Hen Of The Wood

If Vermont had Michelin Star restaurants this would be one of them! We were in town from DC one of the Michelin hotspots) and have high expectations. We started with the fried green tomatoes, which were delicious and the perfect starter size. I ordered the duck entree and my friend ordered the hanger steak we both said it was the best duck and steak we had ever had. Both entrees were very reasonably priced $40 45). Make sure you order the sweet corn ice cream for dessert. Our server was very kind and helped us with hiking recommendations. Highly recommend this restaurant!

An excellent experience overall. The service is superb, the food excellent. Yes it’s expensive, but it’s very worth the price.

This was a middling and overall disappointing experience given both the price point and hype. The new location in downtown Waterbury while nice, new, and clean, is soulless in comparison to the original location, it 's bright, sterile and very loud. The open floorplan does not make it feel like a special or unique place to eat. The food was honestly mediocre. The parker house rolls were the best thing we tried. Swordfish was overcooked and tough, the sauce while flavorful was quite bland. The duck was well cooked but the kale paired with it was bitter and rough, leaving a lot to be desired. The house made ice cream was quite good... But when the highlights of a $250 dinner for two were dinner rolls and a couple scoops of standard ice cream flavors, I 've got to ask myself what is the point? The service was good, hardly exceptional, they were friendly and fairly attentive. Maybe this speaks more to the mediocre level of fine dining in Vermont and/or post-pandemic, but I won 't be coming back soon. Doc Ponds has a very similar vibe even though it 's a more 'casual ' restaurant and this is supposedly 'fine dining ', but the food there is better, service is comparable and the menu is just as interesting for a fraction of the cost, also run by the same group.

Overall a good but not overwhelmingexperience at Hen of the Wood. Ordered a large portion of the menu and some of the dishes were confusing the braised ham was swimming in olive oil and didn’t seem to have any other flavor to make it memorable. Mushroom toast (pictured) which seems to be there signature dish, was one half piece of bread on a huge plate barely enough to even share among 2 people. Entrees of pappardelle and hanger steak were highlights. No dessert and the drinks were relatively small for the price point.

If you're a fan of the original Hen of the Wood, eating at the new location, in a former bank looking out into and expensive parking lot will rob you of your appetite. The magic of the old location with the waterfall, and the funky, quiet ambiance is all gone.