Scallions — Restaurant in City of Saratoga Springs

My wife and I recently decided to try Scallions Restaurant in Saratoga Springs for lunch.

A few years ago this restaurant was on our list to try, but when we stopped in for dinner, we stood and waited for several minutes, and no one greeted us when we arrived and were at the podium at the entrance, so we just left and went elsewhere, and hadn’t been back.

This time was very, very different, and we regret not going back to give them another try sooner, as the experience was simply “excellent” in every regard.

We went for lunch, and it wasn’t too busy. We were greeted immediately upon our arrival by a friendly manager, who asked us where we would prefer to be seated. We chose a small table by the window, and were presented with menus and a list of beverages, while she promptly brought us glasses of water.

The menu had several choices that looked appealing, and as we looked it over, we each ordered a glass of wine, which was generously poured and delicious.

We noticed that French Onion Soup was the “Soup of the Day”. This is one of our favorites, but we are highly critical, and usually disappointed. This was NOT the case today. More on that in a couple of minutes. . .

As the main course, my curly headed companion ordered one of the specials: Salmon on mixed greens that came with chick peas, onions, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and goat cheese, with a house dressing. I opted for Ryan’s Roast Beef, which is one of their paninis served with smoked mozzeralla, roasted red peppers, arugala and horseradish cream on grilled farm bread.

The soup arrived and our first impression was positive. It had melted cheese (swiss and gruyere, I believe) baked and dripping off of the sides of the bowl, and under that delectable cover was a deliciously hot steaming mixture of soup broth, tender cooked onions, and croutons that were seasoned to perfection. We agreed at that point that whatever else might happen, this meal was already in the “success”column. It took some effort (which is a good thing with this soup) to get every last piece of cheese off of the bowl when we finished the soup, but it was worth it.

Then came the entrees, and our experience continued along its pleasant mid day path: My wife truly enjoyed her Salmon salad, and was contemplating asking for the recipe for the house dressing, which was clearly the invention of the chef.

I loved the Roast Beef sandwich, which complemented the lingering taste in my mouth of the French Onion Soup.

Being retirees, we took our time with our entrees and wine, and were the only customers remaining in the restaurant when the dessert choices were mentioned.

We typically skip dessert, or only peruse the menu to count the calories we would avoid by not ordering, but this time, we opted to split an order of Toll House Cookie Pie. We were again delighted with the taste and portion size of this treat. It was warm, appropriately gooey, and topped with fresh dollop of whipped cream.

Throughout our dining experience, our server checked back with us a few times, engaged in pleasantries, and was a delightfully friendly.

We’d give Scallions 5 stars out of 5, and would recommend it for lunch. We will be back for more lunches, and for dinner to try that menu...

Typically, by nature of the fact I work in the industry, I am extremely critical of opportunistic hospitality operations. Moreover, it is extremely rare that I am blown away or impressed with all aspects of a restaurant establishment. Lastly, I rarely write reviews as I know they are either a frustrated guest who is venting to the general public and elaborating to make their story seem legitimate. With all our industry is going through today, I felt the need to share my experience.

This past weekend I was in Saratoga for a cousins wedding. I hadn't seen my extended family in over 2 years due to a myriad of factors. We had a handful of little ones and were fighting to find a bite close to our hotel before they had to go down for a nap. We attempted one place the hotel recommended, but they were closed for lunch, turns out it was due to staffing (a harsh reality our industry is facing today). We walked a few blocks and saw Scallion's, looked quickly at the menu and then realized they didn't open until noon (it was approx. 11:40am at this time). We also didn't see a kid's menu so we began to walk away.

To my surprise, an employee came to the front door and greeted us. A typical restaurant would say sorry we aren't open yet and send us on our merry way. This employee, who was remarkable, invited us all to come in (all 12 of us) and set up a table for us BEFORE they opened. The entire team was setting up, but was insanely hospitable so much so as to joke and be great with our kids.

They started us off with drinks before the staff was set up and took our order just as noon hit. We then had a huge mishap with the hotel, they called one of the guests in our party and there was an issue with the reservation and half the party had to leave to go deal with it.

The team here responded so nicely, apologizing for the mishap at the hotel, and making arrangements to consolidate our remaining guests at one table. (The other half of our party came back an hour later when the restaurant was extremely busy and they still made sure to not only accommodate them but ensure they were seated right next to us, wow!)

The server was insanely hospitable and is a pinnacle of what the industry standard should be, if I had a restaurant in that area she would be the first person I would go after! We were checked on by multiple team members genuinely asking if we had everything we needed. To boot, the food was fantastic across the board and they had a great kids menu.

There are so many articles and media publications talking about the great resignation and that good people are hard to find. I say that good people do exist (and the entire team at Scallions proves that) but they are attracted to a great establishment that employs other great people. The GM or Owner here deserves serious recognition, during the hardest staffing cycle this industry has ever gone through, they have managed to build a team that is admirable to anyone that works in our industry.

While I don't live in Saratoga, you can be sure that anytime I am back there, or anyone I know that goes there, my suggestion will for sure be to visit Scallions.

A job phenomenally well done Scallions, proud to be...

Really disappointing meal here, but I'll run through things factually. We (2 adults, mid 40s) made resos a week in advance for Friday at 7:30PM. Total with drinks was just over $100

We ordered the following: Fried green tomatoes ($10) Guacamole brie melt ($10) Wild mushroom sauté ($25) Scallops and slaw ($38)

Positives Friendly and attentive service. Staff was welcoming and warm, and checked-in on us often Portion sizes for mains were decent Fried tomatoes were crispy and nicely salted

Opportunities for improvement "Wild" mushrooms were very disappointing. Under-seasoned bland pile of cremini mushrooms filled half the plate, 3 broccoli pieces, and mashed potatoes.. maybe some folks appreciate the natural flavour of the 3 main ingredients in this dish, but for $25, this was insulting. My partner didn't want me to try them because she knew I'd have to say something.. They did bring out another fully prepared meal when I mentioned how plain and bland the mushrooms were, but it was prepared the same. They tried, but I'd skip this dish entirely. Scallops were decently sized, but not fully cleaned (grit in them), and not seared properly. The slaw was described as a "chef recommended outdoor dining dish, with temperature contrasting with the scallops" but it was just a cold slaw. Nothing exciting. Once again, under-seasoned, plain, boring...

Maybe it was just what we ordered, but based on this experience, we were really disappointed for the price to quality here. I could easily make better dishes at home, but if you're looking for something "gourmet" ... this didn't...