You may have noticed that there’s been something missing from our posts the last several weeks. Something feels off, just not right. This is because WBC member Shelley is on leave. Don’t worry, she’ll be eating breakfast and giving us her opinion again real soon.
1201 Pleasantville Road
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510 (Map It!)
Attendees: Patrick, Reid, Jeffrey, Sylvia
Patrick
What I Had: Two eggs over medium, potatoes, sausage, toast, coffee
What It Cost: ~$10
Worth It: No
The Rating: Food – 2.5/5, Price – 2.5/5, Service – 3/5 Overall 2.5/5
The Details: Orfino’s has always been something of a mystery to me. Despite living in Briarcliff from the age of 11-18, I had never stepped foot inside the restaurant until this Saturday morning.
Now I know why.
Orfino’s creates a solid first impression when you go inside, as the interior design is quite pleasant, if a little dark. But almost immediately, the illusion that we were in for a treat breakfast was broken, as the placemats were typical diner placemats – paper and covered in advertisements. Then the menus came. They were tattered, looked dirty, and were filled with typos.
The dichotomy between the restaurants interior design and the smaller details like the menus and placemats subtly but definitely affected my enjoyment of the food (which itself took a little too long to arrive at the table). I ordered two eggs over medium with potatoes, toast, and a side of sausage. The sausage, which came in patty form, was the best part of the meal. The eggs were alright. The toast was toast. The potatoes were an awful, soggy, tasteless mess. The coffee seemed slightly below diner quality. The bill was definitely higher than it should have been, and would have been, had we just eaten at the Patio, a vastly superior breakfast spot just down the block.
The Bottom Line: If you want breakfast in Briarcliff, go to the Patio instead.
Reid
The Case: Orfino’s Cafe v. The Westchester Breakfast Club
The Venue: A storefront cafe on the main drag in Briarcliff
The Facts: I remember Orfino’s from way back in the day. If memory serves, it used to be a “wobbly formica table” kinda place. Since then, they have definitely upgraded the decor, which now has a bistro kind of feel to it, with wooden tables and green walls.
The rest of the experience, however, was not what one would call “upgraded.”
The menu was sloppily thrown together, both in terms of design and typos. The service was extremely slow, to the point where I felt comfortable complaining about it loudly enough for the waitstaff to hear. When the food finally did come, it was sub-par. My pancakes were too dense, and lacked much flavor at all. It was kind of like eating wet paper. The side of bacon, while crispy, tasted only of salt and nothing else. Even my tea was served on an uncomfortably large square plate (I guess the square plates mean that it’s “fancy”). Then the bill came to over $10 a head, which is unacceptable given the quality of the food and the service.
The Verdict: I wouldn’t come back here. If I were stuck in Briarcliff, I’d rather eat at the Patio two meals in a row.
Jeffrey
Orfinso’s Café. Really? Really? We went last week on a Sunday and we found out it was closed. Why were we disappointed? This place is just no good.
We walked in and looked around. Nice wood tables and wood chairs. Looks almost high class. Sit down, and in front of us are menu’s that are spelt horribly. It’s just horrific.
The service took a long time and I didn’t like the coffee all that much. It tasted like cheap diner coffee. My food finally arrived. I got the Scarborough Omelet. I did not like it. I could have gotten the same kind of omelet at a local truck stop dinner.
The moral of this trip is, if in Briarcliff for breakfast, skip Orfinos and walk down the block to The Patio. Much more worth it.
Sylvia
From the outside, Orfino’s looks like a cozy café, with a nice dark wood motif. Unfortunately, it was just a diner in disguise. As soon as we were seated, the first thing I noticed on the table was the diner standard Diner Times placemat. The menu was bound in a cushy leather binder, but inside was a print out menu with many rather humorous misspellings.
After our drink orders were taken and promptly delivered (I had a coffee), our waitress finally paid us a visit. She was all business, no pleasantries (just like a diner!). We dictated our desires, and off she went.
I had the Trump International, which was just French toast made with a baguette dipped in their special batter. I also augmented my order with fresh fruit.
The big mistake on m part was not asking what the fresh fruit was. I’m not allergic to cantaloupe or honeydew, but I am very sensitive to the degree of ripeness and tend to break out if it’s not right. So, in short, I tend to pass whenever possible.
When the food arrived, I was a little disappointed with the fruit onto of my French toast. It was all small chunks of honeydew and cantaloupe with maybe two pieces of pineapple and strawberry. Since berries were in season , I guess I naively thought that would make up a majority of the fruit. Silly me.
The French toast was blah. A bit tasteless on it’s own, and not really any better with the syrup. It was soggy in the middle, and the edges of the baguette were rubbery from being dipped in batter and not crisped up on the griddle. It was edible, but not entirely satisfying.
The czar says: If you need breakfast in Briarcliff, go down the street to the Patio. The atmosphere at the Patio is much lighter and the service friendlier. You can change into a restaurant from a diner, but you can’t take the diner out of the restaurant. It as subpar food, subpar service masked by fancy interior decorating.