The Red Caboose Restaurant & Bar

If you are in the mood for a good burger, then Red Caboose is the place for you.
The portobello pesto burger is out of this world. I’ve also tried the salmon and elk burger and both were delicious as well.
However, I will warn you the delicious burger comes at a price of extremely slow service. My friends and I once had to wait so long for our burgers that we ended up paying for a basket of bread to hold us over.
If it is warm outside, it is definitely worth it to eat here on their outdoor brick patio. The string lights and heated lamps allow this patio to be the ultimate outdoor eating atmosphere! My family and I lucked out twice and were able to eat outdoors mid October. It is by far one of the best out door eating options in Oneonta.
Overall, if you are in the mood for a delicious burger or if the weather is warm enough to eat outdoors, I highly recommend the Red Caboose!

The food here is absolutely delicious! Every thing I ordered, from my appetizer (mussels) to the bread, to the soup, to my main entrée (steak and potatoes) exceeded my expectations! Everything was perfect and scrumptious. Everything was extremely flavorful because they use a variety of spices in their food and just the right amount. The service was great and the place itself has a cool and trendy atmosphere to it. It feels sophisticated but comfortable and not stuffy. I will definitely be back when I come to Oneonta again!

Great, unexpected surprise!!! Excellent dinner and cold beer but most of all the service was fantastic. Our waitress was warm, funny and willing and able to share a lot of thoughts on the menu, the area… We’d go back in a minute…

Excellent food and excellent service! Hamburgers are delicious and a wide variety of food choices!

I went to college in Oneonta and this is one of my favorite places to eat. Its nice and cozy with a open kitchen. It is high on the price but that doesnt matter for good food (hudson valley duck breast) and drinks (try the Mckenzie black cherry hard cider).
P. S. best to call ahead for seating.

We love this little gem. Can’t wait to go back.

During a trip to the Upstate New York, I had a pleasant dinner at The Red Caboose in Oneonta. This farm-​to-​table restaurant incorporates ingredients that are fresh and seasonal. I liked the open kitchen at the back of the restaurant, but the real magic happens downstairs in the basement kitchen. The waitresses bring up the food from the basement, and only the finishing touches happen on the ground level.
I had the Butternut Squash Soup ($ 6) and the Hudson Valley Duck Breast ($ 25). The butternut squash was really rich and creamy. There was a dollop of ricotta cheese that just melted in my mouth. The chef added sprinkles of julienne scallion and grilled bread on top of the soup.
I also shared the Potato Skin appetizer. This dish was served more like a baked potato, but the skin was so perfectly crispy! The potato is topped with plenty of sour cream, scallion, and bacon bits. There is a layer of cheese on top, and the potato tastes more like smooth, creamy mashed potato. I would highly recommend this dish.
My main was ironically my least favorite. The plate had about six slices of duck breast, which were tender but not as juicy as I would have liked. I absolutely loved the sweet potato purée, but the mushroom gravy sauce was WAY too thick and rich for my liking. Also the shaved cabbage/​brussel sprouts seemed to have been deep-​fried. It was so oily! The whiskey soaked cherries added a nice sweet flavor, but again the oil in the vegetables was too overpowering.

Previous experience was excellent. Today was not. Liz our waitress completely mailed it in. Food was hit or miss. My arugula salad had way too much dressing, pooling on my plate. My husband’s ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ burger was very good. Liz did not inquire on food quality until end of meal, no chance to send salad back.
We were handed the lunch menu when we arrived. Had some great looking salads on it. Liz took that away from us after we waited on service as it had now apparently become dinner-​time.
Not sure if worth giving another chance with their high prices.

Had dinner during college visit. Food was great and service was little slow but would recommend.

The food was delicious, however my 5 & 8 year olds hated it. My husband had to leave the restaurant with them to grab additional food while my parents and I finished dinner. The waitress seemed to be rushing us a bit too much for my taste, but I’ll let that slide. I’m more interested in great food!

There are not many great restaurant choices in Oneonta (see my review of Fiesta Mexican Restaurant on Main Street), but The Red Caboose leads the pack. That is to say, the food is edible but certainly nowhere near outstanding.
My Portobello mushroom sandwich featured a Portobello that was only about ²⁄₃ the size of the bun (= lotsa bread).
My son ordered the calamari appetizer as an entrée, which he did enjoy.
My husband had the salmon burger, which he was pretty certain was made with canned salmon (I just informed him that The Red Caboose claims to be a farm-​to-​table restaurant, something we only discovered when looking at their menu online. My husband’s response: «Well, that means they ruined what was probably really good salmon.») Sigh.
The outdoor seating area is pleasant, so it might be a better place for drinks and an appetizer.

Delicious food and ambiance! Service is a little slow so it gets it 4 stars. Otherwise overall great restaurant.

I stopped here with my teens after a long day viewing colleges and we were delighted by the meal and the service… hours later I realized with dismay that I left my purse at the restaurant.
When I called they located the purse and not only sent it to me by overnight mail but paid for it themselves! I told them there was cash to cover it but they left everything intact.
There are a few good people in this world and these guys are some of them. The food was enough to post a recommendation but that kind of service is worth going there for.

We stopped by the Red Caboose for drinks and appetizers recently and had an interesting time. Not necessarily the best experience, but pretty good. Allow me to explain.
It was late afternoon on a Friday. It was still early enough that there were very few people in the restaurant — we were two out of probably six people there. We took a seat at the bar and were greeted warmly by the gentleman behind the bar. He was spot on with beer and wine recommendations and even offered us a small basket of fries, on the house. Nice touch.
We ordered a few appetizers, as we were meeting others for dinner later that evening. That’s where things got a bit wonky — because we ordered the mussels. Well, the mussels came out, and before he even set them on the bar in front of us, we gave each other a glance. Yes, the smell. They REALLY didn’t smell right. We didn’t even need to look at them.
A minute or so later, when the bartender came back to see if everything was OK with our appetizers, we noted the issue; he immediately took them away and asked if we’d like anything else instead. We demurred.
Shortly thereafter, we noted him heading downstairs, into the basement and then reappearing about a minute later. He talked with somebody in the kitchen and then came back over to us.
Yes, he said, the mussels, in fact, were not good. Their supplier had apparently been having trouble getting fresh ones lately (which is not hard to believe, given the winter the east coast has had this year), so the supplier had instead provided them with pre-​cooked vacuum packed mussels. And they all apparently turned out to be not up to the standard of the Red Caboose.
So, while we were definitely grateful to have been told what had happened, it really would have been nice not to have had this happen, if the kitchen had just recognized the issue in the first place.
Would we go back to the Red Caboose? Yes, I think so. It’s a nice restaurant with good food (with one exception), and nice places in Oneonta need to be supported. The next time we’re in town, we will be back.

First time here. Visiting the area. Had the grilled chicken salad and the chicken sandwich. The best French fries. great place :)

Extremely busy on a Saturday night but I found a spot at the copper bar. Passing over the much admired butternut squash soup, I ventured for the carrot ginger with toasted hazelnuts — excellent taste and texture. Wonderfully charismatic barman recommended Michigan Two-​Hearted ale — and I was off. The seared salmon with truffled spinach could also not be bear. Overall a very hearty, wholesome and tasty meal in friendly and professional company. (My only complaint was that the little plate next to my soup, begging for bread, remained empty). Bravo everyone!

I had the gnocchi with asparagus pesto (which was pretty good, kinda skimpy on the cheese dollop), but also wanted the Hudson valley duck (it sounded good and the pictures on Unilocal looked good). So I went back the next night to get the duck. I’m not sure what to say about this dish. The duck was tough to cut due to the tendon in the center. The shaved baby cabbage was burnt (mostly black with some brown, no green at all) this should have not been served at all, tasted more like fried onion strings cooked to long. The sweet potato purée and mushroom ragu were good and all together tasted pretty good, but not worth $ 24 with the burnt brussel sprouts.

If you lived on the upper west side this place might even go unnoticed.
But this is the middle of nowhere upstate NY. No disrespect to the fine students and tenured staff of SUNY Oneonta.
One of which is sitting to my left at the copper topped bar of this lovely establishment.
Ridiculously imaginative cocktails worthy of the Oak Room. Top notch entrees. Don’t miss the duck breast or the beef tenderloin
Above all of this. Each server from bartender to line cook to bartender is deeply committed to putting out the best food and experience possible.
This is on a Tuesday night when they are serving a no name douchebag.
For this they receive my rare and coveted five stars.

It’s all about the great incredible food. The service can be challenging time to time. They tend to have new staff all. But the food is consistently fresh good local produce.

The Red Caboose, they’ve definitely figured something out. Casual, warm, welcoming atmosphere, a friendly staff and delicious food are a great mix.
Don’t get upset if you think your portion is small, you will clean your plate and feel comfortably satisfied.
The pork with fig jam and Brussels sprouts was perfect. Perhaps a quirky artisan bread would have been the only thing missing.
On to dessert.