Open Table’s Best Hudson Valley Restaurants

Hudson Valley’s Best Restaurants

Open Table (OT) recently announced their 2021 Diner’s Choice lists and two local favorites appeared on each of its Best Food, Best Value and Most Booked Restaurants Top Ten lists for Westchester and the Hudson Valley. In the Best Food category Pound Ridge’s North Star and Pleasantville’s Bistro 146 highlight OT’s Top Ten list. Armonk’s Meraki Taverna and Thornwood’s Risotto represented our area in OT’s Best Value category. And Armonk’s Moderne Barn and Bedford’s The Barn at Bedford Post both made OT’s Top Ten Most Booked Restaurants list. OT’s Diner’s Choice lists are based solely on feedback from individuals who have reserved tables through their Opentable.com online reservation system. OT’s feedback is generated from online questionnaires sent out shortly after dining. This year’s Diner’s Choice lists were based on just under five million returned questionnaires.

Bistro 146

Best Food: Overall the list is topped by Marcello’s Ristorante of Suffern, the only restaurant earning a full five stars. Chef Marcello Rossodivito was born in Campobasso in Italy and trained in Tuscany, Switzerland, France, England, Germany and Bermuda before settling in New York. His traditional northern Italian cuisine earned him top rankings in Zagats in 1993 as one of the 50 best restaurants in the Tri-state area. The same year Crain’s New York Business ranked Marcello’s one of the best Italian restaurants outside Manhattan.

The second highest rated restaurant on OT’s Best Food list was Kingston’s classic French restaurant Le Canard Enchaine. The New York Times wrote of Le Canard, “lift a fork and imagine you’re in France.” Specialties include garlic snails, duck confit, and their onion soup, which was voted best in the Hudson Valley.

Pound Ridge’s North Star ranked third in OT’s Best Food category. North Star received a four star rating from the New York Times in 2012. It is highly regarded for its locally sourced organic ingredients, seafood preparations such as Chilean Sea Bass and Butter-Poached Lobster and cream free soups. Other items from their menu that pop off the page are their duck confit dumplings, Wiener Schnitzel and Endive and Pear salad with prosciutto, pistachios, gorgonzola, champagne vinaigrette. North Star also made OT’s Top Ten Ambience list.

North Star

Bistro 146: The Seafood Grill, which we recently reviewed,  is helmed by Chef Marcelo Cheque, (formerly the Executive Chef of Cask Bar & Kitchen in NYC). Chef Cheque tag lines his menu “Sustainable Seafood Cuisine Elegant Food”. He gets fresh fish daily from Conte’s Seafood on Mt. Kisco and offers a dizzying menu of seafood dishes from pan seared Halibut to Lobster Roll and Seafood Paella. We noted in our review that we liked Bistro 146 more than the two Michelin Bib Award winners we had recently visited, Tredici Social in Bronxville and Pleasantville’s Southern Table. The star of the night was a perfectly prepared Halibut in a delicate seafood jus. And the warm chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream. It was oozy and chewy and warm and we could not stop eating it.

Italian cuisine dominated OT’s Best Food list which features, in addition to Marcellos’s, Sergio’s Ristorante in Pelham, Fratelli’s Trattoria in Ossining, Bellasera Ristorante in Larchmont and Zuppa Restaurant in Yonkers. Rounding out the list are two steak houses, Flames in Elmsford and Bernie’s Holiday Restaurant in Middletown.

Best Ambience: White Plains’ Blind Pig of Westchester ranked on top of the ambience list for their speakeasy vibe. Other nearby noshes with “vibey” space or decor featured on OT’s list are Port Chester’s Moroccan Argana Restaurant and Bar, and Rye’s classic French La Panetiere.

Best Value/Most Booked: Marcello’s Ristorante of Suffern which topped OT’s Best Food list also topped its Best Value list. White Plains’ moderately priced Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ whose best sellers include, Harami Skirt Steak in Miso Marinade and Certified Angus Kalbi Short Rib in Tare Sweet Soy Marinade topped the list as the most booked restaurant in the Hudson Valley.