Clay Restaurant is Wildflower Farm Resort’s on-site restaurant. It’s a fabulous indoor/outdoor space to enjoy breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner, and it’s open nearly all day for guests of the resort and visitors alike. Offering locally sourced, sustainably farm-grown, farm-to-table fare served on handmade earthenware dishes in a beautiful setting near the Shawangunk Mountains in Hudson Valley, New York, Clay Restaurant is one of the best places we’ve ever eaten.
Clay
Location: Gardiner, NY
Address: 2702 Main Street
Gardiner NY 12525
Inside Wildflower Farms Resort
Food Type: New American
Dining Experience: Indoor & Outdoor
Price: $50+ per Person
Dress Code: Smart Casual +
Reservations: Recommended (Here)
Special Diets: Pescatarian, Gluten-Free (not GF dedicated)
The Ambience
Clay’s rustic yet elegant and thoughtfully appointed interior informs diners of the farm-to-table nature of the restaurant. Everything here is based on what’s seasonally available and speaks to the chef’s desire to promote carefully considered consumption. While every aspect of Wildflower Farms is deeply intertwined with its natural surroundings, nowhere is it more evident than in the restaurant.
During our stay, we took a tour of the resort’s working farm and learned about their plans not only to continue supplying produce and herbs to the restaurant but also saw the orchard, the greenhouses, the newly expanded farmland, and witnessed part of the construction of their up and coming food truck that will act as a farmer’s market on wheels. Set within a working farm and surrounded by the Shawangunk Mountains and the Shawangunk Kill River, surrounded by meadows of blooming flowers and decorated in a minimalistic organic way, the restaurant feels like a proper mountain escape.
Clay Menu & Our Meals
As I mentioned, the restaurant prides itself on being seasonal and farm-to-table. We chose our eggs for brunch during the Feed the Animals experience. Gathering them from the chicken coop and bringing them to Clay Restaurant to be cooked by their talented chefs was an excellent way to connect with the process of understanding and participating in sourcing our food.
So often, we are too far removed and don’t understand the implications of what we eat, buy, or do, but Wildflower Farms helps reconnect guests with that experience. For instance, we learned chickens only lay one egg per day, so if a person eats three eggs, they were produced by one chicken over three days or three chickens. That really puts things into perspective!
For brunch, we enjoyed an assortment of classics. Of course, we shared the omelet made with the eggs we collected from the chickens that morning. It was paired with seasonal produce and was so flavorful. Mushrooms, cheddar, and delicate herb filled the interior.
I selected the Coconut Yogurt Bowl with seasonal fruit, chia seeds, and agave syrup. It contained dragon fruit, blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. This coconut yogurt had such a nice flavor, and the fruit was perfectly fresh. It was cool, creamy, and refreshing.
Robin ordered the most beautiful cinnamon roll I’ve ever seen. It was topped with local honeycomb, fresh edible flowers, and plenty of decadent icing and rich cinnamon. I could have stared at that beauty forever. He declared it the best cinnamon roll he’s ever had.
He also ordered a buttermilk biscuit with herbs, and it smelled really good. This was savory rather than sweet; he said it was the perfect consistency.
Final Thoughts
Our experience at Clay Restaurant was nothing short of exceptional. We ate here several times during our stay, and it was always a delight. The interior and exterior have very different vibes, and the menu constantly changes, so it’s a great way to mix things up if you’re a local in the area or staying at the resort. I’ll also write about the beautiful dinners we had here and share more reasons to visit one of the best restaurants we’ve ever visited for yourself. I hope this inspires you to eat seasonally, support your local farmers, and reconnect with the origins of our food.
Explore more of my adventures in Hudson Valley, New York, and the United States.
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