Harvest on Hudson

It?s restaurant week until March 28th in both Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley. Now being that I work in Brooklyn Heights, live about a 5 minute train ride from Williamsburg and have multiple friends in Park Slope- you would think I?d hit up some restaurants there. But no- I decided to head upstate and try out something new Harvest on Hudson.

Harvest on Hudson is a huge restaurant located right on the water in Hastings on Hudson. The interior of the place immediately reminded me of Blue Hill Stone Barns with its large wooden ceilings and black shiny beams. We had a cocktail at the bar and were seated at a table overlooking the beautiful Hudson River.

For my appetizer I ordered the Crisp Calamari Caesar Salad.



For some reason I was expecting the calamari to be a fried mess on my greens but they actually executed this dish perfect. The calamari was very lightly breaded with no grease at all and went wonderfully with the creamy anchovy dressing.



Along with our appetizers they brought out a big basket of bread with some oil for dipping. I didn?t really love the bread because it was toasted. When I want to enjoy some great olive oil I want my dipping bread to be soft and squishy, not hard and crusty. Oh well- it actually turned out to be good I didn?t eat the bread because I might have been too filled up for my entrée the Porcini Crusted Monkfish.



When I read the description of this dish on the menu I knew immediately I had to try it out. Porcini crusted, Chianti Reduction and Monkfish seemed like an unlikely and strange combination. However it worked beautifully! The fish was pretty thick and firm so with the porcini and chianti together I almost felt like I was eating a delicious steak. The addition of guanciale to the parsnip risotto worked like perfection as well. I seriously could not get enough of this dish and cleaned the plate.

I was so stuffed at this point I thought about calling it quits but then I saw the desserts. I thought we would have to choose but no we got a sampling of all three!



I love, love, love when restaurants do this during restaurant week. Dessert is always such a tough decision but it doesn?t have to be. There was Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, Tiramisu with Coffee Anglaise and Flourless Chocolate Cake with caramel and chocolate sauce. All of them were excellent but the Tiramisu was by far my favorite which is funny because that?s the one dessert I never order. This is why dessert samplings are awesome. It gives you a chance to see if your taste buds have changed.

For $28.00 this was a pretty great dinner. We had a nice view of the water, the service was decent and the food was excellent. I have one more RW reservation at X2O in Yonkers next Thursday. We?ll see how that compares. Oh and maybe I?ll try to fit a Brooklyn one in as well.