Hudson House River Inn — Restaurant in Town of Philipstown

Overall, enjoyable late lunch on a beautiful Saturday thanks to the (mostly) polite staff and great location on the riverfront in cute Cold Spring lower village. Smooth reservation process online. Arrived on time at 2pm as the main lunch crowd was finishing. A table for 4 on the lovely balcony was open, and we were offered to sit there. Sun was just overhead so wasn't directly on us yet, so we took it- the view of the park, river and mountains were ideal. | The busser came to pour water and promptly spilled ice cubes all over us... no apology, just walked away and never returned. For 30 minutes we were then ignored by any wait staff while a waitress came over and over again to the table next to us who arrived at the same time as we sat down. As the table next door basically finished their meal, we had to go inside to ask the hostess to get someone to come provide service. Yikes. But, promptly another waiter Joshua came out and was fantastically attentive to us the rest of the meal. | About 30 min later, drinks and popovers and entrees consumed (all excellent- G&T, Bees Nees), the sun angle was now hitting the whole table, so Joshua helped us move to an inside table. The busser who spilled ice cubes on our table was still around, but despite leaving our empty glasses on the obvious corners of the table, she never came over to refill until we finally had to ask Joshua to help. | Salmon and burger were pretty good, open face steak sandwhich was a let down (steak was good, bun and presentation did not match) and the shoestring fries looked more like McD level. Don't go out of your way to give your fries a fancy label if they are going to disappoint.| Overall, as many reviews have said, the service can be good (Joshua) or poor. For us, it was both at the same time. Our food overall probably was not worth the inflated prices... but we knew we were paying for the location also, which we did find lovely. In the future, we all agreed that we would love to return to charming Cold Spring, and would even come back to the HH if we could sit on the balcony... perhaps for a 12 noon reservation to avoid the direct sun and be more selective with our food selection, especially if we were not starving and could handle some delayed service while we soaked...

We had a wonderful time! We had a suite, which was roomy and nice.||||The many positives included:||||* updated flooring, new bathroom, freshly painted ||* excellent view of river from balcony (balcony has comfy chairs also)||* CLEAN!||* really good food -- many choices at breakfast which is included in the price -- lovely yogurt fruit/nut/granola parfait, really excellent danishes, good avocado toast, hard boiled egg, bagels, coffee, orange juice...dinner menu was very extensive and really delicious also||* parking is included in price, easy to deal with and just a brief walk away||* guest entrance feature very convenient||* quiet, relaxed vibe||* free cookies in the afternoon||* in-room fridge, coffee maker, hair dryer||* near everything in town||* only 5 minutes by car to hikes, both intense and relatively easier||* only 15 minutes to Boscobel||* helpful staff: our first planned date fell through due to issues at home, but the Hudson House River Inn was able to accommodate bumping up our dates by a couple of weeks, and we were thankful for that!||* the suite had two tv's ||* the suite had two air conditioners. (It was fall weather for us, so I don't know if the air conditioners worked or not and I can't comment on what the heat was like since we didn't need heat -- we were very comfortable temperature-wise).||* the nightlight in the bathroom was very pleasing and helpful||||Some things that didn't bother us, but may bother others:||* the screen door didn't fit snugly -- no problem in fall, but might be in summertime||* exposed pipes overhead, though nicely painted, might bother some guests||* the bed was a little too soft for us, but we are used to hard as a rock level firm mattresses||* people in a hurry may feel frustrated at times||||We really enjoyed our stay. I don't know what the other rooms are like, but the suite we had was...

Held two parties at Hudson House, had no problems. That said maybe that it was Mothers Day, but things were not as before. Seated in the bar room, which was loud, popovers were served, nothing like a fresh warm popover instead they were cold and tasteless. Mentioned they were cold and server said she would see about some warm ones, When they came they still were cold. As looking at fixed price menu ($68.00/person excluding drinks, tip) we were informed the Chateaubriand was no longer available, but Sirloin was in its' place. While Sirloin can and is a tasty steak for me a filet is a much better steak. I jokingly said "sirloin for filet mignon at same price, next goat will be replacing the lamp". When check came $4.00 had be removed! Consider that Filet Mignon usually costs more than twice the price of Sirloin. With that price differential I would like to know where they purchase their beef. The crab cakes were different, soft with lots of filler and not much crab taste. Salad was dressed well but it is hard to ruin arugula, and few sticks of asparagus. Entrees were done well, and the lamb was cooked properly, with a very tasteful demi glaze and mashed potatoes. Vegetables of string beans, carrots were steamed and tasteless, unseasoned they could have used some butter if nothing less. Apple Tartine with ice cream was not warm enough to melt the ice cream, and the pastry was soft, and dry with the apples in a thick sweet syrup. Everyone just ate the ice cream and for the most left the tart. Pepperidge Farms frozen turnovers would and are better. Maybe it was a holiday, but the kitchen was off. Not a very satisfying dining experience. Would be hard to recommend Hudson...