3 Westerly Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Town of Ossining

My youngest daughter chose this restaurant and doesn’t have expectations of decent service or meals since she’s just a teenager. Unfortunately, I’m much, much older and remember preCovid days (and even back to the mid sixties). This review is just going back to preCovid to be reasonable.

Everything was fine until the waters arrived. My daughter requested sparkling and I just requested no ice flat, not ever imagining that it would be in a bottle. I did question the bottle to my daughter and said that their tap water must be really bad and she said that it was complimentary, but that raised a big flag for me, so I switched on my critique button.

We ordered our appetizers and entrees. I was extremely pleased that lamb was on their specials menu, rack of lamb. Not upset with the high prices, but do expect high quality.

The appetizers arrived stone cold, which were fried calamari and crab cakes. Cold fried food is greasy and yucky. The calamari was slightly undercooked and crab cakes were ho hum. Five minutes after receiving our cold appetizers, our entrees arrive hot. The waiters, waitresses and cooks obviously don’t understand timing at all. I even pointed this out to someone, who looked askance at me and I just gave up. The lamb chops were as specified “no pink,” however they weren’t cooked properly: the fat portion wasn’t crispy, instead they were soggy and the meat was super duper tough. The portion was sizable. The sauce was nondescript and the ragout absolutely pathetic slop. Unfortunately, I happen to be a superb cook and would always make a perfect rack of lamb. And I could go on about that, but just know that I know what’s what and this joint ain’t it.

Our waitress and for that matter no one checked how we liked our meal. I had to ask for a steak knife, which should have been provided immediately after we ordered and no change for fresh utensils since “why bother,” the courses were jammed against each other. No, we don’t gobble our food like Queen Victoria, either.

We ordered dessert and that was fine. Normally, I always pay the tips in cash, but between the sub par service and food overall, I put the entire bill on credit card and the server received the brunt of my demerits. Very sad, since normally I leave a 20+% tip in cash for service, but I refuse to tolerate this.

The absolute coup de grace was having some employee come running after us asking how they can make this up to us. No, thank you. Just read some manuals about food service etiquette. Y’all earned a C-, which is better than where we went last year and supposedly at a top notch restaurant, which always mystified me.

In closing, this review is actually gracious and I’ve decided to just start cooking again. At least I won’t be disappointed and if I mess something up, can just blame myself. Right now, I just blame myself for...

The restaurant has a nice view of the Sunset 🌅 over the Hudson River. However, it has poor acoustics & it is very loud inside. I was sitting by the large windows overlooking the river & I could hear conversations from the bar located in the opposite side of the restaurant. I highly recommend management adds acoustic tile to manage the sound and sensory overload created in the space from the noise. There was a large family with young children seated in front of me, the children were crying & the echo bouncing off the walls combined with the electronic music made the atmosphere unpleasant.

The food was good but not great considering the quality versus cost ratio. I paid $30 for an octopus 🐙 appetizer. I enjoyed the contrasting texture, as it was cooked soft on the inside then finished with a torch which gave it the crispy / crunchy texture on the outside of the tentacles. It was served over a variety of potatoes & grilled lemon which was a nice touch.

I dined outside with my family in the summer & we had a nice time watching the sunset. The pizza was nothing special & the other entrees we had were not memorable, but the view was wonderful.

The staff is friendly & kind. I do recommend improved training for servers. For example, tonight I came straight from work & was dining alone. I placed my order & went to the restroom. When I returned, I found my food already on the table even though there was no one sitting there. It would have been logical for the sever to wait a couple of minutes & bring the food out after I was seated at the table. Specially since the restaurant was almost empty & there where only 2 additional parties seated including myself.

Overall, it is a nice place for groups. Hopefully they will fix the acoustic issue to make the sound level more tolerable. If you are hypersensitive to sound & do not tolerate sensory stimulation well, then I recommend you go elsewhere. I say this specifically for families with neurodivergent children with autism spectrum disorder or sensory processing disorder. Environmentally it may be too much for your kids to tolerate which may affect your ability to have an enjoyable dinner. For now, I probably will not return for indoor dining. (Hopefully management will install the acoustic sound absorbing tiles).

I recommend outdoor seating to watch the sunset with a nice group of...

Pros: -good food -beautiful setting -friendly service

Cons: -DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU HAVE ALLERGIES. They are very unaccommodating. Their strict "no substitutions" policy leaves you paying for food you can't eat, and then upcharging you for a side dish you can eat. More info below. -Slow service -loud (do I really need a tv blasting a first person shooter video game show with my meal?) -notified hostess of special occasion upon arrival (9 year wedding anniversary) and NOTHING was done, or mentioned or ANYTHING. I would expect at the very least the server to be notified and to be told congratulations and thank you for celebrating with us.

food issue: I am breastfeeding and my son has a milk protein allergy so it is critical that I not have any milk protein (casein, whey, along with other more obvious milk products).

We told our server immediately upon arrival.

She confirmed the appetizers we wanted were dairy free, but later on asked if butter was dairy, so I'm not entirely confident.

I wanted the scallops with a substitution for the risotto at the chef's discretion. I told them, any oil, mayonaise, and many other sauces are fine, I just can't have dairy.

When they brought out my meal, it was dry, and basically a bunch of steamed asparagus with 2 steamed shrimp and dry seared scallops. (see image). Not the anniversary dinner I was expecting. To their credit, the manager brought it back and got me a new one with a garlic sauce, but this shouldn't have been a problem to begin with. Then they never brought out the risotto that they were charging us for (I mean if they are charging us for it I will bring it home and another family member can eat it). With all the back and forth we ended up being one of the last tables left at the restaurant. I have had better experiences at Applebees with my allergies. Moreover, my son's behavior and diaper changes lead me to believe there was actually dairy somewhere in my meal that night. We are lucky that it isn't a life threatening allergy, but if you do have one, I would steer clear of...