The Farm Table — Restaurant in Bernardston

Sunday, surely our group was very disappointed yet again. I will say that we were once won over by the appearance, service, and food. Now, I'd have to compare it with an Applebee's, and a daycare gone wild, and just letting any ol thing come in from off the streets. Though it seems. I may sound harsh right now, but by the time you get the end of this read, just perhaps you'll have more understanding. What The Farm Table appears to be is an upscale, soft charm and rather more of a heaping spoon full of elegance. Very tastefully done up, I shall say. A menu the compliments their chef with various culinary delights, price points for a delectable, stunning dish that tantalize the taste buds and captivates the senses. A craft & art. It could still be a remarkable place and worth saving the reputation. It surely isn't too late. Perhaps everyone will not share my point view or even come close to agreeing. "NOT EVERY PLACE IS MEANT FOR CHILDREN, not every place is meant for ripped jeans, long hair unkept, and uncleaned clothes that look like they just got off work from an auto shop. Between the children running rampant and bumping our table endlessly and the screaming, the screaming and crying. The adults that took no care for their appearance, flip back caps, unkept hair, and heavily smelling like an ash tray. Teens filling tables that got soda and very little to eat, cursing loudly about others and laughing. Server's, just as unkept, as some that looked as if they just awoke from a long night of drinking. Surely you can start caring about who walks through your doors. Standards are not a bad thing. Standards on wardrobe. Divide the dinning rooms. Elegant area with the fireplace keep it for the adults walking in that look like they are coming in for a fine wine & dinning experience. Family dinning with children, simply use a back area unseen, but please make it clear that good manners & respect is a must. Your servers need to know what is acceptable as well. Dress with elegance and class, as the upscale you deliver on your website and when walking in. I'm not getting after you. This was only our handfull of an attempt at wanting to create what our 1st visit gave to us. A delightful, and enchanting evening. Sharing a bottle wine with our friends nestled in by the fireplace. Soft voices scattered across the dinning hall. A glass of wine poured slowly and the service attentive with a smile. AS though they are really and truly pleased to serve you. Finally a place with class as though we were lead to see. Elegance. A splash of coziness. A little corner of the world to come home to and fill with happy memories, finding comfort at a table with friends & family to celebrate the simple pleasures of our everyday life. We came to gather. It was a complete pleasure. Visiting you to enjoy an elegant dinner prepared by a star chef as you claim on your website. Soft settled music lingering in the back ground, the aroma that dances around, the smell of assured and pure art. Butter. You can inhale the caramelization that parades around the dinning hall. Lights burning low, candles shimmering, the crackling of the wood burning in the fireplace. We only wished to create that visit again. Instead we we sat to our table, us looking around at one another in sheer disappointment. In agreement, we got up, put our coats on and walked out. We didn't sign up for this. If we wanted to go to Applebee's, or Chucky Cheese we would have just done...

Overall, very good, but could have been better.

I visited with my grandfather on a Wednesday night.

Food. I had the pork chop, my grandfather the scallops. I thought my pork chop (with baby potatoes, bacon, and red cabbage was excellent. My grandfather thought the scallops weren't thoroughly rinsed, since they were too gritty. Green vegetables (broccoli rabe) had the texture of frozen vegetables. Vegetables and side dishes got cold far too quickly, since the heavy plates were cold. In this weather, please prewarm the plates!

I ordered the goat cheese and beetroot salad which was a winner. The goat cheese was encrusted with nuts and roasted. Amazing interplay of textures. Used a variety of beetroots, so good presentation with different colors on the bed of greens.

Don't order the dessert, definitely not worth it. I had the grasshopper pie and my grandfather had the maple walnut cheesecake. It would have been nice to get something warm and decadent in this weather, but everything was chilled and looked and tasted like something from Stop and Shop.

The decor is very New England-style and does it very well. My grandfather complained that sleigh bells never increase/decrease size on a string, they should always be the same size. :-)

Lots of glass open up to outside and the fireplace (gas, unfortunately) adds a bit of warmth and coziness. Make sure the check out the espresso machine - it's a work of art.

I would give this an 'Excellent' rating, except that the building isn't really post-and-beam (it just looks like it) and the heating. Both of us found the dining area a little chilly, which we don't mind, but the drafts were annoying. They use curtain forced air heating from the ceiling, which means that you have a constant feeling of a draft when seated on the edge of the room. We should have worn our hats :-)

Service was excellent, our waiters was attentive without hovering. Only complaint is their reservation system. We called on Tuesday to see if there was room for us to come in. No answer and I left a message, but no call back from them. Granted, I did call right after 4, which I found out on the website afterwards is when they stop taking reservations. Still, who does that? At least tell me in the voicemail message.

I made sure to book our reservations online for the next day on the website, which went well. The Urbanspoon system works well and is easy to use. Of course, when we got there, there were plenty of tables available just in the main dining room and we never saw it fill up while we were there. There's a chance we could have just dropped in and checked availability on Tuesday.

Food seems to be more California-inspired than New England-inspired, which is a slight disappointment given the decor and theme. A bit expensive for the...

First of all. This place was VERY loud. Not a cozy atmosphere at all that they advertise. It should be called bar in the barn and not the farm table. Lots of loud drunk bar goers. Let me just sum this up by saying we had a reservation for 7 we left at 745 and still had not gotten an appetizer. Wait staff is lax. I at one point had my server look at me and look at my empty drink on the table and walk away. Not to mention we had order fries about 15 minutes before. My wife was very upset by the lack of service justifiably and visibly. This was supposed to be a birthday dinner for me. When we asked for the check because noone had spoken to us in over 20 minutes since we ordered an appetizer there e as not a single care by the wait staff. They seemed very unconcerned as We left. Again my wife was upset that my birthday dinner was ruined. But then the waitress blames the kitchen staff for her lack of care for our table my wife did not appreciate that. She has worked in food service and never in the history of ever has blaming kitchen staff helped. We think she didnt care cause we were a small table that wouldn't have been a big tip. While she prioritized large tables and brought them apps and entrees when they had ordered AFTER us. My wife left a negative review which would have been the only one. But the supposed owner decided to clap back and lie about how her staff was treated by us. The owner was not there. If she was we didnt see her and she at no point tried to remedy this situation. And by her own admission took over 20 minutes of no appetizer (truffle fries) because they had so many tables. We have discouraged alot of people coming here because alot of our friends wanted an honest review to go try it. The menu options are awful too. Lots of unhealthy vegan and gluten free options but not alot of variety of basic staple meals or meats (nothing you garvest at a farm)... Also the fried chicken they deep fry in canola oil (🤮). Which the waitress didnt know the answer to that question either. This place is awful and there's zero accountability from anyone. If at ANY point someone said sorry and tried to make things better we may have stayed. But it was a blame game between wait staff and kitchen staff I would give this place zero stars. We went to Posada in greenfield and they were packed. We waited 10 minutes on a table and were out of there fed in less time it took for this establishment to make an excuse to not...