter, an order of bruschetta and a shareable pasta and bottle of wine. The endive and arugulasalad was first and a very large portion, which we were thrilled about, and the dressing and composition of the salad wasimpeccable -- did not expect fennel or such a well balanced lemon vinaigrette but it was superb. Next was the eggplantbruschetta, which if you\'re expecting to be pre assembled, is not the case. We didn\'t mind it because we enjoyed scooping thetoppings onto the toast ourselves, but be forewarned it\'s not your typical bruschetta in that respect. The toast though wasreally nice, big thick sliced with lots of oil and a nice crust. The beef cheek ragu pasta was PERFECTLY cooked, the perfectamount of al dente, and the sauce was perfection, not watery and very flavorful but not overpowering. The beef was phenomenal.The sharable portion was pretty small though, we actually wondered if we were served the individual portion instead of thesharable size. Because we were still hungry and out of curiosity, we ordered the bucatini Nero in the smaller size, which wasalso very well done though the squid in the dish was minimal and the portion size was similar to what we got before. We also gotthe burnt ricotta cake for dessert, which for someone who doesn\'t even like chocolate cake, was very impressive and delicious.Overall we were very impressed with the food, and the wine was also well paired with what we ordered.\nThe only minor criticismsI had were on the service, I expected the wine to be opened and poured for us. I also expected fresh ground pepper to be offeredwhen the pasta was served. Also, dinner took 2.5 hours between all our courses, although it admittedly didn\'t seem that longwhile we were eating! The portioning of the pasta for date night also left something to be desired, and if that w Read more
We had a great dining experience at Amara. The vibe is right. We like the music and the decor. The food tastes great and the... service is fantastic. We will certainly come back. Read more
Excellent first experience at Amara! The drink selection is extensive, the food was on par with local Madison restaurants, as... was the price, and the service at lunchtime was much better than average. The decor was fresh/new and pleasant. We ordereddessert \"off menu\" and they delivered better than some of their one menu items- get the affogato. Read more
Good experience here dining on opening night at Amara in Hilldale. Excited that hilldale has another restaurant and a fine... dining option! Great atmosphere and a beautiful interior. Staff is friendly and we experienced great service. They have a nicehappy hour on drinks only which is super nice and half off a great selection of drinks M-F 2-6pm which is welcomed all over therestaurant:) we ordered the cheese board, gnocchi, and crispy skin pork porchetta. Everything was tasty and excellent. Cheeseboard was a little on the smaller side but was still tasty, just not my palet ( I like mustard and olives with cheese-in whichthis came with honey and peppers). Gnocchi and pork were AMAZING! Only downside to the experience was that we were seatedliterally right next to another couple when the entire restaurant was empty ????….so it was a little weird when it was silentand had to sit super close to another group when we could have been spaced out a little when everywhere around us was empty. Soyes tables are super close to each other which is fine but didn’t understand why we had to sit on top of each other when therewas so much room in the beginning! Just side note which drew from the experience a little. Overall great food and service, woulddefinitely recommend! Read more
Just had dinner at Amara for the first time this past Friday night with a friend visiting from out of town. The atmosphere and... decor is lovely and the customer service was fantastic. However, in my honest opinion, the prices are quite high for the portionsizes. Our drinks were standard prices but very small for what we were expecting (glass of wine not even at half). We got thesame entrees which were the spinach and ricotta gnocchi and asked one of the waitresses if this was the small portion because wedidn\'t want to pay for the large if they gave us the small by mistake but it turned out to be the \"large\". We ended up goingsomewhere else afterwards to get more food since we were still hungry and they were closing. Overall, the ambiance was nice andso was the customer service, but not sure if the portion sizes are worth the price. Read more