If your idea of a good night out involves great food, cocktails, moody lighting and vinyl spinning in the background, you’re going to want to know about Amber.
Newly opened in Gastown, Amber is a listening bar in Vancouver built around the idea of slowing down, settling in and actually listening to the music. There are no Spotify playlists quietly filling the background here. Amber spins vinyl exclusively through a vintage hi-fi sound system, creating a warm, intimate space where the soundtrack feels just as considered as what’s coming out of the kitchen.
It’s the kind of place that works for whatever the night calls for: a romantic date night in Gastown, cocktails and oysters with friends, a long-overdue catch-up or dinner somewhere that feels a little more interesting than your usual restaurant reservation.
And while the listening-bar concept might be what initially gets you through the door, the food gives you plenty of reason to stay.
Quick Facts: Amber Listening Bar Vancouver
What: Vinyl listening bar and restaurant
Where: 99 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC
Neighbourhood: Gastown
Cuisine: Pacific Northwest-inspired / sharing plates
Known for: Vinyl, vintage hi-fi, raw bar, cocktails and communal dining
Good for: Date night, cocktails, dinner with friends and a fun experience in Gastown
Closed: Tuesdays
What Is a Listening Bar?
If you’ve never been to a listening bar before, the easiest way to describe it is somewhere the music isn’t treated as background noise.
Amber takes inspiration from the Japanese listening-bar tradition, where carefully selected records and high-quality audio equipment are an integral part of the experience. At Amber, everything is played on vinyl through a vintage hi-fi system.
The result isn’t a nightclub where you’re shouting across the table. It feels much more intentional.
The room is warm and intimate, the lighting is low, and the music is noticeable without completely taking over your conversation. It gives you something to listen to, talk about and experience together.
A Romantic Date Night in Gastown
There’s something about Amber that makes you want to settle in and stay awhile.
The lighting is low, vinyl is spinning and the room has this warm, intimate energy that feels effortlessly cool without trying too hard. It’s the kind of place that works for a lot of different occasions.
Date night? Absolutely. But I could just as easily see myself coming here for cocktails and oysters with friends, a long-overdue catch-up, or dinner when you want the night to feel like more than just another restaurant reservation.
That’s really where Amber stands out among Gastown restaurants. The listening-bar concept gives you something to experience while you eat and drink. You can order a few things from the raw bar, settle in with a cocktail, see what’s spinning and let the night unfold from there. It feels intimate without being exclusively romantic, and lively without becoming somewhere you have to yell across the table.
For me, that’s the sweet spot.
Start at the Raw Bar
We started our evening with a few things from Amber’s raw bar, which feels like the appropriate way to settle into the space.
There were oysters, because oysters and date night are basically made for each other.
We also tried the Marinated Chilled Mussels, served with smoked tomato water, yuzu and shiso. I loved how different this was from the hot, broth-heavy mussel preparations you typically see. Serving them chilled made the mussels feel much lighter, while the smoked tomato water brought this subtle savoury quality against the brightness of the yuzu and shiso.
Nexto those were the Poached Spot Prawns ($4 each) with green goddess aioli and lemon. Simple? Yes. But when you’re working with an ingredient as good as BC spot prawns, you really don’t need to do much to them. The prawns were chilled and sweet, with the creamy, herbaceous green goddess aioli adding just enough richness.
The Communal Chef’s Tasting
For dinner, we decided to hand things over to the kitchen with Amber’s Communal Chef’s Tasting, available for a minimum of two people at $65 per person.
I love this kind of menu when I’m trying a restaurant for the first time. Instead of spending 20 minutes debating what to order (and inevitably wanting half the menu anyway) you let the kitchen decide what they want you to eat. The exact dishes can change, but our dinner included five courses served family style.
Endswell Tomato Salad
We started with the Endswell Tomato Salad, featuring Bowen Island tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, stracciatella, purple basil, yuzu vinaigrette, crispy rice and flaky salt.
This was summer on a plate. The tomatoes were sweet and juicy, stracciatella added that creamy richness, and the yuzu vinaigrette brought enough acidity to keep everything bright. But I especially loved the crispy rice.
Against all those soft, juicy ingredients, those little pops of crunch made the salad so much more interesting. It’s the kind of dish that sounds simple on paper but reminds you how good tomatoes can actually taste when they’re at their peak.
Beef Tartare
Next came the Beef Tartare with classic garnishes, yuzu-compressed kohlrabi, pickled garlic scapes, Pecorino Romano and salt & vinegar chips.
And yes, you read that last part correctly. Salt & vinegar chips. Instead of the toast or crostini you’d typically expect alongside tartare, the chips brought crunch, salt and that sharp vinegary tang against the richness of the beef. Fun to eat and even better to share.
Duck Breast
The Duck Breast was easily one of the richer dishes of the evening.
It arrived with smoked cherry jus, hakurei turnip, charred spring onions, sunchoke purée, white sesame cracker and yuzu.
Duck and fruit is obviously a classic combination, but the smoked cherry jus took things in a deeper direction. You still got that sweetness against the richness of the duck, but with a smoky quality that made the dish feel a little darker and more complex. The creamy sunchoke purée added another layer of richness, while turnip, spring onion and yuzu helped cut through it. This was definitely one of those dishes where you wanted a little bit of everything in each bite.
Flowering Cauliflower
One thing I always appreciate is when the vegetable dish doesn’t feel like the vegetable dish.
The Flowering Cauliflower came with black sesame and coconut purée, shoyu and lime vinaigrette, and coconut sesame crunch.
There was so much going on here. Nutty black sesame, creamy coconut, salty shoyu and bright lime. The coconut sesame crunch was also key. It added texture while reinforcing those nutty, toasted flavours running throughout the plate. It was one of the dishes I genuinely wanted another helping of and was the star of the night.
Lemon Posset
Dinner finished with the Lemon Posset, described simply as set cream with macerated local berries and shortbread crumble.
And sometimes simple is exactly what you want. After several savoury courses, the bright acidity of the lemon made this an ideal ending. The posset itself was rich and silky, local berries brought freshness and the shortbread crumble added just enough buttery crunch. Nothing overly complicated. Just a really good dessert to finish the night.
Cocktails Worth Staying For
A listening bar without a good cocktail in hand just wouldn’t feel right, and Amber’s cocktail menu is every bit as considered as the food and music. The drinks lean creative without becoming overly complicated, with familiar classics reworked through unexpected ingredients and plenty of local BC spirits woven into the menu.
Hemingway Gimlet ($18.00)
The Hemingway Gimlet puts a brighter, citrus-forward spin on the classic, combining Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla with Luxardo Maraschino, grapefruit, lime and Sauvignon Blanc saline.
There’s a lot happening in what initially sounds like a relatively simple drink. The combination of orange-forward gin, grapefruit and lime keeps things fresh, while maraschino brings a little extra complexity.
Amber Airplane ($21.00)
With the bar’s name right in the title, we obviously had to try the Amber Airplane.
Amber’s take combines Bearface Triple Oak Whisky with Aperol, Giffard Peach, Averna Amaro, seabuckthorn juice and lemon. It’s a fun lineup of ingredients, balancing whisky and bitter amaro with fruitier peach, seabuckthorn and citrus. The taste is a little unexpected and not quite like something you’d order everywhere else.
Locals Only Negroni ($20.00)
The Locals Only Negroni stays closer to familiar territory but gives the classic an entirely BC-focused treatment. It features Sheringham Beacon Gin alongside Esquimalt Bitter Red and Esquimalt Red Vermouth, finished with saline. If you’re a Negroni drinker, this is a particularly fun way to see a familiar cocktail interpreted almost entirely through local spirits.
Mocha Martini ($16.00)
And then there’s the Mocha Martini, because apparently we weren’t ready for the night to end.
Organic cocoa is infused with Ketel One and combined with Kahlúa and fresh espresso for Amber’s take on an espresso martini. Coffee and chocolate is hardly a risky combination, but sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Rich cocoa, fresh espresso and Kahlúa make this feel somewhere between an after-dinner cocktail and dessert.
Come for the Food, Stay for the Sound
What makes Amber particularly interesting is that none of these elements feel like an afterthought.
It’s not a restaurant that happened to install a record player. Amber describes itself around four pillars: the table, the glass, the needle drops and the room. That philosophy actually makes sense once you’re sitting inside.
The food is designed for sharing. Drinks are meant to be sipped. Vinyl is selected and played by hand. And the room encourages you to linger rather than eat and immediately move on to the next place. In a city where dinner can sometimes feel like a two-hour reservation slot you’re racing against, I really liked that.
Is Amber Listening Bar Worth Visiting?
YES.
Whether you’re planning a romantic date night in Gastown, catching up with friends or simply looking for a fun experience in Gastown that goes beyond dinner and drinks, Amber delivers something a little different.
Amber manages to hit that rare combination of being a fun experience in Gastown while still being somewhere I’d visit purely for the food.
The listening-bar concept makes the night feel more memorable than a standard restaurant reservation, but it doesn’t rely on the novelty of vinyl to carry the experience. The raw bar is excellent, the Chef’s Tasting gives you a proper tour through the kitchen, and the warm, intimate atmosphere makes you want to settle in and stay awhile.
If you’re looking for a listening bar in Vancouver, Amber should absolutely be on your radar. And if you’re simply searching for a romantic date night in Gastown, I’d put it on the list for exactly the same reason.
Amber Gastown
Address: 99 Powell St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1E9
Website: https://www.amber99.com/