Huntley Taverne

My husband took me here for my birthday.  We just moved from Brooklyn and since we also have a newborn, we wanted to go somewhere nice but close by, just in case.  We were recommended to go here.  With a 9PM reservation we were pretty surprised that the place was COMPLETELY DEAD.  It was like eating in an Indian restaurant.  Dead.  We were seated in a room where they had clearly set a table for us, because tied to the back of my chair were about a dozen freakin' helium balloons.  Seriously - this was not my fifth birthday.  That was bizarreness 1.  Bizarreness 2: the waitress delivered almost a 10 minute monologue on the history of the restaurant, the other restaurants the owners own, and her own history working for them.  This was before we got to the specials.  NEVER LET ON THAT IT IS YOUR FIRST TIME THERE.  We were waited on by approximately 5 people that night, so our table was visited approximately 600 times during the course of the meal.  I hardly got to talk to my husband.  Despite the preponderance of servers, they still managed to mess up a wine order, a drink order, and an appetizer order.  And here is Bizarreness 3.  When I told the chatty waitress about the appetizer switch, she LITERALLY.  I AM NOT KIDDING.  TOOK ONE OF THE FORKS THAT WAS IN MY PLACE SETTING AND TOOK A BITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  NO!!!!  YOU DO NOT DO THAT!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!  So the food was not so bad.  It was not amazing, but I have admittedly pretty high standards.  It was really JUST OK though, nothing to write home about.   The truffled mac and cheese that everyone goes on and on about was nothing special and not worth it.  Gritty texture, too much roux, boring.  Steak was salty.  Food was fresh and well presented but not imaginative.  Just as we were wrapping up our weird and not that enjoyable meal, Bizarreness 4. occured, in which the parking attendants, dressed in outfits not unlike Alex from Clockwork Orange, came in and noisily asked everyone in the place (approximately 20 servers, 2 people at the bar, and us) whether a set of keys they had found were ours.  They were not.  Sadly there are few other places to eat in the area for a special occasion so I will probably be back, let's hope they can keep the lid on the crazy next time.

Wow.  I'm not kidding, WOW!  I've heard about Huntley Taverne for years...at least two co-workers and numerous Yelp friends give it 5-stars.  So the other night, when my son had a sleepover and my daughter had a birthday party to attend, my wife and I decided it was 'Hot Date Night' and we would finally try Huntley.

Traffic sucked on the way down, but the complimentary (but mandatory) valet was a blessing on this snowy night. We had a reservation so were seated immediately. Our drink waiter, Justin, was on us quickly for drinks...which we wanted badly. My wife had a New York Sour and I had a Bombay Sapphire martini. A nice start...along with a very nice bread and butter combo.  Our food waiter Dana, yes you get two waiters here, made some recommendations and we jumped on two of them to start the meal.  For appetizers (hey, it's hot date night- we splurged) we had the calamari salad and the pork belly with potatoes and some nice watercress. Neither of us had had pork belly before (what the hell was wrong with me?!?) and guess what???  It was totally delicious and not what I expected with an amazing five-spice sauce that really enhanced the flavors... If I knew this was what to expect from pork belly I'd have ordered it years ago.  The calamari salad-calamari tasted like it was fresh off the boat and the Thai dressing just brought it all together nicely.

For dinner, my wife ordered the NY Strip with smashed potatoes and we shared Brussels sprouts.  I ordered the hangar steak which was espresso rubbed and served with bacon-cheddar grits and a  cranberry-chipotle chutney.  When we both ordered our wine, Dana nodded his head in agreement...I think we chose wisely.  Both meals were incredible...my wife loved her steak-she said it was better than the last filet she had.  My meal was, well it was amazing. Seasoned and cooked perfectly, but the addition of the bacon grits and cranberry chutney gave each mouthful both a sweet and salty deliciousness.  Never had something like that before-I practically licked my plate. So.damn.good!

For dessert we went off the reservation a bit and went for a crazy sounding Sweet and Salty Sundae (we also had coffee and I ordered a Sambuca).  This sundae was NUTS!  Vanilla bean gelato, candied peanuts, house made potato chips, popcorn, chocolate & caramel sauces...ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME ?!?!?  One of the greatest desserts I've ever had the pleasure to eat

So good, so amazingly good.  The whole meal was great, only to be topped off by a dessert like this really made the whole night nothing but enjoyable and dare I say even romantic.  I can't recommend this place enough-we'll be back!!

EDIT-

Ok, this was great...when we made our reservation we told the Hostess this would be our first time at Huntley...we got a call the next day, from the Manager, to check on our meals and asking for any feedback from our dinner.  I have NEVER had this happen.  A major shout out for quality customer service!

If Huntley wasn't 2 blocks away from my home, I'd probably give it 4 stars, but still I'm not one to dish out 4 stars lightly.  My wife and I moved to Summit from Manhattan a few months back.  The day we closed on our new home, we went to Huntley for dinner.  Not only was our food great and the wait staff terrific, but they went the extra mile.  Sam, our waitress, sent us a thank you note for dining with Harvest restaurant group on our special occasion.  With that letter, they won our business for life.  

Take away locale and sentimental back stories and we love the restaurant and bar regardless.  We are huge California wine fans and their wine list is fantastic if that's your thing.  We mainly love sitting in the bar area by the fireplace.  

Only wish I had was that there would be just a couple more bar menu items.  Their burgers are great, but aside from the burgers they really only offer a hummus plate and some flatbread pizzas for a light meal.

If you go, I recommend the soups as they rotate often.  The pulled pork mac and cheese is ridiculous...you can get it as an app instead of a side if you'd like.