Blue Hill Lodge & Café

We came a little after closing time tonight, and Irina welcomed us in and was extremely hospitable.  She made us feel so very welcome, and was very personable. The décor was spotless, and beautiful.  The food was wonderful as well.  We had the place to ourselves, and Irina brought a candle to the table for "ambiance" as well as being extremely helpful in helping us choose a nice wine to go with the specials she suggested, which she was dead-on about!  I look forward to making many returns to this restaurant, and since I live nearby, also stopping by to make use of the nice little convenience store and liquor store as well.  It is always nice to feel like an appreciated customer, and to have someone go out of their way to assure that your experience there is a great one.  A+ Irina!!  You run a classy establishment, and we thank you!!

Stopped by Blue Hill Lodge & Café on the way to the Denning Road PA in the Catskills for bagging some 3500ers. Ended up using the spacious restrooms here and picking up some kabanosy (they source it from Brooklyn) for the trail. Apparently the owner is Russian and they stock a really good selection of Polish and Russian goods, even Russian beer!

When we got off the mountain, 4 of us decided to stop by for a meal. The menu is really disorganized and references pizza and a Russian menu, however, the waitresses get confused when you ask about these things and end up deferring to the cook. Well, I wasnt going to pay close to 18$ for a buffalo pizza in the Catskills (not knowing how the quality would be this far from the metro area). I also wasnt going to pay for a bunch of pierogies without complete details as to cost, what it comes with, etc. Ended up getting an Iberian burger deluxe. Sure it was cheap, at around 7.25$, but it was also sorely lacking. The advertised chorizo was actually Italian sausage, nothing red or spicy about it. They forgot to give me my lettuce, tomato, and onion. Further, the other burgers at the table came with fries for only 5.25$ or so... thusly, I spent 2$ for lettuce, tomato, and onion - wtf? Planned on potentially getting some smoked meats, however, was not interested after hearing the prices such as 7.99$ for regular kielbasa and 9.99$ for the kabanosy. I go to a local Polish butcher in NJ (where the meat is smoked onsite and not shipped for over 150 miles) and pay maybe 3.99$ a pound for either one. Finally, service was really really slow and it took nearly 40+ minutes for our order to be brought to the table. My water was never once refilled.

Suppose if you are stuck in the middle of the Catskills, dont have any Jetboil system and food to cook, this is one of your only options. I have seen much worse places, so this is not that bad. If the service was a bit better, I would have given them 3 stars. They get nicked the additional stars for not serving what is advertised and for the high deli prices. For 9.99$ a pound, I expect the animal to be on the farm outside, slaughtered onsite, and smoked only a few hours before being put on sale for purchase.