Sidney

It is outstanding!

I have dined here many times - and I am a Foodie and have dined at most of the notable top notch establishments in the Central Penn area. Sidney I believe to be one of the best restaurants around.

It is a beautiful place, the food was artistically prepared and presented, absolutely sublime flavors, perhaps a bit pretentious, but well deserved.

The service is always top-notch - never a complaint about the service. I use Open Table and the staff is ready to greet me without fail.

The area between Camp Hill and York is lacking in anything with serious quality. It could be considered pricey, I didn't feel that way considering the outstanding quality of the establishment, the food, the decor, and the service. It is a bit out of the way - but well worth the trip.

It was very quiet when we arrived at 5pm, but by 6:30 it had become a bit noisier, but not enough to really be an issue.

Sidney is truly a gem with a lovely terrace, a quaint tavern all inside a beautifully decorated historic building. Perfect place for a nice date or a special occasion - I cannot wait to return

What an incredibly disappointing evening. Let me start off with... vegetarians beware... big time beware! And vegans don't even bother.

We dined at Sidney this past weekend - we were so much looking forward to a fantastic dinner out. We started with a bottle of wine for the table. I was aware in advance that there aren't many vegetarian options, however as it turned out there were absolutely NO vegetarian options, including the daily soup. The server had to check with the chef to see if they could do a vegetable plate for me which they did. She went on to tell me how confusing it was because sometimes people say they're vegetarians but they eat fish. When she told the chef I don't eat meat or seafood he told her I wasn't vegetarian, I was vegan. So this probably should have all been my first clue... a fine dining establishment and they don't know vegetarian from vegan.

Moving on... the server asked if I wanted a starter and I again indicated there were no vegetarian options on the menu. She offered to make a chopped salad (not on the menu) so I agreed. My husband also ordered the chopped salad as a starter and the strip steak, and our friends both ordered the clams, chopped salad, and one had the salmon and the other had the pork.

I should say at this point that the freshly made bread (white bread, cornbread, and olive/cheese bread) are all absolutely fantastic. You really could probably make a meal of just the bread and the wine.

Speaking of wine - we proceeded to order another bottle.

The clams and salads all arrived, the chopped salad was good - honestly the best part of it was the Maytag blue cheese. The recommended vinaigrette dressing was fine, but nothing special.

One to the main course...
The vegetable plate left MUCH to be desired. I very rarely add salt or pepper to a meal once it's been served (exception being things like scrambled eggs), but unfortunately the vegetables lacked seasoning - I'm not sure they were seasoned at all and therefore adding salt and pepper was necessary. The plate consisted of two half florets of cauliflower, two florets of broccoli rabe, white rice pilaf, diced carrots and lima beans, and was centered by two halves of fennel. The cauliflower was more than al dente... I will acknowledge that being closer to raw is certainly better than being overdone. I enjoy fennel in dishes such as soups, but unfortunately it is not ideal as the featured vegetable on the plate. As I said that night, it was fine, nothing special, and I'm sure not worth whatever they would charge for it.

My husband ordered his steak medium rare but half of it was done medium, another friend ordered salmon and it came out medium rare and had to go back for further cooking. The pork was also more underdone than our friend would have liked.

This all being said - one did still order dessert, as well as a glass of port, and one ordered another glass of wine.

Checks were brought and surprisingly the vegetable plate at $26 was more expensive than the strip steak at $24. There also was a $2 misc retail charge on our bill. As previously stated, I knew the vegetable plate was going to be more than it was worth, but I was very shocked to see that it was $26... especially considering all the meat and seafood dishes on the menu are under $30 (with the exception of one chicken dish). I asked the server about the $2 misc charge... she tells me that the chef told her to add $2 because $26 wasn't enough for the vegetable plate. So the unseasoned, not very good vegetable plate is actually $28. Had the meal been fantastic, and had all the other meat and seafood meals been over $30, I could have understood this. But really?

I, very politely, told the server that they may want to take into consideration for the future the fact that they are charging more for the vegetable plate than most of their meat and seafood dishes. She insisted on getting the general manager, despite my pleading not to... I wasn't looking to make a scene, really just trying to provide constructive feedback. The manager proceeded to vehemently tell me that they are NOT a vegetarian restaurant and that others have loved their vegetable plate. Wow  - shame me for being a vegetarian. She was flat out disrespectful and insulting to me. I once again politely indicated I wasn't trying to be a problem and had just wanted to offer these comments for future consideration. She says to the server - "just take the $2 misc charge off her bill". She completely missed the point... I didn't care about the $2 in particular. She stormed off while the server apologized. The server later returned and said she's taken the entire meal off. We again refuse indicating we are fine paying the full bill, and were just trying to offer feedback. She insisted, which ultimately was very kind, but does not change the fact that we WILL NOT be going back to Sidney. Not great food, horrible treatment by the GM, and all this for a 3-figure meal. I don't think so.

Enjoyed a truly lovely meal at Sidney last night.

Arrived to the pleasant surprise that Tuesday is half price bottle of wine night!  Great chance to try something new for us.  Their list was on the brief side but we found the selection serviceable.

We did get the Yelp-commented-on "bad" table for two that sits just at the junction between the dining room and the tavern.  It is an odd set up, with Rolling Stones on the radio in the tavern and 4-star plates coming out to the dining room, there should be a more permanent barrier.  The tavern itself had a much warmer atmosphere, we found the dining room to be very stark.  Understand the Colonial theme, but white curtains on white walls and some very odd and definitely not Colonial artwork, it was just a strange vibe.  I was glad to be facing the tavern where I could see the exposed brick and ceiling beams, and as the tavern was empty we weren't impacted by noise.

Our server was excellent, friendly and knowledgeable.  Great wine service, always appreciated.  The food was exceptional.  We shared three appetizers, the goat cheese salad, the grilled octopus salad, and the terrine of foie gras.  All excellent, the octopus was our favorite, the texture was unbelievable and the chorizo it was served with was delicious.  The terrine was decadent, the house made stone mustard was really nice and the cornichon tasted house made, would have loved a few more of them!

I had a fourth appetizer instead of an entree, Nantucket bay scallops that were served with a parsnip puree, pickled daikon and beautiful lemon and orange segments.  So delicate and light, I wish there had been a larger entree portion as I ate every bite.  Husband had the hake with black kale/raisins and a duo of sauces.  Everything worked in really nice proportion to each other, but you really had to have a bite of everything to get that.  A very generous portion, not surprising with this less expensive fish.  

Dessert was the white chocolate and coconut bombe with caramel ice cream.  Very good, wish there had been a bit more ice cream to go with the large bombe.  

Overall one of the nicest food experiences we've had in the area, and we will definitely return.  Would like to go for lunch sometime and check out the lunch menu.  The terrace looks like it would make for great fair weather dining as well.