Cider Barn Taproom at Carlson Orchards — Restaurant in Harvard

This is a very fun and campy place to visit despite the mediocre food. The servers are so sweet and attentive...warm and friendly. Because of the band playing the music, I didn't catch our server's name, but I believe she was from India. She had such a bright and cheerful exuberance! She made me wish the food was better to round out an otherwise great experience. I had loaded tater tots. They were anything but "loaded." Way too many tots with nowhere near enough of the good stuff on them! Guys, fewer tots -- more "loaded!" C'mon now! And for that price, you should be adding avocado 🥑 too! The others in my group had pizza and nachos which were (sorry) equally disappointing. 😔 We moved on to dessert, naively assuming that (since this is an orchard) the apple crisp would be top-notch! Oh dear were we wrong. It tasted like apple mash that had been sitting at the bottom of a fridge (or perhaps-- worse-- a freezer) for days getting soggy and then plunked into a microwave for three minutes or more to become so scalding 🔥 that it should have been called "soggy apple lava cake." I rarely leave unflattering reviews (check my profile on Google) but especially for the $105 we spent (after tipping our lovely server,) we should have left feeling as overjoyed with the quality of the food as we were with the charm of Cider Barn. I understand food can be difficult to get right, and I would likely just kept my mouth shut if the price wasn't so high. But you're supposed to get what you pay for. I feel like we paid for Filet Mignon and got a fatty steak from Walmart. I suggest your cooks get some education and bring the standards up to match the...

The cider barn has a homey and relaxed atmosphere. It offers a nice mashup between a tasting room and picnic table family style dining. When weather is nice the doors open up and patrons are offered fresh hair and expansive views of the orchards and landscapes. The outside areas include additional seating and open space where little ones can run around and folks can engage with lawn games.

Their ciders are wonderfully varied and a perfect refreshment for any season. Carlson is somewhat on the sweeter side of the spectrum but even a die hard dry-fan can get something to suit. The food is mostly bar fare, but there are some artisan/themed pizzas that are tasty and elevate the offerings nicely. Further adding options are the food trucks that come and park adjacent to the barn.

It's just a local gem with a family touch. If you're there on an evening you might run into Paul, the cider mixologist or one of the owners. They'll often wander the floor asking for feedback on the food and drink, but aren't shy about just sitting down and chewing the fat with a stranger.

Just a nice place to...

The staff was friendly, the food was so good I couldn't stop eating, the siders are exactly what you would expect the ciders to be, and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience.

That said, they do need to be more careful about the wording of their trivia questions.

They were a couple of instances where they had a specific answer in mind, and they were not going to accept any substitutes. In fact, several of the answers went against what you could find online. So when we were looking at the answers after they had scored things, we discovered several instances where we were correct, but that was not the answer they were looking for.

Example: how many Apple varieties are grown in the United States? Their answer was somewhere in the 2000s, but the correct answer is...