River Bistro — Restaurant in City of Binghamton

Best kept secret in Binghamton. I am hoping my review helps to change that.

I think most of their issue is they are inside the DoubleTree hotel which prevents your average local from coming upon the place to eat. They seem to only draw in hotel patrons to eat. Bonus to this set back is you'll never have to worry about parking while still eating down town.

Great atmosphere and look. You can relax at the bar or have a traditional sit down meal. Even though it is a nicer place, because it is in the hotel and accept all comers and goers, there is no specific dress code. This means you can dress up for a nice night out, or down for comfort and neither will put you out of place. They had a live musician there last night which was a nice element.

Food and service was top notch. Alisha was our server. She was knowledgeable, efficient, and personable. You can see what we ate in the pictures below. The crayfish mac and cheese and fried string beans were my favorite, but it was all delicious.

My only issues were the chairs, but that will only affect large people like myself, and the creme brulee, but that is a preference thing that won't bother many people. So the chairs you can see on the picture has the metal legs come up above the seat so if your base is any wider than the seat by even a little they dig into you. The creme brulee had a coffee like taste which some people might like the unique take on the classic dish, but I am one of the rare people on Earth who...

Decided to try River Bistro for Restaurant Week as an alternative to Remlick’s (across the river) and were thoroughly disappointed.

The River Bistro (inside Double Tree hotel) is severely under staffed both front and back of house. So we had to wait for 10 minutes to get a table and over 40 mins to get our food (remember this is the set menu for Restaurant Week for $35 each). Server did not check in on us/set expectations. We ordered a side of fries which also took over 40 mins. Server blamed kitchen saying it was backed up but all the food that came out was cold! And the seating was not even at half capacity.

The first time we raised the lack of service, server’s attitude was ‘this is just the way it is’. We pushed back saying this is NOT normal. Then server suddenly became apologetic, offered to go in to kitchen and make our food herself (???). Server did take a few dollars off the bill but it was a wasted effort.

Restaurant week menu sounded really good but it was just ok overall- appetizer was ok, main was good, dessert was terrible.

Will not...

It was fine. The food was generous and tasted fine. Nothing really blew me away. I was staying at the hotel and was given a 15% off coupon, but the coupon wasn't used by my server, and I'm not exactly sure why. I had it out right on the table but it was ignored so... Not sure, what happened there. I probably should have spoken up and asked, but the meal didn't cost that much so I just let it go. I found it odd that they had specials on the board outside the restaurant, but even though it was only Wednesday, they were already out of things that were still advertised. I would have liked a larger wine list.

Breakfast was very good. I chose to order off of the menu instead of the buffet and really enjoyed the breakfast sandwich. The egg was cooked perfectly and the home fries were fine. All in all, I would eat here again if staying at the hotel for breakfast, but I might explore some of the other places in downtown...