the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Saddle River NJ, OpenTable list the Saddle River Inn as one of the the most romantic restaurants in the country . Taking the guesswork out of Valentine’s Day, the most highly coveted date night of the year, OpenTable the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations released its annual list of the 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in America.
OpenTable’s 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in America for 2020 is generated solely from diner reviews collected between December 1, 2018, and November 30, 2019. All restaurants with a minimum “overall” score and number of qualifying reviews were included for consideration. The overall score is made up of unique data points, such as overall diner rating, user klout, total number of reviews, and regional overall rating. Qualifying restaurants were then scored and sorted according to the percentage of reviews, for which “romantic” was selected as a special feature.
Established in 1981, the Saddle River Inn is part of the William Packard Estate now known as Barnstable Court. As early as 1840 The Inn was operating as a sawmill and basket weaving factory. Hans and Imelda Egg opened the Saddle River Inn in 1981 and set a standard in fine dining French. In January of 2013 Jamie Knott and Peter Lioia bought the business and continue the tradition.
The Saddle River Inn is known for classic French cuisine with a contemporary flair is featured in a romantic, rustic, barn along the banks of the Saddle River.
The food is good but come on ,a bit pricey. I had better.
Agreed with “Restaurant Eater”.
I’ve been to this place a dozen times over the past few years. The food is good (but not excellent). The waitstaff is great and the ambiance is excellent. The maitre is awful. Last time, he put us at a terrible table on the first floor despite our having requested a table upstairs.
The really bad part: it’s impossible to get a reservation! They open the reservation book 30 days beforehand. You have to stay up until midnight and hit Open Table at 12:00:01am in order to get a reservation on a Friday or Saturday night at a decent time. If you want until the following morning at 6:00am, all reservations are gone.
For merely “decent” food, I’ll pass on that hype. This aint’ Le Bernardin (or Nobu in the 1990s) … not even close…