Harper’s Bar & Restaurant

Cute atmosphere, and decent food, but the service is terrible. We waited over an hour for brunch yesterday and for no good reason. The restaurant wasn’t that crowded and none of our orders were complicated.

Harper’s does an amazing job in every category. They are super friendly, and the cozy atmosphere to match. The food and drinks are to perfection. With a seasonal menu (both food and cocktails), you’ll never have a dull moment. The food and drinks are to par with many restaurants in the city, if not better.
The bartender knows his stuff, curating a delicious variety of drinks, and being open to making something off menu.
The food is all around delicious. My go to is the duck breast, while my wife enjoys their roasted chicken. The bread pudding is a must try as well.
I could go on and on, the place is worth it!

First visit to this venerable gastropub. Came for early dinner. Server Micaela was outstanding — very knowledgeable, accommodating, and a pleasure to talk to. Menu is not long, but the chef really knows how to cook. Best duck breast I ever can remember. Unusual cheddar and apple salad was very good. Duck fat roasted potatoes are noteworthy. Extensive beer selection and enough wines by the glass for everyone to be able to find something. Dessert special was pistachio torte with cannoli ice cream. Won’t find that anywhere else. A very good meal. Look forward to returning.

Does not disappoint! Great quality food and drinks. Almost everything on their menu is top notch! Roasted root appetizer with fresh ricotta and pesto — scrumptious! Pasta dishes made from scratch — fantastic! Pork belly with sauerkraut is the perfect balance of smokey and sour salty goodness. The duck breast is an all time favorite. For desert, you can’t go wrong with their chocolate chip bread pudding! Their mixed drinks are the best in town– sophisticated and sexy!

This place looks pretentious but it surprisingly isn’t. The patrons if anyone are the pretentious ones but the staff is friendly welcoming and informative. The bartender made me a drink that want even on the menu which made me feel like an insider. I enjoyed a few appetizers at the bar and they were ok but very very expensive. Definitely a cool little spot to enjoy an exotic cocktail with your favorite friends.

I don’t know what’s better– the burger at Harper’s or the incredibly handsome bartender with the beard…

We have eaten here on a number of occasions. The food is always good and the service is generally adequate. The times we have sat at the bar the service depends on who is working. Sometimes it is great other times just OK. The two times we sat at a table, once we had great service the second time our waiter was less than adequate. When my husband asked him to describe a dish the waiters reply was, «Its good.» The cocktails are always on point, except when they run out of them. It is good enough that we will return but is not our favorite place in Dobbs Ferry. If you are looking for five or six stars in Dobbs Ferry I suggest the Cookery, food is always great and they make you feel like they appreciate your presence.

I like this place very much. It’s cozy but hip, has an excellent menu of farm to table based dishes, served in a modern and completely satisfying way. Based on four plates I had and some others I saw at adjacent tables, execution and finesse are a bit off, however, quality and flavor are first rate. Mixologists and cocktail menu is creative and fantastic and quite excellent selection of scotch, bourbons and cognac, including rarely found armagnacs outside of NYC. Good price value on food, wine and spirits and friendly great service. Recommended.

Hubby and I came here months ago and we really enjoyed the food. We sat at the bar, had a few drinks and sampled some of their appetizers. I am unsure as to why we hadn’t come back until now because the food was really good, from what I remembered.
We were in the area and Harper’s was one of the restaurants I wanted to try out during HVRW, so we made reservations, same night with no problem and headed to Dobbs Ferry. When we arrived, we were sat immediately and our server came to the table to introduce herself rather quickly. They weren’t packed but there were many tables dining so, I was pleased as to how quickly we were greeted. We received our warm basket of bread, accompanied by their sweet whipped butter that I could eat like ice cream with a spoon. Needless to say, we made short work of the bread.
While there were some changes to the menu, the items I wanted to order were still available so, I wasn’t disappointed. For our starters, I went with the Smoked Trout Rillettes and hubby had the Apple and Cheddar Salad. The trout was good. It tasted like a refined smoked tuna salad, served with salmon roe, crostinis, cornichons, roasted cauliflower florets and thinly sliced fennel. Hubby’s salad was tasty as well, with sautéed mushrooms, greens, apple sticks, white cheddar cubes and a light vinaigrette.
I lucked out this evening as they were offering ½ priced bottles of vino. I ordered a nice Argentinian Tempranillo for myself, since hubbs doesn’t partake in wine. More for me! Our entrées were exceptional; hubby had the Pappardelle w/​Fontina and Mushrooms and I had the Monkfish Stew w/​Mussels, sans the fennel sausage (no pork for me). Both tasted great and we were completely happy with our choices.
For dessert, hubby had their substitute, Warm Chocolate Torte, because they ran out of the bread pudding and I had the Salted Caramel Pot de Crème. I loved the torte. It had just the right amount of sweetness and was served with whipped cream. My pot de crème was OK. It was a little too sweet and the consistency and plating was reminiscent of a crème bruleé, which I wasn’t expecting so, I didn’t care for it.
We also ordered a side of the Duck Fat Potatoes but they forgot to bring to the table, so we took them to go since they do taste so damn good.
Harper’s will have to stay in our rotation. Sometimes we lose track of the local spots that do great things. They do well with their rustic, farm to table dining and I want more.

Just go there! The food is great, the ambiance and the staff! Why are you reading this review instead of heading to Harper’s right now?

Two half slices of french toast. That is it. It was a child’s portion. Everyone else received a huge plate food. I choose the french toast, not because I actually wanted french toast, but because it was the only Brunch entrée that was’t fried, or covered in sausage or cheese. I was done before anyone else was even halfway through their entrees. I actually left more hungry than I went in. I will not be going back.

Sat at the bar for drinks, dinner, and a huge Mets game. The staff and bartender were very friendly and bright, sharing ample knowledge of this comfy establishment’s great food and complex liquor/​wines. We inadvertently came on «half price bottles night» (Tuesday), so we shared not only one fantastic bottle of wine, but six. Jk, we had two.
I hadn’t been here in years, but since my last visit, their burger is now larger and as great as before, and they’ve expanded their menu significantly, which now includes offbeat appetizers like sweetbreads, which were delicious. Their oysters were also great.
Harper’s isn’t cheap whatsoever, but you truly get what you pay for here. Great service, drinks, and food quality will make me a return customer, for certain.

A coworker of mine recomened Harpers to me so I decided to check it out for dinner on a Monday night. I could not have been happier coming here! The food was out of this world, full of flavor and cooked to perfection! We ordered the SweetBread appetizer (I love trying different/​out of the ordinary foods) and Wow! So much flavor, the meat was soft and melts in your mouth and the sauce was paired perfectly together. I ordered the Crispy Hudson Valley Duck Leg with white beans and pancetta which was outstanding! The skin of the duck was crisped perfectly and it all just melts in your mouth, duck was very flavorful and so was the pancetta. Yum! My dad ordered the Pork and Octopus dish which had an incredible flavor that I have never tasted before and it was so good. Then I thought I was full until I saw the dessert menu which everything on it sounded amazing. I chose the Salted Caramel dessert which is not too sweet and not too salty, it is just right and the salt made it perfect. It was almost like a pudding texture.
I love the atmosphere here, lights are dimmed, a little jazz music, friendly wait staff, and candles all around. The wait staff is wonderful and very professional. The Owner, Justin is very caring of his customers and super friendly! He came to our table to see how we liked everything and he had a smile on his face throughout the whole night. We will definately be back!

Just left the place had a burger and im sorry to say it tasted like cardboard no flavor what so ever! The burger was medium rare, regardless it was tasteless and dry. The bread with butter which is $ 16 less than the burger was delicious!!! The service was on the slow side, not sure if they were short staff today or if is like this always. If the later is the case i won’t come again.

Okay so let me say that the food here was pretty good. The service, price and the portion sizes however were quite disappointing. I brought my family here for Mother’s Day’s brunch this past week and upon arriving was not aware there was a Mother’s day brunch menu with only a quarter of the normal usual brunch items for $ 32. This price only included one appetizer, one entrée and nothing else. I wanted to order one burger for the table to share as it was highly recommend but was told I was not allowed. Soooo wait… You are not allowed to sell me more food? That makes total sense, sounds like a good business model. Each person in my party ordered a different item from the limited menu available. When the food came the disparity between portion sizes was laughable; one of the salads literally came with 6 small leaves of micro greens with a large chunk of goat cheese and a teaspoon of jam while the other appetizer was a huge amount of smoked fish enough to share with the rest of the table. The same could be said for the entrees. Needless to say, a few of us left this place still hungry. Our waitress was unfortunately not very helpful, she gave us attitude anytime we asked for more coffee or bread.
As I mentioned before, the food here was good but for this price, I expected a lot more food.

Well my kids decided to take myself and my wife to harpers for our 30^th wedding anniversary, love you kids, I’m going to get right to the point the food was upscale farm to table, tasty and exotic. Crispy pig belly was my meal. Take a look at the photos let them speak for themselves.

The food, cocktails, wine, and beer we had here were all wonderful. Special praise for the grilled calamari and the Old William Tell cocktail! Everyone loved their meals. The décor and energy of the place was also great.
The only thing that was not stellar was the service. Our waiter could not have been less enthusiastic if he tried. He was not bad, exactly, but his attitude took away from the experience a little bit.

This is for a dinner for 2 on Tuesday night. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 (thanks to the duck fat potatoes).
I love how they have specials here. Monday are $ 1 oysters and Tuesdays are ½ priced bottles of wine!
We had a great tasting red for ½ off… SCORE! The oysters were quite pricey for oyster prices, but I love how they offered Beau Soleil… one of my fave oysters out there. My only gripe was that the board showed 4 varieties of oysters, but the waitress only indicated that 1 was available.
The complimentary bread and butter is solid. The bread is soft and the butter is whipped so it is easily spread.
My gf had the HUDSON VALLEY DUCK BREAST with cauliflower purée, apples, dates, spiced hazelnut streusel. However instead of dates they offered mashed cherries. I, myself, couldn’t taste the cherries anyhow. The duck breast was cooked more like a medium (she asked med rare), but it was tender and yummy.
I had the pork special — pork done 2 ways with a side of sauerkraut. I assume its an ode to Oktoberfest. It was okay.
The menu looks appetizing, and I def want to come back to try other dishes.
The duck fat potatoes with créme fraîche is a MUST order!!! The duck fat flavors the potatoes perfectly and the potatoes are cooked well. Some pieces are crispy while some are still soft in the middle. The potatoes are roughly chopped so you get different textures.
For dessert… we ordered some Apple dish, which was okay. Need to come back for their $ 1 oysters and to try other food options… and of course to order more of those duck fat potatoes.

I have been a fan of Harper’s for years, yet am guilty of only going twice a year. This is due to the fact that Dobbs Ferry has become the West Village of Westchester County with it’s impressive assortment of restaurants: Harper’s, The Cookery, The Parlor, Sushi Mike’s, and Cedar Street Grill are the five that foremost come to mind.
If there was one thing lacking with Harper’s, it was that the menu was stale– it was mostly unchanged for years. Imagine by surprise and delight when I perused the new menu and started drooling like Pavlov’s dog at such items as Duck Liver Toast, Foie Gras Preperation of the Day, and Pork Belly. Add top that an amazing beer list, a serious collection of cocktails and single malts, and a streamlined and affordable wine list (especially on Tuesday nights– Half Price!) and you have the makings of a really incredible meal.
The rustic décor is one of my favorites of any restaurant and evokes a certain warmth, like «Come on in, and grab a beer and some pork belly” — which is exactly what I did. Service was friendly and efficient. They were out of a few items because this particular Sunday night I went was busier than usual, but we were given desserts on the house because they were out of a few things we had asked for. I thought that was very classy of them.

A Brunch review. It’s not cheap, it’s not pretentious, it’s down right delicious, and in a beautiful garden where you will feel like you are in your own backyard, under an umbrella or you will feel that you are on vacation in your backyard with an umbrella. Some of the better brunches I have ever had. Everything was fresh and of course going along with farm to table ideology. At first we were afraid as we walked in and there was only one table full, at 1 pm, but then it started to fill up, the garden anyway, and rightfully so, it was a beautiful August Saturday!
things to have and saviour :
–Roasted carrots
–MUSHROOM TOAST
gruyère, marsala, fried egg, organic greens
–FRIED OYSTER SANDWICH
blistered padron peppers, pickled red onion, garlic-​lemon aioli, fries
–CLASSIC EGGS BENEDICT
black forest ham, hollandaise, homefires