Cosimo's Trattoria & Bar — Restaurant in Town of Poughkeepsie

Food is delicious. Atmosphere and location, although hard to find for someone who may not know the area, are absolutely beautiful.

Would be wonderful if there was a separate section on the menu or a separate menu for allergy and dietary restriction friendly options rather than have to send the waiter back and forth to the kitchen to ascertain ingredients used, to modify the dish so it could be enjoyed safely. Listing what allergens the dish contains and which can be omitted would be a great help as well. My most recent time visiting, we had been a party of 2 and our waiter was very attentive at first, but as the evening went on he continually walked past us without a glance or word and was no where to be found when we needed him. We sat there with empty glasses and an empty water carafe for about 20-30 minutes until he came over and asked if we wanted the check. I had a very poor service experience this time, and unfortunately it has added to my list of poor experiences at or with this location. This particular visit was for some redemption, so to speak, as the food is wonderful and I did not want a few small and one very large, bad experiences to ruin the restaurant for me.

Prior to this occurrence, I was part of a party of a larger group of people (about 12, but people would be coming and going pretty evenly all night) and was very rudely informed by a women who was described as the manager by the hostess, that they could not accommodate my party, but we were welcome to stand in the bar area as we were only allowed to sit at a table if each of us was to order a full entree. When asked if there would be space available for us later in the evening, we were again rudely told no and to remain at the bar, which had every seat occupied, if we wanted to remain at the location. Seeing as people would be coming and going, it was unrealistic for all of us to order a full entree each, so we had to remain standing. After about an hour when other arrangements had already been made to relocate the party, the waitress who had been helping us to the best of her ability, informed us they would be able to accommodate us at this point. We left and had been more than well taken care of at the other location we moved to (Not Cosimo's).

A few weeks prior to this ordeal, I had emailed Cosimo's at the email listed under contact on their web page to inquire on any options they may or may not have for those with dietary restrictions or allergies, as a few people in the group have gluten allergies, fish allergies, beef allergies, and are vegan or vegetarian. I still to this day have not gotten a response and it has been months at this point.

A week before the event, my friend attempted to reserve us a private party room for this evening as we knew we would be a larger party with people coming in and out and that having a table of appetizers or shareable entrees should be the best option for us, but the staff she spoke to on the phone refused to reserve a room for us because they required we purchase at the time of reservation, a meal package. We were unable to select any specific meal package as I had not received an answer to my email inquiring on allergen information...so we were told to, in not so many words, just show up and try our luck. Obviously, that did not pan out well for us.

Unfortunately, after the negative experiences I have had, I do not think I will be returning to this location any time soon. I wish that could change because everything except the service and the customer service is simply lovely, but it is evident that is is more than just an employee having a bad day, and more of an overall managerial problem.

If you have no food allergies or dietary restrictions, I absolutely recommend trying their food, it is again, quite delicious; Otherwise I would be careful of what you are being served and make sure you ask questions because no allergen information is readily available...

Solid 3 stars. Hubs and I went last night for our anniversary. We wanted someplace a little "nicer" where we could still bring our 4 year old with us. I remembered attending a wedding reception at Cosimos 5+ years ago and being really impressed and after moving to the area last year, we decided to try it for dinner. As my husband said, the food is good, but that's where it ends. Drinks and service both left a lot to be desired. We were seated upstairs in the small dining room, which I noticed very quickly was chilly. There was a draft coming from somewhere and on a night when temps were in the 50's and dropping, the room was oddly cold. We were given menus that had wine and beer, but no cocktail list. I went on the Cosimos website and ordered a drink (smoked orange margarita). Waitress came back with my husband's wine and my son's soda about 10 minutes later, asked which drink I ordered and then informed me that one isn't on the menu any longer, at which point she brought over a cocktail menu and suggested the prosecco margarita. I ordered a habanero watermelon margarita instead, and she informed me the only margarita they had is the prosecco one. Ok. Ordered that, waited another 10 or so minutes, at which point my husband already started drinking his wine. The margarita was decent, and the bartender has a heavy hand with the liquor, so I wasn't complaining. We split the fig & prosciutto flatbread as an appetizer, which was delicious. Our entrees came out very quickly after that (lobster risotto for me, pork pappardelle for my husband). The risotto itself was decently cooked, creamy, and well seasoned though not as thick as what I'd normally think of as risotto. The lobster seemed to consist mostly of the claw meat, not much of the tail. Some of the pieces were chewy. I know lobster can be chewy, but overall I rarely eat lobster and enjoyed the dish. My husband enjoyed his pappardelle though I wasn't nuts about the flavor of the pork when I tried a few bites. Our waitress checked on us a bit after the meals arrived, and then again near the end. My husband decided to order another drink. Mine was nearly at the end, but she took the drink menu after my husband ordered. So, when she brought his drink (orange bourbon smash, which he said was not good and again, probably about 10 minutes later), she asked if I wanted another drink. Since she had taken the menu, I asked if they had the white pear cosmo. And then we waited. She came back and asked if we wanted dessert, at which point we were done eating and ready to leave, so I asked to cancel my 2nd drink and just get the check, to which she responded that she forgot the drink. She came back with the check, and the drink, which was comped. I don't want to blame the waitress as she clearly had tables on the main level of the restaurant, but the service was so incredibly slow and inattentive, which is the fault of the restaurant. And there was nobody else we could flag down. Overall we enjoyed the food, but while my prosecco margarita was decent, we didn't enjoy any of the other drinks, whether it's the quality of the liquor, I don't know. The pear cosmo was disgustingly sweet and syrupy. Overall we enjoyed the food and not much else. Having huge gaps in the service and time between drinks, drinks being unavailable, and in general, drinks just not being good, we...

Our family has gone to Cosimo’s quite often. We’ve brought out of town visitors because the food and service was impeccable. Tonight wasn’t that experience. We waited over an hour for a table, and after finding that a number of tables were kept empty, we asked the host why aren’t we being seated. We were told that it’s “their” policy to have a two hour hold time/window for a table prior to the reservation arriving. Meaning that a table remains empty for two hours prior to any reservation for that table. How does that make any sense? Whose business decision was that?

We were finally seated and soon found out that there were changes to some of our favorite items we order. First, the white pear cosmo was garnished with lime and tasted like a combination of pear and lime. There was no pear slice, which was a signature of the cocktail. We were told that many things were changing to make the restaurant uniform with the sister restaurants. We were never told this prior to ordering.

Another item, Calamari Fra diavolo changed quite a bit. The item was not prepared as requested and it was served with this orange putrid looking sauce. It was always a flavorful hardy red sauce and was serve as a soupy orange colored sauce that was both flavorless and not spicy.

We spoke with the manager and he parroted the same line of two hour window to defend the wait time and had no excuse or explanation for the sauce they served with the calamari. It’s extremely delicious unfortunate because we’ve celebrated some great occasions at Cosimo’s but tonight they lost our business.

Lastly, it’s off putting to watch the hostess(s) playing with their hair as they try to...