Northstar Public House — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

Update as I have pondered my review now that it is the next day. Extremely difficult time finding the building. There are no discernable signs saying this is Northstar. I only found it by a crowd of people lingering outside the door and then still questioned if I was in the right place. When I got inside- to what appears to be a storage area of chairs instead of a front entrance- I preceded to wait for 10 mins while I thought people who were customers walked by me but made direct eye contact. Finally after 10 minutes a man who I thought was a customer who had seen me standing there for 10 mins and said nothing comes to the host stand. No apologies, no professionalism. I had to tell him that I was there to pick up on online order. He then just points at the bag sitting there for a pick up and I was like no that's not mine. He disappeared for 2 secs, came back said it's not ready. He then was very unprofessional to a couple who walked in and told then their wait time would be a while, then a younger couple came in and he said he'd see what he could do about squeezing them in. That's biased and unprofessional and I am shocked he did all of that as if it were normal. He then while continuing intermittently to make eye contact with me for 25 mins and ignore 2 brand new groups of people that had walked in, I waited 10 mins of them standing there and his inattentive behavior finally when he came up to the host podium he said nothing to the groups of people so I brushed past them and asked "any word on my take out order?" He then disappeared for 2 secs and came back right away with my bag that had (judging by the coldness and condensation that had formed from all the steam escaping) been sitting there for about 20 mins. Then when I left and got back to my hotel and opened my mushroom risotto it smelled completely like pungent fish which there isn't meat or fish sauce or anything like that in the dish I called and the same host and one of the inattentive waitresses were trying to convince me that it was the box the food was carried out in. Never in my life have I had the unprofessional behavior from not just the host but the waitresses as well it was despicable. I ended up not eating it and from someone who has a zero waste policy that just took the cake.

Original post below Worst service Ever. Had a 7 10 pickup time guy had me waiting for 25 mins over pick up time bc he was too lazy to go back to kitchen and check to see of its ready. Food is cold and no manager in sight will not recommend or...

This was our first visit to Northstar.....and we have mixed feelings. When we walked in, the first person to approach us was very stoic, but polite. We waited a few minutes and she came back to take us to a table. She did not ask us our preference for seating (i.e. by a window, outside, tall table, etc.) she just took us to a table and said "here you go", set the menus down and walked away. We sat down and a few moments later, another waitress approached our table. She was trying to tell us about the specials but the table we were sat next to was so incredibly loud, we could barely hear her. She took our drink orders and came back with 4 small glasses of water and the one soda. We tried to ask her some questions, but still difficult to hear with the noise from the 4-top beside us. I even mentioned to her that I couldn't hear her and yet, no attempt from the staff to quiet these guests. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a lively conversation and expect people to have a memorable experience when they go out. However, I do expect people to act respectable in public.....but this group was over-the-top loud and rude....using foul language in just about every sentence (more like bar/club than restaurant etiquette). My 14 year old was very affected by their behavior. She acted more respectable than these young adults did. Even when their food came out, they managed to continue their obnoxious conversation, only now with food in their mouths. They finally left about 1/2 way through our entrees and immediately, our experience got better. The neighborhood setting is quaint and the menu is unique. We like trying new places and different foods. Everything we had was tasty and fresh and well prepared. Prices were average. It was fun to have different people giving us service, from the hostess seating us, to our waitress taking our orders and then another waitstaff person delivering our apps, and yet another delivering our entrees. Disappointments were that we could not get local wines by the glass (and very limited selection by the bottle) and that we never received a water jug for our table or our water glasses refilled. We will probably give it another chance...there were items on the menu we'd...

vegan review: everything was mid.

the crunch salad was the best thing i ate and it still had little flavor. the dressing needed some punching-up.

the squash fritters were confusing to all of us as we expected something different based on the description; they were hush puppies. everyone liked them but they were very plain to me. the sage aioli carried a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of flavor.

the curry was good but lacked salt & sauce. when i hear curry i expect it to be saucy and it just wasn’t.

the “wings” were the other misnomer. they’re tofu wedges. or triangles. to call them wings is disrespectful, given what many veg restaurants are doing to innovate faux chicken wings with rice paper skin & sugarcane “bones”. the BBQ ones were good. the medium buffalo ones were not spicy.

was not happy with my drink, the night nurse (medicinal taste, but based on the name i should have expected as much), but adding the strawberry rhubarb cider helped.

the vegan chocolate cake was fine. the texture was really spongy and both the cake itself and chocolate glaze lacked sweetness.

the service/wait was not good. we got all our food at once instead of getting appetizers out first. surprisingly, the fritters came out last. then when it came time to pay we had to sort through everything ourselves, and even after that it took a long time to get paid up. ours was a party of 12 and they had a reservation for us but still had weak service. (at the restaurant where i work i’m used to seeing servers be very attentive to large parties with reservations, but that wasn’t the case here.)

atmosphere was also mid as the music was a weird combination of jazz and reggae? felt lacking in personality,...