Hudson Beach Cafe

This café makes me dream of endless breezes on a warm summer city day. It’s a casual oasis in NYC. Great for parents with young children and dog owners.
For those of us with fewer attachments, it’s a nice place for a book, people watching, or maybe even the starting point to explore a new sports. If sports aren’t your thing, you can keeping walking the Hudson Beach to the very tip of Manhattan. It’s not the Appalachian Trail, but imagine the adventure you can have if you wear a backpack.

This place is open again for the summer. Live music, dudes swinging on those rings, seating upstairs and downstairs. I love it! The sun sets right onto the café. They offer a small menu and the drinks are decent. Kind of expensive. 12 dollars for a margarita but 40 for a pitcher. But you’re paying for the view and setting. :)

quiet, well maintained hidden spot
away from all the tourists
the noise from the busy streets
the hustle and bustle of the city.
situated with a dog park on one side
the hudson river on the other,
a great little place to sip a beer
and enjoy a summer day.

Only listing online of hours says open every night until 10 pm. Went on weeknight at 9 pm, told kitchen closed at 9, «only til 10 on weekends.» Lame, amateurish operation and attitude. That + mediocre food = don’t bother dining here.

A short review about the Hudson Beach Café. They feature way overpriced, sub-​par food and a terrible selection of beer and wine! They also charge you for water, which should be illegal in NYC. I had a $ 14 veggie burger, a $ 2 water bottle and a $ 6 corona. At least the water came with a cup of ice. I went into the bathroom and filled the water bottle with delicious NYC tap and poured it into my glass of ice. It was a great idea!
The view is just OK too, unless your idea of a great view is watching the cars go by on the Henry Hudson Parkway. I would only consider coming here again to watch the sunset and listen to the gentleman playing the guitar. I would eat dinner beforehand, drink an awesome beer, and bring a water bottle.

I try to come here at least once a week since it’s only a 5 minute walk from my apartment. It’s all about the view here. Beers are $ ⁵⁄₆ and «cocktails» are $ 7÷8÷9 depending on what you get. Haven’t tried the food. I mostly come to watch the sunset while enjoying a drink. Overlooks Hudson Beach and the swing rings and volleyball courts. Staff has been friendly every time.

Cool location. Right above the volleyball courts inside the park itself. (not on riverside drive). We stopped by one sunday afternoon on a walk and decided to grab a bite and a drink. Waiter seemed annoyed that we were there and after we tried to order said they only were taking cash «right now.» After we checked and said we didn’t have enough he quickly grabbed the menus and left. We got up and did the same. Loose the tude there are other options.

There is nothing at Riverside Drive and 105^th but a park. This must be an obsolete listing.

This place deserves 5 stars for the view but otherwise it is pretty crude and overpriced. Nice place though to have a drink and watch the sun set.

I like this unpretentious little neighborhood spot… its got such a nice calm vibe and the views are awesome… I was in good company and didnt order much food for the length of time we spent there and was NOT asked to leave or handed the check before we asked for it!
I will go back mostly b/​c my dad lives in the nb’hood but it should be known that they do not offer tap water (NOT KIDDING!!!) and will serve you not so cold bottles of beer unless you specify… I actually returned mine and the waiter was totally cool with that!
So, for that reason and the VIEW I will have no problem returning time and time again! just be careful with what you order and dont expect great things!

The food’s OK — I was glad to see they’ve added some salads to the menu. Our server was friendly, and of course the main attraction of the place is being outdoors in Riverside Park. I’m glad to see other people are pissed off about the unavailability of tap water, though. I think it’s chintzy that an outdoor café that charges $ 13 for a burger served in a plastic basket won’t give you a (plastic) cup of water on a 90 degree day. It’s just a way to gouge another couple of bucks out of people.

Great view.
Too expensive!
No tap water?
Most beers and wine out of stock!
Crappy food.

Come here for the view of the Hudson and Jersey, take in the scenery at the park, and umm… yeah… That’s it!
The food is way overpriced and tasteless. I only gave it an extra star b/​c this place makes you feel like you’ve ventured miles away from the city.

I came here on a lovely Saturday afternoon, recalling this place from a few bike rides through Riverside Park. I though, a bit naively (especially because it was in a park), that I could sit there for a few hours with a book and a drink or two and that they wouldn’t get too upset – especially because I noticed that there were always a few free tables. But the waiter got impatient with me ordering juice and after I sat there for two hours told me that there was some sort of thirty minute limit of sitting with drinks during their «busy time.» I ended up ordering a hot dog and fries to appease him (and my stomach), but in retrospect it was a waste of 14 bucks.
Some general notes: The menu was overpriced ($ 11 for a burger), and there clearly aren’t enough waiters for all the tables – I think just two – the entire time the waiter who was serving my area was literally running around. They serve alcohol, and you will see some large parties whose main purpose for going there is just to drink. The views are lovely and it’s such a nice place. But in my opinion, not worth more than a try.

BYOB-​TPI (Bring Your Own Bottle To Pee In). I had dinner here on June 7, 2010 with a couple of friends. The service had a friendly veneer, but was inattentive, inconsiderate, and superficial. Be especially wary of dining near closing time; you may be denied use of the bathroom (as I was), and sent off like a homeless person to find your own on the Upper West Side (no mean feat), after paying them handsomely for a meal only slightly above McDonald’s (there’s one on Broadway, near 105^th, and they’ll let you use the facilities for the nominal price of a McFlurry, as I later found out). While I can laugh about it now, treating paying customers in such a shabby way is inexcusable. Stacking the chairs at closing time was a far higher priority for them than waiting on us. There are many better run restaurants with better views in NYC, so save your money. Or you could just buy a dirty water hot dog off the street and bring it to Riverside Park and have a far superior experience than that of Hudson Beach Café. I’ll never eat there again after what I experienced.

expensive drinks and below average food, but you shouldn’t be coming here for either. It’s the view and the company that should bring you to the hudson beach café. it’s a great place to watch the sunset. there is live music and has the potential to be very romantic. So what if a single glass of wine is $ 8 and the shrimp basket had 4 barely defrosted pieces of shrimp… that’s minutia! Stick to the sunset and the draft beer, and you’ll be just fine!

it’s all about the view at the Hudson Beach Café.
This place is a little bar/​restaurant that hangs over a stretch of sand and playgrounds inside Riverside Park, with unobstructed views of the Hudson River and the Jerstore on the other side.
I don’t come for food, I come for a drink with a view. I strolled in the other night, when it was 80 degrees and perfect out, and the tables were full but I wouldn’t say it was crowded.
And…they sell buckets of beer. I settled for a Hoegarden. Not something I normally order, but WTH? There was live music, too, some dude playing guitar and singing.
As the sun set in the West, some guy was putting on an Olympic-​like show on the Swing-​a-​Ring set in the sandy park down below. The bartender and I watched as the Guru swung from ring to ring, suspended in air.
Meanwhile, Lounge Singer wasn’t pretending to be a good guitarist, but he was a great singer, especially on the Pink Floyd classics «Comfortably Numb» and «Wish You Were Here,» one of my all-​time favorites.
By now the Guru had stepped off the Swing-​a-​Ring and was giving free lessons to some of the local kids. One by one, the kids took their turns. First the oldest, who was about 8. He swang off one ring and then fell.
Then the second-​oldest, who was about 6, took his turn and fell after two rings. Next up was a tiny girl, about 6, who grabbed the rings and started swinging across the park, from one ring to the next to the next.
Spidergirl’s arms weren’t quite long enough to reach all the rings, but still she would not let go! She was just hanging still in mid-​air between the fourth and fifth rings, her arms spread apart and holding on effortlessly.
As the Lounge Singer sang «Tiny Dancer» and the Guru coached his new Swing-​a-​Ring prodigy, a purple sky loomed over the Jerstore.
An epic summer day in NYC was one for the books.

The attraction is drinking beer in a park over-​looking the Hudson. For this it’s fine, BUT the food is terrible. When the beer muchies start biting at your stomach it’s time to walk upto Broadway. The service is bad aswell. It gets 2 stars for location alone since there aren’t too many spots in NYC like this and it’s much more local than the Boat Basin. Everytime I come here I just think about what a waste it is. It could, and should be so much better.

First!
I haven’t actually tried the food but that’s not really going to be the major attraction of this place anyway… it’s the location that sets it apart. Tucked away in little ol’ Riverside Park (which is itself underappreciated), the Hudson Beach Café isn’t as high on everyone’s radar of places to eat and drink outdoors like other summer hot spots such as the Boat Basin. (NOTE: the Café is actually IN the park while the address on Unilocal probably reflects the closest mappable location)
Hopefully, the undying NYC thirst for new places esp. with the seasonal focus on outdoor establishments, won’t drown the Hudson Beach in its own increasing popularity. But who can blame anyone for wanting to enjoy drink and food in an idyllic, peaceful park setting complete with a small «beach» (i.e. a patch of sand with some gymlike equipment and space for volleyball) that overlooks the Hudson River?