6 Best Restaurants in Hudson Valley, New York

This outpost of Dan Barber's famed Blue Hill restaurant in Manhattan occupies a barn on the grounds of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. The seasonal menu features the center's own produce and meats as well as the bounty of other local farms. The space is beautiful and elegant in its restraint, with high picture windows and the barn rafters. Banquettes are dressed in brown and set off against cream walls. There are no set or print menus here; diners have their choice of a Grazing, Pecking, and Rooting menu for $280 a person, or a Farmer's Feast menu at $148 per person. Both feature several courses that are based on the day's harvest, and also offer delectable wine pairings for an additional cost.

Impeccable service, elegant decor, and extraordinary food by chef and owner Peter X. Kelly make this 40-seat restaurant a not-to-be-missed special-occasion place. Dinner is a relative bargain: $70 gets you a four-course, prix-fixe meal with an amuse-bouche (bite-size appetizer) and petits fours. The menu, which changes seasonally, might include roasted breast of squab served with Hudson Valley foie gras, lobster with vanilla beurre blanc and parsnip puree, and a tasting of raw fish. The wine cellar stores more than 600 bottles. Lunch, served Friday and Sunday, is $35 prix fixe.

Gardens surround this elegant colonial-style restaurant, 8 miles south of Katonah. Crabtree's is known for such creative dishes as grilled foie gras with toasted brioche, candied orange, and Bordeaux syrup. Portobello mushrooms, served as a main course, are roasted and given the Wellington treatment—encased in puff pastry and served with wild mushroom sauce.

A grand experience awaits at this lavishly appointed restaurant at the Castle on the Hudson. Choose from three formal dining rooms: the Oak Room, with ornately carved built-ins from France; the Tapestry Room; and the Garden Room, which has breathtaking Hudson River views. French influences make their way into the Auberge-style fare and inventive dishes, which the chef creates using naturally sourced ingredients.

Fatty Crab and Fatty 'Cue founder Zak Pelaccio decamped from Manhattan to Hudson to set up shop in a former blacksmithing shop, where he serves a delicious seven- or eight-course tasting menu. Be advised there's no vegetarian or pescatarian option, and dietary restrictions aren't accommodated so picky eaters should think twice. But more spontaneous eaters will enjoy the frequently changing menu and kitchen that will only use the highest quality and freshest ingredients. You could get lightly smoked salmon one night and rotisserie-roasted duck breast the next. Pelaccio's wife Jory Jayne Emde creates the restaurant's vinegars, pickles, and condiments. Reservations are tough to get, but a small selection of à la carte dishes is available at the bar and on the brick patio.

Lured by the bountiful produce available in the Hudson Valley, chefs John McCarthy and Ben Freemole moved to Hudson to open the Crimson Sparrow, where they now serve a tasting menu filled with exotic ingredients like foie gras, sweetbreads, and octopus. There's a wide range of wines as well as an interesting cocktail and sake list. Brunch, with your choice of four small plates for $16, is a steal.