The Belvedere Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Harrietstown

Okay. Come on.

We sat down at 645 after a three hour drive and the atmosphere seemed really nice. A little full but there was about four or five open tables in the dining area.

We got a waitress who was very nice, and very apologetic by the end but she seemed so frantic. But my lord. She was running around with a pitcher of water apologizing to every table and acted like the world was falling apart.

We waited about fifteen minutes before she brought us bread. At this point we were annoyed but we understand it’s busy. She runs away to help others.

Twenty five minutes in my wife says “what is happening?” She wants to change the baby but doesn’t want to miss the waitress with an order. Finally she comes over and takes our order. Steak tips. Lasagna. Deep fried cheese curds as an appetizer. Easy.

45 minutes in “you’re apps are coming”. I would hope so. Finally she brings us a salad and a soup. “We also order cheese curds”. OH YEAH. I’ll take these back until that comes up! “No. We are starving. We will keep these.”

Her salad was sad. A few piece of lettuce scattered in a plate so sparse we could see the bottom of the plate. Two cherry tomatoes. Two black olives. A broken quarter of a mandarin oranges. We accept our paltry rations and hope our cheese curds will appear soon. Five minutes later they do.

We wait. We wait. WE WAIT. At this point the best I can say is the drinks were strong. Strong enough to hopefully keep our minds off the fact we’ve been waiting an hour for our food. She got a Moscow mule and I got an old fashion. I can drink whiskey. Half my drink had me giggling. That bartender knew what was happening out here and said “get the lit. They might stay seated”.

Two tables leave without food.

We take the baby out and let random old folks play with her. Let us entertain the masses.

I leave for a second old fashion. The bartender pours what I can only assume is four shots in my drink and thanks me for being “so damned patient. You’re a saint”. That would make eight shots tonight.

Finally the waitress comes out and says “it’s being plated.” Hour and fifteen

Hour and twenty our food has arrived! FINALLY! The water bread and drinks we had to go get ourselves weren’t enough and the baby is fussy but we can finally eat!!!

The meatball lasagna has no meatballs. It’s just a Sara Lee lasagna left under the broiler so long the top has burnt. Whatever. I’m hungry and kind of drunk.

Her steak tips are raw. Like, not rare. Medium rare. Absolutely raw. The outside is browned and seared. The rice and peas are cooked, but that’s nothing. The meat is bleeding a RED Not pink. Not headed to pink. RAW

I take the food to the head waitress (not ours). Look. I’ve worked in a kitchen. This is raw. It’s been well over an hour. What is happening back there.

The cook comes out and apologized. The hood had died an hour and a half ago when we were walking in (he saw us. I saw him fixing it outside) and he left the staff to work. They got slammed. By time he returned it was point break and they’d lost control.

They comped us the whole meal. The only thing we paid for was the second drink I ordered at the bar (damned good drink btw). Come on. It’s a Saturday night. Tell your customers the situation and not make those (us) sitting for a meal with three hours left on our drive that’s up.

Great mess you up drinks. Bad service. Terrible...

We started the night off here intending to immediately eat but found ourselves at the bar, because although the hours listed on Google are correct, they also include the bar hours and may not be reflective to the dining room hours.

First off, the drinks were great! Everyone in our party complimented the drinks and the mixes used, so this was a good start. We moved to the dining hall at 5pm when they started serving dinner.

For the appetizers, we started with the fried cheese curd and the clams, some of us had the soup of the day. The clams were cooked really nicely and had great flavor - huge hit! The cheese curds were good overall, however, some were still cold/frozen on the inside. The soup was a bean & ham style soup that had really nice saltiness to it!

For the main courses, the group had the haddock, the Delmonico steak, and the lasagna. The haddock was perfectly cooked and the sauce served with it complimented the fish nicely. The lasagna was also done nicely, had good textures and was layered spot on, and the taste was pretty standard for a good lasagna. The steak was cooked perfectly (medium rare) and had a good crust. It's a Delmonico cut, so it was a tad tougher than a ribeye, but the taste was right on.

For the dessert, I had the NY cheesecake with the house-made chocolate ganache. The crust on the cheesecake was decent, the cheesecake itself was great, but the ganache was... odd. The others in our party noted it had a musty/moldy taste, but I found it was probably due to the choice of chocolate. It had the taste like a dark chocolate nearing the 85%+ range and had some earthy tannin taste to it. This could have worked better if the ganache drizzle was used really sparingly. I ended up portioning the ganache differently because it overpowered the rest of the cheesecake.

Overall, the bartender and the waitstaff were great and the atmosphere was very relaxed while remaining somewhat classy. The owner was also kind and nice to talk with. The appetizers (minus the couple oddball cold cheesecurds) were spot on and the main meals were cooked to expectation. The dessert was the only thing I could see was a true mark on the food and it may just be due to the choice of chocolate and/or the ratio used to create it.

I do see us coming back...

My name is Mark Chapman. aka Chappy. My friends from work visited Saranac Lake Ny. I lived there for many years but now I am in Nj. My friends asked me a good place to eat while they visited. Knowing The Belvedere from the past and also know they changed hands and still provided Great food. I sent my friends there. The Belvedere Hands Down took care of my friends!! MybFriends told me today it was One Of The Best Highlights of Their Visit!! Food, Service, Atmosphere was Over the Top!!! Thank you to Everyone There that Made Their Visit Special!!!! See you All in The Spring!!!!! Shout Out To My Friend Bob Bell for Also Being involved in their Great Experience!!! Forever...