Syracuse Dining and Attractions

Dining and attractions listed here are quite subjective (opinions are mostly Sebastian’s) in the hope that’s both more interesting and more useful than a long list of places. You can find lots more information on the website of the local Tourism information.

Dining

Marshall Street Restaurants

Marshall Street restaurants, right next to your Milton House apartments, cater to a primarily undergraduate clientele – you won’t find culinary revelations here, but mostly large serving sizes at reasonable-ish prices, with plenty of national chains represented.

Sebastian’s Tips

• College Town Bagels: It is the one possible exception to what was said before. It’s the Syracuse offshoot of a legendary Ithaca Bagel joint that serves quality New York-style bagels.
• Salt City Coffee: Salt City specializes in creative ‘coffee drinks’ (if you like that type of thing…I’m barely judging), but they do also make good regular pours and shots.

Local Restaurants

• Varsity Pizza: Long-time established and classic SU venue, offering pizza, wraps, and salads (better than those at Gerry’s cafe, in Maria Laura’s opinion), plus other classic American offerings.
• Purple Banana: offering bowls, smoothies, juices, and salads.
• Mediterranean Combo: classic low-key Mediterranean food option.
• Poke Fish
• Royal Indian Grill
• Taste of Asia
• Bleu Monkey Cafe

National Chains

• Chipotle Mexican Grill
• Five Guys
• Pita Pit
• Popeyes
• Subway

Westcott Street Restaurants

A pleasant ~25mins walk, much of it through verdant Thornden Park, the Westcott neighborhood (or ‘Westcott Nation’) is where many graduate students and faculty live, as do some of the city’s more colorful characters. The stretch between Euclid and Dell Street has a nice set of restaurants, stores, and cafes.

Sebastian’s Tips

• Recess Coffee The original home of Recess coffee, a local, 2nd wave roaster and coffee shop. I think the coffee is only good, but the ambience of this location in an old residential house invites you to stay around and read.
• Alto Cinco
  Alto Cinco is a local staple for Mexican food. The food quality is good, though don’t go if you’re looking for ‘authentic’ Mexican food. ‘Alto’ has an excellent bar and some outdoor seating that’s popular both in the evenings and for weekend brunch.
• Yeti Cafe Yeti started out as a Frozen Yogurt place, and then added an assortment of soups and yogurts. Opened right before the pandemic, it somewhat surprisingly survived. The frozen yogurt is what you’d expect, the soups and sandwiches quite good, the service charming.

Other notable options

• Colucci
  The most recent addition to Westcott dining serves a small menu of classic Italian options; local food critics like it. Colucci has a significant vegan menu.
• Rise and Shine Diner
  Very popular brunch place. I think the food is style over substance, but lots of people love it – their online menu has pictures.
• Taps Bar
  Local dive bar. Cheap beer, free popcorn, pool and darts. For some reason they want two pieces of ID if you don’t have a New York State ID. I have been advised not to engage in a debate with the bouncer on whether that violates the commerce clause, advice that I’m passing on. Cash only(!).

Downtown Syracuse Restaurants

Syracuse Downtown has the widest range of restaurants in all price ranges. Downtown is 20-30mins by foot (though it is honestly not the most pleasant walk) or a short cab, e-scooter, or bus ride from Milton.

Sebastian’s Tips

• Salt City Market
  Salt City Market is an international food hall with 10 different vendors representing Syracuse’s diversity, culinary and otherwise. The vendors are all excellent in their own way (I’m especially fond of Mamma Hai), there’s outdoor seating, a great origin story, foosball tables, a vibrant bar in the evenings…
• Water Street Bagels
  If you were unlucky enough to be a hipster living in Syracuse, this is where you’d grab your breakfast and feel for a moment like you’re in Brooklyn. That’s not just because of the bare brick walls, but also because the bagels, baked in a wood-fired oven, give their downstate cousins a run for the money.

The Classics

• Pastabilities
  Has been serving pasta (much of it housemade) with its iconic “stretch bread” (Central New Yorks take on ciabatta) and spicy tomato oil for 40 years. It’s been featured a bunch on Guy Fieri’s shows. It’s often hard to get a table – the food is very good, though maybe a bit overpriced
• Dinosaur BBQ
  I don’t know why there’s a famous BBQ restaurant in Syracuse, but there is. As a vegetarian, I don’t have much of an opinion, but the general consensus seems to be that it’s high quality.

Fine Dining

These may be above your budget for every-day fare, but if you are looking for a special meal, these are your best choices:

• Eden
  Eden makes farm to table food with hyperlocal ingredients, almost all of it cooked over an open fire. The result is one of the region’s best restaurants. Vegetarian options are limited but available. Both the bar and the wine menu (both also leaning heavily into local wines and spirits) are outstanding.
• Noble Cellar
  With a stunning dining room In an old church, Noble Cellar stormed onto the scene about two years ago, is often mentioned as the best restaurant in town, and is frequently packed even on weeknights. Like Eden, it has a short, seasonal menu but with a stronger French influence.

Restaurants Elsewhere in Syracuse

All of these are in Syracuse but a bit harder to get to, so listing only what I (Sebastian) think is worthwhile making the trip to

• Red Chili
  Syracuse has a fair number of decent Chinese places that serve the growing Chinese population, but this is probably the standout Chinese (mainly Szechuan) restaurant. They do deliver.
• Ky Duyen Cafe
  This little hole in the wall place makes what is widely considered the best Banh Mi sandwich in town.
• Biscotti Cafe
  One of the few places that remain in Syracuse’s ‘Little Italy’, Biscotti makes authentic Italian pastries, arguably the city’s best cakes (though Cake Bar in Salt City Market might disagree), and gelato. It is close to Ky Duyen, if you want to make a trip out of it.
• Cracked Bean
  In Eastwood, another popular residential neighborhood, Cracked Bean coffee and roaster makes the best coffee in town, pulling shots exclusively from single origin roasts. They also have good pastries and it’s a pleasant place to read and work. There are a couple of used bookstores nearby.
• Gannons
  In the “Valley”about 5 miles from campus, this place makes the best local ice cream. As you’d expect, it’s packed when it’s hot outside, but they handle the traffic efficiently.

Food Trucks

• The Syracuse Food Truck coalition runs a website and you can sign up for notifications to know when particular food trucks will be in the area of campus (near Crouse Hospital)

Nearby Grocery Stores

You can buy some very basic groceries at CVS (next door to the Milton apartments) or the Campus Market. Most actual groceries stores are a bit awkward to get to without a car, but it’s certainly doable.

• Syracuse Cooperative Market
  A small, community-owned neighborhood store with an emphasis on local and organic options and (for some reason) hard to find specialty beers. Produce tends to be pricey; bulk foods are well-priced.
  • Monday - Sunday: 8:00am - 9:00pm
• ALDI
  • Monday - Sunday: 9:00am - 8:00 pm
• PriceRite
  Another low-cost, limited-selection option, PriceRite has the best selection of Mexican ingredients (especially everything Goya) in town (though that’s not saying a lot).
  • Monday - Saturday: 8:00 am - 9:00 pm
  • Sunday: 8:00 am - 8:00 pm
• Asia Food Market
  Large and well sorted Asia store with an emphasis on Chinese ingredients.
  • Monday - Sunday: 9:00 am - 8:00 pm
• Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry (Low cost option)
  Located in the lower level of Hendricks Chapel on campus
  • Mondays 1:00 - 3:00 pm
  • Thursdays 12:00 - 4:00 pm

Events While You’re Here

• Syracuse Jazz Fest
  The Jazz Fest brings some of the world’s best known Jazz artists as well as regional jazz musicians to Syracuse from June 25-29. The first two days have smaller shows in local bars and restaurants, those of you staying until Saturday can see the free open air concert in Clinton Square, headlined by Trombone Shorty.
• Wescott Arts Trail
  June 14: If you get in early on Saturday and want to explore Syracuse’s most walkable neighborhood, this event (which showcases local artists and artisans) is a good way.
• Syracuse Polish Fest
  June 20-22: Syracuse has a wide array of festivals celebrating its many immigrant communities. Many of the festivals, including this one, are downtown. This one will have Polka and Pierogi.

Other Local Attractions

In Syracuse

• Erie Canal Museum
  The Erie Canal put Syracuse on the map. Learn about its history in this small but charming museum
• Everson Museum
  The permanent collection of Syracuse’s art museum is rather limited unless you really care about ceramics. Of greater potential interest are rotating exhibits of contemporary art that are typically well picked and curated – see the museum’s website. The building itself is an earlier work by star architect (and crossword puzzle stable) IM Pei, who would later design the glass pyramids that form the entry to the Louvre in Paris (he also designed the brutalist older part of the Newhouse School on the Syracuse University Campus).
• Destiny Mall
  One of the largest shopping malls in the US, also has a wide selection of food and entertainment. If you like large shopping malls…
• Tippery Hill Neighborhood
  Syracuse’s “Irish” neighborhood sports a range of bars and pubs and the world’s only upside down traffic light – it’s upside down because the local youth in the 1920s insisted* that placing British red above Irish green wasn’t acceptable in an Irish neighborhood. (*they smashed several regular traffic lights before the city gave up)
• CNY Regional Farmers Market A fairly large selection of farmers and vendors, this isn’t a quaint farmers market (you’d want to go to Ithaca for that), but it has lots of great produce and other local food. The regional market runs Saturdays: 7am – 2 pm

Short Drives from Syracuse

The Finger Lakes region(named because of the shape of the five lakes) around Syracuse is beautiful. Beyond the finger lakes themselves with some notable small towns, there are countless waterfalls and gorges due to the area’s unique geology. In the North, about a 1 hour drive away, is lake Ontario, to the East, each about 3hs by car, are the Adriondack and Catskill mountain ranges, and to the West, close to Buffalo (New York’s second largest city) are the Niagara Falls.

• Green Lakes State Park A twenty minute drive takes you to this state park which combines a large (and busy) sandy beach with beautiful walks around two unique volcanic lakes that, yes, actually look green. There’s also boat rentals, though they book out quickly.
• Skaneateles
  This quaint little town (pronounced “skinny atlas”) on the second of the Finger Lakes has a beach and a small historic downtown with shops and restaurants. Great for a short daytrip
• Chittenango Falls and Cazenovia
  The Chittenango falls are one of the most beautiful of the smaller falls in the area. On the way back, you could stop in the small town of Cazenovia, which has a beautiful library that includes a small historical exhibit with an Egyptian mummy(!!!)
• Jamesville Beach
  If you just want to have a beach and a lake to swim in, this is your place. Check online hours for lifeguards on duty – they really don’t like you going into the lake without lifeguards present.
• Ithaca
  The other local university town is about a 1h drive away. The weekend farmers market on the shore of lake Cayuga is a popular destination, as are the many culinary attractions (including the famed Moosewood vegetarian restaurant), and, not least, some stunning landscapes, including several waterfalls (you can swim at the foot of one in Treman state park) and, of course, gorges. Ithaca is gorges, they say.
• Auburn
  Another small town on a lake, Auburn’s main attraction is its history. The homes of anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman, a key figure in the Underground Railroad, as well as 19th century politician William Seward are both there. While there is ongoing work to do more to celebrate Tubman’s legacy in Auburn, there currently is much less to see at her former home than in Seward’s meticulously restored mansion, so it might make for a more interesting visit.
• Seneca Falls
  The first women’s rights convention in the US was held in Seneca Falls, which, you’ve likely guessed, is another small town on a Finger lake. Today it has a national historic park memorializing the convention as well as the National Women’s Hall of Fame.