The Cornell Restaurant + Bar — Restaurant in City of Kingston

Nice service, cool location, but the food is just not good enough. They really need to know to do better. Nothing was a nightmare but nearly everything had an issue, some of it in execution and some of it is them just being cheap. Note that service was good. Everyone was kind and they accommodated for a large party of 15.

Let’s start at drinks. First the water tastes terrible. The restaurant must invest in a real filtration system. I know Kingston public water is a bit funky, but a good restaurant filters their water for taste. Second, the draught beer pours are 10oz for $9. And cans are $5-$7. Make that make sense. Sure charge that amount, but serve a real pint. None of the beers were wildly expensive kegs. Lastly, the cocktails… just an absolute disgrace. Tasted three of them and I’d be appalled to serve any at my home. The first was a sickly sweet peach thing with far too much syrup, a sugary mess. The next a watered down “old fashioned” riff that had no alcohol and little resemblance to an old fashioned. The third was so strong I couldn’t even tell you what the flavor profiles were. All off their signature cocktail menu. The bar staff needs training, systems, and to taste their work.

Now the food, where we started with a Little Gem salad, which didn’t have Little Gem lettuce for some reason. I went and reread the menu and it says Romaine lettuce in the description, but Little Gem is a type of Romaine, but they used regular romaine… why? The real sin here was absolutely not enough dressing on this salad. What a weird thing to skip out on. It’s a $18 salad of lettuce, go heavy on the dressing, it’s what’s selling it. Next is the handmade ravioli, cappelletti to be precise. I know cappelletti is meant to be a thicker dough, but this was dumpling dense, and way undercooked. 8 ravioli, $26… short rib filling could have been anything. Porcini sauce was nice. Honey Glazed Salmon was just the saddest. Sauce was not covering the whole fish? So it was just an overcooked piece of salmon on top of white rice… and what’s going on with the Brussels sprouts? Is there a shortage? It’s like they cooked Brussels sprouts at some point, and took the leftover fried bits from that and threw them on my dish. Maybe got 3 actual Brussels sprouts total… what’s going on in that kitchen? I have to believe management is harassing them about food costs. If this dish had enough sauce for every bite of food and maybe 10-12 sprouts, would have been good. But this sucked. Last thing, my toddler’s chicken breast was fine. But who thought that children should be served steamed veggies covered in undercooked garlic with zero oil or butter? Tasted one bean and he would touch the rest. I snagged a carrot to see what’s going on, and the raw garlic burnt my palette. Kitchens on auto-pilot. Who’s tasting this food?

Other people’s food I didn’t try: “Wagyu” Smashburger - my dear friend who wrote this menu… you and I know there’s no way any Wagyu came near this burger. Unless you’re buying pre-ground Wagyu and believe in that marketing nonsense. It’s a burger. You add as much fat in the mix as you’d like. So using Wagyu would be pointless? But the burger actually looked like the best thing on the table. Can’t forgot the French fries… complimentary French fries are why this place got 2 stars. They were fresh, tasted good, and were cooked right. The kids loved them. Props to you for doing that. The Strip Steak looked good, properly portioned, and accurately cooked. Someone got a pickled veggie side which was solid. Didn’t try or talk to anyone else about their specific dishes. Disappointed to “it was fine” was the general sentiment.

Dessert: The desserts were big. No question. But what in God’s name is Cool Whip doing on any desert in 2025? At $12, you can spring for the Whipped Cream. Donut ice cream sandwich I tried was alright. Tasty. Wouldn’t get again. People seemed to enjoy the berry cobbler.

Atmosphere is great. Building looks beautiful. Trash and beer caps in the outside areas from their 4th of July event the day...

I made reservations for a birthday dinner. Upon arrival, the staff was very unfriendly. They didn’t greet me or my guest. There wasn’t a smile and barely a hello. They quickly sat us at a table right behind the receptionist desk. The table was small and very wobbly. I also had an expensive designer purse that was too large to put on the table and I didn’t want to put it on the floor or my lap. We asked to be moved to another table where we could be more comfortable. Instead of being offered another table, I was told that there weren’t any tables available and that they would take my purse and hold it at the receptionist desk. However, when looking around, there was plenty of open seating. When I mentioned the open tables, I was told they were reserved for other parties. Not only was I offended that the manager tried to reach and grab my purse, but I also felt like I was being racially profiled as the only person of color in the entire establishment. All the other guests, more specifically white middle to upper class guests, were treated with the upmost respect. Welcomed with a warm hello and a smile and even reseated when asked. When I pulled the manager aside to express my displeasure, the manager never once apologized and never took accountability for her actions. She placed the blame on her staff, saying that they need training. However, management needs training as well. She was the leader in this situation and she treated me with disrespect from the minute that I walked in. Why would her staff respect me, if she didn’t? Leadership starts at the top and from what I saw today there was a complete lack of leadership at this place of business. After expressing my concerns, never once was I offered a solution, wished a happy birthday, or even given a basket of bread for the table. Clearly, I wasn’t welcome here even on my birthday. Needless to say, I chose to leave and not spend a dollar at this place. This will be my first and last time coming here, I should of listened the first time when I saw the other bad reviews. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but this was the ultimate disappointment especially on...

Yesterday evening my friends and I checked out a new restaurant we were anticipating great food and a great atmosphere well unfortunately there was a lack thereof. We entered greeted by a hostess and we asked to go to the bar we continued on up to the bar where we found a four seated table…At that table was note only one menu so we sat down and shared the menu anticipating a fulfilling meal ahead of us we proceeded to wait for about 20 minutes granite they were busy. Once greeted by our waiter he went to grab us more menus and took our drink orders. The environment was exciting beautiful and just overall better than the last place kudos to the interior designer. We got our drinks where we had to wait for our last one to arrive about 3-5 mins after so respectfully we waited to cheers. We then each order a dinner 3 of us had ordered the smash burger which I would recommend (our waiter did not ask how we liked our meat cooked so it all came well done) and the last person at our table ordered the scallops for like $32 ( do better in this economy) expecting a hearty meal …well come to our surprise it was about 5 scallops and a scoop of rice under each not hearty or fulfilling at all for our friend a full grown man… we all just were in shock staring so my friend shared her meal with her husband to make sure he wasn’t hungry …which was unfortunate for her she didn’t get to enjoy such a delightful burger. We did use the facilities and they are nice but the stench was just unbearable and then we came out to be greeted by just bitter old women which I can’t really blame the restaurant for (but generally can people do better)? Please for the love of god clean those bathrooms and make sure to tell your customers about the portion sizes of what some of these meals are.

P.s mclovin was a great waiter and the smash burger was a 10/10

Also note we asked for bbq sauce and he said “let me check” then never came back …but then again we are at another bar I assume they don’t have it...