The Lark

Dinner was a first date, one I will never forget. My friend was able to get a reservation for a booth in the bar at the early dinner time. Both of the owners were there and entertained us. A rose champage was served while tasting every one of the plated appetizers. One was better than the next. The wine list was extensive and ordered Mr. Lark’s recommendation.
I ordered the rabbit dish and my date had a filet dish. The food was delicious and prepared to perfection. We could not get enough. The service was 4 star and anticipated every one of our dining needs. The dinner was 3 hours and a true delight. A menu was signed by the Executive Chef and the servers which waited on us.
The dinner will be remembered for a very long time and so grateful to have enjoyed before closing it’s doors.
Thank you for the memorable evening and best first date ever.

Wow… talk about a throw back dining experience… This is one of those places that you get dressed up for and afterwards talk about for a day or two.
The dining experience was well worth the price. The menu is «fixed-​price» and includes everything but drinks and dessert. You get apps served before you even get a menu!
If you can get in — do it before ownership changes!

Never have I enjoyed a better dining experience. A sentiment shared by our entire party. It had been a number of years since we had shared the «Lark experience». Seating, service, selections, special accommodations-​everything was perfect. Kudos to Jim Lark, the entire staff and especially to chef John Sommerville for a truly memorable evening. If any way can be found to bridge the transition and continue this wonderful tradition, I hope it can be found so this special experience may continue to be enjoyed for many years.

An old school, classy and delicious dining experience. Anyone who is a fan of the show Mad Men will feel like they are dining at an upscale 1960s Manhattan restaurant along with Don and Roger. The prix faire is definitely the way to go as you get a small sampling of a diverse and delicious meal. The cold and hot appetizer courses were probably the best part for me – delicious oysters on the shell, gulf shrimp and a hot crab appetizer with raspberry sauce that was absolutely perfect. The service is top notch, and we had a great visit to our table from the owner who told us an amazing story about the painting of his sister above our booth. Yes, it’s expensive, but you get what you pay for. Our entire dining experience was almost 3 hours but it flew by due to the atmosphere and, of course, the wonderful food.
FYI — coats and ties are required for men.

I have had the pleasure of dining here more than dozen times over the past 25 years and it’s always one of my favorites. The «theme» dinners are a special treat, especially, their holiday Christmas dinner.

Great experience. The appetizer and dessert cart are great. Copper Cataplana of Maine Lobster Tail, Littleneck Clams, Pt. Judith Calamari, Chorizo Sausage, San Marzano Tomatoes and Portuguese Pepper Sauce very good. The Genghis Khan rack of lamb — to die for. Please do make your reservations. 5.30 and 7.30. Place for a leisurely gourmet experience. Savor each course as it comes — no rush environment.

The food was over salted. The nail in the coffin was the people though, not the staff, the entitled patronage was so unbelievably rude. Even though the checks were all the same the elitist crowd acted in a manner comparable to feeding hyenas. For that experience I could never again justify the price tag.

This is one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. I’ve been here probably 6 times. Full disclosure, every visit but one. I was there for either a tapas event or a theme dinner. The tapas days are amazing! Chef John us phenomenal and when you can try small portions of all of the entrees it’s amazing. It is a very pricy place, theme dinners are $ 95.00 not including drinks. So expect to spend money but the food is so worth it. The soft shell crab, and lamb chops are two of my favorites. I went there for the first time without it being a theme dinner or tapas event. I have to say I was a little disappointed. Our entrees were $ 85-​$ 93 each, and the portions were fairly small. It was about the size of the tapas size portions. Only those are $ 15-​$ 20 a piece. So I give the Lark a 5 star rating because all my other visits. Including the best meal I’ve ever had. If you’ve never been you have to go. But I highly recommend the Tapas or theme dinners.

The lamb chops are to die for! Very nice cute place. Its an older crowd kind of quiet. The food is great. We have been there a few times.

Never in my life have I been made to feel so uncomfortable in a restaurant. The manager or whoever she happened to be has no business managing. When you can hear management talking with employees about our table it only compounded my displeasure with the lark. We asked for our bill after 15 minutes and were charged nearly $ 600. There’s a gas station up the road with some prepackaged sandwiches, save time and money and grab one. Whoever the lady is we dealt with needs a lesson on effective communication.

A visit to The Lark is always perfection. My husband and I made a reservation for Valentine’s Day and came in with high expectations.
We were promptly seated by Mrs. Lark at a lovely table near the window. Our server, Bruce, remembered us from the last time we were in (over the summer) which was very welcoming!
We started out with 5 items from the hors d’œuvre trolley: their famous curried duck salad, shrimp cocktail, an oyster on the half-​shell, smoked salmon and Israeli cous cous salad. The curried duck salad is phenomenal. If you haven’t tried this before, you are seriously missing out. Also, the bread they serve is absolutely to die for. It reminds me of elephant ear dough but savory, salty and steaming hot.
Next, we had the choice of soup, pasta or hot appetizer of the day. I ordered the pasta which was a delicious combination of wild mushrooms, spinach and parmesan cheese over pappardelle noodles. My husband ordered the hot appetizer of the day which was a duo of a small fish filet and prawn. The kitchen accidentally sent out a different item instead: quail with Brussels sprouts and wild rice. We ended up eating both hot appetizers… can’t say we complained. both were fantastic.
The salads were good but not great. Nothing to write home about…
They served a raspberry granité as a palate cleanser between courses. My husband loved it. I thought it was overly sweet.
For my entrée, I ordered the bone-​in ribeye with maître d’hôtel butter and white cheddar horse radish duchesse potatoes. This steak was HUGE! Perfectly cooked and steaming hot, this steak was picture perfect. My husband ordered the house specialty, rack of lamb genghis khan. Per usual, it was delicious.
We ended up packing up half our entrees and skipping dessert because we were totally stuffed! We also took home some curried duck salad because. why not? :)
For a special Valentine’s touch, Mrs. Lark passed out little hand stitched fabric hearts to all the ladies in the restaurant. Adorable!
A meal at The Lark is very expensive — there is no getting around it… but you definitely get what you pay for! The service, ambiance and food are undoubtedly five star.

If you’ve never been here and you’re a fan of old school dining AND you’re a big eater, I suggest you try The Lark at least once. We recently returned after not dining here for at least five years. I think the prix fix menu is too much food so I went a la carte with my entrée while my husband chose the prix fix menu.
The cozy atmosphere is charming and cozy and decorated nicely during the holidays. My husband really loved the Chinese oven glazed duck but the whole roast Maine lobster I ordered was nothing special, perhaps a poor choice on my part.
My biggest surprise during this visit (Dec. 2014) was the below-​par service. Our waiter served us a glass of champagne after arriving and we never saw him again for at least 5 minutes after our champagne glasses were empty. This continued during the entire visit. We anticipated a pricey bill and I don’t typically check the math, but decided to when the bill came in much higher than I had anticipated. Turned out, they gave us the wrong bill!

People often think it is expensive but when you figure in what you are actually getting it is not. It is often way too much food, but hey-​that is what a doggie bag is for. It is old school and exceptional.

I was so excited to finally have dinner at The Lark. Made a reservation on open table and drove 1hour.
When I arrived I was informed they don’t accept reservation after 4 because the lady who does the computer reservation leave at 4p.m. Luckily they had a cancellation so I was seated.
I was shocked how slow the service started. Finally got a coke and my server brought around the appetizer cart. She suggested I try all the items. Sorry I took her advice. Should have stuck with the oyster and shrimp. Finally the fresh bread was presented. It was delicious. However, I asked for butter twice and never got it.
Ended up ordering the bone in Ribeye. My choices were pasta (very good) and a goat cheese salad. The salad was not good. Dry and really small. I hadn’t eaten all day so I scarved that right down. In the meantime in was freezing. Literally shivering. It was so bad I got up from my meal and put my coat on. At that point, the hostess who was sitting with customers next to me asked was I cold? Ya think. The people she was sitting with agreed it was cold too. At this point I just couldn’t take it anymore and had my ½ eaten steak packaged to go. Truly I was so upset, I paid and ran to my car and blasted the heat for 15 minutes before my feet finally stopped tingling.
Though my steak was really good, I didn’t enjoy myself or the meal. My tab was over $ 100.00 and in my opinion it wasn’t worth it.

Probably most expensive meal I’ve ever eaten, $ 400 for two people. Although it was an experience. We had the appetizer cart which was very exquisite, the duck salad was quite good. My husband ordered the lamb chops, it was the most delicious lamb chop, it melted in my mouth. I ordered the sea bass which was out of my comfort zone but wanted to try something new. And I’m glad I did because it was fabulous! The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it felt like we were in an old folks home and our server seemed to dismiss us, but the food was very remarkable.

Nom nom nom! Talk about delicious. I was 100% happy with the vegetarian options they had available. The cook was amazing and came out to some of the tables at the end of the night explaining exactly how he cooked each of our individual dishes and even gave us some tips on how we could make them at home. Everyone was extremely friendly and I would love to go back again.

I cannot fathom how this place got such favorable reviews from a few others.
I’d give it a lower score than this if I could; it was such an insult. The seating was uncomfortable and at around $ 100 a person for dinner, I expected considerably more. The one thing I actually did enjoy was the cold duck salad. But everything else was just so inexcusably poor, it just didn’t matter all in all. The lobster tails were dry, tough, overcooked and sad. Sad lobster tails! Look, I’ve been all around the world and I have eaten in some nice places. I just can’t imagine how this place got the reputation it has.
Perhaps I just don’t look rich enough to be served the good food. I’ve considered that, too. I wore a suit. Maybe it has to be couture to get the proper treatment and they didn’t want me coming back. Well, if that is the case, I intend to give them what they want. I definitely won’t be coming back.
I kissed a few hundred bucks goodbye.

Had the chance to dine here recently for a business function. It was a set menu, but, nevertheless, it was phenomenal. This place is as good as it gets. It is small, quaint, and apparently has a talented chef. Again, duck was on the menu — so I ordered it! Perfectly cooked! Well seasoned! I loved it.
This place should stand out because of many reasons, but, I was blown away by the dessert cart! A rolling cart brought tableside filled with some of the best handcrafted desserts I have ever had — and you could order whatever you wanted — like heaps upon heaps of dessert!
Good place — worth a try. Should be reserved for a special evening — not just a «grab-​a-​bite kind of place».

Went here with the fam for my bro’s birthday. My socks weren’t knocked off, but my belly was happily full by the end of the evening.
The mise-​en-​scene is somewhat old fashioned, right down to the Frank Sinatra tunes. But not unbearably so. Kind of like a warm and intimate French hunting lodge. The beer glasses were a great touch, each came with its own animal head attached to the face of the glass (see photo!). The service was also very good, very old school (my mom and I were asked to order first).
The food was straight up good. You can either choose a prix fixe four course meal (cold app, soup or salad, hot app and entrée) or just the entrée. I ordered the lamb and it took me a moment to figure out why it’s called «Genghis Khan” – the hoisin sauce. Very tasty. I never would have thought to pair lamb and hoisin, but now it seems obvious! It came with candied carrots and a potato gratin. It also came with a recipe card! My hot app was billed as ‘beef short rib pasta’ but they were more like mini pierogi and sat atop a lovely reduction sauce (mopped that up with some of their crispy, salty bread). YUM. I liked the prevalence of raw oysters, cocktail shrimp and smoked salmon on the cold appetizer cart (yes, a cart; plated and served by your waitperson). My salad course was very fresh and light: thin blanched asparagus and arugula, with pine nuts and gorgonzola.
My issue with this place – a lark, if you will – is the hefty price tag. I’m sorry, but you do NOT get what you pay for. I’m not a member of the Let’s Overfill Our Plates club, but these portions did not warrant such high prices. The food, both in quality and preparation, was good but not good enough for this price point. We’re talking upwards of $ 80 per person prix fixe and for a mere $ 30 less, just the entrée. Also, dessert is extra. Yes, extra. The selection, again served from a cart, consisted a few cakes, a fruit salad and small homemade truffles. At these prices, I expect my tongue to do the jitterbug and my belly to feel so tingly and awesome that I begin to dance uncontrollably on the table while operatically belting the Lark’s praises.
There are many other very fine restaurants from which to choose to make your evening special (gastronomically or romantically) that don’t break the bank. I’m glad I finally had a chance to visit the Lark, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back so soon. Maybe if I win the lotto…

This is a fine dining experience from beginning to end with five (or more) courses for a leisurely meal. It’s a very traditional atmosphere, so not the new trendy spot with cutting edge concepts you might find at other fine dining establishments.
The rack of lamb is their specialty and definitely tasty. Can’t wait to try it at home too (they give you a recipe card if you order it).
There is definitely an intimate atmosphere to the place, so don’t be like our group and show up with a table of 8 or 9 since you’ll feel like you stick out. It’s mostly for 2 and 4 person tables which helps keep it romantic too.
In the end, it’s a bit pretentious for my taste and too much food to enjoy, but the food is really good and the wine list extensive.