ALTHOUGH not up to the polish, sweep and romance of the Greenbrier, West Virginia’s grand conference and resort accommodation, the Doral Arrowwood Conference Resort in Rye Brook offers relaxation and cosseting in a lower key. Though it has conference rooms galore, this complex is not only for business meetings but also for romantic weekends and family getaways.
Tucked among Arrowwood’s 114 acres are tennis courts, a nine-hole golf course, terraces and indoor and outdoor pools. The property is beautifully maintained, both outside and in.
Diners need not be part of a conference or a weekend package to enjoy the public rooms of the hotel and its many mealtime opportunities. Nonguests can stop in any day for breakfast, lunch or dinner. To dine with the best views of the pond, woods and manicured greens, head for the lofty glass-walled Atrium.
Our visits included a weeknight à la carte dinner, a Saturday night “Dinner Dance Seafood Extravaganza” buffet and a Sunday buffet brunch. While most dishes were bland or inoffensively seasoned, on the plus side was careful timing, so meats and fish retained their texture and moistness.
The hotel might have been having a slow night when we arrived for the à la carte dinner. We sat with a scant half-dozen other diners in a room that can seat up to 250.
Our selections were no better or worse than those offered at the grand weekend buffets. We had ho-hum bean and sausage soup and equally bland Caesar salad. Chunky, juicy scallops came tumbled with poor quality linguine and lobster-flaked cream sauce. But the salmon, the grilled swordfish and the char-broiled rib-eye steak were done to the moment.
On a Saturday night, the same dining room was filled to capacity with customers for the dinner-dance buffet. And dine and dance they did, to a four-piece ensemble playing standards. We could have been at a wedding reception without the bride and groom.
The great advantage of the Atrium’s generous buffets is that you can sample bits of a number of dishes and then return in earnest for those you like — perhaps going heavy on the new-potato salad with smoked salmon the second time around and passing on the mushy baked manicotti.
The serving tables hold more than three dozen appetizers, salads and entrees, in addition to breads and rolls and a mountain of large peel-your-own shrimp. The attentive staff refreshes and replenishes selections frequently, even toward the end of seatings. A carving station with turkey and gorgeous roast beef stands at the ready. Oysters and clams on the half shell and whole steamed lobster kick in at the seafood buffet, replaced by omelet and waffle stations at the buffet brunch.
Whether partaking of the buffets or eating à la carte, diners will probably want to “just take a look” at the dessert table, a spread worthy of Willy Wonka, with tiers of tarts, cakes (including a sugarless cheesecake), petits fours, pies (whose crusts are too hard), cookies and fruits. Or end the meal with ice cream, soft or hard, with all the sundae trimmings one could ever want.
The Atrium
At the Doral Arrowwood
975 Anderson Hill Road
Rye Brook
(914) 935-6600
www.doralarrowwood.com
GOOD
THE SPACE Grandly proportioned restaurant in an attractive, well-maintained Western-style resort hotel and conference center. A glass wall offers views of golf course greens and a pretty pond. Patio seating when weather permits.
THE CROWD Lively when the hotel buzzes with guests staying for conferences or sports tournaments; quiet on almost-empty weeknights. Saturday night dinner-dance draws a multigenerational crowd of couples and families. Live music (but no dancing) at Sunday brunch buffet.
THE BAR The Atrium has no bar, but drinks are available. There is a wrap-around bar and a lounge with a fireplace in the Pub, down the hall.
THE BILL Breakfast buffet, $12.50. Lunch buffet, $21. Dinner entrees, $14 to $26. Saturday dinner-dance buffet (Seafood Extravaganza until Labor Day), $43. Sunday brunch, $32.50.
WHAT WE LIKE Menus change daily; buffets occasionally replace à la carte menus on weeknights, and children’s menus are available. Jumbo shrimp, cheese ravioli, roast beef, grilled swordfish, seared Atlantic salmon, broiled rib-eye steak. Buffet tables have dozens of choices supplemented by a carving station.
IF YOU GO Breakfast, Monday to Friday, 6:30 to 11 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 7 to 10:15 a.m. Lunch, Monday to Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 2:30 p.m. Sunday brunch seatings at 11:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. Dinner, Sunday to Friday, 5:30 to 10 p.m.; Saturday (buffet only), 6 to 11 p.m. Reservations recommended.
Reviewed Aug. 6, 2006
