Lunch, Brunch, and Weeknight Dinners: Planning Your Visit to Cherry Amber in Plainview

A Kitchen Built Around More Than One Tradition

Walking into Cherry Amber on Old Country Road, the menu scope is the first thing that asks for your attention. This isn't a restaurant organized around a single culinary lane. The kitchen operates across modern Chinese cooking, pan-Asian flavors, sushi preparation, dim sum, and hibachi — a range that reflects a deliberate philosophy rather than an attempt to please everyone at once.

The restaurant describes its approach with a phrase worth taking seriously: a Modern Long Island point of view. That framing matters. It positions Cherry Amber not as a replication of any single regional cuisine but as a place filtering pan-Asian technique through the sensibility of a Long Island dining room. Paired with two other commitments the restaurant names outright — wok fired daily and made to share — that positioning shapes what you actually find on the table.

Wok-fired cooking is not just a technique note. It implies heat management, timing, and a kitchen that produces dishes to order rather than holding them. The "made to share" principle pushes the experience toward something more social than a standard entrée-per-person format. Understanding these two pillars makes navigating the menu much easier, particularly if you're visiting with a group.

How the Menu Is Organized — and What That Means for How You Order

The menu at Cherry Amber is genuinely broad, covering dim sum and small plates, kitchen entrées, hibachi, Wok N' Grill signature dishes, sushi starters, à la carte sushi and sashimi, chef special rolls, classic and hand rolls, noodles, soups, salads, and appetizers. That list can look overwhelming at a glance, but the sections have internal logic.

Dim sum and small plates function as the sharing-forward entry point — dishes sized to circulate around the table rather than anchor a single diner. The Wok N' Grill section sits at the intersection of the kitchen's stated strengths: wok heat and a grill element. Hibachi occupies its own category, suggesting a different cooking experience from the broader kitchen output.

On the sushi side, it's worth knowing that à la carte sushi is listed as one piece and sashimi as two pieces. That's a detail that affects how you build an order, especially if you're mixing rolls with individual nigiri or sashimi selections. Some sushi dinner entrées come with soup or salad, which can shape how you sequence a full meal.

For guests with dietary concerns or food allergies, the menu carries an explicit advisory: some items are served raw or undercooked and may contain raw meat, fish, shellfish, or fresh shell eggs. Anyone with food allergies is directed to speak with the owner, manager, chef, or server before ordering — a practical step worth taking rather than skipping.

Lunch as Its Own Event

One of the more underappreciated aspects of Cherry Amber's schedule is the lunch program. Weekday lunch service runs Monday through Friday from 11 AM to 3:30 PM, holidays excluded, and it branches into four distinct formats: Kitchen Lunch Specials, Noodle & Fried Rice Lunch, Lunch Bento Boxes, and a Japanese Lunch category.

The bento box format in particular makes weekday lunch a practical option for solo diners or anyone eating on a tighter schedule — it provides structure and portion clarity that open-menu ordering doesn't always offer. The Japanese Lunch category suggests that sushi and related items are available in a dedicated lunch context, not just as evening fare.

Happy hour runs daily from noon to 6 PM at the bar, which creates an interesting overlap with afternoon lunch on weekdays. The bar program and food menu are accessible during the same window, making the mid-afternoon visit more versatile than it might appear.

Weekends, Brunch, and Reasons to Linger

Cherry Amber extends the experience well beyond weekday lunch and standard dinner service. The experiences side of the restaurant includes weekend brunch, a seafood boil, private events, and cocktails — formats that push the visit toward something more occasion-oriented.

Weekend hours reflect that broader ambition: Friday and Saturday service runs until 11 PM, and Sunday opens at noon rather than 11 AM, with service through 10 PM. The Sunday noon start aligns naturally with a brunch-into-afternoon format. The hands-on seafood boil listed among the restaurant's experiences is a specifically different kind of meal — interactive, communal, and suited to a group willing to slow down.

For private events and celebrations, the Plainview location on Old Country Road provides a defined space that can accommodate planned gatherings rather than walk-in tables only. That option sits alongside the daily bar program, making Cherry Amber a location that functions differently depending on the day of the week and the size of the party.

Whether the reason is a quick bento at lunch, a shared spread of dim sum and wok-fired dishes on a weeknight, or a longer weekend meal that drifts into cocktails, the structure of Cherry Amber's menu and schedule is built to accommodate more than one version of the same outing.