Maple Sugar & Vermont Spice — Restaurant in Mendon

Good food, but the experience left a bad taste in our mouths. I must admit the food and gift shop here are good. However, the owner seems to have no self awarness when it comes to basic social skills. Most of the patrons there were tourist, and the stop is very much geared toward the tourist population. However, upon our arrival, when taking our dogs for a stretch and a bit of relief, the owner came out, and asked if we needed a bag. We were clearly putting the dogs back in the trailer. So, she simply inferred our pooches had deficated, and that we were too rude to clean it up of our own accord. After, telling her they had only urinated (we had our own potty bags), we tried to shake the exchange to enjoy a nice lunch. While the food was good, the waitress was not. She not only lacked the kind of regional charm one would hope to find in such a place, but was not attentive, much less friendly. The gift shop and restaurant were full of regional charm, but they really missed a God-viven oportunity for enjoying or viewing the scenery. There a few windows (and the ones there are small) to take in the view, much less light. There is a deck out back, which most of the year it is too chilly to utilize. Finally, paying for our meals and purchases, the owner asked us if we were tipping the waitress. When I was clearly taken aback by the question. She said she liked to type the tip amount in on the receipt instead of allowing the cutomers to write in their own, in order to save paper. This explanation made no sense, since she simply showed us where she typed it on the receipt, then had us sign it, while ripping off our copy, and handing it to us. There were still two receipt slips, just like everywhere else one is able to fill in their own tip amounts. We left with a few local souvenirs, nice meals,, served poorly, and a bad taste in our mouth for the...

I can’t share a review of the food because, well… we never got any.

The wait was 30-45 min for a table; totally understandable on Father’s Day. However, this can’t be the only time this restaurant has experienced a busy day based on the huge size of its parking lot, and obvious popularity with the number of reviews here. I mention this because despite the wait not being a big deal, the wait for the food was an entirely different story.

We had two parties on either side of us at the counter that were waiting on their orders when we were seated. In the 30+ minutes we were waiting for our own food, neither party received any of their food, nor did they receive any updates on when their food would arrive. At one point, someone next to me asked for a coffee refill, which he never received. The staff both inside and outside the kitchen were constantly arguing with each other, which made the wait less bearable. At one point, one of the waitresses was grabbing buttered toast with her bare hands and walking it back and forth down the counter to put it next to its assigned order. At another moment, one of the waitresses showed another waitresses a plate of food set to be served. The waitress looked at it in disappointment, knowing it wasn’t made well, and she shrugged and brought it out to the customer anyways.

After waiting 30+ minutes and seeing food come out of the kitchen that looked rushed at best, we told our waitress to cancel our order and we walked out. None of the people who had been waiting before we got there got their food before we left.

If we do end up trying this place another time, and we’re able to get food and have a better experience, I’ll update my review. But overall, really not interested...

My son and i visited on a weekday at about 10:30am. The hostess told us the wait would be about 20 minutes, so we poked around the gift shop downstairs. It stocked typical Vermont and country fare, but there wasn't really anything you wouldn't find in a Cracker Barrel (though the atmosphere at Sugar and Spice --- real name: Maple Sugar and Vermont Spice --- is a bit more quaint and less commercialized). We onlybwaited about 10 minutes and were sat at the counter overlooking the kitchen.

I had coffee, steak and eggs, and a bowl of chili; my son had eggs with sausage gravy and chili. The coffee was coffee; not butter but not quite The "diner coffee" taste I personally like. The steak was cooked perfectly (rare), but it's not seasoned with ANYTHING, so be prepared for that. The homefries could have been cooked a little longer, but that's just my preference (I usually get them crispy or deep-fried). The eggs were eggs, but the chili is really good. It was spicy, which I didn't expect from a Vermont eatery, and full of meat. I mean really good. I didn't have panakes, but I found it interesting that real maple syrup is the standard, and typically less expensive artificial syrup is an additional charge.

We paid $40 for 2 people before tip. A little on the high side but I left full and didn't feel cheated. The service was okay; not bad but it didn't earn any points either.

I give Sugar and Spice 4 out of 5 syrup...