256983 Wed Jun 14 10:11:14 -0700 2006 16 20 Tristate Region 0 1359531 Hi, my husband and I are going to Saratoga this summer with another couple. We have been going almost every summer for the past few years and are always looking to find new restaurants. It's hard during racing season since no one takes reservations, but does anyone have any suggestions for me? The list I have right now is: One Caroline Mouzon House Mare Gotchya's Ripe Tomato Lake Ridge Longfellows If there is anything I missed worth while, or if you disagree with any of the above, please let me know. I have never been to any of the ones listed. Thanks a lot! Stephanie Wed Jun 14 10:11:14 -0700 2006 0 Stephanie 1 1359533 Try the Times Union entertainment/restaurant site. They cover all the local and near local restaurants. From personal experience we have enjoyed Ripe Tomato many times. The food is good, the setting is casual and the menu is extensive. It is hard not to find something to try. Your selection runs the gamut of styles and prices. I think the newspaper reviews will give you a sense of various places. You can search there under location and all the Saratoga restaurants will pop up for individual appraisal. Wed Jun 14 10:37:40 -0700 2006 1359531 0 feelinpeckish 1 1359534 I think some of these places take reservations, but you 've named some good restaurants and some pretty-good ones, no losers. Two new bistros that you've not included are Beekman Street Bistro (next to Gotchya's Trattoria, which is excellent, and inexpensive) and the Gray Gelding on Broadway, in the former Little India. One Caroline isn't the slightest bit new, but always a pleasure, especially when there's music. Ripe Tomato is downscale for your list, but a comfortable roadhouse. Haven't been to Mare, the new offering by the owners of Chianti. Tiznow, across from the Parting Glass is a pleasant bistro. Enjoy. Wed Jun 14 10:40:42 -0700 2006 1359531 0 PZ 1 1359536 Forno Tuscano on Broadway (same owners as Chianti)- good prices and funky decor. Gotchya's was good this spring! Lake Ridge in Round Lake was a memoriable fine dining experience a year ago. Mexican Connectiion is fun, casual, mexican food. I've always heard Sweetwater Inn (Union Ave) is good but never made it there. Wed Jun 14 10:47:06 -0700 2006 1359531 0 Cathy 1 1359537 Lake Ridge definitely takes reservations. And it's located in the beautiful and historic victorian village of Round Lake. If you eat at Lake Ridge, be sure to stroll around the village and maybe see a show at the Round Lake Auditorium. The Auditorium has new artistic directors this year and is putting on some terrific shows. http://www.roundlakeauditorium.org Wed Jun 14 10:48:14 -0700 2006 1359531 0 Fisher 1 1359558 Chez Sophie....currently relocating from a converted Airstream trailer into the center of downtown Saratoga at the Saratoga Hotel ---the space is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL...a little on the pricey side, but no more so than most restaurants during track season...and they DO take reservations---best meal I've ever had is at Chez Sophie--young couple own it...web site is www.chezsophie.com Thu Jun 15 14:19:12 -0700 2006 1359531 0 Mel 2 2277059 The move to a hotel envorinment has not been a plus for Chez Sophie Bistro IMHO. Only had breakfast there this past late summer and was totally disappointed. Not only I but two other diners with very good palates and extensive experience felt the same. I am loath to try it again. In its old location it out shone any thing in the town - not now from my point of view. There are just too many very good places in Saratoga Springs to waste time there. To keep this more positive may I suggest Il Chianti and/or Brindisi - both on Broadway. BTW I second to Ripe Tomato in Malta as a good choice - good food, atmosphere and service not to mention very reasonable prices. It may not fit the description of "elegant" but now you're into very subjective terminology and you just cannot taste that. Fri Feb 09 13:37:24 -0800 2007 1359558 11468 feelinpeckish 1 2276604 I hear Gotchya's lost their chef and I have only heard that it is not nearly as good it started out. The service was never that good, but we always went for the food. Fri Feb 09 11:58:28 -0800 2007 1359531 73104 janwil 1 2277221 my dude and i true fans of the wine bar downtown...it's got a great wine selection and the food (served in small plates or large) is stellar. Also, Hatties is worth going to...Awesome biscuits, greens, and fried chix. Fri Feb 09 14:19:15 -0800 2007 1359531 18608 sixelagogo 1 2277425 I will second both Wine Bar and Hattie's as great places to check out. The Putnam Market has incredible tuna salad - made with fresh tuna, and other tasty take out treats. Perfect place to get picnic items when going to SPAC, or other outdoor pursuits. But a great lesser known restaurant is a few miles away - about 5 min form Saratoga - east on Rt 29, and right on Staffords Bridge Rd, is the Chameleon on the Lake. It is a wonderful waterfront setting on Fish Creek, with a gracious chef/proprietor. Wonderful Mediterrean menu - love this place. In the summer, you can dine outside and watch the boats go by. http://www.chameleononthelake.com/ Fri Feb 09 15:21:55 -0800 2007 1359531 64551 LJNew 1 2278126 If you have been going to Saratoga for a few years, you will probably know this one already. But, just in case you dont, Cliffs Country Inn, on Route 9P is the carnivores place for steak and prime rib. Go South on Route 9 out of Saratoga, turn left at the red light on the corner where the Public House and the Ripe T omato are, and its about a mile or so on the left. Doesnt look like much from the outside, but red meat is the star inside. Other than that, I really cant disagree, as a Saratoga resident for over 30 years, with any of the above recommendations Fri Feb 09 19:42:55 -0800 2007 1359531 10692 trakman 1 2281648 The proprietor is not the chef at the Chameleon. Since they opened a few summers ago they have gone through 5 chefs. You never know what you will get. The wine bare and Hatties ARE safe bets. Always good, consistant food. Sun Feb 11 09:56:13 -0800 2007 1359531 73104 janwil 1 2284171 We had eaten at the previous incarnation of Chez Sophie in Malta a number of times and just loved it. French cuisine is our favorite. It's the place where we discovered Pastis de la Terre Rouge, which immeiately became our favorite pastis. One slight correction: the Malta location was not an Airstream trailer but a very cool, retro stainless steel diner, with a more conventionally constructed dining room added on behind the diner. We always ate in the diner section, and I think that feel contributed greatly to the overall ambiance of the place. If I recall correctly, the menu always had a table d'hote option (a rarity these days) and very uncommon selections overall. This past weekend I dined at Chez Sophie's new location. The dining room is beautiful, spacious, and the double-sided fireplace is an eye-catcher. But, there is something missing as well. There's nothing about the decor that is unique. It's a contemporary look in the architecture and furniture, but nothing that would stick in my mind. I found that both the menu and the food were not up to the standards of the previous incarnation of the restaurant. For one thing, the menu now is strictly a la carte. And the selections seemed much less adventurous than they used to be, and according to my memory there were fewer selections than there used to be. Perhaps this is due in part to the restaurant having to serve breakfast and lunch as well as dinner. The old Chez Sophie was only open for dinner, IIRC. And it may have something to do with the fact that the restaurant is now located in a large hotel smack in the middle of downtown Saratoga Springs. Perhaps they now have to appeal more to "regular" diners instead of the chowhounds and foodies who so eagerly sought them out over on Rte 9. I had pheasant, which was delicious, but my plate was awash with sauce. The vegetables were 'ankle deep' in it, and although the sauce was quite tasty, it shouldn't have overwhelmed the plate like that. They no longer carry Pastis de la Terre Rouge, but I can't fault them for that since I have to source it from Massachusetts myself these days. But to only have Ricard and Pernod? There are other pastis available--it would have been nice to have had more of a selection. The wine list was extensive, as was the beer list. I can remember the time when a woman attempted to order a pinot grigio, only to be informed by Paul Parker (he was not chef at that time) that Chez Sophie did not carry any Italian wines. "Why not?", asked the lady. "Because, madam, we are a French restaurant," he replied. I do not think, judging on my last visit, that Chez Sophie hews so tightly to France anymore. Mon Feb 12 08:22:56 -0800 2007 1359531 73828 Skenectada 2 2284765 We have been to Chez Sophie a few times since the move. The first time there were some kinks in the service, but since, we have been more than pleased with the food and service. I’m sorry to hear that you had a bad experience – we are looking forward to going again soon when my husband (fingers crossed) gets an expected promotion. Paul and Cheryl do still offer their weekly Pink Plate, which I think is what you are referring to as the table d’hote (unless there was something else offered at the diner more than five years ago, when we started eating there.) If I recall properly, the Pink Plate this week is a fried smelt dish. You can see the weekly special on their website, http://www.chezsophie.com the Pink Plate is $30 for three courses, Monday – Friday. In the diner it was $28, and Tues- Fri (as they were closed Mondays.) They also offer tasting menus – you can arrange something in advance based on your tastes or take the chef’s tasting menu of the day. As for wine, 99% of the wine list is still French-only. They also have some Belgian beers and they recently added a very small number of NYS wines, with the explanation that it was a bit silly to make such an effort to obtain local ingredients for their menu and yet eschew good “local” wines. I agree that the menu is less traditionally French. From our experience, it is very French, but French in the style of what we actually found at the better restaurants we went to in France. This is a plus for us, though obviously not for all. We tried out Beekman Street Bistro last weekend and were quite pleased. The menu and wine list are fairly small but well thought out. We wound up sharing a number of plates in order to try more things. We started with bread and olives (a large portion for $3 – we wound up leaving more than half of them,) then had a grilled calamari risotto, a cabbage salad with blue cheese and pecans, and rabbit on mashed potatoes with, I think, a basil-based sauce. The Bistro is intimate and well appointed, service was attentive, and the food was above average. They are also concerned about using local purveyors when possible, which I applaud. They also offer a chef’s tasting menu though we didn’t have the appetite for it at the time. Mon Feb 12 10:53:41 -0800 2007 2284171 25664 meg944 1 2289256 Chez Sophie was in a 1954 Fodoro diner, and yes, they have slipped. I have heard that a new restaurant will be in the old diner soon, has anyone heard the same? Tue Feb 13 13:04:37 -0800 2007 1359531 73104 janwil 1 2294196 I didn't say it was a "bad" experience, just that it was not up to the standards they used to uphold. If you recall, part of my comment had to do with the fact that the new space, while very attractive, lacks character (which the diner had in spades), and seems rather impersonal. Ambiance, I find, contributes greatly to the pleasure I take in dining. Service was fine. Compared to menus of old, this one seemed uninspired. As I mentioned, I believe that the fact that they are located in a hotel has had an effect. It is undeniable that the restaurant is now exposed to a much broader cross section of diners. Also undeniable that hotel guests tend to have specific expectations concerning the menu choices at what they perceive to be "the hotel restaurant". You can see this effect in the lunch menu, which includes a hamburger and a reuben sandwich. Yes, the rest of the menu is rather French (steak frites, moules frites, escargot, leeks, trout) but you can see they have had to make certain concessions. And it seems to me that what is true at lunch is also true at dinner. The hotel, I assume, does not want its guests to remember it as a place where the restaurant had nothing they wished to eat (e.g. hamburgers and french fries, or pancakes/waffles or other "American" breakfast0. I suspect that if one had simply and magically transported the Malta Chez Sophie to the hotel, the restaurant would not have succeeded. It has had to adapt to the broader range of tastes held by typical diners in downtown Saratoga Springs. There are some other indications that some diners assume Chez Sophie is just "the hotel restaurant". There is a sign on the inside of the door notifying diners that the restaurant is a private enterprise and asking them not remove glasses or dinnerware. And there is a photograph by the hostess' stand showing one of Joseph's sculptures which was stolen from the restaurant. Seeing this upon entering made me think "just what's going on here?". I can't recall any of the restaurants I have dined in in France offering a NY Strip Steak or a Delmonico. It would be a French cut, perhaps a hanger steak. On a cold winter's night I would expect a French restaurant to offer a nice daube, or cassoulet. I still have fond memories of the daube I enjoyed at La Fourchette in Avignon on a bitterly cold January night a few years ago. And having once served Pastis de Terre Rouge I am surprised that they have not kept it available. This pastis is not merely anise flavored; it has a very floral bouquet and a very slight sweetness that makes it altogether different (and to my taste superior) to Ricard and Pernod. It is sunshine and flowers on your palette. What a shame they no longer carry it. Wed Feb 14 19:22:30 -0800 2007 1359531 73828 Skenectada 2 2294836 Ah – yeah, we haven’t been for breakfast or lunch yet and I think every time we’ve been to the new location since they opened we’ve either had the Pink Plate or the tasting menu, so I haven’t really noted any changes in the menu. Actually, I think even at the old location we rarely ordered off the menu (what with special holiday menus, wine dinners, tasting menus, etc.) so I am not sure I would notice even if I looked at it. I do know from their newsletter that they have had some difficulty w/ customers (people wanting more mass-market beers at the bar, for instance, which they don’t offer.) I wouldn’t be surprised if they have added some options for the less-adventurous palate. Thanks for the tip on the pastis. Thu Feb 15 06:26:38 -0800 2007 2294196 25664 meg944