14850 Dining

Opening this summer is 3 Herons Brewing Co, a Trumansburg brewery and BBQ restaurant. They feature Texas-style beef brisket, ribs, Cornell BBQ chicken, smoked gouda macaroni & cheese, and more, all prepared on the premises. Their "soft opening" day is Friday, August 24th, though they've been offering take-out for a few weeks. A beer and wine license will follow.

This southwest-themed eatery opened this spring near East Hill Plaza in the former home of Coyote Loco and Olivia. They've done a lovely job renovating the building with reclaimed wood from a local barn, and they serve good food and drinks at reasonable prices. The signature margarita is just $5, and the proverbial "$10 burger" is actually still $10, complete with fries. We hear good things about the tacos and the woodfired-oven flatbreads, and we look forward to trying brunch.

Aladdin's offers pretty good but not spectacular Mediterranean-style or Greek-style food, at prices that generally seem too high for what they're providing. The fact that their menu can't even spell "souvlaki" consistently right is an unfortunate sign of the inattention to detail throughout the Aladdin's experience.

Considering the disdain with which “cookie-cutter” establishments are viewed by some, I was very impressed with how smoothly this trendy, yuppie-oriented chain restaurant has fit into the area. Applebee’s offers very speedy and friendly service, a pleasant surprise to anyone expecting anonymous or uncaring treatment. The food is good, reasonably priced, and plentiful, as well. Hot, tasty soup and a grilled chicken sandwich made a good lunch, and a recent visit for dinner yielded an excellent “Bourbon Street Steak,” their 10oz.

This underground brewpub just off the Ithaca Commons quickly became a favorite when they opened in the fall of 2009. They serve their own beer ranging from good to great as well as lots of other microbrews, and some outstanding pub and bistro fare from an ever-changing menu. It's casual enough for a late-night snack and a pint, and snazzy enough to bring a date for a nice dinner, and affordable either way. 

Offering wings, subs, and pasta dishes in addition to pizza, Bella Pizza has taken over the corner pizzeria stand in the Center Ithaca atrium food court. At the heart of downtown, this is a cluster of eateries we might wish were open longer hours -- like, say, at dinnertime or late-night. Lunch specials start at $2.25 for a slice and a soda. The pizza's crisp and tasty, and we look forward to exploring the rest of the menu.

This beautifully furnished and serenely lit little eatery has dining inside or on the sidewalk, a gorgeous granite bar, and pieces from local artist Warren Bunn on the walls to set the mood. There's a variety of sandwiches and burgers, salads and entrees, and appetizers and desserts, with many appetizers and a few entrees landing in the vegetarian column. The food's all pretty good but a bit pricey, and doesn't always match what you think you ordered.

This new lunch-and-late-night hot dog cart in front of Jason's in Collegetown started out by swooping in nightly (Tuesday through Saturday) at about 9 and staying until the wee hours, offering the perfect handheld food: hot dogs or sausage and peppers. They're now trying out weekday lunchtime hours, Tuesday through Friday.

Our expectations aren't that high when we go to a fast food outlet, but this Burger King sometimes fails to reach even that low bar. Whether the food's not hot, or we've gotten where we're going only to realize we've got a different item than the one we ordered, this BK misses the mark just a little too often for comfort. When they get it right, though, a Whopper with onion rings can sure be satisfying.

In the basement of the Dewitt Mall, this tiny cafe offers breakfast, lunch, and Sunday brunch featuring lots of local food and creative recipes. Enjoy a cup of soup and a sandwich, or creative breakfast platters available any time. It gets crowded fast, especially on weekends, so be prepared for a wait -- both before and after you're seated.

This new establishment where Asiatic Garden lived for decades has a lot to live up to, and is off to a very good start. We were impressed that our egg rolls came out of the kitchen almost as soon as we’d ordered them, hot and fresh. The steamed dumplings appetizer didn’t arrive in quite as timely a fashion, coming after the first of two entrees. Our beef satay, with chunks of fresh tomato, was a pleasant surprise, and the sesame chicken (a Chinese restaurant staple) was good. They have affordable combo dinners and lunch specials, and deliver free with an order of $8 or more.

This restored old building in lower Collegetown has been turned into a beautiful eatery with gorgeous event space upstairs that features live music on some weekends. During the week, stop in for breakfast, brunch, or lunch Tuesday through Sunday, but be prepared for a long wait on weekends. The brie stuffed french toast is decadent, the steak and eggs the best in town, and the burgers, made from local beef and served on ciabatta with homemade sundried tomato puree, are out of this world.

This Collegetown eatery, in new digs across from the Dryden Road parking garage, offers healthy, fresh, design-your-own wraps, salads, and smoothies. The custom wrap and salad menu (starting at $6) features no fewer than 35 ingredients to choose from, not counting the tortillas and meats (grilled chicken, tuna, or eggs), plus a couple dozen dressings. Or pick from one of the $6 pre-designed salads or wraps. Check it out from lunch through late-night if you're tired of bagels, pizza, and cheeseburgers.

Now open in Ithaca's southwest, Chipotle is one of several chains specializing in burritos and similar fare assembled to order. Their philosophy leans toward quality food produced as sustainably as possible.

This legendary College Avenue eatery moved to much roomier digs on their current corner in the mid '90s, and has expanded way beyond their bagel roots. With a wide variety of sandwiches handmade to order from fresh ingredients, including many vegetarian options and lots of top-notch bread, this flagship CTB location also makes fancy espresso drinks, serves brewed fair-trade coffee, offers smoothies, and has a bar at the back with a few draft beers and carafes of sangria.

This Community Corners institution is a family-owned delicatessen specializing in Middle Eastern specialties in addition to a wide array of fresh American-deli-style foods. The overstuffed sandwiches and pitas barely leave room for the exceptional baklava and other desserts. Great falafel and gyros, and fresh roast beef whose aroma permeates the neighborhood. Leave a little room for dessert, such as traditional baklava or a cinnamon baklava roll, honey cake, or a semolina cookie, along with a cup of the very strong middle eastern coffee -- or regular coffee or tea.

This small cafe adjacent to the tasting room at Americana Winery does a fantastic Sunday brunch, and it's well worth the wait for a table. They offer a great brioche french toast, shrimp and cheddar grits with eggs, oatmeal pancakes, and other decadent breakfast items, as well as burgers, hummus wraps, and other lunch choices. Lunch and dinner hours vary seasonally; for winter and spring, they're open Thursday through Sunday.

D.P. Dough does one thing and they do it well -- an infinite selection of calzones with whatever you can imagine stuffed inside. I'm a fan of eggplant and ricotta, or go the Buffalo-style chicken calzone route. Check their Facebook for the daily $5 'Zone of the Day.

Delilah's is the latest incarnation of the downtown eatery formerly known as WildFire and the Lost Dog Cafe. They've got burgers and wings and a tempting menu of southern comfort food they're choosing to call "Savannah Fusion Cuisine."

Doug's Fish Fry is worth the drive from Ithaca. It's a small privately owned Central New York chain with restaurants in Skaneateles, Cortland, Mattydale, and East Syracuse, that prides itself on simple, quick food, with no table service, no wait staff, and no tipping. Yes, a lot of the food is fried, but not all of it.

The Dryden Hotel's history begins in 1844, but its current incarnation dates to 2005, when a refurbished building opened to offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week. After a typical omelets-or-pancakes breakfast menu, it's a step above diner fare, with salads, wraps, and sandwiches alongside burgers, fried shrimp, pizza, and prime rib. Vegetarian options are few and far between, and we admit we mostly get there for wing night on Thursday.

Felicia's has a very simple menu and a very straightforward lounge philosophy that says a lounge is for lounging. The funky decor, with metal panels and velvet couches, fits nicely. There are usually personal-sized flatbread pizzas and pastries available, they serve "drunken" hot dogs and "not dogs" on Friday evenings, and they've just added Sunday brunch.

Garcia's on Route 13 in Ithaca's southwest is a branch of the family-run Cortland original. They offer affordable lunches and freshly prepared Mexican dishes, and serve huge margaritas. 

Now open across from the State Theatre, in the former home of the Prize Diner, Gorgers offers soups and gourmet subs on homemade bread, with locally sourced ingredients wherever possible. At $3 for soup, $6 for salads, and $7 for subs, the price is definitely right. Try the coconut shrimp po'boy, served with pickled vegetables and a Thai sweet chili sauce on a homemade sub roll, or make any of the subs vegetarian with eggplant instead of meat. The potato salad, made with a balsamic vinegar reduction, is a tasty side dish. Ready for a challenge?

Serving Ithaca for over fifty years now, Hal's has offered inexpensive breakfasts and overstuffed sandwiches to countless generations of students and locals. Hal Kuntz, the original proprietor, passed away years ago, but his memory lives on in the tasty food, and his wife, Sandy, still presides most mornings.

One of Ithaca's top pizzerias, this latest incarnation of Italian Carry Out (which used to be on Meadow Street) also offers hot and cold sandwiches, wings, fish fry platters, and such Italian dinners as lasagna, chicken parm, and a variety of pasta. Delivery takes a while and they might not get your order quite right, but they'll cheerfully fix it.

When I told a friend in Florida I was going to visit the Ithaca Bakery, she exclaimed, "Oh, I love bakeries!" I had to stop and think for a moment, then explain that our Meadow Street "bakery" doesn't just do bread and pastries. They do bake the fresh bread, rolls, donuts, cookies, and cakes for a number of hotels, stores, offices, and other eateries around the region, but I was there to visit the eatery part of the business. Any time of day, you can satisfy your appetite at the Ithaca Bakery for just a few bucks for a bagel sandwich or deli sandwich, or spend $8-12 for a full meal.

For delivery, carry-out, or to eat in, check out Jack's Collegetown Grill on Dryden Road, offering burgers, cheesesteaks, generous breakfasts whenever they're open, and Ithaca's only vegetarian wings, as late as 4am on weekends. It's an oddity at an eatery that serves so many burgers, cheesesteaks, and actual chicken wings, but vegetarians will appreciate the tofu wings. They expanded in the summer of 2012, with a new bar area so you can enjoy your food with a pint of beer and the game on TV.

They're not rocket science, they're sandwiches. But Jimmy John's focuses on doing decent sandwiches and doing them quickly, and they've gotten very, very good at it. You can have french bread or seven-grain wheat slices, or go the "unwich" route for a low-carb sandwich wrapped in lettuce. We love the Vito or Italian Night Club, though we can't imagine why they put oil & vinegar and mayo on a sandwich. We usually remember to ask them to skip the mayo.

This old favorite in Ithaca's west end reopened several years ago to great fanfare and high expectations. Despite a shaky start, Joe's has settled down and provides good Italian-American fare. Specials in the bar, such as a pizza and a pint, make it more affordable than a full dinner can be.

Kelly’s, opened in a 28-seat trolley car over thirty years ago, is famous for its omelets and crab legs, and has outdoor seating that’s perfect for a pleasant Saturday morning. The owner, whose full name is Albert Kelly, though everyone just calls him Kelly, does most of the cooking. Try the spinach, mushroom and cheese omelet, with a side of crisp bacon and some home fries. Even the toast was done to perfection.

Ling Ling, a pair of carry-out or eat-in Chinese restaurants, offers quick and inexpensive and tasty Chinese food. They offer a surprising variety of Szechuan, Hunan, and Cantonese cooking a la carte, with several options available as combo dinners ($7-8 or so for entree plus fried rice and egg roll), and a couple dozen lunch special possibilities, where $5 or so gets you an entree with fried rice, plus soup or an egg roll. The expanded East Hill location offers bottles of beer and fancier seating.

A tiny, casual eatery for take-out or eat-in service. You can order items from the menu, but your best bet is to select two already-prepared entrees from the steam table as a combo (or one large portion) for $6.25. We recommend the Pad Thai and one of the other entrees, such as red curry chicken or eggplant and tofu. For a treat, add a Thai iced coffee to your meal. Some dishes are deliciously spicy, and there's good chili sauce if it's not hot enough.

On the north edge of Cornell University's campus, Louie's Lunch has a history that dates back almost a century to a Greek immigrant named Louis Zounakos who pushed around a food cart. These days it's more of a diner on wheels, open lunchtime to late night on Thurston Avenue near the north campus dorms, with breakfast sandwiches, burgers, wraps, sandwiches, and even salads. During the summer and other school breaks, Louie's is just open for lunch.

This beautiful space on Restaurant Row has good fare from sandwiches and salads to steaks and seafood, with quick and attentive but not overly pushy service. A wine list includes some decent Finger Lakes offerings, and the bar makes a great mojito. Try brunch, as well, for a good variety of omelets and eggs benedict variations, and either brandied french toast or a stuffed french toast. We'd provide a link to their web site, if it didn't start spewing unsolicited music at you. We won't do that to you, but we have faith you can find them if you so choose.

Mama Teresa's has adequate pizza with interesting combinations, and good dishes such as chicken or eggplant parm. Their regular pizza doesn't really have enough sauce, but the sauceless veggie pizza has a nice array of vegetable toppings. Try $1.50 slices after 10pm on Monday through Wednesday nights or $5 lunch specials. Of course, the best pizza comes straight of the oven, not out from under a heat lamp, so order a whole one when you can. Free delivery.

It’s worth putting up with the cramped feeling and excessive noise in this marvelous oyster bar and Cajun eatery. The food is almost all spicy, and you’ll need to go again and again to try everything that tempts you on the menu. Happy hour until 6 pm means half-price oysters and clams from the raw bar. For a good sampling, try the Cajun Mixed Grill and a side of fresh corn bread with tasty orange-honey butter. Vegetarian options are limited; go for the veggie jambalaya.

This quick, new eatery in Collegetown, formerly Xeo's Cafe, now serves Tejano-style (Tex-Mex) taquitos and the like using fresh, local ingredients. The taquitos are tortillas wrapped around a variety of fillings, mostly local pork or beef. The vegan taquito, with marinated tofu and potatoes, is excellent, too. True to the Texas roots, it's not a vegetable-heavy cuisine, but there are a couple of vegetarian options. It's minimalist Mexican. We like it.

Call it Mexican food or southwestern food, Moe's is all about putting food in tortillas in various forms. Moe's welcomes visitors with an assembly line, very much like That Burrito Place or even Subway. The place is colourful and full of energy, a perfect match to the southwest-style pseudo-Mexican fare. You can get a well-stuffed taco for three bucks or even less, or an overflowing salad in a big tortilla shell, or a burrito or quesadilla. Try fajita steak, ground beef, or chicken in any of the above, or even veggies or tofu.

Our favourite among the area's traditional, round pizzas is from Napoli Pizza, at the foot of the East State Street hill in the Gateway building. Napoli's roots go back decades in downtown Ithaca, and they know how to make their pizza. Napoli also has by far the best wings in town, great cold or hot subs, and beer on tap if you're dining in or waiting for your pizza.

The Nines offers great pizza and a variety of entrees and sandwiches. The entrees lean toward an Americana theme, and there's a good selection of beer on tap at the full bar. The square deep-dish pizza is its forte, with a broad array of toppings and a thick crust. The four slices easily feed two or three people. If you're not in a pizza mood, try the astonishingly good ribs or the roast chicken, or try the soup or the new homemade hummus. The Nines used to house one of Ithaca's fire stations (now next door) and offers great music many evenings.

After twenty years operating popular gyro and falafel stands on the Ithaca Commons, at the Ithaca Farmers Market, and at countless area festivals, On the Street now has its very first brick-and-mortar location, right next to Maxie's Supper Club in Ithaca's west end. They serve overflowing pitas including gyros, falafels, chicken, pork souvlaki, and even cheeseburger and cheesesteak pitas, plus breakfast gyros and Greek salads. Free delivery in town, $2 delivery farther out.

Papa John's makes one of the best traditional, round pizzas in town, thanks to a focus on fresh ingredients despite their chain status and their surprisingly affordable prices. It's a little dry unless you ask for extra sauce, which they'll gladly provide at no extra charge. We've always been a fan of the garlic dipping sauce and hot peppers that come with each pizza, and the slices-and-soda lunch specials are a good deal. 

This quick eatery on Dryden Road makes hot and cold sandwiches to order in white or whole wheat pitas, with your choice of a whole host of veggies. Start with your choice of ham, turkey, tuna, or maybe go vegetarian with falafel or hummus. While the filling's grilling, pick out your toppings from an impressive selection, and Pita Pit's friendly crew will fill your pita layer by layer. Pita Pit even has breakfast pitas, featuring scrambled eggs mixed with hash brown potatoes, cheese, onions, peppers, and ham, bacon, or crumbled Italian sausage.

Pizza Hut offers their own style of deep-dish pizza that's perfect when it's fresh and hot. This location, in the Cayuga Mall in the Village of Lansing, has a decent lunch buffet featuring pizza and salad, and sadly, like most Pizza Huts across Central New York, doesn't serve beer.

This Japanese restaurant at the "kneecap" bend of the lowermost block of Dryden Road offers good sushi and sashimi and a plentiful variety of cooked meals with very nice presentation.

We love Razorback BBQ when we see their smoker at area festivals, so we love the idea of their food available all the time. The reality is that the Haunt and its wait staff aren't set up for serving food, though. Think of it as effectively bar or counter service where you'll eventually need to go track someone down to inquire about items that were missing from your order, and you've got the idea. The food is all tasty, but we wish the ribs were a bit closer to fall-off-the-bone tender.

This sandwich shop, pizzeria, and convenience store is perched on Ithaca's South Hill just below Ithaca College. We don't enjoy their pizza, though we realize tastes vary, and the wings and subs are pretty good.

We have fond memories of a truly great burger, decadent and relaxed weekend brunches, and stellar service at Rulloff's. We wish this eatery, with decades of history, still had any of the above. Instead, it's a shadow of its former self. The food is all OK, but just OK; and the service, even though sometimes well-meaning, rarely exceeds "confused."

Now in Ithaca's west end is Saigon Kitchen, a new Vietnamese eatery from the owners of Wok Village, in the former home of Taste of Thai Express. The menu features such Vietnamese specialties as pho and vermicelli noodle dishes, stir-fries, and rice plates. They're offering lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday, with lunch and dinner delivery Tuesday through Friday, and dinner-only delivery on weekends.

There are a few select entrees from the main Collegetown Sangam Indian Restaurant here at this steam-table counter in Center Ithaca. The food always tastes fresh, and it's always ready when you walk up. There's also a small selection of Indian groceries and videos.

This combination pizzeria and brewpub has good deals on decent pizza, wings, and subs, with both pizzeria and pub-style dining rooms, and a bar with a few beers brewed in-house. 

This pizzeria has offered freshly made pies and pizza by the slice, plus lasagna and other Italian dishes, salads, and side dishes for many years in the Cafe Square food court at the Shops of Ithaca Mall. The pizza's especially good when it's fresh, and the Italian entrees are a pretty good deal.

Sharing a building with C.T. Bento next to the Hampton Inn, Smart Yogurt in Ithaca's Southwest offers frozen yogurt with an ever-changing array of toppings, such as pastel-colored M&Ms for Easter. The yogurts themselves range from a basic, tart yogurt similar to Greek-style yogurt, to fun "birthday cake" and "cookies 'n cream" options, and there's even a green tea yogurt made with top-notch tea imported from Japan. Toppings include the expected crumbled cookies and candy bits, but also a surprising variety of fruit, some of it fresh.

A tiny Thai and Laotian eatery at the back of the Gateway Center, just east of the Ithaca Commons, Sticky Rice has a rabidly loyal following for its freshly prepared dishes. Enjoy the tamarind fish soup, the summer roll, and the spicy garlic chicken, but save room for the sticky rice and mango dessert. If you catch them open despite oft-unpredictable hours, pick it up or get it delivered; there aren't enough tables.

This new eatery on South Hill at Rogan's Corner features a full breakfast menu that's a good value, and we especially love the "breakfast sides" section of the menu, which lets you add a single pancake for about two bucks, or a single egg for a dollar, to whatever you're getting. This is a very customer-friendly way of letting you build the breakfast you want, instead of having to order two $6 breakfasts if you want corned beef hash and pancakes. It's a typical but solid American-style lunch and dinner menu, with good food and reasonable prices.

This west end eatery, just east of Route 13 on State Street, features fresh and tasty food, and  delivers as well as having eat-in service. Our food arrived far faster than the promised 40-45 minutes, and everything was correct, fresh, and hot. The cashew chicken, a Vietnamese-style dish, was a delightful surprise, with a marinated wood-grilled flavour and crunchy strips of onion and green pepper.

Tavern on Triphammer is the new pub within the Ithaca Coffee Company's Triphammer Marketplace store, which has expanded its craft beer offerings and now offers beer and wine by the glass each afternoon and evening. They have a tempting array of tapas-style foods such as cheeses and hummus available on combination plates.

That Burrito Place makes burritos, nachos, quesadillas, and rice bowls to order, on a quick assembly line. Nothing unusual here, just tasty Mexican-style food to go. Watch their Facebook for daily specials. (If you want to eat in the restaurant, you'll be standing up. There's no seating, unless the weather's nice and you hit the bench out front.)

This unassuming, little red shop on the edges of Ithaca's downtown neighborhood is a deli and convenience store, but they also serve foot-long hot dogs, 1/3 pound burgers, and a seriously good fish fry. Stop in and grab a freshly fried haddock dinner, served with fries and cole slaw for less than ten bucks, or just have a fish sandwich for under $5.

The Rose, in northeast Ithaca's Triphammer Marketplace, offers an ever-changing lunch buffet, a salad bar that's included with dinner entrees, a full bar with TVs for enjoying the game with a cold beer, and expanded space that's a nice change of pace from their former cramped quarters. It's straightforward American pub fare, featuring burgers and fish fry, but also broiled haddock, pasta dishes, and a tasty and generous chicken parmigiana.

This tiny Lansing eatery across the street from Rogues' Harbor, the Lansing Skatepark, and the Lansing village ball fields offers handmade, hot and cold sandwiches, pasta dinners, freshly baked pastries, and more. They've got a cooler full of Stewart's sodas (as well as what may be the only cold 2-liter bottles in the area), individual Keurig K-Cups of coffee, and loads of used books at reasonable prices.

This Canada-based chain of coffee, donut, and sandwich shops snuck into Ithaca a few years ago thanks to a deal to open a coffee kiosk in most Tops Friendly Markets stores, but we finally have the full experience. Tim Hortons offers breakfast sandwiches in addition to the coffee and donuts, plus the famous Timbits, but in the afternoon and evening they add excellent freshly made sandwiches and soups to the mix. Stop in for a snack or a meal, and pick up a canister of their great and affordably priced coffee for home, while you're at it.

This simple restaurant on Dryden Road in Collegetown offers Vietnamese-style soups, noodle dishes, and rice dishes for lunch and dinner. It's inexpensive and decent, and particularly hearty and filling on a cold day.

Affordable and unassuming, this taco and burrito eatery provides a limited menu of pretty good if unexceptional California-style Mexican fare. The burritos used to be humungous and cheap, enough for two meals, but the portions aren't what they once were. The soft tacos offer better bang for the buck, and the soup's a pleasant surprise.

What is it they say about the underdog trying harder? Wendy's is dwarfed by McDonald's and Burger King, but we think that, as a general rule, they offer the best-tasting, best-quality food of the three. Despite occasional missteps like chicken nuggets dressed up as "boneless wings," Wendy's has very good burgers, delightful spicy chicken sandwiches, and top-notch (and affordable) side dishes like salads and baked potatoes.

This franchise of the growing "Wings Over" chain offers a chicken-heavy lunch buffet and extensive delivery. The hottest "Afterburner" wings are hot enough for Ithaca, if not Buffalo, and flavourful as well. Vegetarians are basically out of luck, unless they're satisfied with fries and macaroni salad. Poultry-eaters, though, might enjoy the 15 varieties of wings, and those who can't stand bones should try the "boneless wings," excellent hand-battered chicken strips sold by the half pound.