Cucina — Restaurant in Town of Woodstock

I took my wife here for our wedding anniversary hoping to have a nice romantic dinner, but ended up with a horrible evening. When we first arrived for our 7pm reservation we found that there was no parking due to some sort of fiesta in the barn out in the parking lot. We were forced to get creative and balance our car in a patch of grass between the road and other park cars.

We then had to walk through the dining room full of people to a dimly lit desk in the rear of the packed bar. We were then seated literally 8" from another table and found it nearly impossible to hear each other over the dining room noise. We ordered some Margaritas since that was the only cocktail on their list that we remotely recognized. About ten minutes later we were told that the bar was backed up so we should probably just order our appetizer, which we did! So we went with the crispy squid, you know what the rest of the world calls fried calamari. Ever since we were dating, my wife and I have found that restaurants that do calamari well usually end up being a good restaurant. The calamari here was okay, meaning it was cooked properly, but it had breading with absolutely no flavor. Even the spicy sauce they describe in the menu was dull and flavorless and definitely not spicy.

Now let’s talk about the margarita, which arrived in a small 3” glass with a lime wedge and was the color of weak coffee. The best way I can describe the taste of it is if you were to mix some cheap tequila with a little hot sauce, pepper and a squeeze of lime. Sounds great right?

Anyway we now move on to our main courses, I went with the pumpkin ravioli hoping for a nice autumn flavor and my wife chose the shrimp linguini. Now here is when the fun really begins! Our impeccably dressed and groomed food runner who didn’t appear stoned at all (that is all sarcasm) brought our meals out and shoved by wives bowl right into a full glass of water landing it right in her lap. Needless to say we now became the focus of the entire dining room as my wife leaped from her seat and yelped with surprise. The couch she was sitting on was now drenched and we were forced to move to the other side of our neighbors table and it firmly planted us now 8” from them and 8”from another table on the opposite side. Our waitress and another lady apologized for the kid soaking my wife, but they came back to the table 4 more times to ask if we were ok, each time interrupting our meal. In the end they said the entrees would be on the house. We thought “ok well that is something”, even though we didn’t make a big deal about any of this, we really were just hoping for some alone time. Each lady came over to say tell us this, however; when we asked for the check we found that we were charged for the entrees and giving the appetizer and cocktails for free. They made out on 10 bucks, but again at this point I just wanted out, so I paid and tipped because after all it wasn’t the waitresses fault.

So let’s get back to those entrees shall we? My pumpkin ravioli came with eight flat ravioli spread across a plate. The pumpkin flavor was very disappointing as there was so little filling that each bite was a doughy bland disappointment. It left me so unsatisfied and hungry that I actually went and bought a pumpkin pie at the grocery store right after we left. My wife’s shrimp linguini that any home cook can make with great success, was over cooked. The shrimp were spongy and the pasta was soft and the sauce had no seasoning.

As a lifetime resident of the Hudson Valley I can appreciate our unique culture and the sort of people it attracts. However, that is all this place is about; there is no real culinary creativity or skill here, it is all just a bunch of pretentious crap that mocks our areas real culinary...

A GOOD REVIEW OF THIS RESTAURANT. When Cucina restaurant first opened, it was great food and ambiance. The staff was excellent, then it all, for some unknown reasons, started to flop downhill. We frequent the place quite often and each time, we see new faces. Not good for business. It seems Cucina can't keep good staffing. We have sat at a table, ordered entrees but not anymore. Not after the poor service/food. The bartenders have a lot left to be desired for lack of education in preparing drinks. I have asked several, and their responses were -- they learn basically on the job. Not good for the restaurant. I understand celebrities and famous News people have frequent Cucina; I guess that's when they first opened? Or, do they get special treatment and great food? You need a knowledgeable person with an HR background to hire an excellent staff for you in the food industry. That will include well-trained bartenders and waitresses and a well-dressed maître d' who knows what it means to be polite. This HR person would teach them how to be cordial to the customers and how to have a proper dress code. Those short skirts are not cutting it because they don't fit every body type. Chef Robert Irvine from HGTV should take a look at Cucina, he would make it right. One thing I noticed is that your customers seem to be on the older side, as in over the hill, and that's absolutely fine, but ask yourself why the younger generation is not popping in. You may have a few young Globetrotters coming in here and there. But your regulars sit at the bar and chat -- nursing that one drink when others are waiting for a seat at the bar. Since they are locals, and you know them well, you should speak diplomatically to them about time spent at the bar. Losing them and gaining others is fine. Is one drink per a regular taking up space going to make or break Cucina when you have people with money waiting for drinks. BTW, your white beans with shrimp were good but somehow the beans the other night were undercooked. Causing stomach problems for me. IMO, you should get a well-trained Chef immediately; you're losing customers. Don't you managers take note of your customers or you just sit back and collect the $$$? Not good for Woodstock. AND, those reviews you see that are excellent, hmmmm they are they your friends or the regulars? Cuz, it ain't all that. i am a Woodstocker and would like to see Cucina improve on the issues people are talking about within your reviews. That's what reviews are for -- critiquing. Like what I am doing. I own a business and have Cucina listed as one of the best restaurants in Woodstock; now I am suspending it until you get your act together. I will continue to visit as always to see if you guys are really reading these reviews. That other restaurant -- and you know which one on 28, when opened, has a parking lot full of cars and people waiting in line for good food and drinks to be served. They are taking over. We know the owners. Yes, I've been there. "ouch". I need a good drink when I am at your bar next. Find me. IF YOU WANT TO KEEP CUCINA'S, NAME GOOD, start hiring! My two cents.......

A good and...

The best thing about Cucina: The service was friendly and the food came pretty quickly. The worst thing about Cucina: Everything else. I've been to Cucina twice before and have each time been sorely disappointed. With so many decent reviews, my husband and I decided to give it one more chance, as it would be so nice to have another choice of an eatery in town. My husband ordered the basil margarita, which, with the exception of one lonely basil leaf floating aimlessly in the glass, tasted neither of basil nor tequila. It was a surprisingly pink liquid that tasted like limeade. I ordered a glass of the red Tuscan wine that was flabby but potable. Strike one. We shared the thin crust goat cheese/pear/fig jam/arugula/truffle oil pizza. For starters, there is thin crust pizza, and then there is Matzo pizza. This resembled the latter. I barely tasted the goat cheese, but there were squares of gooey unidentifiable cheese that overwhelmed the dish. The fig jam was overly sweet and underly figgy. The truffle oil tasted less of truffle and more of just some kind of oil. The arugula was pleasantly spicy but sparse. I pronounced it "Meh". My husband pronounced it "artless". Strike two. The final blow was my entree, one of the evening's specials of slow roasted halibut, with Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, some kind of exotic mushroom, and cherry tomatoes. Sounds yummy, right? At $29/a pop, it better be. My fish was cooked well but completely lacking in flavor. By completely, I mean no salt, pepper or seasonings could be detected. Total Blah. The mushrooms were few and a bit slimy. The most offensive part was the Jerusalem artichokes. They were unpeeled, and undercooked, resulting in a bunch of woody turds on my plate under my fish. Some still had grit clinging to them. Apparently washing them under running water is beneath the chef. Strike three. If I could add strikes four, five, and six, I would. I have no intention of returning to this restaurant ever again. If I'll want to have pizza, I'll go a little down the road to Rick's Woodfired Grilled Pizza which is sublime and and a good value. As far as Cucina's good reviews? Either the Emperor has no clothes, or the owner is well connected in town and bribes everyone to write something nice. Oh, one more good thing about Cucina - I sure didn't overeat and put on...