Stissing House

Heavenly oysters, delicious trout and mound of fresh sautéed spinach and cold flavorful beets. Topped off with exquisite lemon tart with ginger graham cracker crust. This place never disappoints.
Wonderful bread and olive oil.
Husband raved about his hanger steak dinner and profiteroles for dessert.
My mouth is watering just writing this.

Delicious, tasteful dishes. Usually busy, always a good sign. Prices are slightly higher than average, but worth it. Great use of local fare. Warm cozy atmosphere. Hanger steak is mouthwatering. Hearty mushroom rissotto satisfying. Terrific salads. Specials are indeed a treat. Workers are very accomodating. A jewel in Pine Plains. Wish the menu had more options, but what is listed is expertly executed.

We stopped here as a recommendation from Bruce at Mill Ridge winery. It’s an hour and a half from home but I’d make the trip again for this restaurant. One of the best meals I’ve had. Escargot was perfectly tender. The brisket was refreshingly delicious without being smothered in BBQ sauce. My husband loves duck but hates that most places smother it in some kind of sauce. This duck was seasoned just right..

When I first walked in the door I was in love… the history, the charm, the overall décor, and the beautiful warmth of the fireplace room.
We went here with a group of 7. We started with the escargot, foie gras and charcuterie platter for appetizers. The escargot was très parfait, the foie gras was comme ci comme ça …the best thing my husband had to say about the charcuterie platter was it had the best MUSTARD he has ever had (uh…what about the meat?).
then we ordered entrees. A few of us got hamburgers, I got the strip steak, someone else got short ribs and two people ordered the Cassoulet Tolousin (as the chef is french, why shouldn’t that have been the best thing?). This is where the trouble started. Something clearly happened with the cassoulet as everyone’s meals came out except the cassoulet and then 10+ minutes later it showed up… so everyone with manners waited and ate their food cold. My husband, being one of the people who ordered the cassoulet said it was nothing to write home about (yes, I sugar-​coated that), so I basically endured my steak and frites cold for nothing :(They just couldn’t get their timing straight. Nothing is worse than cold french fries.
For dessert two of our friends shared the crème brûlée which they enjoyed very much and I ordered the floating islands in a custard-​ish sauce with spun sugar (that tasted on the burnt side) which was a poor choice on my part.
Don’t get me wrong. I would return, but I will definitely stick with the basics and things we all seemed to enjoy and keep my husband away from the French peasant dishes. They did have several other dishes that looked delicious on the menu. I’ll be back soon and will be sure to post an updated review afterwards. I am just disappointed as I had such high hopes when I walked in.

Our second dinner this month and just as satisfying. One suggestion to the chef/​owner. If you are going to meet and great, take the time to stop briefly at each table… not just the regulars.

For service, atmosphere, and great food — This place gets five stars all around. I have eaten there several times and never been disappointed. Can’t wait to try brunch. This place is a little pricey, but worth it.

We went to The Stissing House two weeks ago and really liked it. We went again tonight and it was not a good experience. It took fifteen minutes to get a drink order in and once we ordered our food the waitress came back 45 minutes later and told us they were out of the entrée I ordered. Why did this take 45 minutes to let us know? My wife is hypoglycemic so I asked if they could bring her and her mothers entrees out early since mine would take another 30 minutes to cook. Their response was «it would be fine». They offered to buy us a round of drinks (which we did not accept because we all needed to drive). Our food finally came an hour and twenty minutes after we first ordered and it was ok but we were so hungry at this point I would have eaten my left shoe if they heated it up a little. We arrived at 8 and finally got our check at 10:45 which caused us to miss our other plans for the evening. I do not plan on going back.

Old reviews do not reflect what the restaurant is like these days.
Cozy atmosphere, extremely attentive, polite, pleasant, and helpful staff.
Delicious food using local ingredients.
We are regulars, and they have mastered steak, wood-​fired pizza, and seasonal fish specials. Many traditional french items on the menu (escargot, moules frites, charcuterie), but also risotto and pastas. Usually plenty of choice for our vegetarian guests.

Not sure what the low raters saw, but this place is awesome in every respect: 1782 facility-​one of the longest running restaurants in US-​, French owner/​chef with a 20 year old successful restaurant in NYC, wonderful ambience, and amazingly prepared food. French onion soup and fried mushrooms were tasty and filling. The halibut was well prepared and the accompanying sauce was perfect. The farm fresh eggs in the salmon Benedict had perfect orange yolks– you could feel the nutrients entering your body. The desserts were also great. A wonderful place to relax and linger over drinks and a great meal.

Five stars… Yes it’s out of the way, even for us Northern Westchester-​ites, but we make the trip at least 2 – 3 times a year. It’s always special. Whether its our annual Christmas Tree cutting dinner in our own little room by the roaring fireplace, the foraged mushrooms in Spring or Fall… Flash fried or silky morels in cream, or our menu standbys… The wonderful frisée salad or trout… All good. Tonight was especially special! (Sorry)… We ate at the bar; My son ordered the special pizza… Ramps and Swiss Chard! The ramps had just come in (ummm fresh?!) and were not cleaned, so it wasn’t available… Our excellent and amiable bartender interceded… The chef said ‘a 10 year old who loves ramps and Swiss Chard?!! DONE!‘
Used to frequent owner Michel’s place Provence in manhattan… Loved it there, loved this. Thank you Sally for a memorable 50^th bday dinner at the bar! WE’LL BE BACK!

Grew up in the area and decided to make the trip back for lunch during Hudson Valley Restaurant Week. First, I have to say that I love the historic building. Wide plank wood floors, old local landscape paintings adorning the walls and large and small dining areas situated in different nooks and crannies of the space — the bar, a room with a fireplace and black leather banquettes, even separate rooms with tables for groups. Candlelit and cozy, so I loved the ambiance.
We sat in the room with the fireplace and my only complaint was that the banquettes are a bit worn and need to be recovered, and I sank deeply and awkwardly into my seat, so perhaps a bit of reinforcement is needed.
The service was a bit spotty as well. Friendly, but haphazard. Our waitress was a CIA student, so I was surprised to hear her struggle to explain ‘farro’ on the menu or answer another diner’s question about whether or not the soup was pureed (it was).
Reasonably priced wine list, with many local selections. But, the food and the menu deserve 5 stars and that’s the main reason we would go back.
For apps we enjoyed spring pea and ham soup and a blood orange and mesclun salad — I don’t know what they did to the blood oranges, but they were fantastic — almost tasted like sundried tomatoes!
Entrees were farro risotto with butternut squash, mushrooms, sage and parmesan and thai curry coconut lime mussels. Both outstanding. The largest, most succulent, plump mussels I’ve ever eaten. The broth was so flavorful, we finished every drop.
Dessert was a partially fallen chocolate soufflé with fresh whipped cream and a bread pudding in a caramel bourbon sauce. Both heavenly. Couldn’t decide which one we liked more.
Portion sizes were perfect — just enough.
We’ll be back — I just wish it wasn’t so far away!

loved this place. yes service is young kids but given that it’s pretty off the beaten path give them some slack. food is very good by any standard and the space is completely unique, fascinating, and fun. amazing place to through a big party. looking forward to returning.

My people say they are now also «over» Stissing.

For generations the Stissing House is known for fine fare and fellowship. One of my favorite places to dine out and meet friends. The service, atmosphere and culinary are first rate.

We stumbled on to this restaurant on the way to the horse barn, not expecting to find anything special in this small town, attractive though it is. The place and the food were superb, it turns out. Ignore the slightly worn exterior, and find an excellent atmosphere and staff inside. The food would have been very good in a big city, and was all of five stars in the countryside.

After reading the first review I would probably fall into the second home crowd.
This past week end, I joined my friends who are truly regulars at the Stissing House. The new restaurant down the street had a private party so we chose the SH. It was very crowded, but what followed should never happen in the restaurant business. It took about 15 minutes before we saw a waiter, he appeared without apology and took our drink order.
At which point, he rather rudely asked, «Are you ready to order?» I asked my friends if they were ready, adding, he may never come back.
Well that was the beginning of a new precedence for all time bad service. After we received our drinks another ungodly amount of time. we ordered. After another 20 minutes the appetizers appeared. I ordered soup-​onion soup– and it was cold! I returned it and then waited another 15 minutes in which time my friends finished their appetizers. I finally flagged someone down and cancelled the soup. The waiter never stopped by offering an apology nor a time frame in which the reheating of my soup would appear. Then another 10 minutes lapsed and the soup appeared! which i did not accept. I watched three tables turn over during this time!
The woman owner of SH did come over to the table an offered an explanation of why our service was so bad… they had a power outage sometime during the day for two hours. Had i been the owner of this restaurant I would have offered to buy the table a drink– No. No gracious offer escaped from her mouth.
Our entrees finally appeared, at which point I was hungry. It was trout that was over-​seasoned in a slightly coagulated sauce served at room temperature.
The only part of the service that was speedy was delivery of the bill and running of the credit cards.
Oh and to add insult to injury, the chef did make an appearance and greet every table, except ours…

Unimpressed so far with the «best» restaurant in town.
First time I dined in and the service was slow. Food was OK.
Second time I ordered take away and they got it wrong! The website menu had a price of $ 14, but when I got to the restaurant, the price was $ 17! Online menu PDF and HTML menu haven’t been updated as of 25 APR — I dined on the 11^th. I asked for mashed instead of fries –I had fries when I got home.
While I was waiting to pay for my takeway, two different people came to the bar to ask for their checks a second time.
Yay– they take AMEX!

Whoa — amazed that Stissing inspired such a bitchy review — as someone who spends a great deal of time in the area and has been to Stissing House many many times over the years I can tell you that Stissing’s service is prompt, not overly solicitous and that the room is indeed pretty comfortable year-​round. Ok, rebuttal completed, onward…
It’s taken a while for the House to find a tenant worthy of its space. The last ten years saw ownership changes and fluctuations in both culinary ambition and skill. Finally with the arrival of the current husband-​wife owners from Provence (the TriBeCa restaurant, and in the case of the chef-​husband, the region too) patrons have been treated to consistently solid food and occasional greatness. The menu is varied enough in both its offerings and pricing as to appeal to both weekenders and many locals. There are multiple rooms so while it’s very child-​friendly the families don’t take over the joint (instead we merely destroy a room), especially not the tavern room itself. The service has always been friendly and, particularly given that some are local high school kids, very professional. The crowd can actually be pretty high profile with usual visits by a couple who was doing crowdsourced restaurant reviews before Unilocal had first Unilocaled, other fancy new yorkers with weekend homes in the area and polo teams (hey ladies!) playing down the street at Mashomack Polo. My only complaint is that they should leave the cassoulet on the menu from, say, October 1 to March 31…

This a was a great place until I was yelled and insulted at by the Chef for asking my burger to be cooked a little further.
The atmosphere was chill, wood tables and beautiful wood bar, many who’s who was sitting there eating and enjoying quietly much like the area of Upstate NY.
The Beet salad, was very pretty and delicious, so were the fried Artichokes. I was in the mood for a Burger and ALWAYS order it medium well. (This should be well done but Pink in the middle.) My burger arrived and it was about 1 ½″ thick. I put the ketchup on etc. Sliced through it to eat half at a time… and it was a WALL OF PINK. I thought I would try to eat it but I couldn’t even stomach it. It’s too pink for me to eat. I mentioned it to my friend, (who ordered the Salmon en Paper) She was like, yeah, send it back then. Then chef who had been downing a bunch of wine with some people who came in for tastings went into the kitchen and LOUDLY started discussing to the cooks how a burger should be cooked. Then he comes back out and loudly starts to discuss it with the equally young bartender where he was before. kinda rude, ruining the vibe that I can’t just continue chatting with my friend as I wait for my burger because he is going on so long about it. You realize he has a problem.
So he comes over. Asks, about the burger I said, yes it was just too pink for me to eat. He interrupted my answer to interject where am I from? I am about to respond yet again he interrupts and says, «you are English right? So, you are worried about the mad cow disease and You think because.» I say, «No, I am not English.» (my girlfriend sitting there, who KNOWS him is English and is gobsmacked.) He continues, «You think you must have this grey brown burger because when you go to McDonald’s you always …» I jump in with my eyebrows raised, «Excuse me? You telling me I eat at McDonald’s?» He says, but there is nothing wrong with McDonald’s but it is why you do not know how to eat a hamburger” My jaw is dropped and I am horrified at what is happening here. I can’t even talk. He continues, «You see this is my friend’s meat and if you cook it too much it is like a cardboard.» (The chef is a french guy with the heavy accent-​I didn’t even bother arguing in French, but my friend jumped in as she was so shocked too at the insults that kept flying.) I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. He pretty much didn’t care. I said, «well that is great you buy local, I am from a place where we do everything Artisan too», probably will be the first organic county in the US …(he didn’t hear me or care, he kept laying on insults on how to eat a burger” Great, but I can’t stomach the pink, so… what? He gets to eat it but then I am still hungry? What is the point of going to a restaurant? I had only flown in from SF to see my friend annually, finally had a break from my 3 year old twins. Drove north of JFK for 2 ½ hours and she got a sitter for her baby, finally, and we went out to our ONE SHOT at a nice dinner during my visit. And this asshole just screwed it up royally. Who cares about what the customer wants. UGH. What a waste of time and money! So annoyed. I love this space but the Chef has to GO! If Michelle Jean is there, don’t even bother. I can’t help but think if we were two guys, would he even have done that to us. He continued to argue with my friend in French the whole meal, I couldn’t eat it. He pointing over and over to this burger calling it cardboard and that we are uneducated etc. etc. She lost her appetite too and we ended up leaving and he was like, if that’s what you have to do. AND he was wanting some money still too! Cheapskate on top of that. Imagine that! A French guy telling you how to eat a Hamburger!
My family is from and still lives in Kobe, Japan. We are famous for our Beef worldwide. I know if you have GOOD beef, it doesn’t matter how much you cook it, it’ll still be moist and delicious. So his friend’s meat being cardboard is HIS problem, his choice, but he should «state that on the menu, not to order darker than pink or it’ll taste like cardboard.»
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR GNO.