During my brief stay in Syracuse, several friends and I had the fortune of eating at several local dining establishments—including, but not limited to, Pastablities, The Preserve, Dinosaur BBQ, and Texas Roadhouse. We also ate at J & B Sandwiches in Lowville, NY. This review aims to walk the reader through an immersive retelling of our dining exploits in the Northeast’s second-greenest city.

Our first night in town, we stopped by Texas Roadhouse. Not a local establishment, per se, but you wouldn’t know that from the atmosphere. We immediately felt included in our East Syracuse community; at home among strangers; familiar in the (ostensibly) unfamiliar. Our server was friendly and attentive to our needs, even laughing at several of our jokes that frankly did not render such an enthusiastic response, which we appreciated. The butter rolls were, as always, a flaky delight—cooked to perfection and served piping hot. Our only complaint was that the kitchen mixed up our preferences and a gentleman who wanted a rare steak was served a medium cut. Alas, a minor blemish on an otherwise perfect evening. Overall 8/10.

We next dined at Pastabilities, an Italian restaurant in downtown Syracuse with a contemporary atmosphere. This restaurant had enjoyed a very solid 4.5/5 rating on Google, so we went in with high expectations. There were things we enjoyed about Pastabilities—rife with exposed brick, the interior was intentionally decorated and certainly conveyed a modern vibe. Star Wars was playing on a projector, which was fun. However, wait times were excessive, and our group witnessed as several other groups were seated (also without prior reservations) before us. Whether we were being discriminated against intentionally or not, I refuse to speculate. Once finally seated, our server was very knowledgeable about the menu and made several suggestions about our orders, which we followed. The food was great and serving sizes were reasonable. The bread and olive oil/tomato sauce were impeccable, and helped tide a few hungry boys over until the main entrees arrived, which again took quite a while. I will also point out that my breaded chicken was fairly dry. Unfortunately, the abysmal wait times definitely detracted from the admittedly excellent cuisine. You simply can’t put a price on poor service. Overall 6.5/10 rating.

Our tour de Syracuse next brought us to Dinosaur BBQ. Folks, spoiler alert: Dinosaur is the undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champion of Syracusian dining. You’re going to want to visit with a group of 4-6 and you’re going to want to order the Family Stylin’ BBQ plate. The side of mac and cheese was honestly the best mac and cheese I can ever remember consuming. Although notably bereft of the Dinosaur meat for which the restaurant was presumably famed, the Family Stylin’ selection of meats was cooked to perfection. Nothing that we ate was less than spectacular. Our server was friendly and knowledgeable. We were seated immediately and the food was ready with seemingly impossible rapidity. If you are in Syracuse for one night, this should be where you eat, no questions asked. Don’t think, just do it. Overall 10/10.

Finally, we enjoyed a meal at The Preserve. Service was spectacular—my water was refilled numerous times before it could even be emptied. Bravo, Kayleigh—excellent work! The food was good. Salmon was slightly over cooked, but the chicken alfredo was positively scrumptious. I also feel obligated to warn the reader of the enormity of their fried dough. Our server had mentioned offhand that “it’s definitely shareable” upon our ordering said menu item, but it exceeded our wildest dreams in terms of size. This fried dough could have fed a midsize Northeastern city city for several days. We enjoyed The Preserve for its cleanliness, high quality service, and quality food. Overall 7/10.