Pecks Arcade

4 Reviews on “Pecks Arcade”

• Kevin Vanderwarker

  Big fan! Local favorite with small plates and great atmosphere. Highly recommend for dinner and/or drinks before or after. Check out Lucas Confectionary while youre there too!

  April 25, 2019, 2:03 am

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• Guest

  The food here is incredible, and the staff and chef are extremely friendly and accommodating. No gluten-free menu, but everything on the menu could be made to be, and all their desserts are always gluten free. Our waitress was well-informed and made multiple trips to check with the chef on what was gluten free, after my friends’ dishes came out looking amazing and I wanted to try them. Excellent place, all around.

  January 25, 2016, 8:41 am

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• Roger K

  Im going to start out right up front by stating Im looking for a reason to not give Pecks Arcade the highest possible rating. With that said, I will also state up front that I enjoyed my meal.Our party of four arrived about 5 minutes before our assigned reservation and we were promptly seated. The tables are relatively close together, but not quite so close that your chair bumps into someone behind you when you need to get up. Also, not so close that you can hear the conversations of neighboring tables because the music is playing so loud that you can barely hear the person in your own party sitting across from you. This would definitely ruin any effort to have a romantic, date-night dinner.The music is good for the baby boomers Ill have you know, because if you cant come up with either the title of the song or the artist, the DJ posts the album cover next to his turntable. Fortunately, our table seemed to be the only one that was having those senior moments so no one else kept approaching the DJ or his album covers which were conveniently located three feet from our table.The DJ is adjacent to a very small bar that seats four guests. There are seven house inspired cocktails ($10), eight craft beers only in bottles ($4-$17), six each of white and red wines and a lonely rose by the glass ($9-$15), and two sparkling wines by the glass ($11-$13). I cannot personally speak to the wines other than to say that three in our party had five different wines during dinner and I heard no complaints. As for the beer, these are not your typical craft beers that you find in the local bar with 30 taps or your local brewerys tasting room. I had a Black Boar Imperial Oatmeal Stout from the White Hag Irish Brewing company. It was excellent! To give you a feel for the other choices of brew that were offered, the menu included selections from Narragansett, Two Roads, Jacks Abby, Almanac, Prairie Artisan Ales, Crooked Stave, and Anchorage/Jolly Pumpkin.In the back of the restaurant there is a chefs counter that seats 5 and allows you to oversee the kitchen staff as they prepare the orders for the customers.The servers are very knowledgeable about the menu and can easily explain away any questions you may present to them about it. Its a brief menu, 10 small plates ($8-$16), three pasta entres ($14-$17), four main entres ($14-$26), and a Seafood Tower for parties of 3 or 4 ($175 requires 24 hours advance notice). There are plenty of vegetarian dishes to be had. The night we were there only two of the small plates had meat, one of the pastas, and one of the mains.While the menu is brief, it is not simple. Each dish is a complex combination of ingredients, textures, and flavors requiring painstaking effort in the kitchen. The small plates that were ordered at our table are excellent examples. Shishitos delicious little peppers with tuna conserva, cured yolk, and smoked salt;23 Layer Potato very thin layers of potato combined with gruyere frico, salsa verde, and merlot jam;Wild Mushrooms a blend of wild mushrooms, fregola, charred scallions, and hazelnuts.Grilled Peaches peaches with whipped ricotta, walnuts, and coppa. I dont know if it was because one in our party was celebrating a combination bon voyage and upcoming birthday, but the kitchen sent an additional complimentary small plate, Beets with preserved lemon, crme frache, and pistachio. Each one of these preparations was delicious, but the ones that we agreed were outstanding and would consider ordering again were the Shishitos, the Wild Mushrooms, and the Grilled Peaches.As we moved on to our entres, our water glasses were repeatedly topped off as needed. Two of us lamb lovers ordered the Tagliatella with lamb Bolognese, peas and ricotta. It had nice house made pasta, but the lamb was a bit overpowering. The Striped Bass came across as salty and fishy in the initial taste, but all subsequent mouthfuls, even with the pancetta, succotash, and tomato were fine and tasty. It was, however, brought to our table several minutes after the other three dishes were served. The Duck was, by unanimous consent, the favorite of the entres ordered. The slices of duck breast were nice and rare, served with some chow-chow, frise, and hazelnuts. All the dishes served were carefully and artistically plated. The prices charged were reasonable for the portions served, and an exceptional value considering the thoughtfulness and creativity that was involved in developing each dish. However, while most every dish varied in a degree of goodness, none had that really WOW factor. In spite of that, we decided to continue our search with dessert.We ordered to share, the Brownie with Ice Cream ($10) and the Chevre Cheesecake ($10). The brownie came with house made vanilla ice cream. The brownie had a delicious chocolate flavor, was moist, and chewy, and almost was awarded that WOW distinction had I not had one better from a little old lady earlier in the week. The ice cream was very good. The goat cheese cheesecake, Ill tell you right now, had that WOW sensation! You have to order it if its offered when you are there, and assuming you like goat cheese. And if you dont like goat cheese, convince someone else in your party to order it and please, just taste it.I dont want to forget to mention that there is an additional bar on the second floor of the restaurant and a room with a long table that could be used for private parties. I went upstairs between our apps and entres to take a peek and it was busy with a fully occupied bar. The best part was that it had its own sound system that was at a very tolerable volume. The strangest part we found out was when we went up there after our meal downstairs. They seem to not have any of the typical spirits that you might order after dinner. One in our party requested Grand Marnier, another requested Amaretto, and still another asked for a brandy. Three strike outs! Instead, they offered beverages from bottles that none of us recognized. They were nice enough to allow us to have tastes, and they even mixed some of the different liquids in an effort to concoct the requested beverage. Another thing I couldnt understand was why each of the drinks served had to have a flame put to the edge of the glass before it was served. Its not like they then served a flaming drink. Did they need to burn the alcohol off so we didnt get a DWI on our way home?Now Im faced with deciding how to rate this evenings experience. I think I have to go with a four out of five. Youre welcomed to disagree, but I encourage you to try them. Its an experience.

  November 26, 2015, 10:49 am

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• Saratoga Food Critic

  Eclectic, hip, current and probably the best meal I’ve had since Husk, in Charleston, SC.We sat at the chefs table, which is a high top bar overseeing the food preparation.We were seated promptly upon arrival.The server and chef were delightful and we unsolicited received an appetizer and desert that we didn’t order but really wanted to try. We ordered small plates that included:Pickled pork shoulderEggplant26 layered potatoesRicotta cheese ballScallopsPastaOlive oil cake and oatmeal ice cream Goat cheese cheesecake BrownieI hope Troy continues to provide establishments and food like this as the restaurant scene in Saratoga is becoming boring.Cheers!SFC

  November 16, 2015, 3:31 am

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