1 August 2019
I headed out of my old hometown of Ithaca early in the morning, thinking back fondly over the dinner at The Heights the previous night but not at the dodgy motel I stayed in…my neck was killing me… I pushed north, slowed by some truck traffic, before I rolled into Oswego. What was supposed to be a half-hour stop turned into nearly 4 hours as I ended up playing pseudo-therapist to an exaspirated cemetery sexton…yeah, only Mel could be in such situations…
I was running late as I headed out east. I had to make a quick stop in Cooperstown, not to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame (where I’ve been back when baseball made sense in the early 1990s when I was still living in Ithaca) before I headed towards Albany. I managed a bit of a hike at the rather nicely unkempt (and perhaps aptly-named) Albany Rural Cemetery, chugging through waist-high grass in the hot sun for about 90 minutes before I had to run to prevent being locked behind the closing gates…
I was knackered, and hungry as I didn’t eat due to that unplanned lengthy pause in Oswego. I returned to the excellent Hampton Inn Downtown in Albany, perhaps one of the best properties in the chain’s portfolio. The main reason for staying there is my dinner destination is downstairs — Yono’s. I had a pretty good dinner last time I was here 5 years ago, and I purposely ensured one of my stops on this trip is Albany so I can enjoy the fine foods here again.
As I was planning this trip very hastily (it was done in 36 hours), I did notice that on the Instagram feed for Yono’s they kept mentioning they were looking for kitchen staff — including a sous chef. That doesn’t bode well, as perhaps the well-known restaurant was having as much problems as so many others around the country in the inability to find/retain kitchen staff. I hope that doesn’t affect the output.
When I arrived at 8pm or so the place was…nearly abandoned. That was very worrisome. I know it’s on the late site and the state legislature is out of session, but still… There was only 1 other table occupied, and they were on the tail end of their meal. I was led to a banquette and I relaxed.
I looked over the menu and their grand tasting looked good, although perhaps a touch dated. I went with it and the pairing, as I was hungry and didn’t want to think. They mentioned the amuse may take a little while, but I was okay with it.
Well, that didn’t take as long as they said, as it’s already here…
Tempura asparagus. Not bad, a tad salty, but not bad. Then the sommelier poured a glass of Spanish bubbly before the first proper course arrived. When it did, I blinked a few times…
This was supposed to be scallops…I guess the mangled mess beneath the radish is it. Rather skimpy, and when you slice it so thin you lose the sweetness factor. Really poor way of serving scallops to be frank. The caviar did nothing for this dish, as all it did was clash with the already-limited sweetness of the scallops. Sorry, but a very poorly-designed dish. Plus the entire dish had a weird aroma about it…
That continued when the second wine was poured, a Riesling from Mosel. I noticed a very chlorinated odour from the glass…and that tells me a lot about not about the dishwashing crew, but about the service crew to not notice something like that. Then the second dish, octopus…
Not bad, worked well with the curry glaze. But half the dish was potatoes, and they were not cooked well. If I wasn’t so hungry I’d not touch those potatoes. So far I’m not impressed, and it’s definitely not of the same quality as during my last visit 5 years ago. A Grüner Veltliner is poured and we have the asparagus soup.
This is again very meh, borderline poor. It’s about a step up from a tin bought at the supermarket. Salty, lukewarm. It’s like the kitchen did not want to admit it was not ready to do this tasting menu and failing to execute to even a respectable degree. Oh, this dinner could be a major mistake…
Then we have some local foie. This was always one of their money dishes here, but today it was a disaster. The top side was not not just charred but burnt to a crisp. What was supposed to be rhubarb compote was obviously hastily prepped, as it was a liquidy mess. What a disastrous dish…
I’ve been rather diplomatic to my server when I’ve made negative comments after each dish, adding that I’m giving them constructive criticism. He can’t openly say it, but I suspect the kitchen staff that remained today are not very equipped to execute this menu. I know there’s a staff shortage, but when you feel the need to trick a customer into a menu they cannot execute instead of admitting that and asking me to do ala carte (or use the always-easy “it’s too late in the evening for the full tasting menu” excuse). If this place was not empty I would have abandoned this dinner already…
Next up was the “suckling pig” and this is a complete misrepresentation of that dish. This is a pork confit. If you want to serve something, use the correct description. When you say “suckling pig” you usually conjure up the picture of lechon or something. This is just pulled pork fried up. It was oily, greasy, and burnt solid to a point of it being not edible. I dug out the edible meat from the centre and abandoned the sides. By the way my server looked he knew what I was thinking, though he told me this was one of their most popular dishes. I’m sorry, not if prepped like this, even if you like pork confit. Unless you like drinking grease.
This has moved from poor to awful, and if it wasn’t for the very generous pours of wine I would have left. Since my room was upstairs there’s no different bar to run to if I abandon the meal, so I carried on…
The next dish was a lamb ribeye. Again, overcooked. If you got good quality lamb, like this certainly was, why do you cook it beyond medium? And worse, the sprouts are burnt. This kitchen is either totally careless or utterly incompetent, not sure which is worse for me at this current assessment as both mean a bad dinner. But thank goodness the cooked savoury items are done.
The cheese course is a saviour, since frankly it’s damn hard for the kitchen to fuck this up. A selection of cheese from nearby Kinderhook (best known as the home town and gravesite of President Martin Van Buren). The honey collected from the hotel rooftop was a nice touch. This was the best item of the dinner BY FAR, and that’s a damning indictment of this kitchen.
I was so sick of this evening, I just wanted my donut holes and get the hell out of here…but nope! They changed the menu (it’s August 1st) and forgot to re-print the menu…it’s actually a pavlova.
Oh I so hate pavlova…I barely touched this mess. It’s a sugary hell, which was mostly abandoned. What a crap ending to a crap evening, one of the worst tasting menus I’ve had in years. If it wasn’t for the relatively good service and generous wine pours, I would have walked out in a heartbeat. This kitchen is ridiculously awful, with nearly every dish poorly executed. That takes a lot of doing, and frankly Chef Yono should be ashamed his name is connected with these terrible dishes.
And you wonder why there was only 1 other table (which was finishing) when I came in. The entire restaurant was empty, perhaps for good reason. My server actually told me they took 20% off the bill. I reckon they realised how shitty the kitchen performed, and this was a way to make amends. Fine, good for them to do this, but frankly they will not entice me back with the gesture.
WTF happened to this place? This kitchen is a clusterfuck, and I don’t care if you are short-staffed — if you cannot execute, then DON’T. Drop the tasting menu until you get enough competent staff. Or shit, Chef Yono should work the line — like other restaurants that have a staff shortage. If you can’t do it, then don’t offer it — and thus destroy the fine reputation you earned over the years.
If there ever was a symbol of a restaurant past its prime and taking advantage of its past reputation, this is it. What a awful evening. Thank goodness the FoH due tried to save the evening, or else it would have gone down as one of the 5 worst nights of fine dining I’ve ever had. Again, WTF happened to this place?
Just avoid this place. Shit, go to Applebee’s instead. It’s not any worse (it can’t be), and it won’t cost an arm and a leg (even with the 20% discount). What a joke.
Yono’s
25 Chapel Street
Albany, New York
PS: I got home 2 days later and the 3-part road-trip is over. Over the 12 days or so, I clocked over 3400 miles (~5500km) through 10 states… Geez, no wonder my back hurts, even with all the stops I made…
melhuang1972 