The Bar at the Ambassador

I visited this restaurant about 2 weeks ago.  The decor is very nice.  Black walls with red chairs, and a very nice bar area.  I felt very cozy as we sat down to begin our ordering.  We started with the alligator balls which were very good.  I thought the presentation could have been a little more colorful, but they were good.  I was very disappointed with my sandwich and the entree my friend ordered.  I got the shrimp sandwich.  It was fried popcorn shrimp and a hoagie bun.  Then a sad piece of lettuce and tomato were put on the side.  The plate was nice but  I had cocktail and tarter sauce in clear plastic containers on the side.  Along with the sandwich came chips....they were clearly Sun Chips.  I felt like it was very tacky.  I barely ate half of it, and didn't touch the sad hoagie.

My friend ordered the special that night.  He had horseradish crusted salmon.  The salmon was rubbery and the mash potatoes that came with it tasted like they came out of a box.  He received a basket of bread with his meal.  The bread was white toast....literally.  It was sandwich bread with no oil or herbs on it.  Very bland and gross.  It reminded me of when I have the stomach flu and I start nibbling on dry toast to see if I can keep food down.  We both split a side of the coleslaw because it comes with all the entrees. ( FYI - all the entrees came with fries and coleslaw...made me think of Joe's Crab Shack. And the entrees were the same price as the sandwiches???)  The coleslaw was very bland and way too creamy.  Lastly, we ordered dessert.  The pecan torte....it was very cold and hard and had a sad scoop of vanilla ice cream next to it.  The torte looked like it came out of a Sara Lee box....and it was $7.95!!!  I saw a review in the IBJ and talked about a chef from Louisiana.....ummmmm, I'm not sure he was present that night.  I felt like the food I ate was something I would cook up late night years ago after I smoked a big bowl of ganja.

I think it is sad that downtown is offering something so awful....it gives Indianapolis a bad name.  Oh and the server was weird.  Very weird and not knowledgable....would ask us a question then walk off before we could answer.  I wouldn't go back if I had a gift certificate there.