Garvan’s was opened 6 years ago by Garvan and Leonie McCloskey to bring a bit of Ireland to New Paltz, NY.  It is located in an historic home that was built in 1759.  The restaurant is spread over 5 spacious rooms in the building that have carpet and lots of windows to the outside.  With the addition of drapes and well spaced tables the noise level is quite nice.  There were no special that evening but the place does offer a full bar.  We were there with family and so my note-writing and picture-taking were limited.  The service was friendly but not particularly attentive.  Our main server took our orders and then disappeared for long periods of time while others brought the food and drinks.  The food was mixed with some plates good while others were quite ordinary.  The bar did turn out good cocktails though and as I said the noise level made it easy to talk.  We didn’t get dessert but I got a photo of the menu.

Set-Up

 

Food

After taking our drink orders the staff brought a basket of Irish soda bread.  It was lightly toasted and very dense, as soda bread often is.  It made something good to munch on while you had a cocktail but they never offered to bring more.

 

Stuffed mushrooms were served with a wild mushroom cream sauce.  They came 3 large ones to an order.  They were stuffed with a meat mixture and topped with cheese, none of which were detailed with the presentation.  The sauce was good and the mushrooms themselves were full of flavor.

 

Seared sea scallops were served over asiago risotto with a lemon beurre blanc. They also came 3 to an order and were perfectly browned on one side.  The risotto was nice and creamy with a mild flavor and the beurre blanc was good with the scallops.  A few leaves of spinach added color to the lovely scallops.

 

The Grilled Ribeye was a tender ribeye served with mashed potatoes, and asparagus then topped with a veal demi-glace.  The mashed potatoes were ordinary but the steaks were thin so I couldn’t detect a lot of cooking difference in the rare and medium.  The beef was slightly chewy and the sauce helped with flavor.

 

Roasted Chicken was an organic semi boneless half bird that was slow roasted and served with French beans drizzled with chicken glace.  My cousin said it was good but I’m afraid I didn’t get a photo.

The Duck Breast was seared and drizzled with brown sugar butter then served with sweet potato puree and asparagus.  There were a ton of mashed sweet potatoes on the plate and 3 spears of asparagus.  I liked the potatoes but my husband thought the seasoning was off.  Again the doneness was more a medium than medium rare but it was tender and not cooked to the point of tasting like liver.  It had been browned but the skin did not retain any crispiness nor did it render most of the fat.  It was fine.