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ForgivingMonth48 added this location
Hen of the Wood Waterbury Village Historic District Reviews
What at evening meal and service should be ….
Firstly, the trip adviser hours of service are wrong , the photo of the location is wrong , rely instead on their website. We were supported by excellent front of house staff and the Resy booking system. Or you may miss a very enjoyable meal, with great service and food. We were seated in the dining room near the Chef counter in a restaurant with modern style. Meal portions were just right for us visiting from the UK. Well prepared, seasoned well and we really enjoyed an entree, main and desert . The cheese alternative to desert is original and the selection good. Overall we would happily return again if in Waterbury.
Always perfect
I am happy to write yet another glowing review of Hen of the Wood in Waterbury, VT. The food was delicious, with several options for me (vegetarian) and my husband (omnivore!). Maria D. was our server and she is the quintessential perfect waitstaff. She was friendly, knowledgeable, thoughtful and checked in the perfect number of times. The Hen of the Wood Mushroom Toast (my husband eats the bacon!) was delicious with crispy, umami mushrooms and a perfectly poached egg on grilled bread. He had his favorite hangar steak and left nothing on the plate while I had the Ricotta Agnolotti with confit cherry tomatoes, pine nuts and bread crumbs and brought half home for dinner tonight. We tried the ice cream for dessert with my husband enjoying the Peaches and Cream flavor and I was very impressed with the Carrot Cake ice cream. Hen of the Wood has NEVER failed to impress us, both at their original mill location and their "modern farmhouse" styled current location. Well done, everyone!
Dining at its best!
Hen of the Wood has maintained its high quality dining! This was my first visit to the new location. The restaurant has a nice ambiance. The noise level allows for quiet conversation. Staff are welcoming and helpful. Seating at the Chefs Bar is a good place to watch the magic of meals being prepared. Salads are inventive and crisp. My halibut was perfectly prepared wonderfully presented. It was a pleasure to dine here and will return again when in the region.
If in Stowe, visit this restaurant!
Amazing. Great service and excellent food. The halibut and the basil crème filled deer particularly amazing. I would highly recommend!
not a must and maybe not even on the list
Newish digs on Main Street. Feels fancier and maybe a little awkward. Sat at the bar. Had three savory courses and then a piece of cheese. Drank half a bottle of wine (good list). Seemed like chef has the 'add two more to things to this dish' disease. Ordered a pasta which they par-cook and then make on a gas grill. Did nothing really. I would have much preferred they spend the extra 45 seconds w the pasta in the pan so that the dish came together and wasn't noodles sitting in a loose, rabbit broth that didn't coat the noodles. Similarly the cheese plate components tasted like a really sweet graham cracker apple pie. Gross. Squid from RI were pretty good but largely under-seasoned and had an ingredient or two that made no sense but were there anyway. More pass than must for me Bar service was fine but neither person behind the bar had much in the way of social skills. So not a knock but not a plus either.
Upstairs: YES. Downstairs: NO
Have been here many times both in their old location on stowe st, as well as the new location in downtown waterbury. Always great food. However, we stopped in the other night and they seated us out the back door, down the hall, through a closet, out the exit into an entryway, down the stairs, into a hidden bar. Only mildly exaggerating there. It would have been fine, except the pleasant dining atmosphere from upstairs was replaced with punk music from a speaker 6 inches off our elbow, in a more or less bland room, with a less than helpful bartender. I appreciate the effort to fit us in without a reservation, and I applaud the creative use of space, but it’s not why we were there. We ended up leaving without even ordering. I think Hen would do well to align the downstairs bar better with the upstairs atmosphere, OR be much more up front with what you are walking into if they seat people downstairs.
Weird Menu - Not Sure Why This Is A Cultic Restaurant
This place is just weird when it comes to menu. I guess they think they are being cool or local or something like that. I had the mushroom toast which is quite good and unique. And then steak tartare which was fine. The table next to us ordered duck for two at about $100 and it came out still quacking it was so rare - they sent it back. The other couple we were with witnessed that and made a point to tell them to please kill the duck before serving it. Their duck was fine in terms of cook level so that was good. The wine list is impressive as is their cheese selection. And they had a really nice Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley which is bottle for them with their name on it. All in all I prefer one of their other more normal restaurants like Pro Pig or Doc Ponds.
Perfect Restaurant for a Birthday Treat
Great venue with an amazing menu along with a surprising cheese menu. We went here as a birthday treat and the staff were wonderful and attentive. There was an addition of a birthday card and candles in our pudding which was very sweet and made is memorable. The food was on point all cooked very well and flavours that all complemented each other.
I think I’m done
I think I have found the key to the ‘farmhouse / Guild’ chain of related restaurants in Chittenden county - and Waterbury. (A cousin ‘Frankie’s’ I also put on this pile) They are all attractive. All great places for cocktails - but I think I’m done with their food. It’s all similar - small plates that are wildly expensive. It’s never about money - but it Is always about value. Last night I had maybe a 4 oz piece of overcooked dry swordfish - served in a side dish bowl - for 45 dollars. No sides. The veg side - was better. At 9 dollars. (Both were under salted) We all need to be paid an honest wage but as I travel around North America I see a very clear trend in restaurants post covid (not talking any chains etc). There are two types - and note the prices are about the same. 1. Ostentatious and precious. 2. Small, real, respectfully delivering both flavor and value. To my point it was no surprise when I saw another of this tribe - Paradiso and Dedalous in the same city - just close up one day a few months ago, burn their staff and the community with no transparency. No explanation. The emperor really does have no clothes. I’m done with the former.
Mixed - not sure we'd return
We have mixed feelings if we would return. We dined here twice with very differing experiences. Our first visit was unplanned – we went early, got 2 seats at the bar and loved it. The bartender was super attentive and our meal was Michelin star worthy. Our 2nd visit was planned but left us confused on how our experiences could have been so very different. This restaurant is special and so this is a very detailed review – take what you want/need: Make reservations unless you go early (5pm), are just 2 people and are prepared to eat at the bar. The restaurant has a fancy farm to table natural rustic feel with wood tables and floors and black chairs, bar, curtain and accents. Behind the bar are mixologists not bartenders. Lots of different patrons from young to old, casual to dressy. We were surprised by parents who arrived with 2 teenage girls in tow dressed like Kardashians going to a nightclub – this is dinner at 6pm in Waterbury VT. The whole place is modern upscale but accessible. And we must admit that we had to look up what some menu items were: fazzoletti is handkerchief pasta or large pasta squares and pansotti is triangular shaped ravioli. During our first dining experience, the mixologist was terrific and made excellent recommendations and just made the whole experience fun. He recommended the homemade pasta and upon our request selected some amazing cheeses for dessert. First up was the fazzoletti – some of the best pasta ever and the plating really did not do it justice as it resembled something regurgitated (trying to phrase this as nicely as possible because you really must try it). Then signature hen of the wood mushroom toast with poached egg bacon grilled bread – it’s unique. The challenge is to ensure each bite has the tasty combination of crunchy toast, gooey egg with the bacon and hen of the wood mushroom but it’s worth the work. And everything tastes better with a lovely cooked salty thick cut piece of bacon. The oysters were perfect and served with rhubarb mignonette beet cocktail sauce, shaved horseradish, lemon, spicy eyedropper sauce. Next to arrive was cucumber spring turnip with duck egg , crispy bacon, herby buttermilk - this was interesting in appearance but somewhat bland in taste – probably our least favorite part of our dining experience. Our entrees were striped bass on crushed carrot pac choi ginger scallion salsa verde and duck breast with celery root baby arugula pickled rhubarb with a side order of grilled asparagus with cured egg yolk. Both were cooked to perfection: the bass was pan fried with sauted pac choi (or essentially bok choy) but we ate around the carrot puree as we did not care for it and the duck cooked rare but the presentation was obscured by baby arugula. The asparagus (aka aspara-pee) did look a bit odd with the cured egg yolk but was cooked flawlessly. For dessert, we had 3 cheeses: a stinky blue, a goat and a soft brie like cheeses – we definitely favored the stinky blue and soft over the goat (and goat gouda is usually one of our favorites). The cheeses did come with a sweet puree and crackers coated in a sugar covering. Normally cheese with crisp apple slice can be a sublime pairing but in this case the sugar crackers were just inedible. The only other negative was we were unable to find a wine by the glass that we liked after trying/having 3 different ones (personally you can take too many tastings - maybe 1 tasting and reject it but not more than that without ordering a glass). Dish delivery timing was ideal – every item arrived in prompt order after we’d finish a dish and moved seamless into the next. Otherwise, we were in heaven and could not wait for our next food experience at Hen of the Wood Waterbury. NOTE: They say you are born with a preference for sugar or salt. By our 2nd visit it became very obvious that this chef had a strong preference for sweet (sugar crackers with cheese plate and sweet purees). Our 2nd dining experience was disappointing. We sat in a nice booth and were eagerly anticipating curated feast. Timing was off from the start – everything took awhile to arrive which is unexpected on a Wed at 5:45pm. Hen does not provide any kind of complimentary snack/bread while you wait so we ordered the parker house rolls – this was not a must have. The ½ dz oysters were great and did not disappoint. Not sure what we were expecting with the fried green tomatoes but it different but not something we would order again. The heirloom tomato panzanella was uninteresting. The hen of wood arrived but it felt like we received a half order – at the same time, two servers brought what looked like two ½ hen of wood dishes and then got confused and left us with one of them. The toast was in half and only 1 piece of bacon. The homemade pasta pansotti was delivered looking not great but unlike the fazzoletti the pansotti did not taste great – the stuffing was not optimal. The NY strip for Two – umm, are these 2 people on a diet? It was not enough food for 2 non-dieting adults to eat – maybe 1.5 adults would be a stretch. The striped bass was served on a pureed green something – perhaps one day we will eat it with a mouse in a house in the rain on a train (Seuss) but the bass was good and the green gunk needed to go (and we love and eat prolific vegetables and up until now have yet to meet a vegetable we did not like). The pac choi was great but with anchovies (ok) but some unknown yellow sauce not listed on the menu. In terms of drinks, this time we stuck to beer and mixed drinks and avoided the wine.
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