One With Land — Restaurant in Town of Shawangunk

UPDATED - (see below original review)

While at work I came across this place, One With Land. Took a look at it and it looked like a good place to try - out of the way and a small place. My kind of place! Reviews were great and it was a place that I hadn’t tried. Wife and I decided to try it on short notice.

This place is out of the way and I had thought this place won’t be crazy busy. Let me start off by saying reservations are a must! On Friday evening my wife made reservations for a Saturday night and the only availability was at 8:00 pm. Thought to self… that’s a good sign.

We arrived to the One With Land, a non-descript building, nothing that would lead you to believe what was in store. Inside the place was small but restaurant was full. There was a table of six and one of ten then the rest appeared to be four and two tops. I saw a small bar with one high top by it. All were taken except two, two-tops. We we directed to one of the two tops. The other two-top was filled moments later.

Our server, Emory, brought us menus. She was quite personable and did a wonderful job waiting on us through our dining experience. We started out ordering two rum old fashions from the menu… they were delicious! The menu isn’t extensive and limited to five or so items in each, starters and main course. I also noticed the prices were extremely reasonable. The highest priced item being $32. I’ve seen places ask $60+ entrees. Even the wines were extremely reasonable… starting at mid twenties to highest price being around $60 or $70.

My wife and I ordered some olives for the table… we ate them all! They were delicious! We shared starters - Crispy Potato Croquettes and Whipped Ricotta with honey. Wow! Both starters were excellent!

Impressed by the service between courses… Emory removed all our plates and silverware and replaced it with clean silverware. She even noticed a small spill and wiped the table clean before we moved on.

The wine, a French Syrah, was brought by one of the owners. She was also very personable and very attentive to the dining room. She is the bar tender and hostess. When she opened the wine she didn’t make me feel like she had to be elsewhere - even though she probably did have to due to all her responsibilities! By the way, she is pregnant and they are closing the restaurant for two weeks starting Thursday, January 33, 2025 - baby’s due date! Congratulations!

Dinner came out - I had the pork chop and my wife had the rigatoni. Again, cooked to perfection and delicious! Seriously impressed by all the flavors and the deliciousness!!!

Dessert was the chocolate torte for me and donuts for my wife. Another course we ate with delight!

Everything was delicious, never felt rushed and weren’t served one course before we finished the previous one - which seems to happen in a lot of other places. Give this place a try… I know it’s a remote location… but it is definitely worth the drive! Wife and I are already planning to go back.

UPDATE - March 2025 - We returned to One with Land and again had a spectacular meal! What a surprise it was when our server Emory actually remembered my name and where we sat on our first visit to the restaurant. Things like that make it a personal experience to remember.

This visit my both, my wife’s eyes and mine, were too big for our stomachs. We ordered the marinated olives, mushroom pate crostino, and crispy Brussels sprouts for starters. We then had the cavatelli pasta and fettuccine with short rib for main courses. As with the previous meal everything was delicious. But this time we had to take about half of each of our main meals home. What a great lunch the next day! Just a warning that fettuccine with short rib was a little spicy hot. We loved it!

The table next to us ordered burgers with duck egg and bacon on them… that will be my next meal there! The fries looked crispy and cooked to perfection alongside that amazing looking burger!

Thanks again for the...

I will admit it, I am a foodie, or at least a food lover. This past week, on a recommendation from a friend, my wife, another couple and I travelled quite a ways to dine at one of the Hudson Valley's most talked about restaurants, One With Land in Pine Bush, NY. To say it was superb does not even begin to do it justice. Let's begin with the very charming and engaging husband and wife team that owns and runs the restaurant. Tara Braithwaite, who is responsible for the design and just about everything other than the food, is incredible. Her attention to detail, and I mean every detail, makes the overall experience simply delightful. Jared Braithwaite, Tara's husband and chef, is incredibly talented as evidenced by the varied menu, the absolutely scrumptious food and the almost sinful deserts, which he also crafts. More on all of this later. Let's begin with the atmosphere as you enter. The room is warm and inviting and just about wraps its arms around you and welcomes you into this amazing restaurant. The bar is, of course, well stocked with both global and regional brands and is also a very inviting space to enjoy a cocktail, time with friends and even your meal if you so desire. If you choose to take your meal in the dining room, Tara and the staff attends to your every need and I promise you will enjoy your stay as they are as friendly as they are attentive. I've kept you waiting long enough, on to the "main course" if you'll excuse the pun - the food. My taste buds are still alive with joy as I am writing this review a day or two after dining at One With Land. We went there with another couple and as a result were able to sample quite a few of the menu's offerings. The beginning course was amazing. The salads were alive with flavor and textures and, as you might imagine from a restaurant that prides itself on local sourcing, as fresh as can be. For me though, the mushroom pate crostino alone is worth the trip from just abut anywhere. I can't say I have ever had anything quite like it and it is incredible. We each had a different main course, a spaghetti offering, a pork chop, beyond description in terms of taste and tenderness, free range chicken milanese and a strip steak in a sauce I can still taste in my dreams. As if this was not enough, we finished the evening with an olive oil cake and a dark chocolate torte, both, as mentioned, homemade by Chef Jared and, very important to me, an excellent hot cup of coffee. In case you haven't gotten it by now, this restaurant is not to be missed. If you are near or have to drive a bit further to get there, do yourself and your taste buds a favor and get over to One With Land as soon as you are able. You will love every minute of this...

UPDATE: I updated this review from 2 to 3 stars because the owner called me and was very professional, comped the fish, and wants to do whatever possible to make things right. I’m going to stand by my review, because it is accurate, but I will say that I think our experience was an anomaly, as everyone else there received great service. This seems like a nice restaurant but we just had an off experience.

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We expected Saturday night to be busy, but our experience this evening was pretty tough. Our waitress seemed hyper focused on a large group that was coming in. We were just a party of 2 but the larger group (8?) received far more attention. I’m pretty sure she forgot to put our first drink order in (just 2 beers) because when she came to take our dinner order and I asked about the beer she went to the bar tender and seemed to have a rather harried conversation, and we received the drinks shortly after.

The one appetizer came out reasonably soon. The mains took forever.

My halibut dish was a substitution because they ran out of the tile fish. I was so looking forward to this dinner, but the flavors just didn’t go together. The halibut was very salty, and the sauce they paired it with was really sweet, the shishito peppers were good, the crab was also very sweet. The dish was just incongruent and I couldn’t finish it, even though I was very hungry.

By the time our mains arrived we had also been waiting 20 min for our second drink (just beer again). We had to flag down a different waiter because ours was MIA since taking our dinner orders (while waiting hand and foot to the 8-top), didn’t ask us how the food was (for apps or dinner). Turns out she had forgotten to put our second drink order in (this was now 30+ min after the fact).

At this point we just cut our losses, paid the bill and left.

It was such a shame because we would have kept ordering, probably doubling our bill, but the service was so poor. The tables next to us were having entirely different experiences and their waiters were attentive.

The (one lone) poor bar tender tried to explain that they were short 2 people, but that didn’t stop them from seating walk ins, while we (with a reservation) received terrible service. If you are short staffed it is necessary to make adjustments in order to deliver proper service to your customers.

Also the parking situation is inadequate.

For me, this place was just overrated and I wish we had gone...