While we’ve found a lot of great restaurants around Berks County, Julie and I are always on the
lookout for date night options – places to go when we can leave the kids with their grandparents or a sitter for a couple hours.
One of the places that has moved near the top of our list is State Hill Craft Cocktails & Kitchen in Wyomissing.
State Hill Craft opened in 2023 in the former Tino’s/Santino’s along State Hill Road. It’s always been an awkward location with limited parking. That was partially solved when the restaurant purchased the adjoining property and expanded with a new patio and larger parking lot. Even so, we still found a full parking lot when we arrived for dinner on a Friday night in December.
We had reservations, so we weren’t worried, but it turned out the crowd was for a private party on the patio and there were plenty of tables for us in the main dining room.
We were seated at a table for two at one end of a large oval-shaped banquette. Julie sat on the blue leather booth side while I took the chair. Behind me were two tables against a wall with two mirrors. More black tables with blue chairs lined the front wall.
Our first trip to State Hill came in November 2023. I wasn’t writing reviews at the time, but we were incredibly impressed with our meals that night.
I had the umami bomb pasta – a mushroom-infused pasta dish with miso cashew cream while Julie had the coho salmon. It was absolutely excellent, and while the gray-tint of the pasta didn’t make it the most appealing visually, the earthiness of the mushrooms combined with the nutty sweetness of the miso cashew was so good.
But by the time I got back to writing reviews, they had already swapped out their seasonal menu and the pasta was gone.
The menu has morphed many times since our visit, and the latest iteration came out in November. It’s a mix of large and small plates with a few sandwiches and burger options. There’s nothing quite as adventurous as the umami bomb, but even familiar items had a little bit of a unique twist to them.
For example, my billionaire smash. The traditional smashburger got an upscale makeover with wagyu beef, truffle aioli, bacon onion jam, smoked cheddar, lettuce, and tomato.
As much as I love a good aioli, it was the bacon jam that made this a great burger. The salty-sweet combination is just a great addition. I had just a few bites where I didn’t get enough of the jam, but others where it really shone through.
The fries were also delicious. It didn’t list it on the menu, but I’m guessing it was garlic, parmesan and herbs. They were addictive, and I just had to finish them, even after I was full.
Julie ended up taking some of her meal home. She had the wagyu meatloaf which came with an applejack demi glace, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus and crispy shallots.
Like my burger, the wagyu beef had a deeper flavor than regular ground beef to start. But the applejack demi-glace, with its sweetness and little bit of bite to it, was excellent. It made it feel like something more than meatloaf.
Part of the reason that she took half of it home was that we started with an order of birria bao buns.
The fluffy buns were filled with birria-style short rib, red onion, cilantro, and mozzarella. On the side was birria consomme. We found the consomme to be more like a spicy chili rather than a traditional broth, but I really enjoyed it. The bao soaked it up well and we each finished off one-and-a-half of them before our entrees arrived.
Overall, it was a great meal for a great date night.
In addition to the food, Julie had a strawberry “no-jito” mocktail that she really liked, and I had my unsweetened iced tea. We spent $65 after using a $10 off coupon. Even at full price, it felt reasonable for the quality of the food.
State Hill Craft impressed on our first visit and our latest visit, and we are looking forward to more impressive meals to come.
BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Excellent
State Hill Craft Cocktails & Kitchen
1 Wellington Blvd
Wyomissing, PA 19610
