I remember taking a tour of Kykuit (the Rockefeller estate in Sleepy Hollow) a few years ago and hearing how John D. Rockefeller loved the view of the Palisades so much that he purchased a huge stretch of land along the Palisades to protect it from development.  I guess when you love your view, you love your view.

We can’t all live on land overlooking the Hudson and the Palisades, but lucky for us, we can eat at restaurants that do, like Blu.  Moki and I were there tonight and had a very nice time.

My one concern going into Restaurant Week was that the restaurants would hold back the good stuff because of the prix fixe and trot out prosaic dishes that they could churn out en masse for cheap.  So I was very pleasantly surprised with the choices on the Blu menu — not a clunker in the bunch.

For his appetizer Moki ordered the watercress salad with blue cheese and grilled pears (which he loved).  I ordered the lobster bisque.

A much bigger bowl than I expected, with just the right thickness and an unmistakable essence of lobster.  Nice.

Moki went with the venison for his entree.  Now, I just recently had venison at X2O, so I’m jaded, but we both agreed that the venison, while tender, was missing something.  It was a little bland and when I took a bite, there was a flavor I found slightly off.

My giant piece of grilled bison with watercress salad and blueberry vinaigrette was juicy, well seasoned, and cooked to a beautifully pink medium.

But do you notice what’s missing from this plate?  It practically screamed out for a starch — a potato, rice, anything to match the meatiness of the bison.  That salad was nice, but when you’re chomping on buffalo, you need to pair it with something bigger and badder than watercress and blueberries.

We were both getting pretty full at this point, and dessert was still to come.  Here’s Moki’s pecan pie (I can’t hear those words without thinking of Billy Crystal: But I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie…)

And this is my bread pudding in bourbon vanilla sauce.

An excellent capper to the meal.  We almost had a third dessert — we were brought an apple cobbler by mistake, and when they realized the error they offered to it us on the house. This cobbler was the size of my head.  There was no way either of us could have tackled the thing, so we politely declined — but a very nice gesture on Blu’s part (their service was flawless all-around).

And the view?  Gorgeous.  John D. Rockefeller was a smart man.   I however, am not.  I forgot to take a picture of it.

GRADE: B+

Blu Riverfront Bar & Bistro
100 River St.
Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
914-478-4481