The Pickled Perch — Restaurant in Colchester

I wish I could say that this low review was written for a stereotypical reason such as bad quality food or terrible wait times. We didn’t even get to that point.

A reservation was made at this establishment by a then soon-to-be graduate from the university of Vermont hoping that this would be a great place to celebrate her and her accomplishments. Once we arrived, we were seated quickly by our waiter who was informed of the special occasion. While ordering drinks, the graduate was asked for ID but was questioned of its validity which he then took to management. It was then that this event which was supposed to be joyous in nature became completely dysfunctional and unprofessional.

The manager approached us and declared that they did not consider the ID valid and could not serve the graduate. We questioned what was her reason on why she deemed the ID as fake which she pointed out the print stating “not for ‘REAL ID’ purposes”. We attempted to explain to her that it was regarding the federal REAL ID for travel purposes - completely irrelevant. She then moved on to the fact that the ID was too “bendy” and the integrity of the plastic didn’t feel right. Another person in the group threw out their ID from the same state to show that the “bending” quality was natural. The manager persisted and said it felt different after testing each one. At this point, we were all getting frustrated after trying to convince we weren’t trying to commit anything nefarious. There was a ton of back and forth which led to nothing. The points that I have to emphasize is the sheer lack of professionalism to which her responses were condescending, sarcastic - in particular saying that the establishment wasn’t a night club and she wasn’t a bouncer to verify the validity of the ID, but the sheer lack in attempt to speak to us in a mature manner to hear us out and problem solve. Our group would have been completely understanding if she would have explained her rationale in a clear, calm manner but all we received was snark and dismissal. We all chose to leave.

I fully understand that staff can refuse service to any patron if they see it fit. However, we were there with good intentions to celebrate our graduate who in turn ended up ultimately being embarrassed and frustrated because of the way this manager chose to treat us. The last thing to note is that in our group of 8, there were 6 clearly older adults - it would be foolish and irresponsible of us to condone underage drinking.

Overall, we are significantly disappointed in how our visit transpired and we certainly hope that management gets trained on how to work through issues in a...

Visited last Friday, 8/10 - party of 4 (2 weeks after opening). It appears they are still struggling to get the “front of the house” staff trained. Decided to wait the 40 minutes for a table, but unsure where to wait since the bar was full. The hostess went out of her way to find plastics deck chairs, wipe them down and bring them outside so we could sit with a view of the lake while we waited. Once seated on the patio, things went downhill. After our waitress (can’t remember her name/unsure if she ever introduced herself/not at all friendly) took our drink orders, I watched her clear a nearby table by throwing the remaining drinks into the bushes/onto the patio floor (I could see the impact of the splash land 2’ away, hitting the legs of a man at another table...not to mention the smell of beer being very strong after she did this). Never once did our waitress acknowledge us as she passed us numerous times while we waited for our meals. Eventually my fish and chips came, along with my guest’s wedge salad. My chips/fries were cold and my fish was on it’s way to becoming cold. Since we were all passed the point of hungry, my guest and I started eating despite 2 of my guests’ meals not yet arriving. Fifteen minutes later I had to stop eating so that I wouldn’t finish my meal before my 2 other guests had even received theirs! Finally the last 2 meals arrived (hot and delicious...yay!). All in all, we waited an hour and 45 for our meals. I really want this place to work, so I will try again in a few months....hopefully by then the service will...

Staff is super friendly and genuinely seem to like being there and with each other. It doesn't have a ton of tables but there's plenty of parking. The drinks are really good. The service wasn't super speedy, but it wasn't terrible and the food is 100% worth it because it ended up being very skillfully prepared. Some places say roasted and you get charcoal, this place says roasted and you get perfectly roasted.

Whoever roasted those brussels sprouts I had tonight deserves an award. Absolutely perfect. No bitterness from the part that usually gets burnt. And they were perfectly cooked, the middle was tender while the outside stayed crisp. The kimchi was a great addition. They drained it so the sprouts stayed crisp, it tasted fermented but not sour. Just super skillful flavors. And you'd expect with such strong flavors that it could easily have been an overwhelming dish, but they co-existed really nicely and I was still able to taste the beet salad and corn fritters after.

The whole preparation seemed very careful and considered. There were red onions on the burger I got but they were thinly sliced and not overpowering. The feta on the beet salad was really nice and seemed hand crumbled by a cheese lover! Everything was so nicely balanced without any sort of pretense. ...