Cozy comfort food, charming service on tap at this Pulaski restaurant
By Julie McMahon
RiverHouse Restaurant
4818 Salina St., Pulaski, N.Y. 13142
315-509-4281 | riverhouserestaurant.net
Tuesday – Saturday, 4 – 9 p.m.
A warm, comforting meal served by a charming bartender made for a great dining experience at Pulaski’s River House Restaurant.
The red building on Salina Street immediately oozes coziness from outside. And inside doesn’t disappoint — we walked into a well-lit bar area with 8-10 tables and a full roster of patrons, which felt homey and created a lovely vibe on a Wednesday night before the Christmas holidays.
The charming interior of RiverHouse, with green walls and vintage photos, is complemented by wooden booths and white and brown tables. We opted to sit in the back dining room but were still served by the bartender, who was funny and personable, and kept us laughing throughout the meal.
For our drinks, we ordered a Hazy Little Thing IPA ($7.28) and a vodka sprite with a splash of cranberry ($5). Both were good, classic drinks. The vodka drink was well-mixed but pretty strong, not overwhelming but enjoyable. The IPA was crisp and clean. We also later ordered a Sam’s Winter Ale ($8.32), which was also good, with Christmas spices coming through subtly. We expected a slightly darker beer from Sam’s but this was good and easy drinking.
For our starters, we ordered French onion soup ($7.28) and bang bang shrimp ($16.64). Both were excellent, the highlights of the meal.
The soup was served in a traditional crock, steaming hot, with the cheese melted beautifully over the top. The soup was chock full of soggy croutons and lots of caramelized onions and cheese. Each bite was salty, flavorful and hearty. A great start to a good meal.
The bang bang shrimp packed just a little punch of heat. These were very crispy and moist but not soaked with grease or oil, but light and toasted. The sauce had a full flavor, both sweet and tangy, and the tails were removed which made for easy eating. We thoroughly and quickly enjoyed this appetizer.
For our main entrées, we ordered the chicken royal sandwich ($16.64) and the surf and turf special ($35.36) — a bone-in strip steak served with four pieces of garlic-buttered shrimp.
Both were solid dishes.
The sandwich was massive, a hunk of chicken breast beer-battered and fried and served falling off the bun, loaded with crispy bacon and doused with melted cheese. The server suggested that it was best to eat the chicken straight off the bun instead of attempting to consume it as a sandwich with the lettuce, tomato and onion it came with.
The chicken had a very rich and decadent, flavorful batter, with good melty cheese, perfectly cooked bacon. I was not disappointed when I took the server’s suggestion and ate the chicken with the cheese and bacon, no bun. I’d advise coming with a large appetite if you’re going to tackle this dish. I ate about a sixth of it and took the rest home for leftovers. It also came with onion rings that were very crispy and tasty, perfectly fried.
The surf and turf special was also good. The shrimp were very juicy, well cooked and seasoned. The garlic mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts on the side were exceptional. The steak itself was a little thin but well-cooked and with a good flavor. It was tender, cooked to medium as we ordered it, and each bite was tasty. There was a decent amount of gristle on the bone, as to be expected for a strip steak, but we got a lot of good meat from the dish. For a restaurant that is not a steakhouse, this was fairly impressive.
The main dishes left us curious about what else was on the menu that we may have missed. We were particularly intrigued by a few seafood dishes, especially on the specials menu, that we opted against but later wished we’d leaned into. We weren’t disappointed, but the entrees we ordered were perhaps not what we’d suggest a reader order compared to some of the other dishes and descriptions on the menu.
We had to skip dessert this time around because we were simply bursting-at-the-seams full.
At about $100 for the bill, we were satisfied customers. The friendly, affable service was a perk that added to the experience.
Historic Building Has Housed Restaurants, Hotels, Endured Fires
RiverHouse Restaurant is located along the Salmon River in Pulaski. This location has been historically linked to many prosperous restaurants and hotels throughout the history of Pulaski.
In 1804, Benjamin Winch, a surveyor, was the first settler who built a log cabin tavern where men could find lodging and food by a warm fire. In 1810, this structure was torn down to accommodate a larger hotel as travel in the area increased. For 60 years, many different proprietors operated first, the old Pulaski House, and later the Palmer House. These names changed to other hotels in other parts of Pulaski.
By 1890, the house was destroyed by fire and later in 1895 was reopened as the historic Randall Hotel. This structure was a beautiful multiple story building with an expansive two-story porch. It included a hat boutique, eating area as well as a hotel. It changed by 1937 with a new one-story porch along with the addition of a grill room and dance hall. Again the hotel changed hands many times until 1957 when fire destroyed the building and furnishings. Again the hotel was rebuilt, but in 1962 fire again destroyed the hotel. In 1962, the building was purchased and remodeled to become the Log Cabin Restaurant. Throughout those years it was a popular eating establishment for locals as well as fishermen visiting the area as Pulaski became known as the Salmon Capital of the Northeast. In 2000, the restaurant was destroyed by fire yet again.
In June 2007, the opening of the RiverHouse Restaurant by current owner Frank Catanzarite celebrated 200 years of hospitality along the Salmon River. History can be enjoyed throughout the restaurant with photos from the Randall Hotel years to the present.
