D'Raymonds — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

Another enjoyable celebration dinner with family at D'Raymond's. At least once per year my wife's family has a celebratory dinner here, not that they need any arm twisting for a celebration LOL. We were a part of nine and were seated at the large table in the back. We had two servers assigned to our party. Pandemic protocols were followed to the letter. Very comfortable seating and so was the pace of the evening. Drinks and wine were ordered while we looked over the menu. We ordered two appetizers for the table - bruschetta ($9) and Tuscan Calamari ($13.75), from their 17 choices. They also surprised us with some pizza fritta on the house. Some of the meals we ordered were Orechietti Carbonara ($20), Orechietti Frascati ($21), Lasagna ($20), Chicken & Penne w/ vodka sauce ($20-special request not on menu), Scallopini Vitello ala D'Raymond's ($26),... 65 choices of entrees-chicken, veal, fish, seafood, beef, and baked (al forno) Italian specialties ($18-37). Every dish is correctly cooked, served hot, served together, presented perfectly. Bravo to the chefs who always get it right year after year. This is top shelf Italian cuisine and that's why D'Raymond's is full even on a Monday. Reservations are a must for dinner. A family owned & operated restaurant and was voted Albany, NY's top Italian restaurant 12 years in a row. Lunch menu: 12-3pm Mon-Sat, Dinner menu : M-Th 12-8:30pm, Fri-Sat 12-9pm, Closed Sun. A small bar and some two person tables are available pre-dinner. Full service bar w/ a large wine list. Come for a celebration whether it's two or twenty. They can make it a very evening. Thank you for letting us bring in the apple pie dessert for the anniversary couple. Much appreciated. And thank you to all the staff that always make it an extraordinary celebration. You have our highest recommendation. The Farrells, McCarthys, Kellehers, & myself, Nicola Parisi (how did I end up w/ this bunch?)

A last minute dinner decision at D'Raymond's Sat 3/25/23 5pm. Gift card to my bride from her brother & sister-in-law - Check. Pouring rain - Check. No reservation - Check. What the heck? Let's go. We found two open seats at the bar right when we walked in at 5:15pm. We were greeted by the very busy bartender, Marissa. We ordered our drinks(Jameson $8.50, pinot grigio $8.) and relaxed while looking over the menu. Marissa brought us warm bread w/ 3 dipping choices and told us the specials and we pondered the always difficult decision of which delicious dish to order at D'Raymond's. My bride had the veal piccata ($28) which was hot, generous portion, & delicious. She took half home for the next day. I had this evening's fish special. Grilled salmon served over creamy polenta w/ olives, roasted tomatoes, onions, capers, & artichokes hearts ($29). Great combo of flavors. Kudos to the chef of this dish. Marissa "arm twisted" us into looking at the fancy dessert menu. So we relented and took 2 desserts to go. And the gift card covered the entire bill. And we left a cash tip. A great place to spend two relaxing and fun rainy Sat. evening. Always great food, service, & atmosphere at D'Raymond's NOTE: Dinner reservations are a must as it is a very popular restaurant. No reservations taken for the bar. Worth taking a chance though. Thank you again to all the excellent staff at D'Raymond's Nick &...

Tldr: Italian in our area is way too good for me to give draymonds a positive review. You can get a much more authentic experience and wayyyyyy better food at many italian places like caffe italia, Ferraris, Rosannas, or Barcelona. And for the same prices! For over 100 bucks for a dinner for two, this just does not meet my standards.

Went for a date night with my wife. First of all, we are in our 30s and we're easily the youngest people there. Not the end of the world but not a good omen. Place was very busy when we arrived, but we had a reservation so only took a few minutes past our reservation to be seated. Waitress was very nice, however she had forgotten my wife's wine and didn't know the specials and had to look them up. Not the end of the world but a little mark against her. She also took quite a while to check on us during the meal. Again nothing terrible, but not great for a fancy(ish) dining experience.

The food was below par. We started with bruschetta, I wouldn't recommend that to anyone. It was garlic bread with a slice of tomato and a slice of Mozz melted on top. Idk who decided that was bruschetta but it is not!!

For entrees my wife got the pesce Alfredo, she loves seafood so was very excited. I got the bistecca Ala draymonds mid rare.

My wife was mostly a fan. Said the Alfredo sauce was good and she shrimps in her dish were tasty. But that the lobster was overcooked and chewy. Considering that's the most expensive component of the dish, it was a bit disappointing.

My steak was cooked to the right temp, but the sauce was way overwhelming. I love a good butter garlic but they literally soaked my steak in so much butter it was dripping everywhere and there were large chunks of garlic basically smothering every piece of steak. It was pretty much all I could taste. Even after scraping off a lot of the garlic, I couldn't really taste the actual steak. It also came with an old piece of lettuce and two very sad looking slices of lemon for what I can only assume is garnish. But the presentation was dreadful.

We didn't complain to staff because nothing was THAT bad. Everything came how we ordered it and in a fair amount of time. We tipped 20% because the waitress was nice. But it was all underwhelming to say the least.

At the end of the day, Italian in our area is way too good for me to give draymonds a positive review. You can get a more authentic experience and wayyyyyy better food at many italian places like caffe italia, Ferraris, Rosannas, or Barcelona. And for the same prices! For over 100 bucks for a dinner for two, this just does not meet...

D'raymonds has always been my restaurant of choice for birthdays/special events, catering needs, and pretty much anything in between. We recently took my Grandmother for her 81st birthday. Highly recommend making reservations or it's likely you'll have quite a wait at this popular spot As soon as we walked in, the hostess was extremely rude. We were carrying a birthday cake (we called to confirm that it was okay to bring one in) and she just kept staring at us and walking by, answering the phone, etc before getting our names... and never once offered to bring thr cake to the back. Even when she sat us and we had nowhere to put it on the table.. we eventually had to ask her politely if the cake could be brought to the back and she scooped it up and took it away without even so much as a "yes". We were seated at the first table near the door, and watched as she was annoyed and miserable to other customers throughout our stay. Our appetizers were delicious- esp. The fried mozzarella. So good! Our meals came and I ordered the Fettuccine roma which says it has mushrooms in the dish but also says cheese and a butter cream sauce. Unfortunately, the chicken was way over cooked and the entire dish tasted like a beef stroganoff or a stew type of gravy. When the waiter finally came by, I had asked how the sauce was supposed to taste (clear indication there was an issue with it) he simply replied "like mushrooms" and rushed away. Gave me NO option to tell him that the chicken was almost inedible and that I didnt like the dish at all. We waited... waited some more... he never came back until everyone else was finished, and I had a FULL plate- perhaps a bite and a half gone. When he finally did come back (we were out of drinks and bread the entire time we ate btw) I had explained why I still had a full dinner, and told him not to bag it because I didn't like it. It was almost as though he took it personally. Not ONCE did he apologize or ask if I wanted anything else and then still charged me full price for a totally untouched meal. We had to grab the manager who thankfully fixed it right away and apologized. I was SO disappointed in our service.. from the hostess to the waiter. Ive been coming to D'raymonds for a long time snd have never experienced this. Even though their food is typically amazing, with service like this, I think we'll have to find a new...