Ember & Cork - Schenectady (NY)

5 /5 Jay Villeneuve: An excellent meal with delicious cocktails. I normally dont order chicken when Im out so I can try stuff I wouldnt have at home, but the sides of parsnip puree and chorizo hash convinced me. And I am very glad I had it! Every part of the dish went together amazingly and the chicken wasnt something were making at home like that. Osso bucco was delicious and linguine and clams got two thumbs up.

2 /5 Nan Han: We really wanted to like this place and were looking forward to trying it out after reading all the good reviews. The seating was fine, and our server was very kind and accommodating. Unfortunately, the food was disappointing across the board, especially given the prices. For starters, we ordered the bone marrow, which was greasy and lacked flavor—the only redeeming part was the sauce it came with. The foie gras was also underwhelming: cold, blocky, and oddly fishy, with a texture that felt off. I was expecting something creamy and rich, but it fell short. The beet salad was just okay. For mains, the ragu was overwhelmingly salty. We sent it back after a single bite, though the chef insisted the pecorino cheese was to blame—we knew it wasn’t just the cheese. The chicken dish was fine, but nothing memorable. Overall, the flavor profiles across the menu felt repetitive, and nothing truly stood out. The drinks were equally unimpressive—ordinary at best and mostly watered down with ice. To make matters worse, the atmosphere was disrupted by a loud customer at the bar, and the staff did nothing to address it. Given how expensive everything was, the quality simply didn’t match the price point. In the end, the whole experience left us underwhelmed.

5 /5 Robert Ellis: Impressively eclectic and well executed menu. It inckudes raw oysters, king crab legs, lions mane mushroom "crab" cake, steak frites, civiche and as my vegetarian step daughter likes to say, has "options". Most of the hot dishes spend at least some time in a wood fired oven to good effect. That is part of what made the chicken dish special. Cocktails equally impressive. We sat near the bar and could see bartenders attention to detail. E.g., even really good bars often cant seem to make a decent side car. Hers was memorable. The dining room was pleasant. Service professional. Happy hour menu looked good. All in we had a great time and would return when in Schenectady.

5 /5 Kristen Kiehart: Fabulous visit to Ember & Cork. It was a group of 4, 3 of whom had never been before including myself. The Espresso Martini was not on the menu but they were able to make it. For appetizers, we ordered the oysters and burrata and prosciutto toast. I did not try the oysters but the others said they were good. I would order the toast again. For my entree I ordered the steak frites. One of the best steaks I’ve ever had. Perfectly cooked to medium rare. Had a lovely crust on it. For dessert, we shared the bread pudding with salted caramel gelato, burnt basque cheesecake and pear fritters. All three were delicious but the bread pudding was the standout. I highly recommend ordering it. Also have to mention our server Frank who was lovely and very attentive. We had a lot of questions, if there was something he didn’t know he was very quick to find out the answer and was very thorough.

3 /5 Clive Ricketts: I have been to the restaurant several times in which they typically were good experiences. This was by far the worst experience I had there. Starting off, they have one server it seems managing both side of dining. She was kind, attentive and doing her best. My issue was we’ve placed our appetizer and main course at the same time per their standards. We were one of 2 groups initially dining in that section, within an hour, 4 sets of people came in and were seated. Everyone surrounding us received their food, appetizers and entree prior to us receiving our food. We tried to have patience until people who came after us were requesting their bill prior to us receiving our food. The food is usually really tasty but with service like this I may have to refrain from going again.