Alvin & Friends
“You can't help but admire the fabulous artwork gracing the walls, all created by the owner.”
“The pleasant sounds of a live Jazz band provided perfect tone-setting and festive background.”
“It often seems as though dining in the New York City area (Westchester, too) is a highly segregated activity.”
Alvin & Friends
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Alvin & Friends initially wasn't the place we were going to have lunch but the outdoor seating with white table cloths were inviting, and as well, Alvin himself opened the door for us and welcomed us to say yes we can eat on the patio and the "food is delicious"
He was right. We had a great lunch break because of this classic southern style restaurant with lovely service. Spacious on the inside, decently spacious patio space.
FOOD: 5/5
AMBIANCE: 5/5
SERVICE: 4.5/5
VALUE: 4.5/5
OVERALL: 4.5/5
First, and very important and memorable was the basket of fresh mini cornbread muffins that appeared on our table within seconds. When you are this hungry, this is the most wonderful thing.
Plates ordered among our group: fried catfish wrap, grilled shrimp remoulade wrap, arugula salad with southern style fried chicken (instead of grilled chix).
All of us loved each of our items. My friends said they would go back in an instant to eat it every week. Mine, while I realize was a special request, I thought that the chicken would be in strips to be more easily consumed. Rather, I got a drumstick and a white meat thigh with leg. The chicken was delicious, juicy, and perfectly breaded and fried. However, I thought it was a bit odd that the chicken did come in these large pieces clearly not suitable to eat with a knife and fork easily, so I ate with my fingers. Anyway, eating fried chicken with your hands always makes it taste better 😉 😛 the arugula salad was heavily dressed with creole mustard; if I order it again, I would ask for a lighter hand on the dressing. Would come back for happy hour or dinner when I could. it is a bit pricier ($$-$$$)
Looks like a lovely place to have brunch, where everyone will take care of you.
Only other tip I would have for them is to speed up the service (post meal), since we had asked 3 times for the check and we were in a hurry.
This place was good. And for New Rochelle? This place was absolutely fantastic.
We visited Alvin and friends on a tuesday for my girlfriends birthday. It was an interesting ambiance, very open and airy which I liked. There was an abundance of artwork all done by the same artist so I am assuming either one of Alvin's friends ( no pun intended) or a local artist. Overall, the vibe was southern plantation like.
Cornbread was served for the table which I thought was a nice touch. I had the ox-tail stew which was delicious. It was served on a bed of rice and peas and had some type of seasoned cabbage on top. Granted, this was the first time I had ox-tail, however the meat was falling off the bone and was flavored to the 10th power. I also had a side of smoked mac n cheese which certainly ranks in my top 5 mac n cheeses. My girlfriend and her mother both had the fried chicken which they both agreed was among the best they have ever sampled. We skipped desert, though the coconut cheesecake is still on my mind.
Service was impeccable and everyone serving us was extremely nice and well mannered. ( Just as important as the taste of the food IMHO).
A tip to Alivin as I see he reads most of these reviews, spring for some better takeout containers! Ours leaked all over the floor before we left.
Will def return.
This review is based on the tribute to Prince at the restaurant.
The restaurant advertised on social media that they were having a tribute to Prince and offering happy hour prices all evening so my girlfriend and I decided to go. This was my first time at there although it has been on my "to do" list for quite some time.
When we arrived there was a nice size crowd there and business at the bar was booming. I was very surprised to see they only had two bartenders – one working each side of the bar (or so I thought). The woman bartender who I placed my order with, was very easily distracted. I gave her my order but then someone else asked her something and she stopped making my drink to make their order. Then she moved on to someone else for their order…..all the while forgetting that I placed an order. I had to remind her about it again before she made it. I ordered a "My Little Pumpkin" drink – or something like that. It's made with pumpkin liqueur, vodka and kahula but she forgot the ice or gave me very little ice and the drink was warm. The drink was $8 and I think with tax it came to $8.65 – I gave her a $20 and she only gave me back bills. Excuse me….where is my change? Even though it's only 35 cents I thought that was presumptuous of her to keep it. It took my girlfriend even longer to get her drink when she went to the other side of the bar. When she asked to speak with a manager about not having enough help it turned out that the other bartender was the manager who told her that they weren't prepared for such a large turnout. Excuse me? How do you advertise on social media but not be prepared? We were both confused at his response and the fact that he would say that to a customer.
So we asked for a table in the restaurant area as there wasn't any place to sit at the bar. My girlfriend ordered a bowl of macaroni and cheese (her fav) at the bar and it had arrived before we sat down. I asked her how was it and she said "just ok" which was disappointing because I was considering ordering it. I have to say it took a long time for us to get a waiter to bring us menus and then come back to take our orders. At that point I was getting a little tired of the situation there so I ordered an appetizer of BBQ wings. The waiter suggested that we try the drink special "Purple Rain" in honor of Prince and we agreed. I don't remember what was in the drink, however, it was not good at all! My girlfriend said the same thing – she didn't like it either! My wings came without blue cheese dressing and I asked the guy who brought my plate if they have any and his response was "I don't know" and walked away. So I was like…..ummmmm ok I guess I'm eating them dry and dry they were! They were really overcooked and didn't have much flavor. At that point we were ready to leave – once again we had to wait and wait and wait for our bill and when it finally does come he charged us full price for the nasty drinks. When we brought to his attention that he said they were the drink special he told us that the special price is only at the bar. Ummm, excuse me….why did you suggest and say it was a special if the specials were only at the bar? He apologized and went to get us a new check. Once again we waited and waited and waited until finally we just left the money on the table because he never came back.
I don't think I will go back as this restaurant doesn't seem to have their act together.
A decent restaurant right downstairs. So convenient and the food is good. Not many people in the restaurants so you feel spacy. Will come again soon in the future.
Went here recently at the recommendation of my aunt and uncle, who do care about good food. To put it bluntly, the meal was a disappointment. The food ranged from mediocre to sub par, and the service was really rough.
Crab Cake – Bland and mostly filler. It was brought after the table had received their entrées, because they had simply forgotten somebody's. Not "Oh, it'll be out in a minute," but just plain forgot about.
Calamari Salad – One of the better things they served. Plentiful and flavorful. The calamari tasted fresh.
Fried Oysters – Not particularly good. And there were only 4, despite the table being 5 people. For thirteen bucks, they could have probably given us one more.
Creole Salmon Ceviche – Strangely big pieces. Under seasoned. Not that great. Not served with crackers or bread or anything for the juice.
Creole Seafood Linguini – This was the item they forgot. And somehow when it came out, the linguini was overcooked to the point it was nearly mushy.
New Smoked and Braised Lamb Shank – Looked really pretty, but lacked lamb flavor. I wanted smokey, I wanted flavor. I didn't get it.
The waiter wasn't particularly great. I asked him what kind of scotches the bar had, and he didn't know. He also didn't tell one of my dining companions that they were out of the Sauteed Garlic Spinach. Maybe he was hoping that nobody would notice? Well, we noticed. And then he replaced it with grilled zucchini, which wasn't particularly good.
We were a party of 17 for a birthday dinner. Each course was served at a reasonable time. Waiters were nice but in the beginning they seemed annoyed and not friendly. But throughout the course of dinner they seem to warm up.
Ambiance very nice. Dress either dressy casual or dressy. Front room there is a live band. Back room (where my party was) there was jazz music playing the background. Very nice and relaxing.
So reason for 3 star is the food. Not impressed at all. Maybe it's because I'm not too into southern food, or because it was a three course pre-fix, but I felt the food lacked flavor.
Cornbread was really good. The best part of the meal.
Catfish was just okay. The tartar sauce on top added so much flavor. Without it wasn't that good. I did not like mash potatoes at all.
My boyfriend said the fried chicken had no flavor. He liked the collard greens and Mac and cheese. I tried the Mac and cheese. Too watery.
There was a desert platter: brownie with walnuts, chocolate cake, and bread pudding. I choose the brownie and chocolate cake. Both tasted like store bought deserts. Other people said the bread pudding was really good.
Would I come back, probably not. But, thank you for the nice ambiance and smooth jazz music.
Came back for dinner and had a great time.
Dinner is definitely more pricey and range around $23 – $35. I tried the Alvin Rum Punch ($12) and absolutely loved it. I will definitely order it again when I return. I also tried the ginger creme brulee ($9) and liked it a lot…even though I am not a huge fan of the ginger flavor.
Now, only if I could find a time to return and try its brunch menu…will be sure to drop another review when I do.
The atmosphere of the place is great. It's very modern/trendy feeling and they have live music on certain nights. We came in on a rainy weekday so the restaurant was relatively empty. They seated us in a more desirable area of the restaurant and we enjoyed the views. The rum punch here was pretty good, but has some room for improvement. My wife went with the fried chicken entree and I had the jerk duck breast. Both of which were good, but not amazing. If I ever come back here, it will be strictly for the small plates and the drinks.