The Village Restaurant — Restaurant in Litchfield

In the center of scenic Litchfield Square where there are several restaurants for patrons to enjoy, we chose to try The Village Restaurant in late January. Warm intimate interior with an antique feel. Booths and tables are on one side of the establishment for dining and the bar is on the other side for lighter fare and drinks. Both have their own entrance doors.

Seated in a booth easily as it was a Tuesday and early enough for dinner service, we were handed a few menus by our personable waiter who was attentive throughout the meal. We decided to each try their featured cocktail on the specials menu, "The Last Word" with gin, green chartreuse, lime and maraschino juice plus a luxardo cherry garnish. Appealing in flavor and looks.

A lamb shank was on the special menu and making these myself at home whenever I can find some, I'll always order this when available. My partner wanted this, as well, especially because it was accompanied by a risotto Milanese, but decided to try their regular menu pork schnitzel instead that comes with regular rice. In hindsight, he probably could have asked for the risotto side. Both entrees came with a mix of vegetables.

While waiting for these, noting there was a featured bottle of white wine from the Finger Lakes section of upstate New York where we've visited vineyards, we decided to have this with our dinners. A semi-dry Riesling, "Dr. Konstantin Frank" vintage 2021, paired well with our food.

We also ordered their crispy ravioli special appetizer stuffed with spinach and mushrooms. The serving of four gave us each a couple of warm bites of this treat. The filling was nicely mixed. My partner had the Italian Wedding Soup which was hearty and flavorful. Nice job with the small meatballs.

The lamb shank had nice flavor but I wish there had been more bites of meat on it. Not sure why the Chef chose to serve this with both risotto and whipped potatoes but both were creamy. The pork schnitzel was traditionally prepared, two boneless cutlets with no garnish but a brown gravy. The menu says there are capers in the gravy but maybe they have omitted those as there were none on his plate. Browned properly, crispy and neither juicy or dry, my partner was content with his meal.

Bringing dinner home to someone, they chose the Pork Loin Philly Cheese Steak sandwich with roasted red peppers and onion, mozzarella cheese and garlic mayo on a toasted hard roll. The feedback was very positive. The dessert takeout, apple crisp a la mode, was so-so we were told. Excellent ice cream and whipped cream on the side, but the crisp rectangular topping was too hard, was the opinion on this item.

The tab was more than we expected, but we ordered a few things and some takeout. Another spot with a large regular menu and specials that includes a range of pricing, there is much to try here over...

I've battled with leaving this review for a little while now. I usually don't like to tell people that they might not enjoy an establishment just because I didn't, but I decided to finally make my peace with this.

If you are getting an appetizer or a dessert, definitely check this place out. Their Crock of French Onion soup is actually very, very good. We started our dinner with a high note, but it only was a let down from there.

I got a stuffed rigatoni dish, which I wasn't necessarily expecting to be a fresh pasta, but maybe a nicer food service version you can buy from Sysco, or whoever their supplier is. Instead, it was a frozen pasta available for purchase from a local grocery store (Price Chopper/ Market 32 in NWCT), I know this because it is a staple in my house for my toddler. She loves stuffed pasta, and for $1.99 it's a nice change up from ravioli. For roughly 8 times the price, you can buy it from The Village and get the same product with a little bit of ricotta and their house-made Bolognese. I was a little let down.

My wife got a plate of French Cut chicken breast with a pan sauce. It was almost completely devoid of seasoning. There are plenty of ways to bring a really nice flavor into a plate with a really good pan sauce, but apparently those techniques aren't reserved for that dish. It's good that there was salt on the table so we didn't have to ask for it, but it's a tragedy in my mind to have to salt your meal -after- cooking. Seasoning as you go is imperative, but that was the state of this dish.

Then we got the creme brulee. Whoever is making their custard there does a great job, and it was a nice end to a somewhat disappointing meal. The pastry was flavored appropriately and the custard set perfectly. It's not the easiest thing in the world so I can always appreciate when it is done well.

The most disappointing thing is that we rarely have time to ourselves, so we reserved the night for a place with a nice atmosphere and a nice reputation for a good meal. The atmosphere is good, but the food could really use some work. Especially if you're paying $21 for previously frozen...

The village Inn food is absolutely terrific. For their burgers, including the vegetarian and salmon ones, they use a beautiful bakery across the street. My vegan Kanata, olives and eggplant Pizza was really good. Do you know how difficult it is to make a vegan pizza taste good? Our server was really sweet and demonstrated the perfect balance of fawning and forgetting about us. One of our lunch guests had the crab and salmon cake and wow, did it look good! The whole of Litchfield is looking rather worn for its years. I used to go here decades ago with my husband, whose family lived in the area. It’s also a bit dark for my taste., In the middle of the day. But it still doesn’t take away the charm. Again, the food is really really good maybe on a day that’s not rainy and misty And generally grim, the atmosphere would be a little bit...