Annarella Ristorante — Restaurant in Town of Saugerties

Let me start by saying that I grew up in the food service industry and have worked as a cook/chef for the last seventeen years. Never have I ever had such a horrible experience in a restaurant. For the last four months my new wife and I have been trying to work with Joe the owner on our reception. We were told that he was building out a new group function room that was supposed to be finished back in August that would have been perfect for our party. Joe seems to have no sense of urgency or care about anything it seems. When we spoke with him on multiple occasions he would basically brush us off and postpone meetings. We never got to choose our own menu, were never asked about linens, lighting, music, basically he just threw together whatever was easiest for his staff. Mind you this was supposed to be our special day. On the day of the event he was still feeding out excuses as to the look of the room and seemed less than enthusiastic about our reception. We were to have our own entrance so as to not affect normal business but instead were made to use the normal entrance which I'm sure made things a bit more chaotic in the restaurant than anyone had wanted including myself and wife. The best parts were when he attempted to charge more per person than he had originally quoted which could have been completely avoided had he drawn up a contract like any good business owner. My personal favorite screw up on Joe's part was how at the very end of the evening, while obviously drunk and quite possibly high on some form of white powder decided to approach my wife, the bride, with a extraneous bill for another $485 for chair rentals that he had forgotten to add in to the total for the bill that had been paid earlier in the evening. Maybe a bit of organization on his part would have gone a long way. Not once did he ever come and check on us to make sure that everything was going ok, nor did he even look the part of an owner. Our group never received coffee or tea at the end of the evening. Overall I will never suggest Annorella's to anyone even for just a normal dinner. Also after all of this chaos when we ran back in before leaving to make sure that we had gotten everything Joe was overheard speaking poorly about our families and friends to other customers at the bar where he had been posted up the entire evening. Never again will I step foot in his busted establishment. I am still appalled by his behavior as a restaurant owner, he's incredibly lucky to have a service staff that was awesome and incredibly apologetic for their bosses behavior and misdeeds that evening. All in all the food was pretty good and service was great but Annorella's is in need of new ownership or a legitimate manager so as to keep the owner out of the day to...

I called to book a table three weeks in advance to ensure my wife and I could have a special evening for our first Christmas Eve together. While we are not Christians, we very much enjoy the festive atmosphere and joy of the season. We chose Annarella Restaurant for what we hoped would be a memorable experience. My wife wore her new dress for the occasion, and we drove nearly two hours from central Westchester to Saugerties, excited for the evening.

Unfortunately, our experience fell far below expectations. Upon arrival, we were greeted by an older woman in a manner that was indifferent at best. She made no attempt to make us feel welcome—her displeasure at seeing us could not be more obvious. Despite this, we greeted her politely and informed her of our 7:00 PM reservation. She checked her screen and then led us to a table near the receptionist’s desk, situated awkwardly in the middle of a high-traffic area. “This is the table I have for you” she says with a smirk face. It was clear this was the least desirable table in the restaurant. Hoping for a better option, we kindly asked to be seated elsewhere. She curtly replied, "There is no other table." While the restaurant was somewhat busy, we could clearly see other tables of the same size available. My wife even pointed one out, but the woman flatly refused, saying, "No, sorry, there’s nothing I can do for you". We stepped aside from the table to process what had just happened. “Can you step aside; you are in the middle of the way” she said. The irony wasn’t lost on us—she wanted us to clear the very space where she expected us to be seated moments earlier. It added insult to injury and left us feeling even more unwelcome. We felt so embarrassed and humiliated that we decided to leave to avoid enduring more humiliation.

We couldn’t help but feel that our treatment was influenced by prejudice. We are not of the same cultural or religious background as many others celebrating that evening, and her demeanor and unwillingness to accommodate us felt dismissive at best and discriminatory at worst. What was meant to be a special evening became a disheartening and deeply disappointing experience. If anyone else has experienced similar treatment at this restaurant or felt that they were not treated fairly, I encourage you to share your experience. It’s important for such issues to be acknowledged and addressed to ensure everyone feels welcome...

Went to Anarella's for the first time ever this week. It was a revelation. The atmosphere is what you'd expect at a high end restaurant, I particularly liked the old fashioned street lamps throughout, with the snow globe tops. It is a little tight, so I could see where it might have a bistro feel on a busy night, but still overall the atmosphere was very inviting.

We started with eggplant rollatini which was just melt in your mouth delicious. The bread too was good, but the really interesting thing was the 3 types of hummus they served. One was very herbaceous, which my wife loved, there was an orange one that was more earthy and a green one that was more pesto like. All 3 were solid and delicious when spread over the melba toast they included in the bread basket.

The salad was probably the weakest part of the meal, field greens with house dressing. I didn't care for the citrusy note (tangerine if I had to guess) in the vinaigrette, but I still ate it all so it's not like it was totally off putting.

For and entree I ordered the Chicken Marsala, which was a special that night, and my wife got the sachetti (a type of beggars purse stuffed pasta). Both were amazing! The chicken was absolutely smothered in mushrooms, so I had enough to get a few in every bite. The side of spinach was a bit bland, but that was more than made up for when you dragged a bite of it through the marsala sauce, which was excellent. My wife let me try a sachetti and it was fantastic. The cheese and truffle oil together combine to form a unique flavor you will want to return for. In fact the reason we went to Anarella's was because my wife went with friends and had been thinking about going back for more of the sachetti.

The service was also fantastic. We had a young waitress but she was very professional, had memorized all the specials (and there were a bunch), was knowledgeable about the food and checked on us enough to make sure we had what we needed but not so much that it was annoying.

So overall, while the prices are steep, if you're looking for a memorable meal and night, Anarella's fits the description.

PS Bathrooms were well maintained...