The Dove — Restaurant in Town of Hamburg

Celebrated a b'day with family at an AMAZING restaurant, The Dove!!! (I'm sad to say we just found this GEM and it's been here 15 years!!!)

My review... 👏👏👏👏👏 The dining room is nicely appointed, walking in it feels like a "Nite Out" and you know good things are ahead! The tables are spaced, giving each table enough room to enjoy the privacy of their own conversations, an oddity nowaday almost as rare as a Conservative politician in New York! This would be a great date nite or proposal restaurant, especially with their super accommodating staff! The staff alone makes the restaurant worth frequenting! The lighting was appropriate for a romantic evening, while still being bright enough to read the menu.

Now for the menu, an addendum before talking food, wear loose fitting clothing! Consider borrowing an outfit from a slightly larger friend! No belts, or anything that ties, or you will be terribly, incredibly, uncomfortable for the ride home! I'm finding writing this difficult enough because I'm so full, it's distracting! On to the food! So much food! We were greeted, seated and ice water, beverages, a variety of piping hot breads with whipped butter and oil magically appeared like they hire mind readers, along with a "sulla casa," learn that meaning, bowl of beautiful meatballs and sauce. Now, I'm not generally a bread person. Let's just say that I could have ended the meal right there! OMG the roll I had!!!!! Our basket had crusty round rolls with cornmeal on the outside, a ciabatta type roll and a short baguette meets breadstick. Did I mention that they were piping hot? As in fresh from the oven! This may have been because we made a reservation? I'll ask next time I'm there, which should be soon! I've heard that they have a wine tasting dinner special on Wednesdays.

We ordered our meals, each is served with a salad, their house dressing is a parmesan peppercorn which had no complaints! I asked for the blue cheese crumbles and vinaigrette, and I will every time I'm there! But before our salads arrived, another sulla casa dish arrived, in the form of a beautiful bowl of pasta e fagioli. A soup I don't like. I would order theirs, if they didn't give it to their dinner guests. Just before our plates arrived, our server appeared yet again with a sulla casa limoncello aperitif to cleanse our palate for the main course! And then they arrived! I'm not going to tell you which ones were ordered because I don't want to prejudice your choices. Let's just say that there were no complaints and everyone hummed through each bite!

While eating dinner we overheard the dessert selection, as told by another server to a nearby table. We immediately began strategizing how much would be eaten and how much would be tomorrow's lunch! Dessert was heaven! And I have my sole complaint of the nite, the cannolis were perfect, fresh baked shells, filled when they were ordered BUT there were empty spots in the middle of each one. An order is two small cannolis on a prettily decorated plate. They are anything but a disappointment! But they are short enough that they need to be filled. The tiramisu was dreamy!

An exceptional nite! I love my family. The best service I can remember in a long time! Great food! Every course! They make you feel like you're dining at a friend's home.

AND I had a Groupon! And while the bill was being taken care of our amazing server showed up again with her final sulla casa of our nite, fresh baked Italian sugar cookies gently dusted with powdered sugar!

All smiling on the way to the exit, I never dreamt the evening could get better! But it did! As we reached the door our server told us that we could help ourselves to a complimentary bag of that delicious bread! Score! Leftovers for lunch AND sulla casa bread!...

We were driving through the area on our way back from a visit to the Niagara Falls. We looked up places where we the reviews were high and had items on the menu we both liked.

The moment we walked in The Dove had an air of propiety. We were asked if we had a reservation and we said no. The host said OK, I will need to set a table. We were seated and after a short wait our waitress stopped by and asked us for a drink, volunteering different types of alcohol. We passed and an her second stop she asked us if we were ready to order. Like every new place I go, I ask the server what their personal favorite is. She gave me a list because everything was good. I asked her to please narrow it down to her 2 favorites, as I have never gone wrong with this direction. She narrowed it down to 2 and I picked the one she sounded most excited about. She got really upset with me and said, what do you want from me, I don't know what you like. My wife stepped in and said, he will eat just about anything, he just wants your opinion of what is best. She grunted and said, I don't know what you want me to tell you.

I ordered the Pork Belly special appetizer, pasta fagiol soup, and the shrimp and scallop in white wine and butter sauce. It is a small place and the servers, bus boy and hostess seemed a little out of sync.

The pasta fagiol came out and tasted mostly bland with a major focus on the beans. There was very little flavor and the server asked us if everything was OK. I told her that the soup was bland and needed salt. She came back later and told me that she spoke with the chef and the chef said I was right and to thank me for the constructive feedback.

The pork belly came out and the greens had good flavor but the fat had relatively no flavor. The meat had been overcooked. They delivered a house salad to my wifeè and had homeade French dressing. The salad had to be returned and so did the soup.

The server stormed away indignant with our responses and when the main entrees were received by us, the chef peeked around the corner and looked right at me to see if I liked it. The server took back the positive report to the chef, that "He likes it".

The whole experience was lacking and the food was subpar for the atmosphere being...

Food was great, service wasn't what I would expect. We really had a great meal, and I hate that the service detracts from that. Our waitress seemed annoyed that we showed up as soon as they opened, so I figured it was that (we needed to eat early)...until I noticed how she treated any other table after ours. I'm sure it's just her natural demeanor, but she's very curt and comes across as annoyed that you are ordering anything. Recommendations were thrown out with a "I don't care whether you order it or not" attitude. Interior could use a little updating, but don't let that detract from the food. Everything we had, except the escargot was good. The escargot had so much melted cheese on it, that it might as well have been a cheese dish. You couldn't taste the snails at all, no flavor anymore. My wife and I both had veil, both dishes were great. The veil was tender, and not over done. All in all, I'm not sure I'd eat here again when I take into consideration some similar restaurants we ate at in the area. That's why I can't even give it 4 stars. The food was good, but wasn't good enough to make up for the service. It changed from an "enjoyable" experience into...