Hudson Valley Roadfood?

We will be in the HUDSON VALLEY of New York for an extended Columbus Day weekend. There are surpisingly few Hudson Valley reviews on this site. Although we will be staying in Saugerties, we will be ranging up and down both sides of the river from Newburgh to (possibly) Albany. Anything we shouln't miss? Especially interested inItalian Restaurants and Diners.

Saugerties has been gentrified (overflow from Woodstock) in recent years and has a number of upscale restaurants. I heard of a good diner in Suagerties, sorry, forgot its name or exact location, but it might be on Main or Partition St. Otherwise, I don't know of a diner in the whole valley that I would reccomend as anything special - I've never been in a bad diner around the valley (in recent years) but they are all ordinary with OK meals. I hope someone else on these pages will prove me wrong- I like diners that have something different to offer.

Woodstock has a number of interesting restaurants, The Bear, Blue Mountain Bistro. New World Home Cooking ?, Joshua's come to mind.

The Rondout area of Kingston has a number of interesting restaurants, there's a very good Italian restaurant on Broadway, about a block from the waterfront, in a storefront on the north side of the street. Across the street is a tiny bakery that has lemon poppy seed cake worth the trip alone. Both Rosita's and the Armadillo have good Mexican food, and a new big steakhouse has opened next to Rositas, the Steel House. An excellent chili-dog can be found at Dallas Hot Weiners - two locations in Kingston and one in Saugerties - they're kind of grundgy and I love them.

If you get to the New Paltz area we have an upscale Italian restaurant just off Main St in the old railroad station, LaStazione, and a great Italian Deli on Main St, Toscani's. In Gardiner, a suburb of New Paltz, Lombardi's on Rt 44/55 is very good- go on Wednesday night for the freshly made manicotti!

Good pizza, Mom and Pop type places are everywhere in the valley - it's hard to go wrong if you avoid the national chains. And, most of these places have good spaghetti, meatballs, calzone, etc.

The Highland Cafe , on Main St in Highland is an excellent place for breakfast and lunch - quite unusual offerings... Also in Highland is Elia's Meat Market - they make take out Italian delicacies that are very good.

In Newburgh Anna's Hot Dogs are great, and the Barnstormer is a good BBQ. Along the Newburgh waterfront there are three or four fairly new places that are great for lunch on a nice day - the food's OK but the view is fantastic. I may be wrong, but i think they all belong to the same guy...

A BBQ has opened on Rt 28 about 5 miles west of Kingston that we have heard is good, but have not yet been there.

Hope this has been helpful ...

Cheers, John

report on hudson valley trip
We found acouple of decent Italian restaurants: Emillio Ristorante in Saugerties (my rosemary porkchops were excelant, my wifes stuffed shells acceptable) and Coppolas Italian bistro near Hyde park (decent calzones)
The best diner was the Village Diner on Main Street in Saugerties (some of the best homefries we've had in a while) although all the diners we tried were fine.
Tried Dallas Hot Wieners in Saugerties. Interesting place to people watch on a Sunday night. The texas wieners were good, but not as good as I had at the Hot Grill in Clifton NJ
Did not discover any regional specialties, which given the distinct ethnic heritage of the area (dutch)I found surprising.