Watercress
Watercress, Ithaca, NY
http://www.watercressithaca.com/
Price: $$$
Cuisine: Eclectic
American?
General
Recommendation: If you don’t go out to eat a lot, I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant-
there are several better restaurants around here. However, if you’ve already been to most of
those and you’re looking for something new, the food’s decent and the servers
are very nice.
A friend discovered this place recently and no one I’ve
talked to has ever heard about it. It’s
been open for about a year now and it has only just gotten on to our
radar. I went with four of my girl
friends on a Tuesday night around 9 and there were two other tables with people
at them and though it was late, it seems like we’re not the only people who
haven’t heard of this place. It’s in a
weird location (just past the Triphammer Mall) and the sign is tiny. You may have driven past it before and never
noticed it. It’s a pretty good sized
place and there is plenty of parking there, however.
The Food:
The menu offered quite a bit of variety which is why I’m not
exactly sure what to call the cuisine. There are fish, steak, chicken, and vegetarian options, though most
items contained fish of some sort. The
restaurant uses a lot of locally-grown produce and organic items. The quality of the food was fine but no one
raved about any of their own dishes once during our entire meal. I see this as a pretty strong sign that none
of the food was offensive but everyone had definitely had better before.
Here are details on our order:
First Course: Soup
Special (tomato and pesto), watercress salads
The soup came in a large bowl and was a lot of soup. It was tasty but it was heavy and would have
been better as a smaller portion. The
salads were good sized and well received.
Second Course:
Fettucini with mussels, crab cakes (appetizer), swordfish special, salmon
I actually enjoyed my fettucini quite a bit- the sauce was
good and there were plenty of mussels in the dish. Two of the people I was with ordered the
appetizer crab cakes for their main entrée. The cakes were reasonably sized (2 per order, each about 3 or 4 inches
across and fairly thick) and they came with a fairly spicy sauce that was a
little much for one of my friends- it was a lot of the same taste. This would have been a better dish to order
as an actual appetizer (not an entrée) and share with one or two other
people. The two fish entrees were fine-
though I hear that the swordfish was better.
Dessert: Flourless
chocolate cake, bread pudding, orange frozen thing
We were having a good time talking so we ordered
dessert. The menu had some interesting
options which was fun. The cake was
pretty standard- good, rich, and appropriate in size. I didn’t try the bread pudding but those who
like bread pudding said it was good. The
orange frozen dessert hit mixed reviews- it was quite good at first but the
immediate aftertaste was a strange spice that sort of burned the throat. It was certainly one of the strangest
desserts I’d ever had and most people couldn’t really eat it.
Drinks:
Fairly small wine list, but choices were fine and the prices
were reasonable. The red options were better
than the white options and we ordered a bottle of red that was quite good. They also had a variety of different beers,
including some interesting micro-brews. See “Service” section for notes on pouring the wine.
The Service:
Though the service broke several rules, they were pleasant
and didn’t rush us out, even though we were the last table eating. Unfortunately, the broken rules made the
overall experience a bit less pleasant. First, they cleared plates while others were eating. Obviously some of us were eating faster than
others (that’s what happens when people order appetizers for dinner), but it
just became more obvious when the plates were cleared quickly. Secondly, they didn’t keep water glasses
full- I was so thirsty all dessert! It
would have been fine if he left a carafe of water at our table since we were a
“larger” group but we only saw water come by once.
I also had issue with the way they poured the wine. Basically, they over-poured the wine in all
the glasses and left a tiny amount in the bottle. This was annoying because I had received the
smallest of the pours and didn’t want to look like I was hogging all the wine
by pouring myself some more but any pour out of the bottle was going to be the
rest of it. I do NOT condone overpouring
wine at all- in fact I’d almost prefer an underpour- but the way he served the
wine was just unpleasant overall.
I have no complaints about silverware and we all had bread
plates. They had hummus and oil dipping
sauces so we didn’t really need a knife (but with 5 people, two plates of
dipping sauces would have been appropriate). And we had no problems splitting the bill- our server even brought them
out individually as they ran and had plenty of pens for us.
The Atmosphere:
The atmosphere of the restaurant
was kind of strange. It’s a big space
and you sit in a big, open room. We had
crayons on our table- there was brown paper on the table tops to write/draw on-
which was kind of strange. The walls
were nice (sponged gold/orange color). In
general- it was like the owner couldn’t commit to a look. It could use a more intimate setting or less
so- it was too casual feeling for the menu. If it wants to be a more family space, booths and more noise-absorbent
things would have been more appropriate. To be more fancy, a dimmer, more intimate space would have been
appropriate. There is also a bar at the
front of the restaurant, apart from the dining area which is a neat idea-
though I’m not sure anyone uses it. It’s
a good spot to have if the restaurant became popular and there was a wait- it
keeps the noise away from the dining room and was nice looking- I wouldn’t mind
hanging out in there for a few minutes if I ever found myself in there again.
