Randy R.
Yelp
We are in Lancaster for a family event and wanted to try a restaurant that is unique to the local area. I went to my trusted Yelp App, like I always do when visiting an unfamiliar location.
For my wife and I The Belvidere was the most intriguing restaurant but unfortunately their website didn't have a table available until 10:00 p.m., my wife called them and luckily they had just received a cancelation. We had a 7:30 p.m. reservation.
They have free street parking and a parking garage a few yards on the left, we found a spot on the street and we walked in at 7:15 p.m, we gave the hostess our name and we were immediately seated.
The decor is very relaxing and warm. It's not quiet because the place was packed, but I didn't consider it noisy.
Now to the important part, the food.
We hadn't eaten all day, so it was game on!
Appetizers:
Arancini 5 stars! Beautifully crunchy on the outside and the perfect texture on the inside with a great overall flavor. The sauce it is served with was perfect.
The Belvidere Bread 5 stars! Get outta here! I could eat this bread every day, all day. It's crispy and so tasty we forced ourselves to save some so we could have it to properly clean our dinner plates at the end of our meals. ( ya know, like Italians do)
Lobster Bisque Soup 4 stars. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the portion. It was the largest bowl of Lobster Bisque that I've ever been served in a restaurant. It was very flavorful, but it lacked lobster meat. It had very small pieces of lobster meat, but it didn't have that one big piece that is the prize.
Entrées:
I went with the special. A 14 oz. Bone-in Ribeye over mashed potatoes served with asparagus with mushroom sauce. I ordered it medium temperature. 5 stars. I am not a fan of mushrooms, so before ordering, I asked the waiter if the sauce had big pieces of mushrooms, but it did not. I hate to change a special a chef has created, so I ordered as the chef had designed, and I am happy I did. It was cooked to what I consider a perfect medium temperature, and the flavor was so good that I didn't need to add any salt or pepper. The asparagus was the best restaurant asparagus I've had not just because of the light seasoning but because it was cooked, so that it was tender. In my experience, most restaurant asparagus is undercooked it seems like it had been picked, cleaned, heated for 5 minutes, and served. Not this asparagus, it cut with a fork, and I finished every stalk.
My wife had chicken picante 4 stars. She loved the flavor of the sauce, but she didn't give it 5 stars because of her personal preference that the chicken cutlet be pounded out to be thinner and the breading to be crispier.
The only thing we didn't enjoy was the cranberry spiced margarita. For us, it wasn't sweet enough.
We had entered the restaurant with the intentions that we'd be ordering dessert, but that was not to be true. Sadly, we were full.
Side notes: The waiters name was Jamie. He was friendly, knowledgeable, accurate, and attentive 5 stars for Jamie.
It was just my wife and I, and we were very happy not only with the service and the food but the total time the dining experience lasted. We gave our orders at 7:30 p.m. and by 8:35 p.m. the meal was complete. We were stuffed, happy, and walking to our vehicle.