So, the restaurant list for the Fall 2017 Hudson Valley Restaurant Week has finally been posted. Dinner is $32.95, lunch is $22.95, both for 3 courses.
I’ve recently retired, so I am at liberty to visit more restaurants outside of Westchester than in the past since I can go on weekdays. I’ve already made reservations at both American Bounty and Bocuse at the CIA for weekday lunches. I discovered on a previous visit that the lunch portions at American Bounty were larger than dinner because it was a different instructor. I hope it’s still the case. I know many people don’t think the CIA is great but we’ve always enjoyed out meals there (and for RW you get to order off the entire menu, with very few small surcharges). Tip for anyone who eats there and has a credit card that pays you bonus points for restaurant dining – their credit card merchant account is not coded as restaurants (even though they use one specifically called “CIA Restaurants”) so you won’t get your bonus points. Found that one out the hard way (now I just have to remember when I go back).
I really want to get to Liberty Street Bistro in Newburgh. They’re only doing dinner Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Fortunately I will be able to go one of those days. I’m actually having lunch there this Wednesday because I’ll be in the area. I saw them on Restaurant Hunter on FiOS and the food looked great. The chef is a CIA grad and worked at some pretty impressive places before opening his own place in Newburgh – http://libertystreetbistro.com/about-1/.
I may try to get to Roundhouse in Beacon.
Of course Valley in Garrison is a must. They’re only open for dinner Thursday-Saturday. I’m always amazed that they are not full when we go there for RW since they always have a great menu. It must be the location, too far for most in Westchester and Dutchess. It’s well worth the trip.
North in Armonk is not listed. It will be interesting to see if they join later on to try to get people to come back and try their new chef. They never did it with the guy who took over after Eric left. Maybe they figure that the clientele they want to attract doesn’t care about a cheap meal. Eric was always a big proponent of HVRW.
There’s this new farm to table place on Route 9 in Wappingers, Heritage Food and Drink that I expected to see listed, but they’re not.
We had a very lackluster meal there recently. I had scallops that were served on rounds of japanese eggplant that was raw. Nothing knocked our socks off for the price. Though I love James and the place is beautiful.
I believe North is still closed. Eric left and they are in the process of revamping their concept
That’s too bad about Valley. I love their duck breast and my wife has had their short rib many times on the HVRW menu and loved it. Other stuff has also been excellent.
I believe that North reopened last weekend… or maybe this weekend. They hired a new guy who had been in Brooklyn.
I just noticed an interesting addition from previous years – Seasons of Piermont, formerly known as Xaviars. I may need to try that. They’re doing dinner Wednesday-Sunday.
it once was excellent - changed menus, dropped a lot in - terrence brennan has restored it back to excellent.
the amsterdam (rhinebeck) is supposed to be good, i haven’t been. essie’s in oughkeepsie is outstanding and a must-go; i was there the other night and had another outstanding meal. almost made a post about it because it’s under-represented (online) on the higher end poughkeepsie dining scene.
Thanks for the info about RH. I tried to get there last time, but I had a reservation for a Sunday night and they told me that the dining room wasn’t going to be open and I would have to sit in the bar area (or the casual spot, I forget). Since part of the charm of the place (for me, anyway) is sitting and watching the falls, and I hadn’t heard anything about the food since the switch, I decided to go elsewhere.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
