Ambeli Greek Taverna
“They have traditional Greek music playing, helpful staff and yummy olive bread too.”
“We ordered the horiatiki salad, octopus app, garides sharas, and gyro platter between two people.”
“Chris, the owner, made sure to ask everyone how their meal was and he was sincerely interested in getting to the know the patrons.”
Ambeli Greek Taverna
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Usually go across street for Middle Eastern but decided to try this new Greek place. Started with good feta with excellent olive oil and bread. The eggplant salad was a bit too tart- perhaps even "off" a bit. But my salmon was done perfectly. It was crisp on the outside and completely moist on the inside. One of the best pieces of salmon I've ever had. Desserts of baklava and galactoburiko were superb. Again, one of the best baklavas I've had.
Amazing!!! I came herewith one friend on a Saturday night. We didn't know much about it and failed to make a reservation. The owner greeted us at the door and was able to find us a table among the many reserved ones. The food was delicious. It's authentic Greek with great options. I can't wait to go back and try more. This place definitely fits right into Cranford!
Ridiculously bad food. Really really bad execution. This is one of the poorest excuses for Greek food that I have ever experienced in a very long time. The normally tasty garlicky cucumber yogurt spread was neither garlicky or thick like they used cheap yogurt or yogurt that was never drained, just really poorly executed tzatziki.
The chicken that came on the salad was cold to the touch like it just came from a fridge and the worst gyro platter that I've ever had in my life. The street cart gyro's in NYC are better than this place.
The gyro meat was served in these thick cuts of soft meat with the texture of spam right out of the can, no char on it at all.
Once again NJ foodies prove how poor NJ foodie palates are. You would be out of your mind to give this place anything above 2 stars.
I bumped the review back up to two stars as the owner tried to make amends for the poor takeout.
I noted I appreciated this, but it does not change the fact that the photos other folks have taken show that the gyro is served in spam like chunks vs slices.
Food is good and it's BYOB so there's that. I ordered the meat combo platter, friends ordered the Brazino and the chicken slouvaki. As appetizers, we ordered the grilled shrimp, octopus and hummus. All of the food was good to very good. I was especially pleased with the octopus.
My only gripe is that the value was not there. For $6, the hummus appetizer was maybe a big dollop of hummus with 6 pieces of vegetables surrounding the dollop. For about $20 for the chicken slouvaki, it was 2 skewers fries and a small side salad and pita bread. I personally feel like a bigger portion size would be nice.
Gripes aside, it is a nice restaurant with good food and friendly waiters.
I work way too close to this restaurant, so i've stopped by here for take out on a number of different occasions. I walk in now, and one of the waiters shouts out "Gyro sandwich!"
Most of the time i pick up lunch from here. The Gyro sandwich is really good – a decent size, great flavor, and some very fresh and ripe tomatoes! It also comes with some greek fries, and a small cup of the lemon chicken soup.
we've tried some other items from the menu, including the hummus, chicken, greek sausage and the meatballs.
Everything is good. Favorites are the greek sausage, the meatballs, and the gyro!
We were impressed by our first visit here. Very friendly owner and staff; very good salad and salmon; good souvlaki; very good baklava.
BYO and reasonably priced–no wonder it has quickly become very popular, Do not go without a reservation–waits can be very long!
Wow. This place really exceeded my expectations! I've already been back a couple times and can't wait for my next visit.
The food is just awesome. As far as appetizers go, the Ambeli chips and the spanakopita are my favorite so far. The tzatziki dip is probably the best I've ever had.
The salmon entree was, hands down, THE BEST salmon I've ever eaten. Holy cow, it was huge! I couldn't finish it, but the seasoning was so on point and the char really added to the flavor.
We came with friends both times and everyone said great things about their food.
The service is quick and efficient. The owner really goes out of his way to make sure all of his guests are accommodated. He does a lot of the hosting/seating himself, so although they aren't taking reservations at this time, he went out of his way for us to make sure we didn't have to wait. We called ahead to attempt a reservation and he took our number and desired time and gave us a call when a table was available around that time. It helps that we only live a couple minutes away so we didn't leave him waiting for long.
The only, small negative thing is that there is no where to stand inside for waiting guests, which is probably why the owner is so accommodating over the phone. In the nice weather, you can wait outside, however in the colder temps, that's less desirable. It's a small space, so not much can be expected. Joanie's had the same issue when this was a diner.
I am giving it a 4 based on the force of Chris the owner's large size personality. A real charming fellow working very hard to make his business succeed. Loved chatting with him.
Prior to this though I was torn between a 3 and a 4. The food was very good but not necessarily spectacular and at times the waiter was hard to find. For example, I should not have had to ask for a water refill on 2 separate occasions. Other than that he was very helpful.
The salads were good especially the tomatoes in the Hortaki Salad. I enjoyed my grilled pork chop served with a side of spinach. My wife was OK with her seafood dish. She actually wanted to order a fish that the waiter said they could filet but could not guarantee there wouldn't be bones in it. Is a lawyer running the kitchen? She decided to pass on the fish.
Even if I didn't like the food, I would go back again just to chat up Chris!!!