The Heights — Restaurant in Town of Ithaca

I started writing reviews because of this awful restaurant. This was the absolute worst restaurant experience I have ever had. I booked a reservation for 4 on Cornell’s graduation weekend and was notified that a deposit would be required and that there would be a pre-set menu on that night. When me and my family arrived, I noticed the entrées were all priced significantly higher than the usual menu. When I asked about this, they said it was because the prices included a salad and dessert. The salads, or lame excuse for salads, came out and I quickly realized what was going on. The restaurant was taking advantage of graduation weekend to get away with increasing prices. I’ve had plenty of pre-set menus in my life and they should be: a selection of appetizers, entrées, and desserts from which you get to select one of each. At the Heights however, they were still charging for appetizers while simultaneously forcing you to pay higher prices (over $25 increase per dish) for entrées just because they were giving you a plate of lettuce and tomatoes. On top of that, they said that for that night only, they were charging a share plate fee. We ordered appetizers at the additional cost: bone marrow and shrimp. I don’t recall the price but I know it was ridiculous and they served my mom 3 tiny shrimp. The bone marrow came out freezing, probably still frozen. We alerted the server, who was giving us rude looks since we asked about the price increases, and she took it back to the kitchen. Moments later the chef himself brought out the bone marrow, the same one that we sent back, and dropped it on the table aggressively without saying a word and with an angry expression. We felt so uncomfortable when this dinner was supposed to be celebratory. The entrées weren’t awful, but at this price point, the plating is laughable. Don’t come here. (We went to Krebs 1899 the next night and had the best meal I’ve had in my time...

This is one of the finest restaurants in Ithaca, no doubt about it. BUT just had an experience with the restaurant that you should be aware of if you are trying hard to truly dine outdoors during the fall amid the pandemic. We ate there in the summer when they had dining outside, completely outdoors, and assumed that because of this, they were maintaining a totally outdoor dining service because they are concerned about those who cannot eat inside because of their health concerns with COVID-19. So we called for an outdoor reservation and they said fine, and gave us a reservation. When we got there, we learned that they really no longer have outdoor seating. They now have a tent where the fully outdoor seating was in the summer. Obviously, it's due to the weather. But some of our party had to leave because of the situation. A day earlier, on NBC, had just watched a news report about how tents called outdoor seating are not safe from the risks of COVID-19! I wished they had told us when we made the reservation that they switched to a tent. They said the announcement is on their facebook page. I went there and it says this: "Join on the heated patio or in the dining room." No mention of a tent! It really gave the impression of not being truthful and just trying to maximize revenue during this very difficult time. Feel they weren't being as COVID conscious as they should be. Oh, by the way--another restaurant two door down from Heights Cafe did have complete, 100% outdoor dining...so you might want to check that out if you are looking for complete outdoor dining during this time of avoiding the spread...

Overall we were quite happy with our experience at The Heights. We sat at a bar table with another couple so I can't speak to the dining room menu and experience, but we will certainly be back.

We arrived at around 5:30 on a Thursday evening and there might have been one other occupied table in the entire restaurant. It did get busy later, but it appears pretty easy to get a table at The Heights. We found the servers and staff to be very friendly and eager to please.

The drink menu is quite frankly awesome--they have a lot of interesting cocktails and the serving sizes are large. My wife ordered a mixed drink and it came out in a huge tumbler. They have a few beers on tap, many bottled beers, and a pretty good selection of whiskeys and other liquors. For those of you who are bourbon aficionados, they have a few hard-to-get bottles, albeit probably for high prices. I stuck with beer because I found the whiskey prices to be a bit steep.

The food was very good all around. We ordered a chips-and-salsa appetizer that came with what appeared to be house-made flour tortilla chips. I had the fish and chips. The fish was perfect, crispy, and delicious--although the fries were a bit limp and disappointing. The other dishes at the table were enjoyed by all. We also ordered a cheesecake dessert which was simply amazing.

Check it out if you're in the area and don't mind splurging--it is quite pricey here. Don't hesitate to sit in the bar and order off the bar menu, which is...