Aroma Thyme Bistro — Restaurant in Town of Wawarsing

Our experience at Aroma Thyme was extremely disappointing. We had researched restaurants in the Hudson Valley area and after having read about Aroma Thyme and watching the videos on YouTube we were excited to make a reservation. I don't think I have been this disappointed in a restaurant in decades. We arrived at 5:00 o'clock-earlier than our 5:30 reservation- and were pleasantly greeted and told our table was ready and waiting. There were very few people there at this point as the restaurant had just opened for dinner. The atmosphere was cozy and they sat us at a nice table near the wall. Our waiter took our order and he even read it back to us to be sure he had everything. We ordered three appetizers and four entrees. As we waited, two other tables were seated very close to us- a table of two and a table of three. We continued to wait...after quite a bit of time, they brought out two of the appetizers. The third appetizer did not seem to be coming out and our waiter was nowhere to be found. The table of three were served their appetizers quite quickly. We continued to wait and wait and wait. We could not get our waiter's attention at this point. The table of three received their main dinners and we were still sitting there waiting. It was almost like we were being played a trick on! At this point we it was 6:20 and after almost an hour and a half we were only given two appetizers and unfortunately the sourdough grilled bread was burned black and we could not eat it. Our waiter hadn't even come back during that time to ask if we needed something else to drink or even refill my son's water. We finally got our waiter's attention and asked him if it would be much longer. He didn't seem phased at all. He said he would check on it. We told him we did not get our third appetizer which was the mushroom special. He looked at his pad and said he forgot to put it into the kitchen. We told him to forget it at this point and we would just take our dinner entrees. After another twenty minutes a woman came out and very roughly put down two tuna dinners with rice and then asked which of us got the pasta and chicken. We did not order that. She seemed very annoyed. We were waiting for risotto and strip steak. A few minutes later the risotto came out. Another ten minutes went by and finally the last entree was brought out. Absolutely crazy! It's very awkward when only half the table has their entree. The risotto was fine- not really anything special. The tuna was okay, but smothered in sauce. The strip steak was inedible It was completely full of fat. Our waiter did not come back to check on a thing and finally a very kind woman that was behind the bar saw our distress and came over to check on us. We are very kind people. We probably don't say enough. Most people would have caused a scene or gotten up and walked out. The woman that came over saw the burned bread and the plate of fat that should have been a steak. She took both of the items off of the bill, but that was not the point. We wanted this to be a special night. It was my husband's 70th birthday dinner and it made me sad that we had such an unpleasant dinner. We didn't even stay for dessert. We left an 18% tip which was much less than we would usually leave. We weren't sure if the wait staff pooled their tips and that would not have been fair...

If I had just not enjoyed my meal I would have chalked it up as a bad experience and not bother with a review. However, the treatment and attitude of the owner/manager compelled me to share my experience.

I will start by saying I was with my family from NYC and another family from Los Angeles. Needless to say, we are well versed in good food, service, and treatment. Aroma Thyme Bistro is neither of these.

To start, we had the Fig-Bacon pizza which tasted more like an open-faced quesadilla. The "crust" tasted like a store-bought tortilla. But we thought the fig and bacon combination on top was interesting and made up for crust.

My 12-year-old daughter ordered the ribeye which came out of the kitchen unseasoned and covered in balsamic dressing. I admit, I should have paid closer attention to the menu but did not realize they put dressing on their steak but my daughter did NOT like it. Now, this was on me for not reading the menu closely, but the table next to us(completely unrelated), also complained that their steak was not good. I overheard the owner/manager being combative with this other couple trying to explain that "you should never season a steak before cooking it." EXCUSE ME, WHAT?!?!?! When the couple calmly tried to explain that the steak just needed salt, the owner replied, "Well, this is not a steakhouse". When you charge $40 for a ribeye, regardless of what you consider yourself, you are obliged to make the customer happy.

My friend and I both ordered the salmon. It came out sitting on top of a bed of oil and chickpeas; the salmon was tasteless and overcooked. When confronted, the owner's comments were that "we probably just don't know what good salmon looks like."

I am shocked by the many positive reviews for Aroma Tyme which is how we discovered this place. I can only assume the good reviews and the owners' attitude is due to them having no competition in the area.

I highly recommend you look beyond this place...

I humbly apologize for the review that I am leaving but I feel this will help the restaurant with future events. My family went to Aroma's yesterday to celebrate and from reading the reviews my assumption on going was high. The reviews and comments left were outstanding, however when I went it was far from it. The ambiance outside was nice and tranquil but the "all you can eat BBQ" was not! The water and waitress were pleasant I had no complaints toward them but the way the food was handled was what turned me off. First all the sides and dressings were not covered and left open. The food that had condiments or food that had condiments on them were placed on ice at some point but with the heat had melted and was sitting in water. The smoke grill was placed arms length from the dumpster and you can imagine the fly's flying around. The meat was all open in a aluminum pan and when requesting the food the portions given were minute and placed to cook for about a minute. When ask for a bigger portion was told no. The burger was not cooked all the way and still red, the chicken was dry and could barley be cut and appeared raw. All that kept running through my mind was FOOD POISONING!!!! The waitress could tell I was not happy and tried to assist but by this point the only thing I felt safe eating were the vegetables. We decided to leave I did pay my bill, which bothered me because we truly did not eat the amount of food that I payed for and ending up going somewhere else. Just an FYI if your going to have food out cover it, keep replacing the ice in the trays, do not place your smoker next to a dumpster, and if its an all you can eat event you should be a loud more then one tiny piece at a time. I apologize it my comments are harsh but I do hope it helps for any future events...