Birdsall House — Restaurant in City of Peekskill

An overdue review about the hostess’ unacceptable behavior:

I had high hopes for this restaurant. My husband and I decided to dine here to celebrate our anniversary after looking at all the options. We came in smiling and friendly, and we were excited to sit on the patio and enjoy our food. When we kindly inquired about sitting outside, the hostess bluntly retorted there was no room there. Her tone was unwelcoming and I quickly got the sense she just didn’t like us - but I tried to keep an open mind. Perhaps there were reservations coming in for the patio.

There were several empty booths/nice seats within the restaurant. We were led to a small open table in the hallway right outside the door to the patio. The door was open often and it would gust wind onto us, so we quickly and kindly inquired if we may sit in the empty booth right in front of us (away from the door, a little more private) - but if not, that it was totally fine! The hostess dismissively said that all booths are for larger parties of 4+ and went on her way. Her tone again was unexpectedly mean, almost as if she was disgusted with us, but we respect restaurant table policy and understood her answer (not her tone, though).

Unfortunately, after few minutes in, we saw that hostess seat a party of 2 (White/Caucasian, unlike us) in the nicer booth right in front of us that we asked about (not a 4+ group that was needed for it like she said). It felt worse that we could see them in plain view right in front of us; I wish we just didn’t have to see that or have to sit with it the whole time we were dining. The hostess had friendly chats with them and occasionally glance over at us - I wasn’t sure if that was because she felt bad and meant to clarify with us about the booth situation - but she didn’t. That made me feel she meant for us to see it. We kept our heads low and ate quietly the rest of the meal. The actions, words and tone of the hostess made us feel unwanted and weirdly discriminated against, when we happily came in to give our patronage and enjoy our anniversary here. Staff hospitality really makes or breaks a restaurant for me and unfortunately this ruined my experience here.

Our actual waiter serving food/drinks was kind, funny, warm and hospitable - thank you for that, sir. Unfortunately though, having a negative experience with the hostess and a constant reminder of the discrimination from the booth in front of us while we were eating, we couldn’t fully appreciate the rest of our experience.

Food: I’m not a huge brunch person, or very picky perhaps, and I don’t remember being amazed by the options. I had come for the lunch menu, which ended up being unavailable, and that lunch menu had sounded more promising to me. However, I don’t think I’d return unless the hostess has changed. Everyone is going through something; please do better...

First of all you get into this place and the atmosphere is awful. It was the most boring interior i’ve ever seen i would’ve rather ate in a dinner. I had my order taken. I ordered Mac and Cheese with Bacon to start. It was $18 so i assumed it would be really good or really large. The bacon was chewy and had no flavor and the mac and cheese tasted like microwaved instant Mac and the portion was small for the price. We also ordered a smash burger and their Maple burger. I had asked for Add egg, bacon and crispy onions and my girlfriend has asked for Egg in hers. We got our food, i had no bacon or crispy onions and the egg had basically no yolk in it and tasted like a dunkin’ donuts freeze dried egg. They also had homemade ketchup that tasted like tomato paste. They had no regular ketchup or at least i don’t know if they did because our waitress had taken our order and went to bartend and the food runners just brought us our food and that was it i had no one to ask. We had to stop a random waiter that was working outside to ask us for a check and a box. Now we get the check. I was charged for the Bacon because i didn’t have anyone to voice that i never got it. I also saw that they charged a 3% fee for using a credit card. Okay i can understand that when it’s a deli or something where the food is cheap or extremely good that it’s worth it. All in all for 2 burgers and mac and cheese. (we got water and no other drinks) the total came to $64 for food that was awful and service that was poor at the best. I am not one to complain about price of food had it been good or bigger portions. This was just simply bad food that was extremely overpriced. I would say the only enjoyable part of our meals were the french fries that came with the burger. My girlfriends burger patty was dry and tasted bland. Extremely overpriced for the service and quality of our food. I am local and will probably never go back i will just simply go to the significantly better food and similar if not better priced Whiskey River right next door for a much better experience and...

Let me start this off with I've been here numerous times and usually this place doesn't disappoint. A tad pricy but you get good farm to table food and a very eclectic mix of beers. The bartenders are all very nice and knowledgeable about the beers they have and do a good job at offering something you may like based off your tastes.

The issue I have currently is with my last visit. We went for brunch and service was incredibly slow. They do get packed so it can be understandable but we waited quite a long time for the food. The food came out and there was a mix up since the waiter didn't input it correctly, so a member of my party had to wait again for their food.

We also asked for one of the outdoor heaters to be turned on as it was a rather cool morning. Nobody knew how to operate the heater, so we sat there. There were also a ton of bees everywhere and a lady behind us was freaking out as she was allergic to them.

The next issue came with my girlfriends food. While she was eating she found a cooked bug in her eggs. We brought this to the attention of the server and he said "what would you like me to do about it?" With no real solution other than to bring new food or a plate to separate the bug...which is what he did.

Now usually when something like this happens a manager comes over and apologizes and swears these things don't happen. I get it mistakes happen but the waiter didn't tell anybody about it, and said "yea that's gross". Also when these things happen, usually there's some sort of compensation for it (free drinks, comp the one food item, etc). No offering of anything. The thing that really threw us back was his offering to just separate the bug from the food and be done with it. It makes me not want to come back here and eat which disappoints me as the food is good (when it's not tainted). The wait staff seem to not care too much for their customers which is sad, as I really do like this place.

I'll still come back here for the beers and sit at the bar, but not...