Farmhouse Tap & Grill (Burlington VT) — Restaurant in Burlington

*Note: as this experience was during covid-19, shortly after restaurants are allowed to reopen, please take this review with a grain of salt. Restaurants are adjusting, so hopefully this experience was just a bit of a fluke.

This was my first time trying The Farmhouse - my fiancée had been here before and had an okay time, mentioning it was a bit overpriced and touristy for what it was. However, tonight we decided to give it a shot for takeout. We ordered two burgers (cooked medium) and a fish n chips with onion rings, and a kale salad appetizer. Everything came on time and the staff was super friendly when we picked up. However, after we reached home and opened the order, there were a few issues - firstly, there we no onion rings, and the fish n chips didn't have the remoulade. The fish n chips were also a bit soggy and underwhelming - while the dish itself is obviously limiting by its simplistic nature, when the price goes upwards of $10 I start to get more critical - at almost $20 for a mediocre (and small) hunk of fried haddock, it's a rip-off, frankly. The burgers were also cooked well done instead of medium, unseasoned and bone dry. While this obviously isn't a huge issue, for an almost $90 order (tip and tax included), it becomes disappointing. A few days earlier I had a pre-made burger from a chaffing dish at City Market - it was far juicier, cooked medium (even after sitting in the chaffing dish for however long) and better seasoned! Given that the beef used for Farmhouse's burgers is some of the best and fattiest beef you can get in Vermont (LaPlatte), it's a shame it was overcooked and underseasoned by this large of a margin. For what it's worth, we also arrived exactly on time, so our dishes weren't sitting around for long enough for everything to either overcook or get soggy sitting on the line - unless they were cooked immediately and sent out well before the time sent to us to arrive by (perhaps set up a phone alert text when orders are ready?) On a positive note, the salads were tasty and all the greens were really fresh - so this wasn't by any means a disgusting meal! The star rating is relative to the price point and caliber of restaurant I'm comparing them to.

Hopefully this was just an off-night since everyone's still adjusting to a post-covid restaurant world, but if you're charging higher than average prices, it's not unreasonable to be held to that standard by your...

We arrived around 2pm and had a short 10 min wait while they cleared some tables. It didn’t seem very busy but we were warned that the kitchen was getting backed up so we should be quick to order. For drinks we had a beer, wine spritzer, rye sparking cocktail, a Negroni, and a special maple lemonade (very refreshing and tasty) - cocktails were fine but not consistent with some were more watered down than others. For the meal we ordered kids grilled cheese with salad and apples; lapatte river burger with cheddar, tuna tartar; and dry rub wings and onion rings as my main. I saw they had oysters and was told those aren’t served until 4… I thought ok, maybe next time.

Our server for lack of a better word was grumpy and largely ignored any attempt to get his attention. We had to a very long wait of an hour; I finally asked could they at least bring the kids meal out first and he returned immediately with an excuse about how the kitchen is always backed up due to how they set up service stations. The rest of the food came out shortly after and was (almost) worth the wait.

Everything was delicious! Dry-rub wings were amazing! Perfectly crispy skin and savory seasoning; the sauce for wings and onion rings tasted freshly made. Grilled cheese came on some nice toasted artisan bread with white cheddar. The burger was small but tasty and cooked to the right temp. The salad was pretty but nothing special, beets and pumpkin seeds were unexpected and not necessarily kid friendly - I couldn’t even tell that it was dressed. I tried the fries also and they were just ok. I think the appetizers are outstanding but couldn’t see returning because of the bad service/long waits. If you recall we got there for lunch at 2pm and were there long enough to order those oysters that weren’t...

I recently had the pleasure of dining at The Farmhouse Tap & Grill in Burlington VT. Every time I visit Vermont, I try and go to at least one different restaurant along with my old favorites. This time The Farmhouse Restaurant was the choice for something new. It’s right off The Church Street Marketplace located at 160 Bank Street right in downtown Burlington. Easy to get to. I used Uber which was super convenient! Everything in the Church Street area is super close and fun.

The location is perfect, the ambiance was amazing, we used Yelp’s “click ahead seating” and the table was ready by the time we got there. Now THAT was perfect timing. We had the onion rings for an appetizer and they were lightly breaded and delicious. I really wanted the fish and chips but when you go and look up the reviews, it didn’t really look like many people raved about it. What they DID, however, rave about was the pork burger. The Vermont Heritage Burger. I did not get the egg although my friend did. While they looked small, they were both very filling. Was it the best burger ever? I can’t say that. It was good, for sure. But at $16 I guess I had little higher hopes for it. And instead of the egg, they said I could substitute another topping … like bacon. “Sure, Bacon!” i said. It came with a single strip of bacon. The fries were good, the cole slaw was freshly made, the salad was nice and light – most of the meal was very good … it just wasn’t 5 STAR EXCELLENT.

I wanted to absolutely love this place. And between the ambiance and the good beer selection (especially the local VT beers!) I absolutely would return. Would I order a $16 burger from The Farmhouse? ...