Barnwood Grill — Restaurant in Newtown

I was given a $100 gift certificate for Barnwood Grill from someone. I was a chef for a mixture of fine dining and high volume cafeteria's at ski areas all over the U.S. Barnwood Grill in Newtown CT is always packed and I had to wait till 8:15pm on Saturday night to get a reservation. The hostess was very helpfull and placed my wife and I where we wanted to be seated. I was really looking for to a great meal as people around us seemed to be very happy. Our issues started after that. It took 3 different waitstaff to understand that my wife wanted hot water with lemon instead of cold water with ice. I ordered the 20 oz Garlic basted bone in steak on there special. It cost $39, so I thought it would be fantastic. The steak was only about 1 inch thick with absolutely no seasoning let alone garlic. It came with mashed potatoes that appeared to be made of a mixture of real potatoe and instant potatoe. The vegetable was blanched broccoli with no butter or seasoning of any kind. I also ordered the Lobster bisque that had a good taste however it was like water with nothing in it. My wife had the kale salad which looked and tasted great according to her. She also had the Salmon dinner that came with mashed potatoes and broccoli. She said it tasted pretty good but the fish looked very dry and small. We both drank water and the bill came up to $93 before the tip. I was very dissapointed with the quality of the meal considering the price. If you are looking for a great meal at half the price, go to OldTown Restarant in Monroe. There steaks and bisque are out of this world. Personnaly I would never go back to Barnwood Grill unless the cost was less than half. Do not waste your money there. There are way to many other great restarants...

Had dinner here tonight, a family of six. We each had one or two drinks and the group shared two appetizers. The total without tip w the s just over $260, so around 43.50 per person. It was a disappointing experience, with a few positive parts.

First, the positives: All of the food was cooked perfectly. You could cut the steak with a fork. The waitress was very nice and did a good job taking care of us. She was friendly.

The negatives: The service staff was extremely businesslike, aside from our waitress. The bus boys were downright rude. A smile goes a long way.

The menu doesn't match what they have available online. Their menu online is much more filled-out than their actual menu. There's no kid's options other than sides.

All of the food lacked flavor. None of the dishes had unique flavors. For example, one person got the butternut squash ravioli. It has a truffle sauce and a caramelized walnut topping. The only thing they could taste was walnuts.

This was the biggest problem, considering the cost of the dinner. I'm a big believer of "you get what you pay for" and I don't feel like this happened. This place is too expensive for the quality of food, and we will not be back.

I was so hopeful about this place, given the amazing reviews and the online...

I would give this 1 star but the service was great.

My friend and I ordered calamari and it came out pretty fast and that’s not a good thing. They were pale and not crispy, it was all rings and they were rubbery, and there was zero seasoning on them.

Then we both got the hanger steak and while it was cooked to the temp we requested it was not worth the $33 price tag. The steak came out cut into 4 huge chunks and the herb butter sauce did not taste like butter. It came with instant mashed potatoes! Yea you read that right. They were wet, runny, and gritty. I said well maybe they ran out? And my friend pointed out they share a parking lot with a grocery store so they there’s really no excuse. It was supposed to come with a steamed seasonal veggie and it did but it was so lightly steamed it was basically raw broccoli. Again there was no seasoning, not even salt and we both left the majority of the food on our plates.

We stupidly ordered crème brûlée which was not cooked through and again we didn’t finish. The meal was disappointing from beginning to end and with a $220 bill, prices that would match finer dining, this felt...