HVGuide
The Best Restaurants & Bars In Hudson, New York
A buzzy place serving housemade head cheese, a cafe with a noteworthy BEC, and more great bars and restaurants in one of our favorite towns upstate.
Hudson isn’t really an escape from New York City. Warren Street, the main drag, is filled with vintage furniture stores and places where you can spend $105 on a spoon rest or $65 on a healing crystal. In other words, it feels like an extension of Brooklyn. Whether that bums you out or makes you want to request Monday off immediately, know that the restaurants in Hudson keep getting better and better. Plus, this upstate town lies just a short (beautiful) train ride away, and therefore makes for an ideal weekend trip. Here are our favorite places to eat in the area—all of which are better decisions than a $105 spoon rest.
If you’re looking for more great restaurants in the Hudson Valley, check out our guide here. We have one for the Catskills, too.
NEW-ISH & BUZZY
Cafe Mutton feels like it was made for a rapidly-disappearing version of Hudson—one that remains eccentric, affordable, and connected to the natural world around it. Things like sausages and head cheese are made in house, with the kind of care and attention you couldn’t manage in New York City without charging at least three times as much. The country pâté, served in sandwich form, is the kind of dish to go out of your way to eat again and again. The atmosphere is pretty casual, and it’s best to check the restaurant’s Instagram for the most up-to-date hours and menu, since both seem to change often. Expect crowds and a constant wait on weekends, while weekdays are usually a bit more relaxed.
We recently took a last-minute train to Hudson for a weekend trip and had three of our five meals at Kitty’s, a daytime cafe and restaurant located right across from the train station. Kitty’s sells some very good rotisserie chicken plates, pastries, and one of the better breakfast sandwiches we’ve had in recent memory. Between the blanket of mild muenster cheese, smoky bacon, and a bun that’s been blasted with sesame seeds, this thing should have its own Hudson tourism ad on Amtrak. There’s a free option to add housemade, chunky sauerkraut, which only makes the BEC flavors pop even more. More egg dishes should come with sauerkraut. Make Kitty’s a priority while you’re in Hudson (especially before noon when they stop selling the breakfast sandwich).
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From the outside, this pink little spot with a neon sign in the window looks like a dive bar. But step inside and you’ll feel like you’ve arrived at a tropical artist retreat—with food better than anything you would ever find at an artist retreat. You'll see things like sweet plantains with cilantro yogurt, a fermented lentil dosa, whole fried fish topped with herbs and ginger vinaigrette, and vegan tamales. Everything we try at Lil’ Deb’s is wildly delicious. They’re also serious about wine here, and by serious, we mean they have a huge list of interesting options described with words like “hiding from the chaperone, gucci loafer, nilla wafer, stained glass, Sunday gossip.” We wish we lived in Hudson just so we could be regulars here.
CASUAL & ON THE GO
We highly recommend using Talbott & Arding as a pit stop before heading out into nature for the day. This fancy market in the middle of town has everything you need (and definitely don’t need) for a picnic. And if browsing the vast array of cheeses, cured meats, and bread makes you hungry, Talbott & Arding’s prepared food counter opens at 11am and serves a daily changing menu of salads, sandwiches, and focaccia pizzas.
Hudson Food Studio
If you’re looking for a great dinner in Hudson, but don’t necessarily feel like shelling out more than the cost of a night at your Airbnb, consider Hudson Food Studio: a casual spot serving excellent Southeast Asian food like pork belly bao, spicy shrimp noodles, and cups of ramen broth. The atmosphere is relaxed but not boring, and the noodles and soup are exactly what you want to eat on a cold night after a long day outside.
Verdigris Tea & Chocolate
You’ve watched Downton Abbey and know that a good cup of tea can make everything better. Here in this shop, you’ll find over 150 options that go beyond just chamomile and English breakfast. And of course, there's also chocolate—whether you're looking for dipped biscotti, cupcakes, or even a glass of iced hot chocolate. After you’ve enjoyed your treats, buy some tea-time essentials from infusers to French presses to take home with you.
Be prepared to stand in line at Culture Cream for live probiotic ice creams and sorbets made with kombucha and kefir. Flavors like blueberry thyme sorbet and miso ice cream with honey roasted strawberries are great for gut health, but taste even more rich and creamy than Häagen-Dazs. Interacting with the staff almost feels like you’re talking to a pharmacist, but instead of filling a prescription for probiotics, you’ll end up with a delicious cup of ice cream that just so happens to have a ton of live enzymes.
GOOD FOR GROUPS
If you’re looking for a backyard where you can eat a simple, extra thin-crust pizza and drink an interesting $25 bottle of wine, head straight to The Half Moon on Front Street. They also serve pizza by the slice in case you show up at 8pm on a Sunday and need some sustenance fast. You'll probably be happy with the classic cheese pizza, but we’d also recommend exploring the white pies and a special pizza with meatballs and ricotta.
In case you’re going upstate with someone whose ears perk up when they hear about mosaic hops and New England IPAs, take that person to Hudson’s best brewery. Hudson Brewing Company sometimes names their beers after historic tidbits about the area, like the Shady Sadie, an homage to a legendary female Hudson River robber pirate named Sadie the Goat. Our favorite approach here is to order a flight, which costs around $15. If you have your dog with you, know that they are more than welcome at the brewery.
Located in the back of one of the 3,000 antique stores on the main street in Hudson is Backbar, a cocktail bar that also serves Southeast Asian small plates. Order some smashed cucumber salad, chicken lemongrass dumplings, and natural wine, and then find a table in the giant string-light-covered backyard. It's a funky, cool spot where you might even accidentally attend your first "bring your own backgammon" night (check their Instagram for more events).
This is Hudson’s go-to place for Neapolitan pies, although the menu goes way beyond pizza. They have a huge selection of small plates ranging from cheese and charcuterie to vegetables to seafood, all of which you can order on their own, or as tasting flights in groups of three or five. The wine list has tons of interesting options by the glass and bottle, and this would be an ideal place for a group lunch or dinner. Just know that Oak only accepts walk-ins.
DATE NIGHT
Feast & Floret feels sort of like a curated playground for adults who like Nice Things. They sell everything from flowers and honey from their very own farm to glasses of 20-year-old port and eight different kinds of amari. You can even put together your own bouquet from a cart with various Hudson Valley flowers that are priced per stem. Stop by for Italian-leaning dishes like escarole salad, tagliatelle bolognese, and octopus with calabrian chilies.
Wm. Farmer & Sons is connected to a hotel of the same name, and feels like a much nicer-than-average hotel restaurant. The space is attractive, the service is great, and the food all looks familiar, but includes tweaks like serving charcoal-roasted beets with rose petals, or topping a fantastic burger with butter-braised onions and tomato relish. Reservations are encouraged.
Swoon has been around a lot longer than most of the Hudson restaurants people tend to talk about, but it’s still very good. Come for wine and cheese at the bar, and although their menu changes daily, you can expect a dinner full of reliably satisfying things like pan-seared duck confit, a little gem salad, and green pea risotto.
Savona's Trattoria
This cozy Italian restaurant has a multigenerational history spanning over 45 years and is one of the more affordable options for a nice dinner in the area. Start with delicious (and free) garlic knots and move on to one of their wood-fired flatbreads or pizzas like the earthy mushroom truffle that can also be made without gluten. They have a ton of locations, in Kingston, Red Hook, and Poughkeepsie, but we like the newly-opened Hudson outpost on Warren St. because of their outdoor patio.
BREAKFAST & BRUNCH
Grazin’ is a good, casual option for lunch or weekend brunch in Hudson. They’re known for their burgers and American food, which are available daily inside the diner’s old-school space. If you’d rather get your order to go, you could take your grass-fed beef or salad with goat cheese across the street to 7th Street Park. They also have a tasting room and distillery which showcases their gin, vodka, and whiskey. If Grazin’ sounds familiar, you might have seen them at their Saturday stall at the NYC Union Square Greenmarket.
Le Perche
Le Perche has been in Hudson for years, but it was revamped in 2018 by the people behind one of Hudson’s most established restaurants, Swoon Kitchenbar. The wood-covered interior and long bar would be nice places for a low-key dinner or drinks, and you should keep the greenery-covered patio in mind for all your brunch needs. If that’s when you’re here, get a chocolate croissant—they make their own, and they’re excellent.
The Rivertown Lodge is basically the real-life amalgamation of every well-styled photo of upstate New York on the internet. There’s blonde wood everywhere, mid-century furniture and walls covered in books, and they use and sell the kind of ceramic mugs you decide you want to buy for your apartment, until you realize they’re $45 each. They serve one of our favorite Hudson breakfasts on the weekends, with dishes like chicken hash, eggs and salsa verde, and a maple ricotta Dutch baby. If you stop by for dinner, expect dishes like grilled pork ribs with umeboshi glaze or wild monkfish with kohlrabi that are very good, and slightly less than $45. Remember this place whether you’re staying in the hotel or not.
