Don’t go to Sonora in Port Chester if you’re Blandy McBlanderson when it comes to food. These dishes don’t get pushed around. They stand up straight, proud of who they are and the assertive flavors they bring to the party. How does seared free-range chicken stuffed with Colombian chorizo, goat cheese and sweet plantian served over sauteed spinach (with tons of garlic!) in a sherry wine sauce grab you? Actually, it won’t just grab you. I’m telling you, it grabs you with both hands on your shoulders and shakes you up a bit. I loved it.
In case you haven’t heard, I’ll be dining my way through Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, which runs from today through March 21 (except Saturday). You can see all the participating restaurants here at hudsonvalleyrestaurantweek.com. Dinners are $26.09 and lunches are $16.09.
Today I’m at Sonora, Rafael Palomino’s Nuevo Latino restaurant in Port Chester. I’m going to write my review — but I want to hear about your experiences, too: whether at Sonora or anywhere else. So give me your reviews…. and I’ve got some incentive. I’ll give the authors of my five favorite comments 2 free tickets to our Wine&Food Festival, April 4, 5 and 6 at the DoubleTree Tarrytown.
Tonight’s restaurant wasn’t quite as fancy as last night’s Equus, so I also took the opportunity to walk around the dining room asking other people what they thought. It was unanimous. Everyone was happy.
Maybe they started with the mojito, as I did.
There’s an excellent cocktail list, with mojitos, margaritas and cocktails like pisco sours and caiparinhas. My drink was a tad sweet, but I loved the fresh mint. Reminds me that spring is on its way…
More than half the people I talked to in the dining room —
— ordered the lobster quesadilla. As did I. (I was dining alone tonight, so you’re only getting a small taste of the menu this evening.)
The lobster had a nice kick to start, then, through the crispy tortilla, the gooey comfort of (just a tad too much) cheese softened the spice. As I said before, the flavors are assertive and delicioso.
Here’s another look.
Between courses, I went out into the dining room to talk to other diners.
Stephanie Haen of White Plains and her lovely date had the ceviche and the emapanadas. (I’ll post the entire menu at the end of this review.) They loved both.
Antoinette Bilotta of Harrison, left, and Robin Fredella of White Plains —
— had the skirt steak and the paella. They encouraged me to photograph the dishes. Here’s the swordfish over a shrimp-sweet plantain-cous cous salad with pomegranate chardonny sauce topped with a vegetable escabeche, ordered by Robin’s husband:
The skirt steak served with Chino-Latino stir fried rice with sweet plantain and lobster and braised garlic Mojito sauce (everyone raved):
The vegetarian paella-Valenciana saffron rice with asparagus, wild mushrooms, artichokes, spinach and roasted peppers topped with black olive tapenade and saffron aioli.
Wow that’s gorgeous. It’s like a painting!
Here are some happy diners. From left, Carole Eden of Norwalk; Marilyn Hoyt of Pelham and Lois Amend of Rye.
These guys, Kim Eng of Stamford and James Marcella of Hawthorne (who made me promise to say they weren’t a couple) are regulars at Sonora and were happy to stumble upon Restaurant Week prices!
Fran and John O’Leary —
— found out about HVRW through this blog! They read the Equus piece and decided to try a restaurant for themselves.
“I would recommend anyone to get out of the Continental-American restaurants and come here,” John told me. “These flavors are so complex and delicious.”
Indeed! (By the way John also had a couple of good tips. He loves La Fontanella in Pelham and Le Provencal in Mamaroneck.)
Here were my neighbors. Clockwise from 7 p.m., Maureen Hayes of Scarsdale, Maude Polo of Greenwich, Gwenyth Kriss of Scarsdale and Salli Garrick of Greenwich.
They were out celebrating Salli’s brithday. Happy birthday Salli!
Now, back to my chicken.
The piece closer to you was rolled and stuffed with all that goodness. The chorizo was especially smoky and musty. I wanted to swim in that sauce. The other part of the chicken just had a nice crust… no stuffing.
Sorry I don’t have more entrees to show you, but I think you get the picture.
Fatima Banosi-Bairos of Rye, left, and Michele Gobbert of Yonkers also had the chicken. They really liked it, too.
Bettina and Erick Pastor of White Plains —
— had the ceviche and the lobster quesadilla (“delicious”) and the swordfish and the steak.
Carolyn and Edward Munter of Harrison —
— had the lobster, too (“the flavors were very well blended”), the swordfish (“heaven — just so good”) and the skirt steak. Says Edward: “I’m a big guy and these portions are satisfying.” Good to know, especially during HVRW.
For dessert, I had the dulce de leche cheesecake. How could I not? It’s chef-owner Rafael Palomino’s signature dish.
I’m a sucker for melted sugar and caramel, so you can bet I’m a fan. It was soft and fluffy but the dulce de leche made it feel more substantial as it melted on my tongue. I’m craving it now and I’ve only been home an hour.
The crowd was lively and fun, and the food was delicious. Another winner of an experience during HVRW.
Sonora, 179 Rectory St., Port Chester. 914-933-0200. sonorany.com.
ADD: Sonora Menu Click to see it.
16 Comments
So what did you think of Sonora — or any other HVRW restaurant?
Tell me here in the comments field. I’ll choose my five favorite comments and give the authors each a free pair of tickets to the Greater New York Wine&Food Festival on April 4, 5, and 6 at the DoubleTree Hotel Tarrytown.
No restaurant for me tonight, but I’m planning to have lunch at Kittle House Tuesday with co-workers.
Sonora had one of the best HVRW menus that I’ve seen, but I don’t eat shellfish or pork so I would not be able to eat much on the menu so I decided to skip it.
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, Liz, regarding Sonora. I’ve been a patron of this restaurant for years. It’s my go to restaurant when I want a satisfying, delicious meal. I eat here regularly. The room upstairs is cozy and warm while downstairs is more trendy and upbeat.
The last time I ate at Sonora, I started with a delicious pomegranite martini. It was my first and now I’m hooked! I order a pomegranite martini whenever I can, but I haven’t found one as good as Sonora makes it. I think my favorite dish on the menu is the paella. It is consistently good with lots of seafood-just the way I love it.
Luckily, I live very close to Sonora so I get to eat there often. As a matter of fact, I think I will make a reservation so that I can enjoy the prices of HVRW.
Hi Liz,
Well, our first outing was The Lantern in Mahopac. When I inquired about the special, we were told they weren’t starting until Monday due to the St. Pat’s parade. I didn’t think to mention it when making the reservations. We decided to stay, and I had the prime rib which was pretty good and my husband John had chicken cordon bleu, not so good. It looked to be frozen and his baked potato had seen better days! The waitress was friendly and capable. Hopefully, we’ll have better luck with our next two ventures, the Goldfish restaurant and Bird and Bottle.
Liz:
My widowed mother lives with me – she is handicapped and suffers from Alzheimer’s. Being the care-giver of a shut-in often means that I am shut-in as well since having a “night out on the town” is a virtual impossibility and a logistical nightmare. I have to chose my venues carefully – both for price (since being a full-time care-giver means I cannot work full-time myself), for accessibility, and for the caring nature of the staff (since my mother’s Alzheimer’s can make her difficult to deal with at times – she can often be testy and demanding and can exhibit strange behavior in public like tearing up all the paper napkins into shreds).
The restaurant that stands out for us is Reka’s in White Plains. While driving through White Plains is maddening and parking there is non-existent these days, and the steps to Reka’s entrance are awkward for my mother (but manageable with my help), the food, prices, and attention of the staff is exceptional and makes our dining experiences there a pleasure.
Perhaps it’s the Buddhist mentality that prevails over the dining experience at Reka’s but no one at any time has made me feel that I am inconveniencing them by daring to take my mother to dine there (I sadly cannot say the same for some of the other restaurants on the HVRW list – some of them have shunted my mother into corners, out of sight of their more “regular” patrons, treating my mother as someone they have to “deal” with, rather than with the respect she deserves both as an individual and as a war WWII war hero).
So many of our elderly face handicaps and Alzheimer’s, so the issue of allowing them to enjoy the pleasures of life, such as an occassional night out, is one that our restaurant community should not ignore. And we caregivers certainly deserve a night out as well. Plus, the lives of the elderly, handicapped, and caregivers do go on – we have birthdays, graduations, and holidays to celebrate just like everyone else. So why is it that so many of our restaurants cannot welcome us with open arms?
Therefore, it is a blessing to have restaurants like Reka’s who treat my mother like they are genuinely happy to have her as their customer and who welcome her graciously and tactfully ignore any “problems” she may cause them. And I am genuinely happy to patronize them accordingly and to recommend them to your readers.
Went to Sonora on Friday night. The food was excellent!! Had the lobster quesidillas, the guacamole was authentic and delicious! Even though I’m not vegeterian, I didn’t miss the meat in the paella as the flavor was abundant. The dulce the leche cheese cake was to die for!! And the mango margarita was fabulus!
Loved all of it!
We went to Stoneleigh Creek tonight for dinner and had an outstanding meal. We started with the tuna, the cauliflower soup and beet salads. The tuna was spicy and the mango complimented it very well, the soup was tasty and peppery although we could not taste the black truffle, and the beet salads were fresh, delicious and plentiful.
For entrees we had short ribs, pasta and chicken. Again we were very impressed. The short ribs were tender and delicious, the chicken nice cooked with crispy skin and a nice cherry sauce, the pasta was simple but tasty with nice sized shrimp.
The desserts kept par with the rest of the meal, the zeppoles were fresh, hot and not at all greasy, the apple empanada cinnamon-y and not overly sweet, and the chocolate cake a chocoholics favorite.
When we left we took a look at the regular dinner menu. Considering the quality and quantity of our dinners tonight, $26.09 was a bargain for a great meal. Compliments to Stoneleigh Creek. We’ll be back after HVRW.
One last note…the wine choice is limited (glasses only) and VERY pricey.
Went to Pacifico’s in Portchester for lunch yesterday with 3 friends. The food was delicious, no complaints, and the atmosphere was quite pleasant. If you like seafood with a Latin flare, then you should not hesitate to try it.
For appetizers we had the shrimp tacos and the ribs. The ribs were so tender; the meat just fell off of the bone. The appetizer portions were larger than expected and very tasty. For the main course we tried everything but the salmon. Each dish had a unique flavor and excellent presentation, well worth the 16.08. The desserts were a nice ending to a wonderful meal, dulce de leche cheesecake and assorted sorbets.
The thing that surprised me the most was that the restaurant was empty.
I had lunch Tuesday at Crabtree’s Kittle House with a co-worker. The menu was interesting, and not the same as the original RW in 2006. To start, we both had the Duck Ravioli with butternut squash puree, since it sounded so good, and it did not disappoint. The portion was 3 ravioli and while the duck meat was somewhat mushy, it was still good. For my entrée, I was undecided between the tilapia and chicken. The server recommended the tilapia, and since the chicken sounded kind of plain, I went with her suggestion. We saw a neighboring table get the tilapia and were surprised at how large the filets were. Sadly, this was not the case with mine; it was clearly not the “big fish†in the ocean, and one side was particularly small. To make matters worse, I found a couple of mussels in the broth, which was not advertised on the menu (I do not eat shellfish). I should have sent it back at that point and gotten the chicken, but I had eaten some of it already so I figured I’d just make do. The fish was good, it was crispy yet moist, but the whole thing had me somewhat upset (note I checked the dinner menu on the way out, and they’re serving perch for dinner with the same sauce and that dish DOES say it comes with PEI Mussels, so maybe the kitchen messed up the lunch order or the lunch menu is wrong). My co-worker had the sliced skirt steak which looked great, it was a very large portion, and she was very happy with it. For dessert, I ordered the peach tart tatin. It was rather disappointing. The peach was fairly tasteless and it was on some sort of pastry crust – not puff pastry as I’ve always had tart tatin (and as I think it’s supposed to be made, at least I found recipes online that had it that way). My co-worker had the pecan pie tart and liked it; she said it was not overly sweet. Sadly, their chocolate dessert was a terrine and not their amazing Valrhona Chocolate dessert (melted chocolate in a puff pastry pouch), and that one isn’t even on their dinner menu (they do have crème brulee then).
Dinner Wednesday is at John Michael’s. I’m really looking forward to that one.
Rick—thanks for the Stoneleigh Creek review. Their menu looked good and I’m looking for someplace to replace my planned X2O visit with; maybe they’ll be it.
where’s the Sonora menu?
Hey E. Kolb… sorry. I forgot to add it. It’s there at the bottom of the post now. You’ll have to click to see it.
sent my comments on harvest on hudson to your email by mistake. sorry. ambiance and food up to their standards. service was beyond awful except for the always undersung busboy who was amazing. i will comment the correct way from now on. jp
All I can say is we never “Snora” when we go to Sonora. Snoozing is out of the question when we dine here as the presentation of the dishes as well as the delightfull aromas keep you buzzing at all times. We love this restaurant so mch that we had our daughter’s last “18” year old party here (alas we were not there at the time since they want no part of us when the teenagers are dining).
E. Kolb—many menus (include Sonora’s) can be found on the restaurant week website http://www.hudsonvalleyrestaurantweek.com/restaurants.php
This post is also from Judith Phillips, three posts above, who was having technical difficulties. (Believe me, it happens to the best of us):
I enjoy your work very much and want to respond to your invitation to comment on my experience with Restaurant Week.
Went to Harvest on Hudson tonite because I have always enjoyed the experience in all seasons. The menu for Restaurant Week was a choice of appetizers including a soup, and a salad; a choice of entree including two fish, chicken, steak, and pasta; and three desserts.
My husband had the soup, the spaghetti, and the cheesecake with fresh fruit and liked all.
I had the risotto appetizer which was amazing, the flank steak which was tough and the fresh green beans which were practically raw which was a disappointment to me especially since I like my green beans very undercooked.
My apple tart was tough also but the cinnamon gelato (which i think is really ice cream) was very good.
The portions were very small compared to what was being served from the normal menu which I did not mind in the least because I am never able to order an appetizer, entree, and dessert. It is always way too much food. So I was happy with my portions.
However, that being said, the charge for the meal is not a “deal” on a regular item or two or three but really a tasting. I ordered a house white and my husband ordered a bottle of cab.
The place was not crowded but it took a very long time to get the wine. We then had to flag the waiter to order at which time I requested some ice and was promised same immediately. After about ten minutes I asked another waiter to bring me ice which he did.
Near the end of the meal which was served by the busboy I was asked by the waiter if I wanted another glass of wine. I replied in the negative saying that I would just have some of my husband’s red. The waiter then asked if he could bring me a proper glass and whisked away my white wine glass only to never return. I used my ice glass.
After the busboy cleared the dishes and we were sitting finishing the wine my ice/wine glass was snatched away (there goes that waiter again) before I could even say anything and I was not finished.
The young woman who seated us was extremely cordial and welcoming. The busboy appeared like magic when my water glass was empty. Both were extremely professional. The food was good.
If it had all been like the risotto it would have been beyond wonderful. The waiter was awful.
We plan on trying another place Thursday nite. I will let you know how we fare.
Thanks for listening.
Judie Phillips
New Rochelle