Rye — Restaurant in City of Elmira

A well kept yet unassuming exterior is met with an amazing interior - from the waiting area that reminds one of an upscale hotel lobby complete with high back wrap around sofas and comfortable ottomans to the professionally decorated seating area and bar that makes one feel like they aren’t in Elmira, NY but rather a swanky upscale restaurant in New York City. We were seated by the owner of the establishment, Charlie, who spent time answering our questions about the renovations and was also able to answer all of our questions about the available bar drinks and food options. Our waitress, Hailee, was also knowledgeable about drink options and the menu - in addition to being friendly and engaged - we never felt rushed and throughout the meal she stopped by to check on us frequently enough to get a drink refill or to clear our plates but not overly bothersome - she had perfect timing.

We started with the Mediterranean sampler that was a large plate filled with three type of humus, marinated olives, pita, tomatoes, and marinated peppers in addition to an assortment of other tasty items. We split the appetizer amongst three and it was the perfect start to our meal.

As for the bar options, i couldn’t believe the number of draft beer choices, wine selection, or liquor choices - there were two pages of different gins! As a simple guy, I chose a Smithwicks draft beer as it reminds me of time spent in England - but that’s another story.

My wife and our friend both chose the large sea scallops for their entree and I chose the braised lamb shank. Their meal looked great and they said it tasted as good as it looked. My lamb was a fall off the bone kind of meal. The meat was tender and very flavorful and accompanied by mashed potatoes and carrots - highly recommend this dish!

For dessert we split a ginger cake with caramel sauce - again another amazing part of our meal. I’d absolutely get that dessert again! It was so moist and filled with flavor - and who doesn’t love caramel?

Next time we are in town we will absolutely dine here again as this is our new favorite place in the...

Let me just start by saying in short this was AWESOME.

We tried 3 deserts, ordered drinks had a variety of food and everything scored top marks. The prickletini was surprisingly tasty and balanced flavor wise. I ordered a coke with cherries since they don't have cherry coke on the fountain. They have these super fancy dark red cherries that were... borderline mind blowing given I was expecting maraschino cherries.

I had the ridiculous grilled cheese bacon cheese burger. I ordered medium and they landed that on the button which even specialty burger joints somehow mess up. The grilled cheese was pretty perfect seemed like cheddar and American in there. The burger actually had flavor from the meat, you could tell it was premium (they walked the talk found on the menu) the bacon was generously applied as well. Great burger. Even the fries were better than average by a good margin.

I didn't actually get to try the fish fry (burger was massive so...) the 2 people who ordered it were thrilled with it.

Buddy ordered the spaghetti dinner. I think this was the only one that wasn't enormously exciting mainly due to the portion size. In comparison to the other dishes serves and the prices considered the portion felt light hard to hit that right but that's what the thought was.

On to dessert! The raspberry cheesecake was a hit. The ginger cake had actual ginger in it which elevated the flavor experience. As for the Crème brûlée... it was the best I've had in quite some time. We recently had some in ithaca that was less than exciting since whomever prepared it burned the caramelized top. That was not the case here the custard was great and the top was just right. Well done 👏.

Finally the wait staff was attentive and present. The restaurant was slammed and things took a little while, with good company, good music and full drinks it was enjoyable none the less!

They have an extensive liquor selection. I didn't check out the beer or wine list but they had both available. Oh and they offer boozey milkshakes so. That's a win and a reason to visit again when I'm...

Let's start with - The food is amazing!!!!!! Staff was a great. A man, that I am assuming was the owner or GM, was wonderful and took great care of us with our drinks. Wonderful recommendation for a beer for my Wife. I am a Jack and Coke guy so mine was easy but they made sure we were not without drinks. My wife wanted Duck and it was delicious. I ordered a steak sandwich but was unable to eat it due to the following.

This is the part that was such a let down and the reason I will never go back for dinner. The Bad The atmosphere was utter chaos. So loud that there was no talking to the person across the table from you. Customers had zero class even though they were trying to be high society. We were sat in the absolute middle of the dining area. This would not have been an issue but the sound level was similar to being at a rock concert next to the speakers on all sides. Next A couple stood at the table next to us to talk to the people eating, which put their rears directly at my face level for 20 minutes, so I threw in the napkin and had to leave. The sound did nothing but get worse during the course of the night.

The Rye bar has food for fine dining but has no noise dampening so expect to leave on a Friday night with your ears ringing. If we return it will be for carry out.

I hate giving bad reviews. The staff and food were top notch. The atmosphere is the big issue when you are paying for high quality food at high quality prices. The meal was over $122.00 plus tip. There were 7 drinks so a lot of the price was alcohol. Please find a way to dampen the sound and recognize when people are loitering too long and making other...