The Rook — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

*Made my annual trip to The Rook August 2024. Another wonderful dinner. Manny was fantastic behind the bar. Since you guys are receptive to feedback, I’ll share my thoughts on your Buttermilk Salad. Great selection of greens. The seeds are such a wonderful touch. I love that the dressing was very thin. However, it needs more acid and herbs. It barely had any flavor at all. Wonderful salad that I highly recommend, though. Looking forward to seeing you in your new space next year.

You have a great space and friendly, competent staff. We returned recently after a year and were really hoping for a more expanded menu. I had the chicken sandwich and it just wasn't very good. It was boring. Something is off with your sides too. Huge serving of collard greens, but they're under seasoned. Potato salad - the potatoes are cut too small and aren't bound together well. Also, what flavor profile are you going for with them? This review probably sounds negative, but I'll recommend the 4 piece with the sauce and I'd recommend the dates if the order was 4 instead of 3 because it's ridiculous trying to share that order with someone.

Updated August 2022: Y’all have come so far since last summer! The inside space is great, especially your beautiful bar in the back corner of the restaurant. Great improvements on the menu as well. We had the pimento cheese hush puppies to start. The presentation was great. At first I thought they were a little too dark, then I realized they contrast very nicely with the bright orange pimento cheese on the plate. Have you considered stuffing the hush puppies with pimento cheese? Scotty Scott has a good recipe for that. We ordered the fried chicken and it was plenty for two to share. The chicken was cooked perfectly - crispy, crunchy skin that separated nicely from the tender meat. I thought the collards could use a splash of vinegar, but my partner liked them as they were. Your delicious cocktails kept us drinking after dinner, and the duck fat frites were just what we needed with the extra drinks. Looking forward to another...

Possibly the worst food I've had in the last year or so. I ordered the salmon rillettes and the fried chicken. First the positives: ambience and service. Both are excellent: the atmosphere is cozy and relaxed, while the waitstaff were all fast, attentive, and polite.

Now for the food. Given that this is in Ithaca, I'm not expecting world-class food, but nothing on the menu is cheap so I'm expecting food that's at least edible. This was not the case. Rillette came out cold and was anything but spreadable. It was all congealed together and was far too cold and unpleasant. There was no acid in the dish (menu says capers) but all you can taste is the overwhelming flavor of dill and salt. From the salty cheese with the salty everything-bagel seasoning on top, to the salty salmon, I left about 2/3 of the rillette untouched because it felt like I was eating straight table salt. They also overcooked the hell out of the salmon. I guarantee canned salmon with some cream cheese and lemon juice would yield a better rillette than what was served. The rye crackers were interesting but were also heavily salted (with the salmon).

The fried chicken itself was fine, but was served on top a bed of collard greens for some reason. The collard greens were unbelievably salty. I had to take a second bite to make sure I didn't eat all the salt in the dish in my first bite. What blew my mind was that the chicken is served on top of these soupy greens, so half the chicken is now incredibly salty, and all the skin touching the collards is now mushy, and crispy fried chicken skin is like half the reason to eat fried chicken. Save yourself the trouble, buy some KFC and get some grocery store coleslaw mix with some yoghurt. A costco rotisserie chicken and bagged salad is infinitely better than whatever it was I just ate. Words fail me. Whoever was working the kitchen today clearly didn't taste anything. Unfortunate. Honestly just left most of the food on the plates. Paid the...

The best seafood dish I've had in this town their salmon is unreal. I have a culinary background, an extensive one like 25 plus years and without hyperbole the best food and bang for your buck is the Rook. All around, I'm friends with the owners so I won't be too overgenerous just discuss specific MUST HAVES or DONT DO'S...

I think the cocktail menu is always curious if over eager and then I order something challenging and am absolutely gobsmacked when it's the doctors order. Bar service itself will be taken care of but nothing over friendly don't go looking to make a besty barkeep this is high end casual price and decorum restaurant theyre selling cocktails and sous vide.

The fig bacon thin is outrageously goodand I don't care for figs. Fried chicken whether G Free or cast iron ceramic lined you will not be left wanting because all things duck fat. Yes fries are basically confit cooking anything submerged adding a layer of almost orgiastic hedonism but with just the right panache of "I've had two excellently balanced and unnoticeably strong drinks and let's fry everything that way." Recommend anything Gin wise the Salmon for the love of anything stop eating now and don't again until you go have the salmon at The Rook.

And get the fig bacon snacky snack if your kosher with swine, it changed me on figs.

If only the crackhouse upstairs were still some sort of tavern and inn whereupon I could eat duckfat everything and stumble upstairs buzzed and full pf rich food and sleepy to the Nth degree.

P.s. don't make any plans for after dinner that involve being super active if you chose the rich fatty fat of the Mallard or have a bbunchvof heavy stuff. I keep going there before a show at the State Theater and not being able to enjoy the entire show for case of having 'the itis' and being very...