Pamela’s On the Hudson

Went there new years eve with a party of 6 and 4 out of the 6 entries were horrible. 2 came out wrong and 2 were over done, dry and not edible. The sever could care less and had a nasty little attitude and the kitchen could not get it right. I actually went out of my way to allow owner and management to rectify the situation and sent 2 emails to Pamela’s and i received absolutely no response whatsoever. It baffles me that they could care less and did not even bother to respond. We had many, many choices for new years and gave Pamela’s a chance. What a huge mistake. Again. They could care less about customers and providing a positive customer experience. The food was not worth a dime.

We chose Pamela’s for catering a birthday party in Garrison NY. The food was excellent, particularly the flatiron steak and chimmichuri sauce. The service was very good, particularly from Denise. I recommend this caterer without reservation.

What a beautiful setting! Right on the Hudson. The owner and her family were so nice and accommodating. Looking forward to going back!

Event-​Celebrated my daughter’s marriage a second time with friends and family who could not attend the actual wedding due to distance. Service, food, and staff — well above expectations. Room décor charming with white poinsettias added for table center pieces. River view delighted guests.
Several attendees have contacted me about how they enjoyed everything about the afternoon.
Guest total about 60, plus a photo booth.
Highly recommended!!!

Have gone a couple times with my family just to sit at one of the tables by the bar for some quick dinner but every single time we’ve gone we have been basically just forgotten about even when there are barely any people there. The food isn’t BAD but not great. There is something about it that doesn’t taste fresh. Personally the food is over priced but I guess if you want to go and sit around for hours then go to Pamela’s.

I cannot say enough good things about Pamela and her associates. I have thought back many, many times with overwhelming gratitude and appreciation for the way she handled my wedding in 2009. Pamela & crew, I am so sorry it took me this long to let you know just how awesome you were. You went above and beyond, and I can’t thank you enough. She literally made my wedding perfect! Don’t listen to these other reviews – I don’t know HOW they could ever think these things. She has amazing food, great ideas, is flexible and accommodating, is extremely nice and polite (and so is her staff) and goes the extra mile in every way. Thank you so much Pamela!!! And if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me! I could not have been happier and I am a perfectionist.

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR… And more!
After considering several other local caterers for our son’s Bar-​Mitzvah (May 2014) we chose Pamela’s Traveling Feast because of her reputation for high quality food, excellent service, unique style and overall event management. She lived up to her reputation and then some!
Pam paid attention to every detail of our event and honored our every request. She interfaced perfectly with our venue, our photographer, videographer, and our DJ. Pam and her staff were on time the day of the event and were well prepared for every eventuality an off-​site event might pop-​up. The food quality was superb! Our guests raved about the quality of the food and the attentiveness of the staff both during the event and for a weeks afterwards.
The service was as good as the food. We requested and were provided constant napkin folding. The tables were beautifully decorated and were bussed in a timely manor without our guests being rushed. Pam suggested (not demanded) and we agreed to additional wait staff for our 125 guest affair… this proved to be a key to the success of our event. We had a 1 to 8 guest to server ratio, basically one server per table which made everyone feel that personal touch Pamela’s is known for. We could have cheaped out and had five less servers and saved hundreds of dollars, but we’re so glad we took Pam’s expert advice and didn’t cheap out. After the event ended the staff assisted the houseman at our temple in cleaning up the social hall all in one hour… This saved us hundreds of dollars in fees from the venue.
With regard to the food… We trusted Pam to design the entire menu, and we’re so glad we did. The hors d’oeuvres we’re served by strolling cocktail waitresses and they waitstaff seemed to be everywhere. Nobody waited for a bite to eat. I remember my mother, who is very discerning, commenting «I feel like I’m at Tavern on The Green.» The hot hors d’oeuvres (stuffed mushrooms, chicken & beef kabobs, knishes, and mini hot dogs) were all constantly served hot and fresh. The other hors d’oeuvres (bruschetta, smoked salmon, crudités, and tuna tartar) were fresh and plentiful. They seemed to run out of nothing.
Dinner was a huge success. The staff paid attention to every detail. The buffet tables were so nicely decorated and always clean which we attribute to Pam’s unique sense of style & panache. We were particularly impressed how quickly Pam’s staff were able to serve all 125 guests; as the line for the buffet extended the servers simply picked up the pace and the kitchen kept sending out fresh trays of everything. There seemed to be an endless supply of beef, chicken, fish, pasta (3 kinds), and salad. All of the food was fresh and had a unique taste… not your typical bland catering for the masses.
What’s a Bar-​Mitzvah without a good bar? Another compliment our guests shared with us was the bar service. Our open bar was open from the start of the cocktail hour until the last guest left. The bartender was personable, witty, and intuitive… I was even served my favorite cocktail after everything was packed up. The bartender proved himself to be highly skilled pouring some obscure cocktails… The best part was that the bar was fully stocked with all the liquors one could imagine and they never ran out of anything… Not even ice and there was no ice machine! This again goes to you get what you pay for… We agreed on a price and Pam went above and beyond to deliver.
The only negative feedback we got from a few guest was that we (the hosts) weren’t offered the left overs… In defense of that, based on the extra effort Pam & her staff put into making our event memorable I think it would have been tacky to ask her to pack-​up what little was left… There’s no need to be a pig when you’re treated like a king for the day… I hope the staff enjoyed the food as we directed Pam to send the leftovers home with her workers.
All this memorialized on professional video and in pro stills.
Oh… Did I mention she hosted my wife and I at her restaurant a week later and refused to let us pay our tab? Now that’s a classy move!
In short… we look forward to hiring Pamela’s for our next event in 2017 and in our opinion she’s among the best in the the Hudson Valley!
This review is unsolicited and I welcome your phone call or email if you’d like to know more… If there is any more to say.

Pamelas on the Hudson was open for Mothers Day Brunch and I would well advise others to look elsewhere before booking anything here.
They were not ready to open at 1030am and were still setting up as they opened the doors to guest waiting in the parking lot… weird.
The price was about 25.00-average for holiday brunch but the food was bland to say the least and the buffet layout was terrible so there was quite a bit of bottle-​necking when trying to get food.
The staff was less than satellite enough but looked they they just rolled out of bed and slow in getting drinks, clearing dishes, bringing change etc. The staff all wore different clothing so you didn’t know who worked there and the omelet station guy had excess of tattoos hanging out-​not befitting for a company who makes their money catering events. I certainly did not expect Four Season service, but I think the staff at your local diner looks more presentable.
To top it off they added an 18% tip to the bill for service!!! At a buffet with a table of 5 adults??? CRAZY-​I wouldn’t have expected that anywhere even places that gave good service nevermind a dingy little dated restaurant with bland cold food and slow moving staff.
Not alot of places to choose from in Newburgh, but you’d be well advise to hit the next town over-​the only saving grace here is a decent view

I went to a wedding reception here. Pamela’s has a bit of a reputation throughout the area for good food, and while it’s far from being a bad place, I was expecting a whole lot more from the cuisine.
I think what set the tone for me regarding Pamela’s was the staff. The wedding I attended was small — no more than 50 people — so compared to typical weddings where staff members really have to hoof it to serve 150 guests or more, the three waitresses at the reception I attended really shouldn’t have had too much of a problem. The guests at the wedding weren’t demanding, the entrée was served buffet-​style, and as an early-​afternoon reception, things were a bit more relaxed than they would have been at an evening affair.
Yet the waitresses seemed totally pissed off by the fact that they had to be anywhere in the vicinity of Pamela’s, and it showed. One of the waitresses serving at the cocktail hour was glum to the point of moroseness, and when she accidentally dropped a flute of cider that she was delivering to a table — why these hadn’t been laid out on the tables prior to guests’ arrival was beyond me — she let out a very audible «Shit.» Yes, you don’t want to drop anything when you’re serving, but if you do you want to maintain a certain level of professionalism in front of the guests and «shit,» just doesn’t have that professional ring to it.
However, just before the flute of cider made its spectacular implosion on the carpet, it made a detour on the way down and splattered all over the groom’s mother. The waitress seemed more concerned with the fact that the cider had spilled on the carpeting which, if I’m going to be particular, isn’t fantastic carpeting, than the fact that it had landed on a guest. I’m going to excuse this lack of interest only because I was told by people at my table that the groom’s mother was a real pill and made life difficult for the bride and members of her family, so perhaps the cider was an exercise in karma. But karma or not, when it comes right down to it the waitress should have been more concerned about the guest than the ratty carpeting.
That waitress disappeared after the cocktail hour was over, only reemerging to serve the cake and coffee. The buffet table was staffed by her fellow server and an older waitress, both of whom looked harassed the entire time. The buffet table was not strategically placed, either. It was located so close to the guest tables that when the line for the buffet backed up it invaded the space of people who were still seated.
The food choices consisted of a roast, chicken marsala, penne vodka, mashed potatoes and vegetables, and the carving of the roast really slowed things down. The waitress in charge of that station didn’t carve quickly, and she acted as if the entire process was a huge chore. To top things off, she was the sole server of all the entrees at one point when the older waitress went back and forth to the kitchen to pick up additional trays of food. Needless to say, service for the buffet table was very slow, and it stopped altogether at one point when the server cutting the roast dropped the knife on the floor and ended up taking forever to come back from the kitchen with a new one. What took so long?
The food wasn’t bad — I had the penne vodka, vegetables and mashed potatoes — but it wasn’t what I was expecting from Pamela’s. It tasted like typical wedding food from a standard, but not high-​end, caterer. I wasn’t floored. In addition, Pamela’s had some serious lapses in food quality. The dinner rolls that went with the salad were stale, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed. You could have broken a window with those things. In addition, the servers had placed the wedding cake near the front of the room, in front of the gift table but outside the line of sight of nearly every guest. I only knew it was there because I walked past it on the way to the bathroom. Guests actually expressed surprise when the cake was brought out for the cutting because they actually thought there wasn’t one. It was a wedding. Guests shouldn’t have thought that the cake didn’t exist. End of story.
When the cake was brought out to be cut, the older waitress — why her younger counterparts didn’t do the heavy lifting is beyond me — and a fellow employee from the kitchen nearly dropped it on the dance floor. They made a good save, but they clearly shouldn’t have been put in charge of the cake and its table. Plus, they looked pissed off at the fact that the cake nearly fell. When the older waitress cut the cake and served it a short time later, she put on a plastic food-​service glove and slapped slices of cake onto people’s plates. Nothing like service with a smile!
I will admit that Pamela’s did a decent job with the cocktail hour food and the cake was fine, but their entrees were lacking and their service was quite poor. I’m not sure I’d recommend them to those looking for a caterer.