Chef-driven, wine-list-considered, view-when-the-light-drops. Reservations recommended at all of them; required at three.
Wood-fired oven and a Finger Lakes wine list that runs deeper than the tequila menu, which is saying something at a Mexican-forward kitchen. Cayuga Heights, up the hill from downtown. Book Friday and Saturday.
Inside the Statler Hotel on Cornell's campus — refined Italian and Mediterranean run by hospitality students under faculty supervision. Rare hotel restaurant where the staff rotates but the standards don't. Free lot in front.
Nearly twenty years on Main Street in Trumansburg — the village's best kitchen, chef-driven, sources almost entirely from Cayuga-side farms. Small dining room. Book a week ahead for a Saturday, longer during GrassRoots week in July.
Bluff-top dining room and a 180-degree lakefront patio at the foot of the falls park. The west-shore equivalent of 1833 Kitchen. Cuisine du terroir, tasting menus on Fridays, and the view that sells the room.
Inside the Aurora Inn on the lakefront — the fine-dining anchor of the east shore. Everything from pasta to ice cream made in-house, veranda dining in season, and a wine list that reads like a Cayuga trail map. Book two weeks out.
Special-occasion farm restaurant south of Aurora — prix-fixe menus, house-grown produce, and a room that seats forty. The east shore's answer to a chef's tasting on Seneca. Book weeks out; check the seasonal schedule.
One of the few Cayuga wineries with a full sit-down restaurant on-site — the lunch move on a wine day when a food truck won't cut it. Distillery too, with a pot-still grappa worth trying before you leave.