Utica NY Lunch?

[rlibkind]

I'll be driving out of Old Forge heading south on a Monday later this month, and would appreciation suggestions for a brunch/lunch stop in the Utica area.

[MelissaH]

Our current favorite Utica restaurant is Babe's. I don't know if they do brunch, but it is convenient to the Aud and keeps us well fueled for hockey games, which is what we're typically looking for.

MelissaH

[phaelon56]

Here's a place to start doing a bit of research:

Amanda's Restaurant and Dining Reviews

The majority of the places she covers are in Utica. I've tried most of the Syracuse places on her list but my travels just don't take me through Utica despite its adjacency.

I'll see what else I can find but suspect dinner options are more abundant than lunch or brunch. If you have a chance do be sure to try Utica Greens.

[MelissaH]

If you have a chance do be sure to try Utica Greens.

←

Amen to that!

Another Utica specialty worth trying is Chicken Riggies. Despite the cutesy name, it can be quite good: rigatoni with chicken, peppers, and a sauce that's mostly cream with a touch of tomato.

MelissaH

[Brad Trent]

I know the original post referred to lunch in Utica, but I followed the link to that Utica restaurant review site and found Fianchetto and figured I would pass on this warning!

After reading positive reviews on Fianchetto, I can only imagine they are shill reviews posted by the owners because there is no way on Earth an impartial reviewer could give this freakish, poorly run joint more than two stars, and two stars ONLY if the service was better than what I experienced last night!

First off, let me say that I wasn't expecting anything amazing...I mean, it's Utica and I live in Manhattan! But this place was recommended to me by a local I was working with so I figured he would know what was best for my one night in this depressed town. I overlooked the eclectic decor, the bizarre 'thrones' they have for chairs and the overly flamboyant attitudes of the proprietors. I was heartened when I saw a couple of boxes of Reidel wine stems sitting on the bar...I figured that maybe we would at least have a decent bottle of wine, but when I saw the wine list I was dumbstruck...the prices were so off the chart that if I wasn't so hungry I would have just turned and left on principal! Keep in mind that this restaurant is in an extremely run-down area and that the entire country is up to it's ass in a recession, but on what planet do you have $550 wines on a very small list? And it's not like they just had a couple of overpriced offerings...the majority of the list was in the multiple-hundreds of dollars! There were hardly ANY reds under $50!!! I settled on a very nice bottle of 2004 Agricola Punica 'Barrua' for only $75 (it's a $45 retail wine so why is the rest of the list so outrageous?!!) and then we focussed on the menu.....

Once again we were bowled over by the prices! As I said, I live in Manhattan and when I see $30 entrees I REALLY expect to be impressed with the food. I chose a carpaccio app and a rack of lamb entree, my friend ordered the crab cake app and a flank steak entree...both came with a house salad...now the real fun begins!

Our salads were drenched in an oil and balsamic dressing, HEAVY on the balsamic! The warning bells were ringing!

My Carpaccio was simply thinly sliced beef covered in raw onions, some capers and a bit of salt & pepper...no dressing to speak of and basically bland! The crab cakes were presented with an excuse..."Don't worry about how they look...the chef uses mostly crab meat so they don't really hold together, but they taste great!"......what my friend got were two piles of crab goo...nothing 'formed' into a cake at all... and despite the claim of being 'mostly' crab meat, they were full of some kind of blah filler and were a complete waste of time.

But the real treat was the entrees.....after a long wait (Oh yeah...before I forget...there was only one other table of diners in the place but the prep time was amazingly long!) the steak and lamb arrived, carried out by the chef himself because his partner was too busy with friends at the bar to carry the plates out himself! The 'chef' explained to me that he didn't separate the 5 lamb chops because he liked it that way! Well 'chef'...if I wanted a BLOCK of poorly prepared lamb, I could have blindfolded myself and don it at home and it wouldn't have cost me 30 bucks...cut the fukking lamb!!! While cooked well, there was nothing worth the tariff on my plate and the overcooked asparagus and burned roasted potatoes sealed the deal! The Flank Steak was also cooked well, but was totally uninspiring as well and was drenched in a salty Bordelais sauce.

We finished and waited for either of the jokers who run this soon-to-be-out-of-business joke to come and clear the table, but they were now both playing with their friends at the bar......after flagging them down and paying the $200 tab, we fled into the skeevy Utica night, never to return!!!

If you are reading this, trust me.....Avoid At All Costs!!! Go to one of the MANY bars down the block, have a burger & a beer, play a couple of rounds of pool and consider yourself fortunate!