Nice bar set up - but gets way too packed with older men trying to get a good spot to stare at the good looking female staff. Â Great spot to sit outside in the summertime and have a couple drinks.
The food is average, a couple nice dishes on the menu but not overly impressive quality of meals on the menu
Great place to eat, drink and be merry.
Has something for everyone seafood, italian.....
Always seems busy for dinner so you may want to get there before you get hungry.
If not is a rush stop by the bar for a premeal drink, always tons of tvs in the bar porch area and more intimate setting in the restaurant part. I always get one of three dishes for dinner. Prime Rib (Great deal, great flavor), Chicken Riggies, or the broiled seafood platter. If looking for a good place to eat this is the place.
Food and service, eh. Porch seating and music, A+! Honestly the porch seating earned The Retreat the additional star, otherwise, my review is 2 STARS.
Food: Generic, casual neighborhood bar-and-gril type feel. Burgers, salads, throw in some mexican-style stuff, potpourri of simple. At my table there was calamari for appetizer, a salad, a burger, and sandwich/soup. Nothing exceptional, just mostly well-priced, mediocre food. Calamari was rubbery, but I wasn't setting high expectations.
Service: The wait staff were all helping each other out on the porch, it was packed to almost capacity and this is completely acceptable in my book. However, someone (not our waitress, maybe a runner?) kept asking coming by asking if she could take our plates...and we weren't even done yet! Before we'd even finished the appetizer, she started to pick up the plate with the calamari on it! I had to tell her that I wanted to finish it, we were just talking and catching up with friends so a bit slow to eat, but why justify why you want to finish consuming the food that you're paying for? She said, "Oh okay, just checking because it was just sitting there". Good observation.
Ambiance: Asked for a 3-top on the porch on a fair weather summer Saturday evening and was seated within 10 min. There just so happened to be an 80s cover band playing, surprisingly not obnoxiously loud. There was a nice current of cool air blowing through on a somewhat warm night, likely due to being so close to Onondaga Lake. It was an overall very pleasant lounging experience. The inside of the bar/restaurant, not so much, with dim lighting and glows from the 50"+ flat screen TVs mounted around the bar. Probably nice for watching sporting events, but it seemed mostly dead that evening.
All in all, a pleasant experience and the porch is a phenomenal draw for customers to just relax and enjoy a drink at the outside bar or listen to live music.
I went to dinner at 5PM on a Sunday night. The place was busy so be prepared for a little bit if a wait, They have a large mostly covered outdoor seating area, which is nice in the warmer weather. Â I had the sirloin med rare, mashed potatoes. The steak was cooked correctly, the potatoes could have been warmer. there was live music, which was nice.
Review Source:We sat outside-which is prime seating. I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich, with extra pickles and fries.We did wait for awhile for our drinks that we order to come- we didn't mid all that much we were chatting it up- Lemon drop martinis is what we ordered and when they did arrive-they were delish.
A little while longer our dinner did arrive, and to my surprise i was disappointed, my buffalo chicken was a BIT CRIPSY and i had to tell the waitress and with not even a bat of a eye-said no problem I'll get you another one-great BUT that meant i had to wait another while to actually eat. They were generous on the pickles that i asked for. When our waitress did come back with the 2nd buffalo chicken it was perfect and yummy.
Down fall-the wait to be served with drinks and food, and food was over done.
I didn't find very good food while I was up in the Syracuse area. The Retreat was waaayyy better than I have come across so far and everyone was really nice.
On one occasion I was here after my grandpa's funeral with a big group. They treated us wonderfully including a number of items on the house. My family really appreciated the kindness and hospitality that The Retreat showed while we were there. Thank you!
I've never been to the bar area, but it looks like a pretty good setup. Huge restaurant. I'm sure the outdoor seating is awesome in the nicer weather.
The Retreat has something for everyone...a bar, casual dinning room and a more formal dinning room... Good food at a reasonable price with very friendly and efficient wait staff...
It is just off the NY throughway...easy off and back on...a great spot for lunch and dinner or drinks and hang out for awhile...
NealB
Came here on a Saturday afternoon. There was some business. Our group was seated down immediately though. The restaurant has an bar outside, outdoor and indoor seating.
The loaded fries are extremely salty. Burger was a dry and salty.
Service is a bit slow. When I went in to pay the bill the waitress explained that she didn't want to rush us.
Overall,
Service- 5/10
Atmosphere- 7/10
Food- 4/10
Very mediocre. Â It took over 40 minutes to get our food and 20 minutes just to order. Â My food (both sandwich and onion rings) was cold upon arrival. Â They would have been okay-tasting otherwise. Â The sandwich was the smallest French dip I'd ever seen (like the size of a sandwich you'd give a toddler) and just had plain grocery-store roast beef on it. Â Other people in my party got the French onion soup and it was very indelicate and extremely messy to eat. Â Will not return.
Review Source:There are many different options for diners here. If you want a quiet dinner, there is the far side away from the bar. At the bar is another sitting area where you can see many of the games that are on. Then, outside, is another area where there is usually a band playing at night. Warning: The band is usually turned up quite loud, so trying to have a conversation while outside at night is going to be difficult.
The Retreat is one of my favorite restaurants in Syracuse. For a quick snack, get a big order of their fries with a side of nacho cheese. It's like $4 and is delicious!
You should have seen the look on my face a couple weeks ago when, during our trip to Syracuse, my boyfriend told me that we were going to a "retreat" with some of his family members. Â Now, I'm all about good family time, but in a split second I had questioned both my relationship with my boyfriend and his sanity.
Turns out The Retreat is an ultra-casual chill restaurant-bar-hangout with a mixed crowd, live music, filthy bathrooms, and cheap drinks. Â Definitely not the sort of retreat I initially had in mind, thank goodness! Â
Enjoyed a balmy evening with a few drinks here, an evening that very much reminded me of summer nights in Erie, PA where I went to college. Â Ah, memories! Â
Lots of room to hang out outside, which is where we were during our time at The Retreat; I can't speak to the inside of this place at all. Â There were much-appreciated fans placed throughout the outdoor deck, and I also noticed heat lamps for when chilly autumn nights roll around.
We arrived at around 7PM on a Thursday evening, and the place was packed. Â Strangely enough, the crowd just about cleared out around 10PM shortly after the cover band finished their set.
Hey, beware of the house white wine: Â just 2 small cups of the stuff gave me a splitting headache the next day. Â I incorrectly thought I had been doing myself a favor by laying off vodka!
There's never any excuse to drive after drinking, and rest assured the police will scoop you right up if you do here: Â on the deck we basically had an unobstructed view watching police pull over cars on the road in front of The Retreat's massive free parking lot.
A great place to do some outdoor drinking on a summer night! Â Just, as always, be sure to have a safe ride home.
This is a great place to go if you want good food for reasonable prices. The menu ranges from American to Italian to Mexican, so there are a lot of options to please almost everyone. There aren't many vegetarian options, which is a bummer, but I always manage to find something and it's always been delicious. I highly recommend the French Onion soup!
The only downside to this place is that the service can be very very slow on the weekdays because they don't hire busboys. So the waitresses and waiters have to clear the tables themselves. One time my family and I waited about 30 minutes just for the waitress to bring us the drinks we ordered!
But if you are with a large group of people, this is a good place to go because of the wide selection and decent prices.
We love riding our bikes to The Retreat this time of year ... what a great place! Â Whoever owns this place really know how to run a restaurant. Â Great food, great atmosphere. Â I'm not a drinker, but if I was, their outdoor bar looks awesome too! Â If you haven't tried the Retreat - you really need to!
Review Source:I'd heard  of the Retreat but had never been til a couple weeks ago.  I didn't imagine that it would be so BIG! Seriously, it was never ending!
We had a large group, so a reservation was made (and a good idea as it was filling up fast!).  We started with wines by the glass and my Glenora Riesling  was pretty good! The menu is all over the place, as mentioned. I wasn't particularly hungry, so I had the Granny Salad which was granny smith apples, strawberries, mixed greens and cheese, with raspberry vinagrette. It was great! I'd never seen anything like that anywhere else.  Aside from salads, dining companions had buffalo chicken salads, caesar salads, salmon and burgers.  The portions are HUGE so be prepared (and come hungry!).  We skipped dessert, but several got coffees.
The prices are good (but then again, I am comparing to Boston) so you get your money's worth. Â I would try them again.
i'm not really crazy about the food. the menu is all over the place (seafood, italian, mexican, german, etc...). most of the food is sub-par, but their burgers are very good. i've been there several times and have had all sorts of appetizers and entrees that didn't impress me, but the burgers are the one thing that keep me coming back.
the bar area inside is ok - a few tvs overhead to watch a game and grab a drink. my favorite spot is the outdoor bar (which is only open on the few months that weather is nice). it's a really cool area - basically a square, island bar with a couple flat screens. it's really unique considering that there isn't anything like it in the entire cny region and it's one of my favorite places to drink outside, relax, and watch a sports game.
The Retreat is okay... the food is nothing to write home about. It spans the spectrum in terms of offerings and the quality is adequate. Essentially, if you have the exceptions of a chain restaurant (like Chili's) then they will be exceeded... slightly...
The service was what it was... it met expectations but I do not feel comfortable bragging about it.
In the end, I'll go back mostly because I feel like it is the best that Liverpool has to offer.
Yeah, Its ok, but not so much for vegetarians..
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FOOD: Everything has some sort of meat in it, so I had to get a Caesar salad and fries. Both of which were pretty good.
DECOR: Its a nice restaurant with an outdoor deck. Lots of wood and stuff hanging on the walls. The floors are a little lopsided in places, but overall nice.
SERVICE: It was really busy so the waitress got easily distracted. However she did come back and check on us reguarly and her friendly service was prompt.
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FINAL THOUGHTS: If I found myself in Liverpool again, Id eat here. Mostly because its 1 of about 3 restaurants I actually saw. I just didnt see much "life" in this town..
A point to watch for, parking is a little screwy as it shares with a bunch of other stores, and since theres no lot it can be frustrating.
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