Restaurant Review
The Bell & Anchor
Another great restaurant in Sag Harbor is The Bell & Anchor. We've been there several times over the past year and it is consistently excellent, both the food and service. Located outside the Village on Noyac Road in Mill Creek Marina, B&A is waterside, with lovely views and outdoor dining in summertime. In addition to the dining room, there is a large welcoming bar where dinner is also served, with reservations taken to be seated there for dinner.
What we really like about The Bell & Anchor is that even though the food (and table cloths, etc,) say "fine dining," it has a casual feel, is open year-round, and is frequented by "locals" as well as the "summer" crowd. Everyone feels welcome, and it has a great vibe due to the mixed crowd, older, younger, hip, not so hip, local and "City."
The food is great and features local seafood. As far as appetizers go, we've sampled several, including the local little neck clams--so fresh and delicious, served with cocktail sauce, a cream based clam chowder with clams, bacon and potato was great. The steamed mussels "Anchor Style," cooked in a Thai influenced broth, got rave reviews! The Caesar salad was classic and the hearts of palm--with bibb lettuce, roasted pistachios, grapefruit sections, and manchego cheese with white balsamic vinaigrette was exceptional.
We have sampled quite a few of B&A's entrees. Highlighting a few favorites--the pan-roasted salmon over ramen noodles in a broth of shiitake mushrooms, edamame, lemongrass, ginger, and carrots is super--a dish you might be thinking about ahead of going there! The pan-roasted local fish, with jasmine rice and tomato-coconut sambal is another winner. The local fish we had was striped bass. It was super fresh and cooked perfectly. For the carnivores, we can attest to the deliciousness of the hanger steak, and burgers. Both on our re-order list, and both include excellent pomme frites!
We haven't been good about leaving room for dessert. I suppose we will have to rectify that, however, we did manage to try the coconut cake with fudge swirl ice cream, and it was lovely and delicious.
B&A has a daily specials menu which includes some of their best-loved dishes at a great prix fixe. By the way, Wednesday is lobster night!
Cocktails and wines were spot on and added to the dining experience.
Bell & Anchor offers up a lovely, waterside, fine dining experience that we HIGHLY recommend!
The Beacon in the Village (Sag Harbor) is a sister restaurant to B&A. It is a beautiful, fun, waterside, second story restaurant with a great bar and fabulous views overlooking the harbor. It has a much different vibe and crowd. The pace is faster and once summer is here, it is a see and be seen spot, busy through the evening and late dining. The menu is different than B&A, and the food and drinks are great-- on par with B&A, and it is also recommended.
Photo Credits: The Bell & Anchor
