The Hidden Oak Café — Restaurant in Town of Islip

Hidden Oak Café

Having visited this charming café multiple times over the past two years, I've watched it maintain its unique character while experiencing some changes in quality. This review blends experiences from recent visits, offering a comprehensive look at what you can expect.

Food: 3.5/5 The café shows both consistency and variation in its offerings. The egg salad sandwich remains a reliable choice - generously portioned, properly chilled, and enhanced with fresh sprouts. Recent soup offerings were mixed: the tomato soup impressed with excellent flavor, while the butternut squash soup disappointed, arriving too cool and missing advertised ingredients. All meals come with appropriate sides (chips with sandwiches). The food quality has slightly declined from earlier visits, but still maintains decent standards. No digestion issues.

Service: 3/5 Service has remained consistently average over the years. While staff maintains a pleasant demeanor, attentiveness varies significantly between visits. Some hostesses provide better service than others, but overall, the service neither impresses nor disappoints. Response times are generally acceptable.

Ambiance: 5/5 The café's strongest asset continues to be its enchanting setting within Bayard Cutting Arboretum. The "hidden" aspect adds genuine charm, with stunning park and water views through large windows. The interior maintains its quaint, country feel, and the covered porch offers delightful outdoor seating in favorable weather. Note: Cell service remains spotty with no WiFi available.

Cleanliness: 4/5 The establishment consistently maintains clean, well-kept spaces throughout, a standard that hasn't changed over time.

Parking/Accessibility: 4/5 Parking situation remains unchanged - paid lot (free with state park pass) with a scenic walk to the café. The walk continues to be part of the experience rather than an inconvenience.

Value: 4.5/5 Prices have increased slightly over two years (from $29 to $21 for a lighter lunch for two), but still represent excellent value given the unique setting and portion sizes. The value proposition remains strong, especially considering the park location.

Overall: 4/5 Hidden Oak Café continues to charm with its unique setting and peaceful atmosphere. While food quality has shown some inconsistency recently, it remains a worthwhile destination, especially when combined with a park visit. Not open for breakfast, but perfect for a lunch excursion. Best approached as part of a larger arboretum experience - come for the nature, stay for a pleasant lunch in a truly unique setting. The combination of reasonable prices, charming atmosphere, and park location maintains its appeal for both locals and tourists exploring...

I must say I was so disappointed with my lunch here. My sister and I had eaten here last year and then we walked the ground’s to enjoy the beautiful scenery. This year we returned to celebrate my birthday and we were extremely disappointed! The staff and the beautiful views were great. No complaints there!! We listened to the waitresses say that the special Soup was Italian wedding soup (which I love) so I ordered a lemonade Italian wedding soup and an egg salad sandwich. My lemonade was not very good and when they brought this huge bowl of soup it was terrible! No flavor and the little meatballs were rubbery. I was gonna say it was like soup from a cab but I have had soup from a can which was much better and had more flavor then this did. Couldn’t eat it. (Would have sent it back but didn’t want to ruin my bday lunch) then the egg salad sandwich came on pumpernickel bread. The bread was great the egg salad had chunks of egg very little if any Mayo? ABSOLUTELY NO FLAVOR! Lacking salt or pepper. Had a small amount of sprouts on top. Had to ask for mustard and salt so that I could eat this extremely tasteless sandwich! Also sandwiches come with chips and both our sandwiches came with chips that looked like it was from the bottom of the bag all broken and smashed. My sister ordered chicken noodle soup which she said had no flavor and was very disappointed with it, she left most of it. She ordered a roasted pepper with mozzarella wrap. When she got her wrap one side had no mozzarella and the other side did. She also said it was lacking salt or flavor. Not sure what happened to this place since last visit here but I will not be returning anytime soon! EXTREMELY...

Been many times - today was very disappointing. Okay, so I'm a vegan and don't have the high tea, the event that my mother, 70, and our book club members look forward to every year during the holiday season. The menu has plenty of options for me. It's a bit annoying to pay $13 for some salad greens plus another $7 for a topping of roasted veggies, but whatever. It's really the service that bugged me. Not sure if the waitress was struggling, but she couldn't have been more beleaguered. When I asked for some water, I, unlike the other nine ladies, did not receive a glass (plastic was deigned good enough for the likes of me, the non-tea indulgent). Anyway, when the server did deliver the rest of the ladies' tea and instructed them on how to properly pour, you would have thought she was being ushered to torture chamber such was her put-upon tone. When my mother made a mistake putting the silver cup in the tea cup and not the strainer (accidentally I will add; she knows how to steep tea), the waitress actually said to my mother, "You weren't listening." It was beyond rude. When asked to take our photo, she was dismissive and just so meh. Really very disappointing that such a beautiful setting both inside and out, had to be juxtaposed with the likes of a server who was truly not nice. Overall, I'd find another spot for your high tea - I know...