Westchester Breakfast Club

The Horseman Restaurant & Pizza
276 N Broadway
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591-2622 (Map It!)

Attendees: Shelley, Pat, Jeffrey, Alan, Sylvia

Shelley

A rainy morning greeted me as I traveled to The Horseman in Tarrytown this past Sunday. It wasn’t a monsoon like the time the WBC went to Jean Jacques, but it was dark, drizzly, and raw. Had it not been for our WBC meeting, I probably would have stayed in bed with the covers pulled up to my eyes for an extra hour.

But duty calls!

After parking in the lot on a hill above the restaurant and walking down a long flight of stairs (carefully–those steps were slick!), I entered the restaurant and joined Sylvia, Jeff, and Alan at a table in the middle of the dining area. The Horesman is a diner, nothing more, nothing less. I did feel special because my place setting came with an extra spoon. What can I say, I eat with gusto, sometimes one spoon just isn’t enough. After looking at the menu for quite some time (we shooed our waitress away two times before we were finally all ready to order), I was still feeling uninspired. Many mornings I arrive at breakfast with the WBC either with a particular meal already on my mind, or else I look at the menu and immediately zero in on something that sounds intriguing. Neither was the case this morning. I eventually decided that some variety was the way to go, so I ordered the Belgian waffle and two scrambled eggs with homefries (I declined to have toast, due to the waffle). I just had water to drink with my meal.

The food came out within a reasonable amount of time. The first thing that struck me was that the waffle was oddly perfect-looking. Too perfect. In fact, I suspected that it was styrofoam. It was completely smooth and a bit shiny. It just didn’t look like real food, it looked more like the toy waffles I used to have in my toy kitchen set as a child. Take a look. See what I mean? Fortunately my first bite of them revealed that the waffles were not made of styrofoam and were, in fact, made of regular waffle batter. They had a subtle sweetness that’s pleasant and expected in waffles. They were soft, with a bit of crunch on the outside. However, they weren’t as good as the waffles I had at Terra Rustica or Nevaeh Cuisine–those waffles had character. They had little nooks and crannies, they were golden brown but not totally evenly, and they had, if memory serves me right, powdered sugar. And those waffles had more dimension to their flavor. My scrambled eggs and homefries were fine. They were pretty typical diner eggs and potatoes. The eggs were not especially fluffy and were not seasoned, the potatoes were a bit greasy. It was acceptable but certainly not exceptional.

As with any diner, the prices were reasonable: $3.95 for the eggs/potatoes, $4.95 for the waffles, and 2 bucks toward the tip. The service was fine; attentive and prompt. The Horseman is good for a quick, simple bite to eat if you’re in the Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown area. But if you live in other towns, you’re probably better off sticking to your own town’s local diner or cafe for breakfast. From what I ate and observed, The Horseman doesn’t offer anything that’s worth going out of your way for.

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Pat

What I Had: Bacon and Cheese Omelet, Potatoes, Toast, Coffee

What It Cost: $10.00 all in all

Worth It: Sure

The Rating: 3.5/5

The Details: It’s hard to get too excited about the Horseman, which is basically indistinguishable from any other diner-like institution you’ll find in your own home town. The food is decidedly serviceable, though not exemplary. The coffee was fine and my cup was never empty thanks to the attentive staff. The omelet I ordered was adequate, though the portions of cheese were unevenly distributed throughout and seemed a little spare. The potatoes stood out as being slightly better than average.

The Bottom Line: If you’re in the neighborhood it gets the job done. But don’t go out of your way.

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Jeffrey

The Horseman has been a favorite of mine for awhile. It’s not the best diner around, but it’s consistent and easy on the wallet. It’s a traditional meeting spot for me and a friend to have breakfast.

I’ve had my share of variety from The Horseman menu. For the Westchester Breakfast Club I decided to get something I would normally not get, so I ordered the Old Fashioned French Toast, which is apparently just regular French toast dipped in coconut. It was… interesting. The flecks of coconut were plentiful; there was no doubt you were consuming coconut. Would I try it again? Maybe. It probably would have been much better had they had real maple syrup.

Why is real maple syrup such are hard thing to come by? The Westchester Breakfast Club has been to many breakfast establishments so far and only a few of them have had real maple syrup. The rest have had the pre-packaged cornstarch and high-fructose corn syrup you would expect to see in McDonalds. This is upsetting to me. Spend the extra coin. Take the extra step. Get the real maple syrup. It’ll make your establishment better. To all breakfast establishments! You are on notice! Jeffrey, Assistant Treasurer of the Westchester Breakfast Club wants REAL maple syrup. The stuff that comes out of the tree! And not just any tree. A maple tree!

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Alan

The Horseman was a good place to go grab a nice brunch. The first thing that ran through my mind when we entered the restaurant was “did I enter an ihop??” It really did have that comfortable aura when you enter and get seated.

I liked the service. The waitress would come by once in a while to refill your coffee cup and always ask if everything was to our liking. Though the service was great, the food itself was average. The breakfast I ordered was 2 eggs scrambled with home fries and toast. I also ordered a side of French Toast. The French Toast was a bit plain to me, but then again I am use to eating French Toast with powdered sugar on it. The home fries tasted great.

Service was great, food was good. I believe that The Horseman is a good place to stop by for a bite.

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Sylvia

On a dark and rainy Sunday morning, we convened in the town of Sleepy Hollow at the Horseman Diner for our weekly meeting of the WBC. By the time we arrived a little before 10am, the five parking spots in front of the restaurant were already taken, forcing us to turn up Hudson Street to the parking lot above the diner.

The place is tiny, with many booths and a smattering of tables. Lucky for us, being a party of 5, there was one longer table available right in the middle of the small dining area. Service is quick, as we had to explain a few times that we were either still waiting for someone or we needed a few more minutes to peruse the menu. The menu was like your regular condensed diner menu, with breakfast taking up the last page and back cover. One notable item that one will not find in other diners was the Mexican scramble, which was, if I remember correctly, eggs scrambled in Spanish sauce and served over rice. If it weren’t for the group consumption of an entire pig the night before (a whole other story), I might have considered it. But I needed something that was a touch lighter, so I opted for the farmer’s omelette with no cheese and whole wheat toast to go with my cup of coffee. The farmer’s omelette consisted of a variety of the usual vegetables. The veggies were still crispy, and the egg a bit overdone, but not so much so as to render it unpleasant. The omelette was also a lot larger than I would have liked, mostly due to the amount of veggies included. The coffee was okay, and the toast was pretty decent.

The czar says: This is one of those places that you go to on a regular basis because it’s right there, and no one will give you the stink eye if you have children in tow. It’s also located right down the street from the trail head that is a popular entrance to the Rockefeller Preserve due to the ample parking at the Sleepy Hollow High School on weekends. I would definitely be more than happy to grab breakfast at The Horseman after a long run on the trails. Although, given the size and the cozy nature of the seating arrangements, I might change out of my sweaty running clothes first, for the comfort of the poor soul who dines with me. Anyone up for a run and breakfast?

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