Barre Country Diner — Restaurant in Town of Barre

• Update as of 2023-04-27 * The skinny: Still a good place to go, just not as good as it once was. Since my previous review there have been some changes; most for the worse unfortunately. I have to drop at least one star off if not two.

Change #1 - Goodbye salad bar but hello side salad, or cottage cheese, or coleslaw etc. Just one is included with a standard entree. Want to have some cottage cheese along with your salad? Well you still can, but now it's an extra separate charge. Want a little pudding or pickled beets? Too bad; these were regular on the salad bar but went away with it.

Change #2 - Soup and salad (bar then just salad; see #1) were originally included with standard entrees. Now only one of the two is (your choice). It is an extra charge for the other one, but fortunately it's merely a $1 up charge. This is a negative of course but not massively so.

Change #3 - In my opinion, there has been on average a decline in service level. From my observations this seems to be due to a shortage of wait staff. That is to say that the wait staff on the whole range from decent to very good, but due to being stretched a bit thin they cannot deliver the same level of service as before; despite working just as hard if not harder. This is not a reflection on the wait staff. This may (or may not) be in the court of ownership / management. You can always get all the help you need, if you offer the right amount of compensation. However, if the amount of compensation required rises to such a level that it is financially counter-productive to a business, then there's not a lot to be done for it.

Change #4 - The hours have been cut back. Originally BCD was open Thursday through Saturday nights. First Thursday service was discontinued. Then down the road Saturday was dropped too. So now to get the evening dining experience, it has to be a Friday night. Period. That's for you, me, and everyone else who wants to grab their supper at BCD, all concentrated into that one Friday evening each week. Remember point #3 above? Well guess what: you probably should prepare for waiting longer to be checked on by your wait staff during your visit. Also often times a long wait is in store just to get seated in the 1st place. Ownership / management has stated this is due to shortage of cook staff. I don't doubt for a second the validity of that and I sympathize; but just the same the end result is their awesome Prime Rib now only available the one super busy night they're open. Bummer!

Change #5 - Prices have gone up; way up. Does it have to be that way? I don't know. Probably. They've gone up everywhere pretty much. And my oh my has beef gone up. Steaks and Prime Rib seem about DOUBLE what they used to be. Uhhg. Due to the expense we don't order that nearly as much, and it was one of BCD's main draws because the Rib is so good.

So, that's my update for BCD. We still go there and like it, but we find ourselves going to other places instead more often now that are closer, sometimes cheaper, and equally as good. Pros: good quality food generous portions prices reasonable; not particularly cheap or expensive good service clean (are you paying attention Family Restaurant?)

Cons: can be pretty noisy when busy, more-so than most due to poor/harsh acoustics a little more out of the way for most people

The pros and cons stack up such that we visit fairly often and...

Are the mushroom and Swiss burger with french fries and coffee. The coffee is endless and excellent. The mushroom and Swiss burger was massive. The burger was cooked to order. I got a medium Burger. I like medium because this doesn't taste too bloody but it's not shoe leather either it's like right in the middle. The fries are crispy on the outside light and fluffy on the inside and they have a light seasoning. For me the perfect amount of seasoning because I don't like overseasoned fries. Interesting to me they had apple butter packets on the table. Got to say I haven't seen apple butter at a restaurant before. I'm sure other places have it I just haven't seen it yet in the area. And I liked it. It was really tasty, even on the fries which is what I put it on. I wasn't just going to eat apple butter up by itself. But it would probably be good enough to eat by itself, too sweet for me though. The waiting counter staff were extremely pleasant and the restaurant and bathrooms were clean. The price was fair. I think it came to about $12.50ish. I'd been working for hours doing pretty hard labor and I was starving when I walked in and overfull when I left. This is a great place for lunch. And they serve breakfast until 1:00 p.m. so...

I had breakfast (a hash brown base topped with vegetables, eggs, and sausage gravy) and my companion had lunch (grilled ham and cheese and a crock of potato soup). We were both in heaven! My having had a nice crunch without being burnt, the vegetables were the perfect size and texture, the eggs were cooked to order, and the sausage gravy was amazing with more meat than you usually see in a sausage gravy. The ham sandwich was cooked to perfection. They use "real" ham, not processed and put enough on to make at least 2 sandwiches. The soup was so good we almost bought a quart but forgot when we left. Neither of us were able to eat everything. Our hostess was nice and the waitress was very knowledgeable about the menu and very attentive without being bothersome. I had a sunrise mimosa (sparkling wine w/ oj) but they also offered a midnight mimosa (s.w. w/ grape juice) and a Barre mimosa (s.w. and cranberry juice). My companion had coffee. They also serve Bloody Marys, Grasshoppers, pink squirrels, and beer. The restaurant itself was very clean and welcoming. I love all of the flowers and the sense of community. I can't wait...