Peter Havens Restaurant — Restaurant in Brattleboro

We went here to celebrate my sister’s birthday, and while we enjoyed the food, the service left much to be desired. We had made reservations in advance and despite noting the occasion, we were given a less-than-stellar table.

The food was strong, though it can always be improved: we had garden salads (great), the cocktails were good, and for entrees we had a salmon plate, NY steak plate, and a chicken plate that were, all things considered, enjoyable enough. We’re there to enjoy each other’s company, after all. For desserts we shared a crème brûlée and an apple tart which were quite nice. We were a party of 3.

The issue lies in the end-of-evening procedure where, lo and behold—we, the only party of people of color—gets the dreaded payment decline. “There’s something wrong with our system…” we’re discretely, and at this point acceptably, informed. A second card was immediately provided. Alas, this is a much too common problem for folks like us, though we had mistakenly assumed Vermont would be different. It was also clear to all of us that no other table dealt with these issues. Perhaps they thought we’d dine and dash? We were underdressed? Speaking too much Latin American Spanish? Too dark-complexioned? We didn’t fit the culture of the place? All in all, poor service stumbles in the endgame ruined our night.

We even had a second pop-in from another staffperson to check whether we had paid up. Here, a neighboring table also notices the needless questioning which, at this stage, led to a collective sense of embarrassment. This is all taking place after the second payment had gone through, standard tip was left, check signed and our table was simply putting on their coats to leave this suffocating place. First decline could be dismissed as an error, as the server was discreet, but was the second “check for payment” really necessary? We could’ve let it go, but this final act confirmed our suspicions. Truly unfortunate.

Other reviewers are right: this place is unecessarily pretentious, homogenous in its clientele, and given that it’s progressive Vermont we figured we’d be getting a different experience. Perhaps, at the very minimum, something more in line with what they’re charging. There’s clearly need for some cultural bias training for the staff, too.

Sadly, this will be the first and last time we go here—which is probably exactly what this clearly inexperienced...

I must admit we went into Peter Havens on the Presidents day long weekend with high expectations because of the 5 start google reviews.

Unfortunately we were quite disappointed with our dinning experience.

I would like to start with the positives. The ambience and the service was 5 star. The food however was really disapointing. To be honest this is the first bad review I have ever written. I was only motivated to write this because I honestly felt misled by the reviewers.

For appetizers I had the cod fritter special. It was very bland and the sauce just tasted like melted butter. This was probably the best dish we had.

For mains I had the spinach fettuccine with lobster. It honestly tasted like dishwater. No flavor. What a waste of good ingredients. Either the dish was not tasted before it was put out or the chef is a smoker and doesn't have the palette to recognize blandness. It reminded me of Gordan Ramsays - Restaurant Nightmares. Gordon often used the word pretentious. Pretentious is definitely the word I would use to describe our meals. The food sounded amazing on the menu and was sold very well. What was delivered was a completely different story

The portion sizes were large but unfortunately a little too large as we could hardly get through the appetizer and main. Thanks for the generosity but a smaller and better quality dish is much preferred.

My wife had an equally unimpressive appetizer and main. She had the mussels for appetizer and the main was a white fish wrapped in spinach and pastry. Once again bland!!!!. There was a very thin slice of lemon for decoration which we tried to squeeze as much out for flavor. Both dishes had good ingredients but lacked any flavor and finesse.

Sorry Peter Haven but I just feel like it was unfair for future visitors who are expecting 5 star food when that was certainly not our experience. You can write off a bad dish or even 2 but 4 bad dishes is inexcusable. I wish you all the success in the future and I hope this feedback is taken onboard so that your restaurant can improve and be more successful because it is a great...

As I was reminiscing on past fine dining my husband and I have done, I was trying to think of the best place I've been to. I realized that I have been to many, many fine dining restaurants, and also realized that none of them stood out as anything worth remembering. THEN, I remembered my experience at Peter Havens. This was a dinner worth remembering. It was absolutely delicious! Yes, I am very picky about taste and am a great cook myself. When I come to a restaurant that claims " fine dining", I come to be impressed and satisfied. I love food. I love good food. Peter Havens was impressive and satisfying. My husband ordered the shrimp cocktail for an appetizer, and I ordered the escargot. Both appetizers were fantastic. For the entre, I ordered the filet and my husband ordered the salmon. These were cooked to perfection and seasoned beautifully. We ordered a bottle of wine, suggested to us by our great waitress, and it paired perfectly. The chocolate mousse was decadent. As you can see, I was quite happy with my meal. But, I was just as happy with the service. The waitress was highly attentive, yet not annoying and disruptive ( ya know the picture, chewing food and the waitress asks, " How is everything"?) This waitress was diligent, professional, and attentive. Our waters were always full, and we never needed to refill our own wine glasses. The atmosphere was intimate. Small place but everything was well appointed. Now, I'm all about a good old bar and chicken wings, but if I'm looking for fine dining, this...