Check out chef Sherman's
cooking video on Bronxnet

Chef Sherman joins Bronxnet to share and enlighten on the culinary arts as part of the Emmy Award winning program Open. Experience and learn to prepare simple season cuisinine in the vignettes provided below. Click here.

Our Reviews

Michelin Guide 2006 & 2007
	"Very Good"
Crains — Three Stars	"noteworthy chef"
Top 100 NYC Restaurants

Michelin Guide 2007

Close to Van Cortlant Park in the Riverdale Neighborhood, this restaurant sits on a quiet street adjacent to the subway station. Go on a warm, sunny day, when you can enjoy the lovely garden, filled with greenery, flowers and tile-inlaid tables.

Chef/owner Michael Sherman updates his menu daily, but favors game dishes in season (venison, quail, wild boar); his wife, Lisa, creates luscious desserts. It's worth leaving Manhattan for entrees like ostrich filet with cheese grits and lime-poached bass with grilled plums. On weekends, the restaurant features "Blunch", the best of breakfast (apple-cranberry-ricotta pancakes, egg-white frittata) along with typical lunch entrees.

And if you just can't be without your laptop, Riverdale Garden offers wireless Internet access.

Zagat 2007

"Imaginative food in the Bronx, with a quiet little garden seating in the back. The main seating room is comfortable too."

"Best in the area by far! Why bother to travel into Manhattan. Especially attractive in summer because of garden."

"Let chef Mike Sherman shop for in season vegetables prepared any way but traditional, as well as fresh game served very original. a great culinary experience with an affordable tasting menu with wine pairing."

"The decor is unassuming, the service is uneven, but the food is the lure here. The menu is very ambitious, and the results are almost always impressive. The owner/chef is clearly concerned about his customers' satisfaction. I belong to a dining group, and we've eaten at most of Manhattan's top restaurants based on the New York Times, Michelin, and Zagat guides. I was quite sure that the members would enjoy coming to my Riverdale neighborhood restaurant, and indeed they were pleased."

Not For Tourists, NYC

On Our Radar August 22, 2006
A menu that changes daily according to a farmer's recommendations? In da Bronx?... I mean, in the Bronx? Get outta here! Yes, the Riverdale Garden, a five minute walk from the 1 Train's last stop, works closely with an upstate NY farmer to bring its patrons new American cuisine based on the freshest produce available that day. They also partner with New York wineries for a complete home-grown experience, and top it all off with European country decor inside, and, of course, a delightful rustic garden with a great view of the 1 Train. In stark contrast to the local theme, however, is the restaurant's reputation. The Riverdale Garden is one of two Bronx restaurants featured in Michelin's new red guide (Roberto's, in Belmont, is the other), and Zagat's participants gave it a very good review as well.

The New York Times

DINING OUT: Urban Savoir Faire With Suburban Ease
By ALICE GABRIEL; Published: Sunday, July 10, 2005
VERY GOOD
"New American cuisine with unusual integrity is served in a casual urban setting. A modest but tidy interior plays second fiddle to the eccentric garden, where plein-air dining reigns. Recommended dishes — (from a frequently changing menu) Chilled pea soup, gnocchi with bacon and fava beans, seared foie gras, risotto with English peas, mushroom-dusted scallops, pan-seared halibut, poached sea bass with saffron, pan-roasted chicken, ostrich with honeyed apricot sauce, duck breast with lentils, strawberry-rhubarb tart, Meyer lemon tart, mascarpone cheesecake, chocolate three ways." — Read the complete review.

New York Magazine

"Unassuming outside, the restaurant's tasteful interior boasts a wood-burning fireplace, a dark, cozy bar, well-spaced rustic tables and access to a magnificent patio and outdoor garden in back. The pleasant, understated atmosphere leaves the neighborhood families and couples who dine here free to linger over their generous helpings of homegrown haute cuisine. Featuring seasonal, local organic foods, the menu created by Lespinasse veteran Sherman and his wife, pastry chef Lisa Sherman, changes daily. Free-range meat (veal, pork, steak) and fowl (ostrich to Long Island duck) are big on the menu, along with seafood and a few vegetarian dishes, all thoughtfully presented." — Read the complete review .

Crain's New York Business

By Bob Lape, February 21, 2005

"... food and ambience march on at downtown levels, and wine pricing is almost miraculous, far below comparables." — Read the complete review

Time Out NY
Top 100, 2005

There really is a garden at the recently opened Riverdale Garden, along with a backyard patio; both give locals a little taste of bucolic living (albeit within earshot of the subway platform and trainyard). The menu changes daily, but the chef has a fondness for game, including succulent venison with mashed potatoes and asparagus and a moist ostrich fillet. For dessert, try the molten chocolate lava cake or just-like-mom-made-it peach cobbler.

The New York Observer
"Take That, Arthur Avenue! Riverdale Garden Grows in Bronx"
By Bryan Miller, March 14, 2005

"The menu, which the chef tweaks daily, is homey and inviting, with a particular emphasis on game—wild boar, ostrich, venison and elk. I sampled the rack of wild boar, three dark and meaty chops—more succulent than today’s lean-bread pork chops—that were faintly sweetened with carob molasses. Along with it came good, cheesy grits, braised cardoons (reminiscent of celery but slightly sweeter) and cocoa nibs, which are roasted cocoa beans separated from their husks and broken into small bits.... If the Riverdale Garden were in the West Village or Soho, it might quietly blend into the landscape and acquire its own loyal following... [It's] a sizable gift to the Bronx."