As part of my vegetarian kick, we went to Moon and River Cafe in Schenectady a few days ago.
Moon & River is at 115 South Ferry, just north of the intersection with Liberty and on the edge of the Stockade district. It has a broad array of vegetarian options (including some vegan), plus a few dishes with meat.
The inside is almost too small, and yet we felt comfortable. The interior design has a definite granola feel and fits well with the experience. They seem to have a lot of live music, and we enjoyed the band that played during our visit.
As for the food, I had the Mideast Peace Platter. It had good hummus, feta, olives, peppers and more, with pita of course. I also had the Avocado salad, which was seasoned well with a touch of salt and a pleasant dressing (might have been lime).
My wife had the Guaco Burrito - beans, cheese and salsa with avocado. Not huge but it was fresh and she liked it.
She had a soy-milk smoothie with chocolate and banana, and I had a chocolate milkshake. Both were okay, not over-the-top fantastic but good.
We closed with pie. Chocolate for her, blueberry for me. Both desserts were great.
Prices were very reasonable. You can get a decent meal here for under $10, and it would be a challenge to spend $20. That's saying a lot for quality vegetarian food with live music included.
Showing posts with label Schenectady. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Schenectady. Show all posts
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Friday, June 27, 2008
Aperitivo Bistro in Schenectady
We had a nice opportunity to go out for dinner in Schenectady the other night. We went to Aperitivo Bistro, which is right near Proctor's on State Street. It happened to be very close to a party we were going to later at Clinton's Ditch. We were impressed with this area of Schenectady. They've really spruced the place up. It feels like a "place to be." Don't tell Brian Stratton I said anything nice about him though. :-)
We stopped at Katie O'Byrnes on the way to Clinton's Ditch and that also looked nice, though we didn't have anything to eat or drink. Just said hello to a friend.
So, Aperitivo Bistro ... it was pretty good. Started with a nice touch - the bread came out with three condiments on a nice plate. It had butter one one end, olive oil and balsamic in the middle, and a dried bruschetta on the far end. Never seen that before and I hope others start imitating it. All three tasted good, as did the bread.
Aperitivo has a "tapas" style menu. You can order a lot of small dishes, called Piattini. I'm pretty sure that means "little plate", though tapas is Spanish and the word Piattini seems kinda Italian. Guess that's fusion for you.
So we had a few of these small plates. The broccoli rabe was both good and different. it was served in a kinda soupy form. I wouldn't have thought that would work, but it did.
Next was a tenderloin carpaccio - three very thin slices of rare or raw steak, topped with a couple shiitake mushrooms and a bit of cheese with it. It was interesting. The steak didn't have much flavor, but I'm not sure it's supposed to. This wasn't the best dish of the night, but it wasn't bad or anything. Biggest concern is how small it was. I understand the concept, but if you're going to charge $10 for it, I just think you should get a little more. I don't think it was even an ounce of steak on that plate.
The fried ravioli was one of the better dishes - tasty and closer to the appropriate portion size. The only minor concern here was maybe too much breading. But still good for sure.
I got a small shrimp and scallop plate that was on the daily specials menu. It had a fennel sausage with it mixed with some kind of sauce. I thought this was one of the better items that night, but again, just too small considering the price.
One last detail was among our first items. We had the Spinach and Grilled Radicchio salad. The grilled radicchio didn't do much for us, but the salad on the whole was very good. The spinach, walnuts, and gorgonzola all went well together with the dressing.
Should also mention that the interior was nice, almost elegant. We were in a room with the bar. Apparently there is another room I didn't see, so I can't comment on that.
We stopped at Katie O'Byrnes on the way to Clinton's Ditch and that also looked nice, though we didn't have anything to eat or drink. Just said hello to a friend.
So, Aperitivo Bistro ... it was pretty good. Started with a nice touch - the bread came out with three condiments on a nice plate. It had butter one one end, olive oil and balsamic in the middle, and a dried bruschetta on the far end. Never seen that before and I hope others start imitating it. All three tasted good, as did the bread.
Aperitivo has a "tapas" style menu. You can order a lot of small dishes, called Piattini. I'm pretty sure that means "little plate", though tapas is Spanish and the word Piattini seems kinda Italian. Guess that's fusion for you.
So we had a few of these small plates. The broccoli rabe was both good and different. it was served in a kinda soupy form. I wouldn't have thought that would work, but it did.
Next was a tenderloin carpaccio - three very thin slices of rare or raw steak, topped with a couple shiitake mushrooms and a bit of cheese with it. It was interesting. The steak didn't have much flavor, but I'm not sure it's supposed to. This wasn't the best dish of the night, but it wasn't bad or anything. Biggest concern is how small it was. I understand the concept, but if you're going to charge $10 for it, I just think you should get a little more. I don't think it was even an ounce of steak on that plate.
The fried ravioli was one of the better dishes - tasty and closer to the appropriate portion size. The only minor concern here was maybe too much breading. But still good for sure.
I got a small shrimp and scallop plate that was on the daily specials menu. It had a fennel sausage with it mixed with some kind of sauce. I thought this was one of the better items that night, but again, just too small considering the price.
One last detail was among our first items. We had the Spinach and Grilled Radicchio salad. The grilled radicchio didn't do much for us, but the salad on the whole was very good. The spinach, walnuts, and gorgonzola all went well together with the dressing.
Should also mention that the interior was nice, almost elegant. We were in a room with the bar. Apparently there is another room I didn't see, so I can't comment on that.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Cella Bistro - Schenectady
In my second review of the day (I promise to go slower in the future), we went to Cella Bistro in Schenectady last night for my mom's birthday (which of course was really another day - she went out with friends that night).
Cella Bistro is in Schenectady on Rosa Road, very close to Ellis Hospital. Overall it's a great restaurant. There were some negative aspects to the experience that I describe below, but they are mostly not the fault of the restaurant and you are unlikely to experience the same problems.
First of all, the interior is really gorgeous. The bar is separated from the tables by a curving brick half-wall. There are other brick walls inside and this look works well. The hardwood floors are also quite beautiful. But wait, there's more. In one corner there's a couch and a couple chairs with a coffee table. It's a bit weird to see that in a restaurant, but it also works. Since we were eating early and the restaurant was not crowded yet, it was a good place to take our 2-year-old.
The food was very good. Cella Bistro is definitely shooting for a higher level "cuisine" thing. You don't see veal parm, fettucine alfredo, or spaghetti with marinara on the menu. When we tried to order spaghetti for our kids, they didn't have any. They did have other appropriate pastas and the kids were relatively satisfied (to the extent that our children ever are).
My mom and I split a salad with beets, mixed greens and goat cheese (on the side since mom is currently vegan). I liked the array of salad choices and this salad was good. My wife said her salad was good too. I think she had mixed greens with fontina cheese on a cracker. We also had a pizza appetizer. We ordered it for the girls and had it simplified dramatically from the fancy description on the menu. Of course they didn't eat it, so we did and it was good.
For an entree, I had a paella dish. I wavered before ordering because I've never been a paella guy, but the various ingredients with it looked attractive (especially the shrimp, scallops and sausage). It was the best paella I've ever had, but it's still not my dish.
I advised mom to call ahead and request a vegan dish, and she did so. They brought her a pasta dish with a nice variety of veggies. She liked it. Notable about this is that they made the pasta special for her, as they did not have vegan pasta.
My wife nervously ordered the lasagna dish, as this was not a typical lasagna and she is not always adventurous. It had a bechamel sauce and swiss chard. This was not her thing -- too cheesy for one thing, but still okay, and she wants to go back and try something else.
There are a variety of somewhat interested details about our experience. The restaurant was very good about dealing with our requests for changes, as we had made special orders for mom and the kids. The service was slow for us, but that was partly due to our special orders and only a problem because we were there with kids, as small children don't sit well for long meals (well, ours don't anyway).
At one point I took the two girls for a walk outside. On the way in I had noticed several signs warning about parking issues, specifically mentioning Donnan Street. Cella Bistro is on the corner of Rosa Road and Donna. We walked up Donnan and I could see the problem. The neighbors have all posted "no parking" signs just about everywhere they can. It would seem they don't like having a restaurant there. I don't think their antipathy is at Cella Bistro in particular, as there was a restaurant there before and some of the signs look pretty old.
Cella Bistro definitely does not fit in with the neighbors. Parked at or near the restaurant were a number of new cars, often German, Japanese, or otherwise fancy. I think there was even a Toyota Prius. Walking up Donnan Street I don't think I saw a single vehicle less than 10 years old. There were a number of junk pickups and cars. I did see one foreign car, a Saab with badly faded paint. Jeff Foxworthy would have been uncomfortable here. I was too. I think one of the neighbors kids yelled something at us, but I didn't hear what he said. The houses in general did not look well kept (there were two exceptions). Most diners will not notice this, I suspect.
One other thing. They do not accept Discover Card. I see this once in a while but for the life of me can't understand why any business that takes credit cards would not take Discover. If your credit card processor doesn't take it, switch processors.
Cella Bistro is in Schenectady on Rosa Road, very close to Ellis Hospital. Overall it's a great restaurant. There were some negative aspects to the experience that I describe below, but they are mostly not the fault of the restaurant and you are unlikely to experience the same problems.
First of all, the interior is really gorgeous. The bar is separated from the tables by a curving brick half-wall. There are other brick walls inside and this look works well. The hardwood floors are also quite beautiful. But wait, there's more. In one corner there's a couch and a couple chairs with a coffee table. It's a bit weird to see that in a restaurant, but it also works. Since we were eating early and the restaurant was not crowded yet, it was a good place to take our 2-year-old.
The food was very good. Cella Bistro is definitely shooting for a higher level "cuisine" thing. You don't see veal parm, fettucine alfredo, or spaghetti with marinara on the menu. When we tried to order spaghetti for our kids, they didn't have any. They did have other appropriate pastas and the kids were relatively satisfied (to the extent that our children ever are).
My mom and I split a salad with beets, mixed greens and goat cheese (on the side since mom is currently vegan). I liked the array of salad choices and this salad was good. My wife said her salad was good too. I think she had mixed greens with fontina cheese on a cracker. We also had a pizza appetizer. We ordered it for the girls and had it simplified dramatically from the fancy description on the menu. Of course they didn't eat it, so we did and it was good.
For an entree, I had a paella dish. I wavered before ordering because I've never been a paella guy, but the various ingredients with it looked attractive (especially the shrimp, scallops and sausage). It was the best paella I've ever had, but it's still not my dish.
I advised mom to call ahead and request a vegan dish, and she did so. They brought her a pasta dish with a nice variety of veggies. She liked it. Notable about this is that they made the pasta special for her, as they did not have vegan pasta.
My wife nervously ordered the lasagna dish, as this was not a typical lasagna and she is not always adventurous. It had a bechamel sauce and swiss chard. This was not her thing -- too cheesy for one thing, but still okay, and she wants to go back and try something else.
There are a variety of somewhat interested details about our experience. The restaurant was very good about dealing with our requests for changes, as we had made special orders for mom and the kids. The service was slow for us, but that was partly due to our special orders and only a problem because we were there with kids, as small children don't sit well for long meals (well, ours don't anyway).
At one point I took the two girls for a walk outside. On the way in I had noticed several signs warning about parking issues, specifically mentioning Donnan Street. Cella Bistro is on the corner of Rosa Road and Donna. We walked up Donnan and I could see the problem. The neighbors have all posted "no parking" signs just about everywhere they can. It would seem they don't like having a restaurant there. I don't think their antipathy is at Cella Bistro in particular, as there was a restaurant there before and some of the signs look pretty old.
Cella Bistro definitely does not fit in with the neighbors. Parked at or near the restaurant were a number of new cars, often German, Japanese, or otherwise fancy. I think there was even a Toyota Prius. Walking up Donnan Street I don't think I saw a single vehicle less than 10 years old. There were a number of junk pickups and cars. I did see one foreign car, a Saab with badly faded paint. Jeff Foxworthy would have been uncomfortable here. I was too. I think one of the neighbors kids yelled something at us, but I didn't hear what he said. The houses in general did not look well kept (there were two exceptions). Most diners will not notice this, I suspect.
One other thing. They do not accept Discover Card. I see this once in a while but for the life of me can't understand why any business that takes credit cards would not take Discover. If your credit card processor doesn't take it, switch processors.
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