Having missed a lecture at the Asia Society two nights ago, my radiant female companion and I decided to stop into Ammo for (what we thought would be) a pleasant drink and maybe dinner. We’d heard the hype of this place before and had been intending to make reservations for dinner there, but as we were right next door, we figured that this would be a good time to pop in to check it out. The tables were full, but there was space for us at the bar.
We first noticed it is certainly ‘intimate’, but with a pleasing brass-themed aesthetic. The bar is quite beautiful, though the bar top is so high that the bar chairs are amongst the highest I’ve ever witnessed. Be careful sitting on these after your climb, lest you fall off and sprain an ankle or break a hip. And interestingly, there are few places to put your feet – a very important part of maintaining comfort when sitting up so high. I have broken my back a couple of times and the ability to adequately support my feet, high or low, is something I do value immensely as it adds tremendously to the comfort level and the ability to sit for relatively long periods.
After our ascent up the barstools, we ordered a glass of wine and a cheese board. The wine list is not bad and the cheese board is sufficient enough for two people (though my charming companion was emphatic that Parmesan cheese has no place on a cheeseboard – personally, it seemed a nice complement to the softs and I have bigger battles to fight in this world). The cheeseboard was adorned with a small cluster of grapes, but, surprisingly, the grapes were rather dirty and pathetic looking, so much so that I hand rubbed each clean with a napkin before giving them to my lovely companion.
A few minutes after the climb up to the seat of our barstools, we both could not help but notice how bright the interior was – which was so interesting, considering the detail to the aesthetic, they would light the place up like a warehouse. The lighting is so bright, it literally becomes painful. To the staff we hinted a few times, and then asked explicitly, to turn the lights down; however, they insisted that the lights would only go down after 930, once they stopped dinner service. Sadly for us, it was barely 730 and, on uncomfortable stools in such a painfully bright environment, we elected to just have the one drink and then leave lest our eyes start watering from discomfort.
I have to say, prior to this encounter it had not occurred to me to join or post on OpenRice, however, this brief encounter compelled me to join Openrice to share our experience. Had we waited two months to finally get a table, I think we would have been rather disappointed – granted, we did not eat the food (I cannot say how it tastes, but I can say that it cannot be missed under those lights). So, these tiny details could have made our experience much more enjoyable:
1. Softer/dimmer lighting
2. The barstools are tall and beautiful, but they could use a few pragmatic fixes to make them more comfortable
3. Definitely more attention to cleanliness/aesthetics of the tiny little grape clusters goes on a cheeseboard – (I mean, seriously, we’re only talking about 6-8 grapes here) – they shouldn’t look like the rejects of Wellcome.
4.Maybe a close proxy for Parmesan on the cheeseboard – but this is not a deal breaker.
With these little points addressed, I could see potentially going back before 9:30. However, without any changes, I would only stop by again if I was invited by someone else and didn’t have the opportunity to suggest something else or happened to be within 20 metres of the establishment after 9:30 and was craving an immediate glass of wine. Will certainly not wait five minutes, let alone two months, for dinner reservations – unless I hear they’ve addressed some of these tiny details.
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