The Amsterdam — Restaurant in Town of Rhinebeck

If I had written this review prior to Saturday night, I would've given the Amsterdam a very rare five. We've eaten here several times for brunch & dinner, and never had a bad meal. After eating here Saturday night, I'm settling on 4 stars. Service has always been friendly and attentive, and has never been a problem. The food has always been delicious and well prepared. The meat and cheese platter is my favorite and we generally order it each time we visit. However, on our last visit, I made a reservation and did not realize until we arrived that I did not have a choice of seating when reserving. Previously, when making a reservation, I had the choice of the porch, downstairs dining area, or upstairs dining area. The porch is lovely for brunch and the upstairs dining area is perfect for an intimate dinner when we have a rare child free evening to ourselves. The market in the downstairs dining was removed since our last visit and converted into more dining space, which is where we were seated on our latest visit. It's a nice space but not as intimate and cozy as the upstairs dining area. I'm not sure the upstairs dining area was open on Saturday but I would've much preferred sitting up there in a less cavernous space. We arrived 20 minutes prior to our reservation and they graciously accommodated us and seated us early. I'm assuming due to staffing shortages, they had limited staff working because most of the dining room remained empty while we were there despite a sign at the entrance saying they were fully booked for the evening. My one major complaint is that in the time since we first visited the restaurant, the menu changes very little. Appetizers vary seasonally, but entrees remain the same and there's generally one burger, one seafood dish, one pasta dish, one pork, one chicken and one duck dish that rotate sauces/vegetables. On our latest visit, I asked if there were any specials and the only option we were offered was a portion of three scallops to be added to any dish for a cost of $22. We recently went on a beach vacation in Delaware and I was able to get a scallop entrée for not much more than that. On this most recent visit, I had the duck entrée, which was a whopping $45. The meat was good and flavorful and well seasoned and cooked properly, and I understand costs have risen, but it was not a $45 dish in my opinion. Our prior visit was a bit less than a year ago for our anniversary and the Chinese five spice duck entrée I had then was much more interesting and cost less. There was nothing wrong with my entrée, and the corn accompaniment was quite tasty and hearty. I felt my husband's pappardelle needed another minute to qualify as al dente, and though tasty, again, it was pricey considering there was no protein in it. $29 for noodles is steep. Cocktails have gone from $15 on our last visit to $17. The cocktail list does not change very much and generally there's one tequila/vodka/rum/Mezcal/gin etc cocktail on offering. The cocktails are very well-made but at $17, they should be. Costs on each item have risen a few dollars and I understand food costs are up but with rising food costs, comes increasing standards. Food and service have to be exceptional and unfortunately, our last visit fell short. The downstairs dining room felt like eating in a bar with a dining room attached, albeit a more upscale one, and I missed the ambience of the upstairs dining area. There was nothing wrong with our last visit, but there was nothing really exceptional, either. We'll be back, but perhaps next time for brunch. I can't help but feel that on our most recent visit, we ordered less than we normally do but...

I’ll start by saying I honestly never take the time to write reviews. This may be a long post but the back story is important to this post. My fiancé and I decided last minute we wanted to have dinner Saturday night (Father’s Day weekend). I had no luck after calling a few local places around us. So I pulled out my list of restaurants to try based on recommendations. Still no luck. I type in best places to eat Hudson valley. The Amsterdam comes up. This restaurant has been on my list for quite some time for brunch. My instant thought is well if their brunch is good their dinner must be great. I click reserve table and see there’s a bunch of slots open. Me, beyond excited books a reservation for 7pm, put in my card info and tell my fiancé I have a surprise for him. I end up working later than I should and rush to get ready. Rushing to get there as fast as we can I realize no matter how fast we go we’re going to be 10 mins late. I call them to inform them because I’m so worried about my deposit and them giving our table away. The manager Fletch answers and tells me he has no reservation under my name or phone number. I say adamantly, yes there is I made the reservation earlier I have 2 emails confirming it. Fletch then tells me I’m really sorry there must have been a glitch in the system is sitting at the bar ok? Of course it was ok! I was about 15 mins away after an hour drive to try this amazing place. They could have sat us on the sidewalk for all we cared. We come in and Fletch is beyond nicer than nice to us, he asks to see my confirmation emails so he can prevent this happening to other customers in the future. I take out my phone and open the emails (which I had not read prior, just saw they came through and left them unread, ok great we’re confirmed), only to find out our reservation was for Monday at 7pm. Me standing their mortified, wanting to curl up in a little ball and hide (as a previous service industry worker, “oh my god I’m that person who lied about reservations”). Fletch then explains to me using google reservations automatically shows you to the next available date and time. So even if you type in the date you want to go it will switch it to when they’re available next. (Lesson learned to definitely check the date). Fletch then sits us anyways as I’m apologizing up and down for this embarrassing mistake. We are greeted by Conner our bartender and server for the night. Conner is the most cheerful, educated/dedicated bartender I’ve met. He knows what he’s doing and knows what he is talking about. Throughout the night he continued to educate us with knowledge about different drinks and how different spirits are made. We ordered so much food and so many drinks, you could have rolled me out of there. We ordered 2 appetizers: charcuterie board and burrata. Both so amazing. For dinner we both had fried chicken with a side of polenta. Also very very good!

The servers were also great always answering questions as they passed by and we stopped them to ask. Going above and beyond is an understatement for this restaurant. The service is impeccable. The food was delicious. The drinks were magnificent. We even loved the little shop in there and bought a few things.

As we were leaving I thanked Fletch and apologized again and said I am sorry for the mix up. He smiled and said what mix up, we were happy to have you.

To me that was the best. We drove an hour to try this place and it was worth it. I highly recommend it! We will definitely be going again (not using Google for reservations, resy was recommended). I’ve never received such great service with such great food. Thank...

My wife and I have been here 5 times: twice for brunch and three times for dinner. I think the brunch here is amazing and would come back for it. The chorizo scramble is amazing. My wife likes their dinner menu, but I disagree with her and will probably insist we go to elsewhere next time we spend an evening in Rhinebeck.

Starting with the positives, we have never had a negative experience with the staff. A lot of other reviews mention bad service, and we have thankfully never experienced that.

The charcuterie board is one of the best anywhere. Do get the meat and cheese board. My wife and I are usually pretty stuffed afterwards, and I always tell myself I should have just gotten an appetizer portion as my main meal.

The cocktails are very well made. The menu changes seasonally, and their bartender knows how to mix a mean drink. I tend to get bourbon based drinks and my wife prefers vodka and tequila based ones. All have been fantastic.

Onto the reason why only three stars. The elephant in the room is the price. I'm aware that we are in inflationary times, but it's almost comical how the same menu items have gone up in price in successive visits. Cocktails which were $13.50 on our first visit have gone up to $15 and now $17 on our last visit. Their official Facebook menu can't seem to keep up with the changes since it's still showing the $13.50 price.

Their beer prices are also extremely high at $10-12 a pour for what is essentially grocery store beer. There are plenty of great breweries in the Hudson Valley, and they don't seem to ever have anything local on tap.

Finally, onto their food. They've slimmed down the dinner menu in recent years to only 6 options for the mains. The past two times that we have gone for dinner I was craving red meat and my only option was a $25 burger.

I got the mushroom papperdelle which was fine. The pasta was cooked very nicely. The sauce had decent mushroom flavor, but it lacked seasoning.

My wife got the duck breast which she enjoyed, but it came at a pretty egregious price tag of $45.

I understand that this is a farm to table style restaurant in Rhinebeck. Gaskins, which serves a similar style of food, charges almost $10 less for their duck dish. Meadowsweet, another similar style restaurant in Williamsburg that does have a Michellin star, charges $38 for their duck.

The food does not back up the price. It's good, but not great. There is no James Beard award or any Michellin stars. At these prices, the diners...