Willows of Utica

Thank you for a delicious meal and nice quiet atmosphere. But a HUGE thank you to the maître d for coming over to our table, pulling up a chair, and holding our 9 month old who decided she no longer wanted the high chair so we could enjoy our delicious dinner. Thank you for your kind gesture! And of course thank you to our waitress Ruthie, who is always great!

Update 7/2023: From the Host (Terry) to the bartender(Nick), to the food, to the atmosphere, Willows is one of the best restaurants around anywhere. Our most recent visit confirms what we already knew but pleasantly reaffirms our desire to dine here! I highly recommend the flat bread ( loaded and so tasty, crispy crust), the Salmon(cooked perfect,!), and the Veal Francaise( nice tender flavor might need a touch more lemon)....There are so many places to have dinner out, but only a few do it all right...nicely decorated, table cloths, attentive waiter(Ethan), quick, efficient and very knowledgeable, waters filled without asking, a unique menu with a nice variety and everything prepared perfectly! This is a place all others should follow!

The best food and service in this entire area. From the appetizers to desserts, no complaints. The steak and sides were cooked to perfection. The feta dip was one of the best appetizers I’ve had along with the calamari. Such amazing food, I can’t wait to eat at Willows again!!

Hosted a private event for my mother's 70th birthday. Could not have asked for a better venue! Everything was perfect from the room set up, to the amazing food and service. They were great to work with from start to finish!

Awesome Dinner. We had greens and French onion soup to start. Seafood Riggies and Veal Franchise for meals. Portions were huge. Very intimate setting. Wait staff was very knowledgeable made excellent recommendations and were very quick to accommodate. Perfect date night when you want something a little fancier.

This was our first time there. I was truly impressed with the food and the fact that the tables were not 4 inches away from each other. I dislike having to hear others conversations and seeing what they ordered for dinner. When I go out I expect to be able to have a private conversation and not have to make conversation with a stranger at the table next to me. Other restaurants in the area could learn a lot from the Willows. It was truly an enjoyable experience and I am sure we will be back. I recommend the Coquille if you like scallops. The filet was perfectly cooked and the sauce on the duck breast was delicious according to my husband. The homemade desserts that we took home were exceptional. Well done!

The food is very good. Love the setting and atmosphere. It is worth it. You can't go wrong. Everything I ordered were very delicious, completely satisfied.

The brought us bread and butter.. We started with Utica Greens and they were absolutely delicious and plentiful. I recommend to try these. I got the Veal lukatelli. Breaded Veal topped with Utica greens. Absolutely fabulous! My wife got the chicken Riggies and they were good. Place was clean and staff was friendly. I don't live in Utica but if I'm back that way I will be stopping again.

First time here with friends and we were very pleased. The seafood dish was a generous portion and everything else did not disappoint.

A big night out for my wife's birthday. She had filet mignon and I had a rack of lamb. We finished up with a creme brulee. Wonderful night with a wonderful staff, including the owner's father who "volunteers" at the front desk.
Highly recommended!

I have been here on multiple occasions and The Willows never disappoints. The staff are all so knowledgeable of all the dishes and specials, they are always friendly and give superb service. Definitely recommend this to be a stop on everyone’s food journey.

Looked like a family business. Which means treating you like a nice human being who has come to enjoy the service they offer. It was a quiet place, good spacing.

Top notch and consistent. The meals, atmosphere and service are always great every time.

I've reviewed before (years ago), but just have to give another well deserved 5 star rating for our recent experience. Everything was superb. It's nice to know that there's a place that doesn't leave us feeling like we wasted our money when we decide to splurge on fine dining. The consistent quality and excellent service keeps us coming back. We have strayed to check out places about which we've heard a great deal of buzz (Tailor & The Cook, Horned Dorset), but truly, I believe Chef Luke's talent and amazing palate for choosing interesting and complementary flavor combinations is unsurpassed. Their portions are generous as well. I had the lobster risotto...I'm somewhat at a loss for words to describe how delicious it was. Perfect texture and balanced combination of fresh herbs made the sweetness of the lobster really shine. Did I mention it was chuck full of lobster meat? I could go on and on. Everything is ALWAYS fresh and expertly prepared. They pay attention to every detail. The service is hands down the BEST anywhere. While it's true a full house can get a bit noisy, this depends on the manners/volume of the other patrons, and even so is NOTHING compared to the immediate auditory assault experienced upon entering ***T & C. It has never been such as to deter us from returning. If you've never eaten here, you MUST try it. You will be planning to come back before you even make it through your first course. (***I should review The Tailor & The Cook Separately, and I feel a bit bad like I'm bashing them here, but probably never got around to that review because I tend to go more out of my way to say something really good or to warn people of something really bad. My quick review of that place would be, extremely noisy and cramped, excellent cocktails, excellent duck breast, everything else just so-so, lacking flavor (scallops), and VERY, VERY expensive.***)

By far one of the best restaurants I've been to in the area. The quality of the food is only surpassed by the high level of customer service. The only issue was with the restaurant's overall design. Because it's a very open space it tends to get very noisy which makes it difficult to have a conversation. But I'll definitely be back again.

Absolutely the best meal we've had out in a really long time! I was looking for a nicer place to go for date night and when I saw the reviews, I knew we had to try it. Everything was so delicious that I can't wait to go back. We're thinking we'll work our way through the menu once a month. Our waiter did a tremendous job! He didn't just help make great suggestions, he was thoroughly knowledgeable on the entire menu, and he didn't steer us wrong. He knew the food. The bread was so fresh and obviously baked on premises. I'm so glad I didn't skip the butter - even that was delish with a subtle hint of cinnamon sugar. New England Clam Chowder and Bang Bang Shrimp apps were out of this world, and the only reason we tried hard not to eat all of our entrees was to leave room for one of the many homemade desserts. My salmon was cooked on the rare side as I requested to perfection and my husband loved his chicken and greens. The portions were ample and when it was plated and dressed, it wasn't overdone. Great care and pride went into putting these dishes out. The Creme Brulee and Maple Bread Pudding - yummy, yummy, especially the bread pudding!! I was extremely surprised to see the bill because I was expecting it to be much more. We've certainly wasted a lot more money other times for mediocre food, so this was a really great date night all around, and wound up being quite reasonable.

My boyfriend have ate here multiple times and every meal has been perfect. I highly recommend the salmon, especially. Ethan is also a great server and we hope to have him as our server every time. They do fill up quickly, so be sure to make reservations!

Beautiful dinner experience! Food and service were perfect! Our server Ethan was attentive and knowledgeable of everything on the menu. We tried it all! Scallop appetizer, chicken francaise, salmon and the chocolate cream pie! Yum!

The cocktails were delicious, especially the blueberry mule! The food was delicious and the serving staff were all very helpful and quick despite it being very busy! It was a little loud during the busiest time but it was a nice date night with my husband.

Best Utica Greens and Chicken Riggies I have ever had. Tried a bit of the eggplant parmesan (which I am normally not a fan of) but it was delicious! Portions are huge, enough for a 2nd meal! The gentleman working as the host was extremely nice and friendly, as was the bartender who handled our order. Will definitely be back the next time we are in Utica!