I'll start off by saying i've been to the Yard of Ale maybe a handful of times in my life but it…read morewas once operated by one of my ancestors, J.D. McGuire, in the 1800s when it was the Genesee Hotel - this restaurant has about a century and a half of history in the area and deserves to be classified as an historic landmark.
It is also one my grandmother's favorite restaurants, and she's eaten there for decades. Last night, she turned 95 and we put the old YoA to the test, booking a dinner party for roughly 20 people, in the restaurant's private room.
Our waitress was absolutely on her game, getting orders for drinks, appetizers, meals and dessert out as promptly as she could given the size of our party with no mistakes or fumbling of people's orders.
I ordered the stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer and the Tournados (steak fillets with seafood stuffing and hollandaise sauce) with rice pilaf as my main course, and both were delicious. The kitchen will do steak all the way down to rare but won't serve it blue, probably for safety reasons since they're not a dedicated steakhouse. For dinner I got the NY cheesecake with wild strawberries and sauce, and it was wonderful. A five course meal (bread, appetizer, salad, main, dessert) plus drinks cost me a little shy of $90, so I thought the price was more than fair. The wine list is limited (I asked for a dry white wine and got a choice between a sauvignon blanc and a pinot grigio. I went with the blanc and it was light, crisp, and delicious with a lot of pear notes - a good choice on the part of whoever on the YoA's staff handles sommelier duty. I didn't get a chance to ask the waitress for a snapshot of the bottle and I wish I had. For a cocktail, I ordered an old fashioned, and this is the kind of place where you can go up to the bar and order a cocktail like that and the bartender won't bat an eye before getting out the muddler.
If it's your birthday, be sure to tell the waitress - I believe that they give you a free lava cake dessert for your birthday.
If you order a dish like the chicken parm here the portion they serve you will be massive - two or three breaded chicken cutlets covered with mozz over pasta and sauce. This is not a restaurant that does haute cuisine portions; the old roadside inn sensibilities remain in place in places like the YoA, you expect to be fed and feed you they will.
Now that I've said all that, remember, de gustibus - but if you're visiting Letchworth Park or otherwise out in Livingston County I recommend you call and book a table. And you should absolutely call ahead, the locals tend to pack the place.