Baltic Amber - Clearwater, FL

Date: August 31, 2011
Time: Dinner/Drinks
Type: Restaurant
Where: 552 Clearwater Largo Road North, Clearwater, FL
Party: Two adults

Immediate Impression:
What a quaint place with an awesome deck!

Service:
Obviously this is a family business, must have been the husband or the brother, he didn't speak much English but was really helpful and thorough.

While waiting for our food, we stepped out onto the deck - which I think would be an awesome place for a Biergarten - the owner came out to have us sample her homemade Polish Pizza. It was fantastic - I was impressed not only with her cooking but also her congeniality.

Make sure you have patience, everything is cooked to order, so you will be waiting for your food. They told us 25 minutes for our entree but it was really about 20.

Menu/Food:
YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!
It is NOT easy to find amazing Polish food in Clearwater, or the entire Tampa Bay for that matter! This is truly authentic amazing cooking!

Since I have a $25 gift certificate, good only if I spent $35, we splurged on an appetizer, and I am soooooo glad we did. We ordered the "SMALL" Hot Sampler....not sure why it was considered small!

The Sampler came with 2 Pierogies (two potato one meat), two stuffed cabbage with both mushroom and tomato sauce, and 7" Kielbasa over onions and kraut. Everything was absolutely amazing and obviously homemade. The Pierogies melted in your mouth and the stuffed cabbage seemed to explode with flavor...plus I am a huge fan of kraut. I couldn't believe I still had dinner coming...but when my dinner plate hit the table, it took about 3 minutes to wipe the smile off my face:)

I ordered the Pork Shank, which was fall off the bone delectable. Mind you, it comes with all the fat a shank should have, but once you peeled that back, the meat was super succulent and flavorful. I really couldn't enjoy much of the sides because of health reasons, but the mashed potatoes were fresh.

My friend order the Beef Stroganow. Again, yummy! The meat was tender and the mushroom sauce was not over-powering. Plus he got these little potato dumplings which were amazing!

We had enough food left over for lunch the next day. We were stuffed!

We didn't eat dessert, but we did imbibe! They serve 3 Polish Beers, I highly recommend the Kopernik.


Allegren Info: For those with allergies, bring a translator or at least a phone which translates. Their were no big surprises, but better to be safe than sorry.

Price: Entrees will run you around $15 each, but they do have a $6.99 lunch menu and I read something about all you can eat Pierogies.

Final thought: I will definitely be back...the food was amazing, the service excellent, the atmosphere comfortable. All in all a great local restaurant with superb food.