Good to know about the CIA. We are headed up there this Friday with my parents - my dad really wanted to do the tour, so we’re having lunch at Bocuse first. I was more interested in the menu at American Bounty, but I’m sure Bocuse will be lovely. As for the rest of HVRW, I look forward to your reports!
Thanks for posting Misterbill. We may try to get to the Cookery again. I see that the new Farmer and the Fish in Sleepy Hollow is on the list (is it even open yet?). I may check that out as well.
Edit- looks like they are hiring so I guess they’re close: https://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/fbh/d/open-call-new-farmer-and-the/6315902929.html
I keep checking this one as well - glad to know they are finally in the hiring process. I was surprised to see it on the RW list when it’s not open yet.
It sounds like they’ve been having permit problems. Original opening date was last year or the year before I think? Crazy!
How was your CIA visit/lunch?
I posted a full review here, but suffice it to say we were pretty disappointed. Culinary Institute of America Tour and Lunch at Bocuse (NY)
That’s too bad. Maybe I’ll skip Bocuse and just eat at American Bounty, where we’ve had a good lunch in the past.
Several menus are posted on the HVRW site. As usual, many places have posted menus on their websites and not bothered to send them to Valley Table to post.
Monteverde’s (Cortlandt Manor) menu is posted here – http://monteverdeatoldstone.com/images/RestaurantWeekMenu2017.pdf . The worst HVRW meal I ever had was at Monteverde, but that was a couple of owners ago. My daughter was there for a wedding recently and she said the food was good, but not great.
Heritage’s (Wappinger Falls) menu is posted here – https://www.valleytable.com/sites/default/files/HERITAGE_Dinner_F17.pdf . I am debating going there… they seem to have had some problems and have changed chefs and are reworking the menu, and they’re one of the few places up there doing Sunday dinner and I’m looking for a place in the area to have dinner with friends.
The Cookery (Dobbs Ferry) has menus on their site – https://www.thecookeryrestaurant.com/menu/. Amusingly, while the HVRW site says they’re only doing dinner, they have a brunch menu posted.
I checked the Opentable reviews of Roundhouse and they’re not very good, only 3.6/5. Specifically (and in recent ratings) people complain about poor service and several complain about small portions. I can live with smallish portions but I wonder what happens when you compound an existing problem by reducing the price for HVRW (not to mention being busier than normal)?
The Amsterdam’s HVRW menu is posted but it doesn’t excite me.
So… who is going where?
I currently have reservations for Cafe of Love (my daughter really likes it, I can take it or leave it), American Bounty (lunch), Roundhouse, Liberty Street Bistro, Bocuse (lunch, may cancel), and Valley. Roundhouse was supposed to be with some people who haven’t gotten back to me, so that may drop off, especially if I don’t like the menu once they get around to posting it.
I want to go to Crave but am waiting to see their menu, and may cancel Roundhouse if I do not like their menu. I am disappointed that Valley is not doing duck breast this year but it’s still not bad. Their menu is here.
I have been looking for a place to go to the last Sunday. We are meeting friends who live in Millbrook so I was looking for something up there, although they will travel. I am considering Seasons of Piermont (the restaurant formerly known as Xaviars) Their menu is OK but not exciting.
Then there’s Farm to Table Bistro in Fishill, which has one of the better menus that I’ve seen - but reviews on Yelp are decidedly mixed. also in the running is Heritage Food + Drink in Wappingers. Their menu isn’t bad,; reviews are somewhat mixed but I think they had problems when they first opened and have new chefs.
I am finding it harder than ever to find menus this year. We’re a week away from the start and I still can’t find a lot of places, even after looking on their website, Facebook page, etc.
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I agree about the menus, I base much of where I want to go from that. Also, the menus seem so similar to each other. I wish more restaurants would offer some really exciting/experimental dishes to show what they can do. I have been attending less and less of the RW weeks since it started do to lack of diversity/creativity. Anyone else agrees?
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I agree about lack of creativity. I am actually disappointed that Heritage, which keeps posting on Instagram about new dishes created by their new chefs is doing completely different stuff for HVRW. I’d love to try Seasons and if their menu were better, it would be a no-brainer for my Sunday dinner. Farm to Table actually has the best menu I’ve seen and if not for the mediocre reviews I’d definitely go there. Maybe I’ll take a chance on it since it’s the one place I looked at which has stuff both my wife and I are excited about trying.
I know that many restaurants don’t post their menus until the last minute but there are plenty that are MIA which usually would have had them posted by now – Kittle House, Cafe of Love, Crave, etc. Liberty Street Bistro told me they’d post it today but it’s nowhere to be found. And they’re closed on Tuesdays so I am not optimistic about it showing up then.
X and X2O 's menus are posted but they’re the same as in the past.
BTW, Valley Table is doing a pretty sloppy job of posting menus. Madison Kitchen (which I’d also be interested in trying) has what appears to be their normal menu posted as their HVRW menu. Chophouse Grille in Mahopac has their HVRW application posted as their menu, which has all sorts of contact info on it :). Even more amazing is that both have been posted for several days. Maybe less people look at then menus than we think?
I would always made a reservation at Sonora during restaurant week because they always did such a great job, and I really loved their vegetarian paella which was always on the menu. I checked their website and their RR menu is posted, it’s just not posted on the HVRW website. It appears that the ingredients they use to make the vegetarian paella has changed drastically and their cabernet sorbet is not listed but the menu still looks fine. For anyone on the fence about giving RR a shot, if this menu appeals to you I would highly recommend giving them a shot. https://www.sonorarestaurant.net/restaurant-week-menu
I’ve never understood why many restaurants don’t send their menus to the Valley Table, nor do I understand why VT doesn’t make more of an effort to get restaurants to do it.
I just found Kittle House’s menu on their site. Moderne Barn has theirs posted too for anyone who’s interested. I’ve eaten there a couple of times recently at group events and the food was pretty good.
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The food is good at Moderne Barn if you are paying RW prices. Otherwise, they are ridiculously expensive and the service is awful. I will say for a group dinner they do a great job.
I didn’t pay either time I was there for the group dinner, which is probably why I enjoyed it. My wife had the meatballs and said they were excellent and they are on the HVRW menu.
BTW I noticed something odd about Farm to Table Bistro’s menu. Included in their cutesy wording on the menu (which I hate, BTW) is this comment about the salmon: “This featured long time favorite was thoroughly enjoyed by The New York Times critic” (using the NYT logo, no less), which I guess is a clever way to let you know that they were reviewed by The Times. So I looked up the menu (they got a very good), and the only mention of salmon is this: “There are occasional missteps, like a pan-seared salmon that arrived underdone without any caramelization”. Why would put wording like that in the menu???
Wow, someone sure blew that one!!!
Found HVRW menus for 121 Restaurant on their website and they look interesting.
They’re actually doing different menus each week. I might try to get there for lunch. Note the week 2 lunch menu currently points to the dinner menu.
Typo!!! It’s nice that they change the menu.
