From omakase-as-ritual in Hyde Park to diner perfection in Poughkeepsie, tomato pie at peak ripeness to a semester’s-end college tradition, we polled our staff, freelancers, and interns on their favorite meals of 2025. The Hudson Valley restaurants they picked and the dishes they ate reflect the full, delicious sprawl of the region we cover. High-brow or low-brow, down the street or across state lines, celebratory and everyday alike, these are the local meals we’re still thinking about as the year winds down.
Omakase Pop-Up at Dassai Blue
5 St Andrews Road, Hyde Park
Editorial director Brian K. Mahoney is, to use his least favorite word, a foodie. As much a dedicated home chef as an avid diner-about-town, he has widely toured the region’s many specialty grocers, pop-up dinners, trendy new restaurants, and time-tested bistros with a mental culinary catalog that spans not only counties but decades. Given his fluency in the region’s offerings, it’s no surprise that his favorite meal of the year brought a bit of novelty to the table. In October, he went to Dassai Blue’s sake distillery in Hyde Park for a 14-course omakase dinner with special guest chef Tasuku Murakami, which he called “omakase as meditation, yes—but also as spectacle, science, and sensory high-wire act.” Of the evening’s standout dish he writes: “I have complicated feelings about sea urchin. Uni can be transcendent—or it can taste like you just licked a dock at low tide. Which is why the sea urchin cream served during Chef Murakami’s omakase dinner stopped me cold this fall. This was uni handled with monk-like restraint: silken, savory, deeply oceanic without tipping into funk. Paired with Dassai’s ‘Future with Farmers’ sake, it became something else entirely—a quiet, briny epiphany that lingered long after the bowl was cleared. A reminder that when great ingredients meet great judgment, even the most divisive foods can become unforgettable.” Beyond their in-house sushi program, the star-studded omakase pop-ups seem like they will be a regular thing at Dassai Blue, so stay tuned to their Instagram.
Casa Susanna
800 County Road 23B, Leeds
Freelancer Lindsay Peyton has covered various beats for us (retail, fashion design, food). She’s got a good beat on the region’s offering and willingly admits to being “a food snob,” a discerning trait that we appreciate here at the magazine. This year wasn’t without its lows, culinarily speaking, but luckily also with a few choice highs. “I’ve had plenty of disappointing meals this year in the Hudson Valley, even at places everyone else seems to be raving about. So it was with a healthy dose of skepticism that I headed to Casa Susanna recently,” she writes of hotel Camptown’s onsite restaurant, helmed by two-time James Beard Best Chef nominee Efren Hernandez. “I’m also a homesick Texan with serious doubts about decent Mexican fare this far north of the border. I started off with an Elote Sour, a cocktail composed of jalapeño-infused tequila, nixta licor de elote, strawberry, and lime juice. The drink made me optimistic. I wanted to try a bit of everything. First came a sope, which is basically a boat of masa that, in this case, carried maitakes, huitlacoche and black garlic. The next dish was almost like a stew with chipotle, crushed peanuts, bites of Black Futsu squash and kumquat, finished with a pepita foam. The main was a tamal made of heirloom yellow corn topped with pork belly and slathered with fermented mole. The masa was light and creamy, the mole earthy and deep. On the side, pickled habanero red onions and lime offered a bit of zest. The food was so good I forgave them for the awful Christmas music. I’ll definitely be back.”
Tibet Pho
295b Tinker Street, Woodstock
Although her domain at Chronogram is working with clients to make their sponsored editorial dreams come true, before Ashleigh Lovelace was hired as the branded content editor, she worked for years at meal kit company Blue Apron. She is an adept home chef, hobby-gardener-turned-farmer, and local restaurant connoisseur. Suffice it to say, we always innately trust her restaurant recommendations. “I had my second baby last November, so 2025 has mostly been defined by recalibrating, yet again, what my dining-out life looks like,” she writes. “By the time my birthday came around in October, my husband and I had practically doubled our rolodex of take-out restaurants—a true feat for living in the woods of Phoenicia. Keening for the kind of affordable, tangy-sweet-salty Southeast Asian dishes that are hard to come by in the Catskills, I asked him to take a chance and stop at the newish Tibet Pho outpost in Bearsville for classic Vietnamese banh mi. When he arrived home with the (sizable) sandwiches, I got my birthday wish. The soft-and-chewy baguette gave way to an umami-rich hit of ham, pate, and mayo, bracingly balanced by fresh, cooling cilantro, julienned cucumber, and sliced jalapeno. A $15 celebratory sandwich that I’ve returned to almost weekly ever since.”
Murphy’s Tavern
85 Windermere Avenue, Greenwood Lake
In addition to covering the real estate beat for our sister site Upstater for the past few years, freelancer Jane Anderson has also done plenty of food writing for us. A Warwick resident, she continues to be our primary informant on new Orange County eateries and watering holes. She sticks to her hometown for the top meal of 2025. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. “An unforgettable appetizer that I never fail to order at Murphy’s in Greenwood Lake is the Chapel Island shrimp,” Anderson writes of the Nova Scotian shellfish. (A small island off the eastern shore of Greenwood Lake shares that name, but the shrimp is not local, Anderson reassures us.) “Batter-dipped and delicately fried, the shrimp are then soaked in a light, buttery sauce with a super-spicy kick that delays its heat until you are two or three deep in the dish. Make it an entree by ordering it over a bowl of seasoned rice. Now, you may need earplugs while dining, because Murphy’s is popular with the locals here, and the wood-lined walls have a special kind of reverb that seems to amplify all the pool-table and bar-stool action. The upstairs dining room is a bit quieter; but no matter where you sit, do try that shrimp. It’s divine.”
The Cliff House
50 Prospect Lake Road, N. Egremont, Massachusetts
As the editor for our sister publication Rural Intelligence, Jamie Larson’s beat covers the Berkshires, the Litchfield Hills in Connecticut, and the New York State towns that border both regions. So it’s fitting that his pick for best meal of 2025 wanders across the NY/MA border, offering us a chance to expand our readers’ palates both culinary and geographically. “I expected the new Cliff House in Egremont, Massachusetts, to be good. Nordic, piny, and hanging over a lake, the restaurant is a part of the upscale, modern summer-camp-like hotel Prospect. What I didn’t expect was to have my favorite meal of the year less than a month after they opened,” writes Larson, who profiled the Cliff House for RI. “Chef Damian Evangelous is putting a Basque spin on local ingredients. We had a carrot appetizer that looked demure but was filled with passionate flavor. The whole meal was like a gentle touch from a strong hand. We enjoyed a spring lamb stew and a piece of salmon that felt like discovering treasure. Not only was the food the best I’ve had all year, but so were the cocktails. The Rhubarb Gimlet, like all the others we experienced, was an expertly constructed moment. I dream about the Cliff House often.”
Sorry, Charlie
523 Delaware Avenue, Kingston
We send our social media maven Sierra trotting all up and down the Hudson Valley and the Catskills to capture footage (and eat) and the region’s new bars and restaurants for Chronogram’s Instagram. So she’s definitely had ample exposure to the region’s eateries, new and old. Endearingly, her favorite meal this year wasn’t at a high-brow, high-cost new restaurant, but rather a local pizzeria/bar. “My favorite meal had to be the French Onion pizza at Sorry, Charlie in Kingston,” she says. “Sorry Charlie is already a favorite with their ricotta dollops, classic pizza place red cups, endless Miller High Life (in frosty glass bottles), and wall of famous Charlie’s (Chaplin, StarKist Tuna, etc.,) but the special they were running at the end of September was unforgettable. I left a concert gig at 11pm just to try this pie while it was still on the menu. Gooey cheese, red onions, and a cup of au jus dipping sauce on the side. It was like the best French Dip you’ve ever had…but it’s pizza and it’s totally vegetarian. Ten out 10, no notes.” Now that’s a rave review. It sounds like we should petition to make this knockout pie a permanent fixture.
Dave the Butcher
232 Main Street, Beacon
Both professionally and personally, Chronogram’s marketing director Margot Isaacs does a fair amount of culinary gallivanting throughout the Hudson Valley. It was on one such assignment that she found herself in Beacon, getting her socks knocked off by a new deli/butcher shop. “On a late September evening, I went with a few friends to Dave the Butcher,” she writes. “We grabbed a table outdoors under the string lights, ordered drinks (a Gintonic for me), and immediately made the collective decision to share nearly the entire menu—chicken liver mousse, txistorra (sausage), the cast-iron ratatouille, crispy patatas bravas, even the duck confit. Everything was delicious, but the standout was the steak tartare. Seasoned with anchovy, parsley, and piment d’Espelette, it had this bright, savory punch that delighted the fans of the dish and converted the tartare skeptics at the table. I’m already planning my next excuse to get back down to Beacon.”
The Palace Diner
194 Washington Street, Poughkeepsie
Susan Brearley is one of those rare cases of a freelancer who cold-pitches you in your inbox and finds themselves with a semi-regular writing gig. She fills a great niche for us as she is always rediscovering old favorites like Gigi’s Trattoria and Lolita’s Pizza that it’s about damn time we gave more press to. She’s not a stickler for high-brow dining either but rather appreciates good quality where she finds it. Case in point: her pick for top meal of the year was a local diner. She writes: People often assume the best meal of the year involves white tablecloths, truffle oil, or a chef’s tasting menu that takes three hours. Mine happened at the Palace Diner in Poughkeepsie, and it was a tuna melt. I didn’t just want it—I needed it, the way you sometimes crave a particular thing, and nothing else will do. When it arrived, the bread grilled until the edges went crusty and golden, cheddar melted to that perfect state between gooey and stringy. The tuna itself was enormous—well over a can’s worth—studded with crunchy celery, dressed just right, not watery or overdone. It was the tuna melt I would have made at home if I’d had the time. When it arrived, I thought there was no way I could finish it. I ate every last bite.”
iPho
152-154 Main Street, New Paltz
Katie Ondris interned with us this past summer as a rising senior at SUNY New Paltz. She wrote adeptly in topics ranging from fashion to retail as well as a good number of food pieces. Her favorite meal of the year involves hot soup, good company, and an annual tradition. She writes: “Since we first arrived at college, my best friend and get pho at the beginning and end of every semester. In August, the warm smells of clove and star anise hit us as soon as we entered iPho. Being back at the restaurant, casual but comforting in its orange-hued lighting and red booths, felt like a hug. It didn’t matter that it was a sweltering day during the last hurrahs of the summer; I was getting pho. The char of the grilled chicken protein I ordered added a crunch that took the entire dish to another level, and the noodles were cooked to a tender perfection. The broth was crafted carefully and thoughtfully, seasoned and simmered until its flavors came out to their fullest. The soup, accented by my own addition of bean sprouts, a slice of lime, and plenty of sriracha, was a spicy delight that I couldn’t get enough of. It’s one of those meals that you eat until you’re past full, and you don’t even care.”
Chleo
288 Fair Street, Kingston
Freelancer Carrie Molay calls Uptown Kingston wine bar Chleo “the best restaurant in Ulster County” and a must for any Hudson Valley restaurant round-up. “It’s great for a drink and a snack—there are two bars—or dinner with Mom or a date. I also once organized a group meal so that we could order the whole menu!” she gushes. “In late July, a tomato pie appeared on Chleo’s Instagram. Intent on eating it at its peak and worried that the slices would be gone quickly, I rocked up to the bar early that same evening. Solo at the marble, kitchen-facing bar, Chef Eli passed me a slice of the tomato pie, Southern style—filled with roasted tomatoes, mayo, and parmesan, in a cornmeal crust with black garlic aioli on the side. Ripe, roasted tomatoes were zingy with acid and umami that balanced the rich underneath.” She went back to Chleo two more times for the pie before tomato season was over. On that first visit, Molay complemented her slice of savory pie with the grilled summer squash dish, she describes as “a deconstructed whole squash, served with mint pesto, pickled chanterelle mushrooms, topped with fried squash blossoms, and fresh mint. Paired with a chilly, crimson rosé, the taste was unmistakably summer!”
Montauk Catch Clubhouse
2608 Route 32, Kingston
Carrie Molay has been enthusiastic about diving into the local restaurant scene, traipsing around the region both on and off the clock. In addition to her “true love,” Chleo, she also wrote to us to wax poetic about Montauk Catch Club’s new brick-and-mortar business, which is part fishmonger, part fish shack, on Route 32 between Rosendale and Kingston in a former strip club. She says the spot “runs on simplicity and immediacy: a short menu, both raw and cooked, built around whatever was pulled from the water the day before. Casual outdoor seating, serious execution. The frito misto is unmatched, a generous medley of perfectly fried fish and seafood. On a warm evening, seated outdoors at a picnic table, grilled squid with green papaya salad and peanuts, a crisp Italian white in a plastic cup, and their salty-sweet limeade was a small, perfect moment.”
Eliza Bistro
582 Broadway, Kingston
Eliza Bistro co-owner Innis Lawrence comes from a background in the high-end lighting industry, and the cultivated aesthetic refinement shows through in the interiors of his restaurants—from the chic barn vibes at Ollie’s Pizza in High Falls to the gleaming, old-school deli interior of (now defunct) Fletcher & Lu and the worn-in, old-world elegance of Eliza. The floor, the plaster walls, the patinaed wood bar, the blue tiled bathroom! It isn’t essential that a restaurant be beautiful if the food is on point, but wooeeee! It sure does make eating out even more delicious. On my birthday in September, three friends and I walked over to Eliza sans reservation and were lucky enough to snag seats at the end of the bar (my favorite spot). Another dear friend just happened to be one stool down, and a beloved ex-coworker was occupying the L of the bar with her husband. One joined our party, one sent over drinks. So much to love about Eliza before even getting to the food. Speaking of which, to share between four we ordered a dozen oysters on the half shell with mignonette; a perfetly crispy roasted half-chicken; scallop crudo with fish sauce, lime, and thai basil oil; and a big ol’ salad of seeds shoots and leaves. Oh, and a chocolate mouse for dessert, of course. The combination of consistently well-executed food, good ambiance, the walkability, and the general festive vibes at Eliza have a dear spot in my heart. Plus, everything tastes better on your birthday.
