Blue Hill Cafeteria at Stone Barns

Since we’re out in the Tarrytown area, just outside of NYC, we decided to also try out their lunch tray to see how it goes. A few nights ago, we went to a very fantastic, memorable tasting dinner at Blue Hill. For this lunch, we were expecting the ingredients to be very crispy, fresh, and delicious to commemorate everything we learned about the Blue Hill farm experience. I made a reservation for 2 for 1:00 PM on a Sunday without issues a few weeks back. We arrived early, and they accommodated us without issues.

Ambiance & Service

As you walk through the arch into the main area, the entrance to the cafeteria is directly to the left. As you walk in, it has that mini-mart feel along with some small tables and a counter to potentially eat your tray. As you line up, it should remind you of your childhood lunches in some ways.

The experience was very casual overall, and it has that “brunch” like atmosphere where people are just there to enjoy the daylight and the weekend ambiance.

You can see here they have a bunch of focaccia prepared with toppings on it. It was divided into 3 parts, which were some type of cheese, pastrami, and guacamole.

The pickles are already prepared already. It had some sort of melon, squash, cucumber, and cabbage.

Around towards the end, there was a tomato medley with juice and a cheesecake.

Food

The cost of the lunch tray was $48 per person.

This is the lunch tray, which includes 1 choice from two flavors of Spindrift sparkling water.

Start at 12:00 and going clockwise:

• focaccia with avocado, pastrami with shaved horseradish, and cheese and strawberry. The bread was good, and so were the toppings. Overall, this really tasted no different than most brunch-like restaurants here in the city that serve this type of food.
• dino lettuce with a light vinaigrette dressing. The lettuce was crispy, albeit, there wasn’t anything very memorable about it. The dressing was light and mildly tart.
• cheesecake with cherry compote on top. This was good. It wasn’t too sweet, and it didn’t have a crust.
• pickles with squash, cabbage, cantaloupe, and cucumber. Most of the ingredients felt like they weren’t pickled deeply.
• tomato salad with basil and tomatoes in a tart dressing. The tomatoes were very sweet and fresh.

Overall Impression

We definitely felt the value of this lunch was not great if you’re coming from the city, even though the ingredients were very fresh. Unless you really desire to pay a premium for the ingredients, the flavors of the lunch resemble a lot of restaurants in the city.

Yelp Jabs

It is both elegant and rooted in deep respect for the land. The food is thoughtful, precise, and deeply connected to place. Expect surprises: a single bite of just-picked lettuce dressed in herb oil may arrive with the same reverence as a slow-roasted cut of pasture-raised meat.

This Elitist, like us, appreciated the background story to the goal of the restaurant. However, when it comes down to taste, it’s going to feel fresh, but not significantly better than a lot of other restaurants out there that serve this type of food for lunch.

Loved that showcase the local farms they get their produce from and I can imagine it being so amazing to walk around their gardens in the summer.

We walked the farms, and it was cool to see. However, unless you’ve never been on a farm or garden, this will be very familiar.

Food was elegantly prepared and delicious. Favs were the green juice shot, lemon dressing for the salad, the focaccia with 3 different toppings, then the cheesecake like cream with berries. I was impressed by the good quality and the size. Very much worth $42 per person (no tip needed).

A common complaint amongst those that come from the city is that the quantity and offerings are just not worth the premium you pay. Understandably, those from the outside like this Floridian Elitist may not have had such experience in their neighborhood, so this was very good for them.

Revisions

1. Jun 22, 2025 - Initial revision.