Are you sick of Commons food yet? It is already a month into this semester. Do you wish you could get off campus and get some real food but don’t have a car? Well I think I have a solution for you: Holmes & Watson.
Holmes & Watson is a bar and restaurant which is nestled in downtown Troy. It is easily within walking distance of campus, located at 450 Broadway—it is about a mile walk from most dorms. Now, this was my first trip to Holmes & Watson and when I got there, I was a bit surprised. When we walked in, all I saw were a bar and about four tables. I stood there for about 30 seconds wondering if we would be seated or not when my roommate noticed the open seating sign. We then proceeded toward the back, past the bar, into another room leading into a dining room.
When we entered the dining room, it was pretty empty. There were only about three other parties there at the time. The dining room had a very interesting décor; while the previous room was a typical bar, this one is decorated and lit to be a great setting to just relax and have good food and conversation. We found a table and sat down. The menus were already at the table so we instantly started reading through them.
Holmes & Watson has a good selection of food, but it is trumped by its beer collection. But I digress; I will leave the review of the drinks to the Words to Drink By column. They have a pretty decent selection of entrees and appetizers to choose from ranging in price from around $5-20. One thing we really liked is how the menu explicitly says “We do not guarantee the quality of the meat if cooked over medium.” It’s nice to find a place that knows overcooking meat is just wrong, and they tell you that on the menu. To start, we decided to try mozzarella sticks. Now I feel compelled to tell you that the menu has nicknames for all the appetizers, and not to order by these names. I made this mistake thinking they all refer to the appetizers by these names and boy, was I wrong. My waitress looked at me like I was crazy and grabbed the menu to look it up. I just said “It’s the mozzarella sticks,” and all was back to normal. I then ordered the chicken parmesan as my entrée and my roommate went with the fish and chips.
I have to say the food was amazing. The mozzarella sticks were great. Each order was six sticks, and for two people, I would say one order is enough. The salads that came with our meals were interesting. The first thing I thought when they were brought out was that they were really small, and frozen. Now they weren’t iced over but they were colder than I ever expected. It was odd but not bad.
I later found out why they are so small, at least in my case. The portion for the chicken parmesan was enormous. I have never seen a chicken breast that big before. It was practically the length of a football. It could easily have been two meals. I absolutely loved the food. I can’t wait to go back and try other items. My roommate really loved his food, too. Everything was prepared really well and was very delicious.
Holmes & Watson is an amazing place. It has something for everyone. If you just want to go have a quick drink or if you want to have a nice sit-down meal, you can get it there. The food is great and reasonably priced, and it is all delicious. So if you don’t have a car and need to get some good food, consider taking a walk to Holmes & Watson. You won’t be disappointed. I give Holmes & Watson a 9 out of 10.
