The Village Tea Room - Review

Intro
The Village Tea Room - Highly Recommended
10 Plattekill Ave
New Paltz, NY 12561
Phone: (845) 255-3434

Went up for a day trip to Mohunk Mountain House with the wife and I ran across this place based on the web reviews out there. Basically, simple food using good ingredients cooked well. Can't get any better than that I guess. Eating outside looking at the mountains also makes everything taste better. Overall I give the restaurant an 86/100.

Our Menu
1) Roasted Vidalia Onion & Ewe's Blue Cheese Sliced Almonds & Sherry Vinaigrette *
2) Salad of Local Organic Tender Field Greens Shallot Vinaigrette **
3) Crisp Roasted Chicken **
House-Made Apple Chutney, Pan Gravy & Scallion Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes, Murray's Free Range Chicken
4) Roasted Butternut Squash, Sage, Onions, & Grapes *
5) Lamb Sheppard's Pie *
6) Gingerbread Cake **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) This usually would be my type of dish and I've made something similar before. Unfortunately, there were some things that were a little off - some of the onions should have been peeled a little bit more. Also, the flavors didn't mix 100% well together. With all that said, it was overall pretty good.
2) Simple dish, but works really well. Basically, fresh local field greens that had a yasuda like affect - each leaf had a pronounced flavor. Perfect salad which means greens were still crisp and the flavor was not drowned out by the dressing.
3) Perfectly crisp skin and the legs were juicy, moist and very flavorful. That alone was a WTF moment. However, the breast meat was a tad dry, but the tasty apple chutney paired perfectly and made you forget about the dryness. The mashed taters were also perfect too. Great texture and potato flavor without being watery or drowning in butter. All these NYC restos now are going a little overboard with the Robuchon stlye pomme puree's - way too much butter and losing the essence of the potato.
4) Simple, but delicious. Sweet squash with a nice roasted flavor - great balance between savory and sweet. Onions and the surprising grapes add to the sweetness without being disgustingly sweet.
5) Nice lamb's sherpherd's pie. Nothing to go nuts over, but it does it's job.
6) A great way to end the meal. Huge complex flavor - crispy and caramelly on the outside and inside had a pronounced ginger and cinnamon flavor. Though a wee bit dry, the delicious cream hid that fact. A very surprising and great dessert. Amazing with the great Cochin Masala Chai tea with steamed milk and honey. This place does some solid teas too.

Overall Restaurant Experience

• Food 8.5/10 – Simple food using very good ingredients cooked well. Very solid stuff. Also, they give out some great sesame sticks with a daal dip...hella tasty.
  
• Service 9/10 – The waitress was extremely nice and the food came out in a great time.
  
• Atmosphere 9.5/10 – Can't beat it. Sitting outside looking at the beautiful mountains smelling the amazing food coming out of the kitchen - definitely a serenity now moment. There was indoor seating as well, but the patio was where it was at on a nice spring day. The crowd was all older professors - which makes sense since New Paltz has a college in town. Everyone there was so chill and very happy. We got there at 6pm on a Sunday and were seated immediately.
  
• Price 8.0/10 – A solid value for a filling meal. Dinner for 2 was about $80 including drinks. There was a prix fixe that night for $22 which my wife got - included app/entree/dessert. The chicken dish we had was monstrous and we still had leftovers...roasted chicken, mashed taters, and butternut squash make a suprisingly amazing taco btw.
  

Closing Comments
I wouldn't drive out to New Paltz, NY just for this restaurant, but I would 100% go back if I was in the area. Definitely going to try and go back during the fall to check out the leaves and checkout more of the menu. A know a place is good when I want to make a similar menu and this definitely did the inspiration thing for me.