The Marina — Restaurant in Brattleboro

First, I’ve never written a review before, but felt impelled to share this one. The restaurant was recommended by the hotel we stayed at. When my wife and I arrived we waiting approximately 5 minutes or more for someone to greet us, while several servers saw us standing there waiting, but ignored our presence. After being seated I order a Long Island iced tea, and my wife ordered a water with lemon. The server advised me that they have a full course bar, don’t do Long Island iced tea. So I ordered a Pepsi instead. The drinks came and my wife asked for a straw and we were told they ran out of straws. Nothing major so we ordered our food. The appetizer was the mussels with bread, I ordered a burger, and my wife ordered a salad, and chicken. The mussels came out, we ate them, they were okay. The server came back to take the dish, my wife asked him to leave the dish, and I asked for bread for the sauce. The server replied he would bring us bread because it was forgotten. Meanwhile, my wife asked to see the manager. She appeared, we didn’t get her name, but we explained what happened. She told us that it’s very rare for a restaurant in Vermont to serve a Long Island iced tea due to the 5 different types of alcohol. So when she left I googled “Do restaurants in Vermont serve Long Island iced tea” . The answer was Yes “they can and likely do”. She returned and we showed her what Google said. She got very nasty with us, and said it was the restaurant’s policy, and I said that’s not what you originally said. She got even more nasty and loud with us, and told us to, leave or have your food. She repeated either leave or have your food. I told her we’ll pay for what we ate (the rest of our food was not served).She told us to just leave. Now this place is under new ownership. With this kind of management, I’m sure it’ll be under new...

It’s August 9, 2024. Raining, Remnants of Hurricane Debby coming through tonight. We had people in from Texas, and wanted to have a nice dinner on the water. I went by the reviews and didn’t reserve a table. When we pulled up there was a HUGE TOURIST BUS. Oh no 😟 I thought. Luckily they were all leaving, but it was a bit chaotic with everyone coming through. We slipped out to the tenting right on the water off of the entrance. There was only one other table with people out there. Some of the tables on the outside were wet, but we found one on the inside aisle that was fine. The hostess Brenna was so sweet and professional, pulling another table together so we would all have enough room there were 5 of us. Brenna brought out cloth napkins with silverware wrapped inside and some menus. Our seasoned waitress was very relaxed, friendly and professional. She got our drinks quickly as we looked over the menu. 2 of us had the Fish & Chips with fries and Cole slaw. Everything was perfection! 2 of us had the chicken basket again perfection, and good portion sizes on both, and the last one got a spinach salad, I would suggest getting chicken on it, that’s added extra. We had such a nice experience even with the storm, ⛈️ it was wonderful. I requested the dessert menu, and once again it did not disappoint! Cheesecake, Chocolate Torte and Chocolate Chip Sundae, Yummm, so good. 5 STARS across the board. Wait Staff all professional from start to finish, food was excellent, very clean, atmosphere was amazing, Thank you for a great evening, well done...

Happy to give it a shot after new owners took over, and even happier to report that it was amazing!

Food was amazing, cooked perfectly and thoughtfully arranged. Drink menu is solid. The atmosphere was great, can't beat a sunset dinner overlooking the water! Wait staff (Sawyer was our server) were attentive and helpful despite how busy it was. Prices are higher but seem reasonable given the quality of the food.

We had a hard time choosing what to get because the new menu has plenty of amazing options, so we ordered and split a few dishes (Seared Tuna, Sesame Ginger Salmon, Daily Special Peppercorn Steak, and Fried Chicken Sandwich). It was all prepared well and absolutely amazing. Happy to report that gone are the freezer to fryer days! 🎉 Everything tasted fresh and it was easy to tell that even the fried foods weren't out of the freezer. Freshly battered and fried on the spot. Seriously, so tasty.

I will note, another reviewer mentioned a long wait time for food; we waited about 40 mins for our meals (with apps and drinks in the interim), which felt totally reasonable to me.

One minor ding: once we got out of the normal phases of ordering, we had a few drinks that took a bit to get back to us. Otherwise, service was exceptional.

Overall, I'd highly recommend giving it a shot if you haven't tried it since the new owners took over!...