Ambrose - Exeter

Moves to the top of my favorite restaurants! Truly one of the most delightful dining experiences. The food and cocktails are fantastic; the atmosphere is charming, warm and sophisticated- as are the chef and owner! Bravo!!

What a lovely dining experience my husband and I enjoyed last night at Ambrose. From the beautiful old world home it is in, to the lovely Holiday decorations and soft music playing.We were greeted by Jaime who explained several of the tapas choices, their ingredients with some from Chef Stanley's country of El Salvador.Chef Stanley cooked and delivered each tapas we tried.The flavor profiles of all the tapas we tried were wonderful and we had a lovely evening. Drinks were well made, dessert also.It is a hidden gem in Exeter that we will be returning to .Thank you Jaime and Chef Stanley.Donna and Eric

Visited last evening Dec 21. We had great service and the food was delicious! The tapas concept is wonderful lots of choice and each plate was enough to be shared with the four of us. Highly recommend.

We found Ambrose when looking for a restaurant for our anniversary dinner that was: 1) closer to home than Portsmouth and, 2) not the typical New Hampshire fine dining spot. We were very glad that we found this charming little restaurant. We were greeted warmly by chef Stanley and seated in the elegant 6 table dining room (reservations are strongly suggested), there is an outdoor patio which was closed for the season. As this was our first visit, chef Stanley explained that Ambrose has a seasonal tapas menu and that each person usually selects 2-3 dishes to share, with the first 3 dishes on the menu sized as 'individual ' servings. What followed was, hands down, the best New Hampshire restaurant meal in our nearly 30 years of living here. We began with two excellent craft cocktails, expertly concocted by Chef Stanley and then shared 4 dishes and a dessert. We started with the Farm Salad and Dates wrapped in bacon (one of the smaller plates). The salad was fresh and tasty with a delicious honey vinaigrette dressing and was enough for the two of us to share. The Dates consisted of 4 bacon wrapped dates, stuffed with an almond and baked with spiced butter and served over a sour chili cream, they were warm and delicious. Our remaining shared 'entrees ' were equally delicious. We had the Bacalao (salted cod) served with potato and gruyere and crostini, and the Braised Beef Short Rib served over parsnip puree and roasted delicata squash. We finished our excellent meal with the Autumn Cloud dessert and an espresso. The owner of the Inn, Jaime, stopped by and we had a pleasant conversation about Ambrose (it has been open for 2 years), the Inn and the dining experience. We are definitely looking forward to returning to Ambrose to try the other dishes that caught our eye and to see what dishes chef Stanley creates on his next seasonal menu.

We were really looking forward to the food, but left unimpressed. The manager came over to ask if we had put our order in and when we said we had not, he just left to get another server which took far too long. The ambiance on the patio was comfortable, though the music choice a bit odd. What was really off-putting was having two dogs running throughout the outside patio and then sitting next to the table begging for food. We are dog lovers, but when paying their prices I would expect a little more professionalism from management.