Hill Top Inn — Restaurant in Town of Elmira

I’m a Horseheads native who came back to town to celebrate my mothers 81st birthday. Picked the hill top in based on reviews, location, and vague memories of it when I was a kid.

First the positives. The ambiance is incredible. We were able to be seated outside under a tent and had an unobstructed view over the hill. Very nice. The staff was pleasant, though harried. The wings appetizer was delicious. Crispy and smokey, i recommend them to everyone. The rolls are good. Soft, warm, with a slight dusting of sugar on top. More like. Yeast roll than a typical dinner roll.

So now the negatives. It was busy, with several different events going on besides the Friday night crowd. So one can expect service might be slow.

We were seated about 6:20, dinner order placed about 6:40. 2 appetizers, 5 meals. First appetizer, the wings, came about 45 minutes after that. For some reason it took another 30 minutes after that for the spinach and artichoke dip to arrive. Finally, after just breaking the 2 hour mark, our meals arrived. Everyone said their meal was fine, except me. I had ordered the shrimp scampi and what I got was some boiled shrimp on top of pasta with no scampi sauce at all. Just completely flavorless. Not wanting to spend the night there waiting for the food again, I did not send it back.

Our server did acknowledge our wait many times, and apologized. They also offered us deserts as comp several times, which I declined every time. I just had no faith they would be out anytime soon. The manager also offered a gift card for next time. Which again, being from out of town, I declined. They finally took the value of the gift card off the bill, $25 off of $175. 14%. I did not want to wait anymore so I said thank you and paid.

Yes they were busy. But I was able to watch multiple parties be seated, order food, eat and leave before ours ever came out. What happened exactly will be a part of lost hill lore I suppose, I just know I...

The night started out great. The bartender was attentive and good. Once moving to the table the server wasn’t confident in the specials and how they were made and was not attentive to the table. We order steaks and they have you cut in to insure they are cooked to your request, but they were not cooked consistently. The sides came and were cold. We ended up sending them back twice and they still were not right. Maybe if it was really busy, I could understand the lack of attention, but there was hardly anyone there on a Saturday night. The owner Mike Sullivan eventually came to the table and said he heard that we had not gotten what we ordered. We advised him that we did get what we ordered, but that the sides were cold and the steak was not cooked evenly and that our sides went back twice. He said that he had just gotten there, but we saw him when we were seated so clearly he had not just arrived. Thoroughly disappointed in both the service ( except bartender) and the food. Mr. Sullivan seemed more annoyed that we were there and was full of excuses, rather than being accountable for his staff and the disappointing experience we were having. If you read some of the previous reviews, you can see that other customers had similar encounters with Mr. Sullivan. The view doesn't make up for any of this. Not so sure I would give...

Listen, I don’t write reviews normally. But the experience here was SO BAD. Going to mix in some positives here because I’m sure it’s just because of the way the stars aligned. Waitresses were very kind and friendly. Bread was really good (came very late). View was awesome. One mixed drink ordered was very watered down and tasted like nothing. Ordered another, very accommodating. We waited over an hour for entree. They apologized for the wait which appreciated. Still kinda sucked - it was a later reservation (6:30pm) but eating at 8:20pm is pretty late / not expected. Also croutons on the salad was JUST Pieces of bread. Which was funny, but… not croutons. Filled up on French onion soup (starter), bread, and salad and by time main course came out was full. “9oz” rare steak came out lookin like a 6oz poorly cooked steak. WAYYYY overcooked on the outside(dry and gristled), some portions medium, some portions well done. Sent back, they were nice about it. The steak that came back was SO much better. Also WHY do the potatoes default to having cabbages in it? No one asked for that!! Dessert was comped which we appreciated. Think it was just a bad, over-crowded night with a series of unfortunate events. Feel for the workers. Hope to try again in the future. View is really great...