Bernard’s Grove

I had never heard of this place and it is certainly off the beaten path. We arrived for our reservation and greeted by a very friendly woman, I assume she is the owner, and sat in a nice booth right away.
Our server came right over and he was very attentive. He recited the specials and it was a pretty extensive list. My mouth was watering and if I hadn’t already decided I was getting the Lamb I definitely would have gone for a special. The chef is clearly talented and knows what he is doing.
I went for the Oyster appetizer special — they were plump and the cocktail sauce was perfect. For dinner I ordered the Rack of Lamb and my girlfriend opted for the Pork Chop. Entrees came with a salad which was nice, my girl had the Caesar and I got the house with balsamic vinaigrette and crumbly blue. Salads were fresh and dressings delicious.
The Australian Rack of Lamb was perfectly cooked at medium rare, bursting with flavor and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My girlfriend loved her Pork Chop although she mentioned that it was heavily encrusted with pepper which she wasn’t expecting. She raved about the chopped apples that were served on top of the pork and went on and on at how juicy and flavorful the chop was.
The décor and interior had a comfortable, rugged type feel and almost made you feel like you were dining in a toasty log cabin at the base of a ski resort. I’m not sure if that makes sense and I may have felt that way because it was 2 degrees with a below-​zero wind chill and even the short walk from the car was brutal so it felt amazing walking through the door.
The tables were dressed in linen and the dining room had been nicely decorated for Valentine’s Day. Service was great, food was delicious, and the ambiance was perfect. If you live in the Rochester area I highly recommend checking this hidden gem out for yourself. I don’t think many know this place exists and I am not really sure why. We will definitely be back. Thanks for a great meal and a lovely evening.

A little disappointed with our experience tonight. We arrived for our 8pm reservation at 7:25. We sat at the bar, ordered a couple drinks, and the calamari. The calamari came out quick and was awful! It was so tough and chewy we couldn’t eat it. We sent it back and ordered the crab cakes. They were good.
Just after 8pm we were seated. We ordered a cup of bisque (it was good — lemon undertones), yellowfin tuna special, and the bouillabaisse.
The salad dressing was not great. The balsamic had a weird flavor and the sweet and sour dressing tasted more like horseradish.
It was so loud in the dining room that we didn’t understand that the waitress had told us they were out crab shrimp roll (supposed to come with the tuna dinner) and were substituting with jasmine rice.
The tuna was ordered rare and cooked perfect. It was tender but didn’t have enough flavor. The bouillabaisse was just ok.
They did give us $ 5 off the bill because of the spring roll/​rice substitution. We’ve heard nothing but rave reviews but we’re very disappointed with dinner tonight.

Very much enjoyed our experience here. I have to admit it does seem almost as if this restaurant has a bit of an identity crisis but all in all very solid cuisine and service.
Located wayyyy off the beaten track, one would almost automatically think they must have gotten the address wrong! And on walking in, the bar side has a very «townie» feel to it (not that there is anything wrong with that!). The interior is a bit dated with dark paneling etc paired with casually attired waitstaff… wearing shorts, it’s just a bit weird considering their menu which is pretty upscale… is it fine dining or casual?! I am not too sure myself! I will say we had some of the more gracious service we have experienced in Rochester, and elsewhere, from our server who was excellent. He did not miss a beat. We had delicious blue point oysters which are not easy to come by in these parts. On hearing their specials for the evening it seems they do «the classics» but with a modern twist. We stayed very traditional and went with prime rib, and some seafood entrees — all very well executed for a non coastal city. I will say it is a bit spendy here, particularly for the seafood selections. I would say worth it though.

To start off, we only ate lunch here on a day after a holiday, and the lunch menu seems to be more ‘bar-​food’ oriented than the dinner menu. Also, the front of this place is a bar, and I would characterize this as a ‘local joint’, which probably gets VERY busy on the high-​patronage times.
We both had the shrimp/​crab bisque, which was about as good a seafood bisque as you are likely to find in an inland city. Of course, the shrimp and crab were frozen, which is to be expected, but the soup was very, very good. Next, we had sandwiches…
Not really wanting an entire ½ lb of burger, I ordered the Reuben, and my partner ordered a burger. Both came out in 10 minutes, served with a rather forgettable pasta salad with… bits of beef included. My partner’s burger was good, but my Reuben was essentially 100% inedible gristle, which I had to send back. The waitress was nice about it, but I had to wait 10 minutes while they made me a burger, anyways. When the burger came out, it was decent, albeit very juicy and greasy mess. It also came with the same odd beef-​pasta salad.
Although it’s obvious that (at least for lunch), everything on the menu is plain-​old food-​service frozen portions (with the possible exception of the bisque), they do a good job with what they have. It seems that they have updated the décor just a bit recently, and service was quite attentive, even for a weekday lunch. If it weren’t for the inedible gristle they tried to serve me, I probably would’ve given them a 4-​star review. However, any restaurant that tries to serve food to customers that otherwise deserves to be thrown in the garbage needs to be called out. The corned beef gristle they tried to serve me was only useful for maybe a beef stock, and it would be obvious to anybody cutting the meat that this was, in fact, inedible.
If I lived nearby, I might give them another chance, hoping that maybe the cook was tired or hungover. But I doubt that I’ll ever make the long trek to eat here again. I probably would’ve done better going to Silk O’Laughlins, and had better scenery as well.

I literally live 1.5 miles down road and never knew they were here. Glad we found it. Great food, very nice place. Gave 4 stars, it would of been 5 if it wasn’t for louddddd drunk lady at bar, which was disturbing all in dining area. Was waiting for staff to say something to her but it continued even when we were Leaving.

Amazing meal last night! You would never expect such an unassuming spot way north of the city would have such a sophisticated menu!
Converted house, old fashioned bar, spectacular servers. Yet a place you can bring your well behaved children.
The pace of the service was perfect. Four old friends getting together over cocktails, some of the best oysters I have ever eaten and a five star entrée.
Don’t let the location or building stop you from enjoying this almost perfect dining experience.

Our favorite little get a way!!! Everything is amazing! Great staff! Awesome service!

Bernard’s Grove is one of the best places I the Rochester area I had never heard of. And what a pleasant surprise.
The restaurant looks like a private home. It ends there. This is truly a fine restaurant with outstanding service as fine food.
Our server was Jessica and she is a to notch professional. Friendly, graceful, caring and elegant. The entrees are superb. A rack of lamb to die for. Exquisite prime rib cuts and excellent seafood.
We recommend Bernard’s Grove with two thumbs up!

From the outside the flowers are beautiful but the building is not inviting. Inside you will find dated tables and chairs as well as worn carpet. Wow, why go to such a place? When I go out to eat I go for GREAT food and that is what you get here! The onion soup is different than any I have had and possibly the best! It is served in a large bowl with lots of cheese and is big enough to share like my wife and I did. We followed that with a steak salad which was so, so tasty! The variety of greens were fresh and the steak tips were perfectly grilled, tender and seasoned to perfection! My only concern, the rolls were too hard. So, look past the first impression of the facility, open the shell to find the pearl of food inside!

Excellent — hidden gem! Food is consistently 5 star & rivals anything in town. My favs are filet & ny strip, i crave the shrimp greco & clams. My husband loves the ahi tuna. We dine out 2−3X /​week and this is by far our favorite go to place! They also make fab drinks!

Good is food but over priced. Service was ok but host is snobby. Don’t expect to be treated well if you’re not a regular.

Made reservations the day prior. The restaurant was quite busy. We were greeted warmly and told that out table would be ready in a «few seconds». 20 minutes later we were finally seated. 5 – 10 minutes after being seated we were asked for drink orders. 10 minutes after drink orders were placed, we were served our drinks. The waitress never gave us the opportunity to place order — walked away briskly to another table. When my partner stopped her and told her we were ready to order, she answered that she’d be right with us. 5 minutes later; she was. We placed out orders: bisque, shrimp greco, chicken french and the tenderloin. The bisque came quickly and was served at a perfect temperature; and it was simply fantastic. Next, the shrimp was served and it too was incredible. Salads next and they were a nice mixed greens, some sprouts and excellent dressing. Salads were missing one of my pet peeves: iceberg lettuce… horrible. Refills on drinks were horribly slow and we had to ask for refills for water and our beverages (non-​alcoholic). The entrée was served beautifully and my tenderloin was wonderful. Cooked perfectly to my liking, nicely charred flavor and the gorgonzola was not over-​done… just the right amount. My girl raved about her chicken french and while she only offered me the tiniest of samples — I found that it was indeed — terrific. Over-​all, the kitchen performed their job with attention to detail and talent. The waitress, however; did not. We would certainly go back and hope that we don’t get the same waitress, as it seemed that all the other wait staff was efficient and friendly (as a matter of fact, one of the other waitresses re-​filled our water more than once). Go. Enjoy. Don’t have great expectations of your server.

By far the best restaurant in greece. If you want anything close to Bernard’s expect to take a nice ride to nyc. Food is amazing and they have a nice selection of wine and draft beers.

We arrived early before our 6pm reservation, since the hostess was not at the station we informed a server that we had arrived and would be at the bar having a drink. Our reservation stated that we were celebrating a birthday. For some reason we didn’t sit down until 6:30.this is after I went back to the hostess and informed her that we were still waiting and wanted a window table. Two seperate party’s were sat before us even though we had arrived prior to them. At this point the hostess saw us and asked who we were waiting for and I told her «you». She lead us to a table that was not a window, so I asked her if we could have the table near the window. the two top had been taken by a couple that had arrived after us… she did end up sitting us near the window but at this point I felt as if we were at fault. Our server ended up being the same person we had told in the first place that we had arrived. We both had steak and ordered it medium rare… it came out medium, our server did not ask us to cut into the steak to see if it was cooked to our liking which we should have done right away so we ate it the way it was. We finished our wine got our check and left. Our past experiences have alway’s been first rate here but not this time.

Crab bisque is amazing, I always get the steak because it is always so good. Service staff is always professional, knowledgeable, and courteous.

I grew up living in Hilton and everyone always talked about Bearnard’s Grove. I finally went there after I moved out of Hilton. I love crab bisque, and Bearnard’s has the best crab bisque that I have had in Rochester. I honestly would recommend going and just eating a salad and a bowl of the crab bisque and calling it a day. That’s all you need when you go there. It is the perfect consistency with the right amount of crab and it comes up at the perfect temperature so you can start eating it right away. Man o Man, Bearnard’s, you get me every time with that bisque!
I did have the salmon dinner when I was there, it was delicious, but the crab bisque is what keeps me going back for more. The fish fry also looked amazing, I didn’t try any but it was golden and had rave reviews from my father. The only thing is, I was a little shocked by the pricing of food. I think what you get, it is worth it, but for some reason I was under the impression it would be a bit more reasonable.
None the less, go get the crab bisque now!

I thought it was a nice place, but from the web site I thought it was on (or at least near) the water — it’s not. I don’t know where the «biker bar» image comes from — its not. The service was good. My meal (prime rib) was just OK. My wife had shrimp wrapped in bacon and thought they were excellent. And finally, I thought the food was a little pricey. I enjoyed my meal, but probably won’t go back.

Surprisingly good!

Excellent food — really first rate, Bouillabaisse is best I have had outside of France. All other food is outstanding, beautifully presented, and quite reasonably priced. Just a few minutes outside of Rochester proper and worth the drive.
Downsides– not as fancy surroundings not terribly fancy and bar fairly basic — adequate but nothing fancy. A real gem of a place. If bar was brought up to par possibly best place in Rochester to eat AND Drink!