Scallions

Excellent food, service, atmosphere. The vegan items are clearly marked and the wait staff were attentive, friendly and knowledgeable. They even remembered I was vegan when brought the dessert menu. We started with fried green tomatoes, then house salad with Naan. Dressing was really good. I then had the falafel with mashed sweet potatos and asparagus with a beet glaze. I finished with vegan cheesecake. My husband had braised short ribs, with mashed potatos and grilled carrots. Finished with a nice piece of carrot cake. Everything was really good. Worth the trip.

Overall the food was good. We ordered vegan items, in my opinion, the dishes are a bit overpriced as the portions were small. The falafel could be bigger pieces. The fried green tomato was worthy. The wild mushroom dish was plain as was the presentation. As one who forages for wild mushrooms, I expected more. The fritter dish was very flavorful yet the fritters themselves were slightly dry. I can see people going for the ambiance. Before being seated, we were pretty much ignored as service was slow at the door. Table service was good.

My wife and I recently decided to try Scallions Restaurant in Saratoga Springs for lunch. A few years ago this restaurant was on our list to try, but when we stopped in for dinner, we stood and waited for several minutes, and no one greeted us when we arrived and were at the podium at the entrance, so we just left and went elsewhere, and hadn’t been back. This time was very, very different, and we regret not going back to give them another try sooner, as the experience was simply “excellent” in every regard. We went for lunch, and it wasn’t too busy. We were greeted immediately upon our arrival by a friendly manager, who asked us where we would prefer to be seated. We chose a small table by the window, and were presented with menus and a list of beverages, while she promptly brought us glasses of water. The menu had several choices that looked appealing, and as we looked it over, we each ordered a glass of wine, which was generously poured and delicious. We noticed that French Onion Soup was the “Soup of the Day”. This is one of our favorites, but we are highly critical, and usually disappointed. This was NOT the case today. More on that in a couple of minutes. . . As the main course, my curly headed companion ordered one of the specials: Salmon on mixed greens that came with chick peas, onions, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and goat cheese, with a house dressing. I opted for Ryan’s Roast Beef, which is one of their paninis served with smoked mozzeralla, roasted red peppers, arugala and horseradish cream on grilled farm bread. The soup arrived and our first impression was positive. It had melted cheese (swiss and gruyere, I believe) baked and dripping off of the sides of the bowl, and under that delectable cover was a deliciously hot steaming mixture of soup broth, tender cooked onions, and croutons that were seasoned to perfection. We agreed at that point that whatever else might happen, this meal was already in the “success”column. It took some effort (which is a good thing with this soup) to get every last piece of cheese off of the bowl when we finished the soup, but it was worth it. Then came the entrees, and our experience continued along its pleasant mid day path: My wife truly enjoyed her Salmon salad, and was contemplating asking for the recipe for the house dressing, which was clearly the invention of the chef. I loved the Roast Beef sandwich, which complemented the lingering taste in my mouth of the French Onion Soup. Being retirees, we took our time with our entrees and wine, and were the only customers remaining in the restaurant when the dessert choices were mentioned. We typically skip dessert, or only peruse the menu to count the calories we would avoid by not ordering, but this time, we opted to split an order of Toll House Cookie Pie. We were again delighted with the taste and portion size of this treat. It was warm, appropriately gooey, and topped with fresh dollop of whipped cream. Throughout our dining experience, our server checked back with us a few times, engaged in pleasantries, and was a delightfully friendly. We’d give Scallions 5 stars out of 5, and would recommend it for lunch. We will be back for more lunches, and for dinner to try that menu out as well.

We started with Scallions flat bread, with caramelized onions, artichokes, olives, melted Havarti cheese, arugula and balsamic dressing. Followed by Quinoa salad and I had the Rueben panini. Fantastic flavors in all of the lunches. The salad that came with Rueben was fresh, crispy and crunchy. Not that we needed desert, we chose the Red Velvet cake, better than Mon ever made. Sorry mom. Asia our waitress was very helpful with the menu and provided fast and courteous service.