Boston Food Blog | Recipe Journal and Boston Restaurant Reviews

Restaurants

The Whole In The Wall Restaurant, Binghamton, NY

While driving through New York state last night, we stopped in Binghamton’s South Bridge Business District for a delightful dinner at The Whole In The Wall Restaurant. We found it using my favorite roadtrip tool Eat Well Guide and were intrigued by the online reviews, especially about the garlic ball.

According to this cozy, down to earth restaurant’s menu, they strive to “serve the highest quality all natural food in a unique and offbeat way.” We could tell right away that the establishment has been pretty sucessful living up to this mission as evidenced by the memorbilia left behind by various pleased customers like Bob Dylan, Phish and REM and the mail order business they now have selling their eclectic pestos (like sundried tomato and ramp flavors), and the fact that the restaurant has been going strong in the same quaint location for 30 years now.

The decor made me smile, earthy and funky but very clean and spacious at the same time. Our waitresses were attentive and friendly. Opening the menu, I kept smiling, with so many vegetables and locally sourced ingredients, organic free range grass fed beef and even brown rice at no surcharge!

We started out with the sundried pesto cheese spread with crackers, Jamacian ginger lemonade and a side salad with the homemade sesame-yogurt dressing.

Old-timey music eminated from an upright piano played by an old man with a calm soothing voice, hitting our ears at just the right volume. We shared a bowl of the famous creamy mushroom soup. After one bite, we knew why this soup is so popular. It is so thick, gravy-like and full of umami. I usually try to figure out what is in awesome flavors are when I find something so delicious as this, but we just decided to enjoy it and not bother thinking about it so much.

Next came the garlic ball. This is no wimpy garlic bread. It is essentially a dense homemade whole wheat roll drenched in garlic butter with parsley. It is chewy, salty, garlicy, gooey, hot and needs to be eaten with a fork and knife. I could understand how someone could not like it – but for garlic lovers like us it was an excellent choice.

Our main dishes – rigatoni with red pepper pesto and lasagna with sauteed bell peppers, zuccini, eggplant, cheddar and creamy butternut squash sauce – were both cooked just right and tasted like they were made with fresh ingredients.

The Whole in the Wall is a golden arrow in the road trip food quiver. I will drool in my sleep looking forward to the next chance I have to stop in Binghamton to enjoy another bowl of their mushroom soup.