Rocking Horse Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Vernon

• UPDATE (April 2024) *

Recently I took another friend to have a late lunch here and I decided to try the beef short ribs to see if I would get a smoky flavor compared to the brisket I had last time, which had no smoke flavor. When I got the ribs, they were VERY tender, but there was zero smoke taste or smoke ring despite having a bark on the outside (not quite sure how that happens) and were luke warm like they had been sitting for at least an hour away from any heat source. The flavor was exactly like I was eating a pot roast, which is obviously disappointing from a restaurant that claims to be a smokehouse. If you could taste the smoke, which is why one goes to a smokehouse, then it would be well worth the price they're charging. If I wanted pot roast, I'd save my money and make it at home. As such I had to dock the food rating a couple of stars. At this point, I don't think I'll go back when I'm craving smoked meat as I've been to other places that know how to smoke their meat to maximize flavor at a cheaper price.

On the plus side, the service is still great as is the atmosphere. Just keep in mind that conversation might be difficult for those with hearing disabilities as it gets loud.

Side note, I do find odd is that the menu isn't available on their website. If it is, I still haven't found it. I can't recall a restaurant not putting their menu on their website.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

Finally got to check this place out. Went in with moderate expectations given the reviews since they opened. We were pleasantly surprised.

Walking in, you're greeted with an open concept, warm country feel, almost like being in a barn ready for the best party ever. Everything is very clean, and they are set up for entertainment (stage and plenty of room for line dancing with some tables moved). The clean utensils are wrapped in a linen napkin and all the dishes used were clean and in great shape.

The service was very good. Olivia was great about making sure we had everything we needed in a pleasant manner. They have a decent drink offering and the draft beer is very well priced ($4 for a pint of the Rocking Horse Lager which was tasty and cold).

The portions are HUGE for the price, and the ingredients are very fresh. The side salad I chose as part of my entree easily could outside a full dinner salad anywhere else (in a twelve-inch bowl) The flavors are uniquely different from any other places in New England that serves smoked dishes. And that's a good thing. The chicken wings are dredged in a fantastic dry rub and then put on the smoker. Served with blue cheese dressing and their special hot sauce (which has a fantastic peppery flavor with a faint note of vinegar), the wings were perfectly tender and loaded with flavor. You don't need any sauce as they are.

My friend had one of the burgers which was perfectly cooked and HUGE! She opted for the Cajun fries which were great, but super spicy. So be prepared if you do opt for them.

The only complaint I had, and it's not a big one, was that my brisket had a very thin smoke ring and parts of it tasted and had a muscle density more like a packed pot roast than smokey, stringy fibers of what I've come to know brisket for. Brisket I've had at other places have at least a half inch thick smoke ring and have the right smoky taste in each bite. These maybe had a sixteenth of an inch thick smoke ring and I only got a smoky taste in about half the bites. But it was super moist and fell apart very easily. Their sauces are packed with flavor and pair well with the various dishes they go with. Thankfully they made the brisket better tasting.

We went home with a bunch of food, our stomachs very full in a light way. Overall, it was a great experience and we will definitely...

Review

Let me start this review by saying I have been looking forward to opening day! I live here in Vernon and this happens to be right off my exit so yah been driving past everyday waiting. I went on Friday night around 7pm (3 guests, myself included) and was told there would be a 1.5hr wait. The style of seating guests at the moment is writing down names in a book and crossing them out as they get seated. We decided to have a few drinks while we wait. After our 1.5hr wait we headed inside to check if our table would be ready soon and was told we would have to wait another 25mins or so because they were running behind. The host informed us that there were 3 large groups ahead of us also waiting to be seated, we decide to grab a few more drinks. On the way over to the bar area we noticed there were 3 empty tables where a large group could be seated and also 2 empty high top tables across from the bar that could sit 4 people each and 1 table out on the floor that could also sit a group of 4. Now in my experience I’m used to seeing restaurants try seating smaller groups before a larger group if there IS seating available. Once we were ready to be seated we were escorted over to a table out on the floor that was directly by the entrance so we simply asked our host (Sophia is what I believe her name is) if we could sit at one of the available high top tables instead and she seemed to have misunderstood what we asked because she went on to explain that the table can seat a group of 6..mind you there were only 4 chairs there which we pointed out to her, that must’ve set her off because she proceeded to get visibly upset, throw our menus down and said while huffing and rolling her eyes “ fine sit wherever you like” and stormed off. Luckily our waitress Lyndie saw the encounter and apologized on her behalf and she confirmed that we were able to move to the high top table and kindly took us over. I asked to speak with a manager and was surprised to hear that the host Sophia IS a manager!! Imagine a host working the front much less a MANAGER speaking/behaving with a guest looking to dine at your establishment like that…unbelievable. A manager higher up by the name of Jackie came over and I went over the issue with her and she also apologized and said she would speak to her about the encounter, I hope they did..who knows how many people will be or have been spoken to like that.

Now on to the important stuff, the food! Lyndie explained to us that unfortunately they were out of cornbread, burnt ends and brisket. All the stuff we were looking forward to trying! We put in orders for candied bacon and bao bun pork sliders for Apps. For Entrees we ordered a Full rack of baby back ribs that came with a side of coleslaw and dirty rice, Buffalo chicken Mac n cheese, Pork belly Mac n cheese, and Chicken pork combo that comes with 1/2 BBQ chicken and 1/2 rack of baby back ribs with a side of Mac n cheese. The meat was good, all slightly on the drier side except the chicken but they all had a good flavor. The sides were all fresh, no taste just very bland. Same goes for both orders of the Mac n cheese. As for the apps the candied bacon was great! The bao buns were also on the fresh tasteless side. So was the coleslaw that comes as a side.

So after almost a 2 hour wait, about a 30 minute wait for our food, and some attitude from a manager all we got were a few good drinks, good tasting meat, and terrible side dishes. I won’t be going back for a while! If I had to go back I’d go back strictly for use of the bar, the bartenders seem to know exactly what they’re doing! Lyndie was a great waitress, she was very polite and attentive, I’d give...

Overview: Rocking Horse misses in every category. From it's desperate attempt at a 'country' theme that looks like it came out of a Macy's magazine, to it's slop of food and horrible acoustics; I can't name a good thing this place had.

Food: The food here, well... don't get it. I got the half chicken with green beans and carrots. The chicken was initially amazing. The skin was well flavored and smoked; but after that initial layer, nothing. No flavor, definitely overcooked such that the chicken was somehow drier than turkey. How do you mess up chicken, at a SMOKEHOUSE? The mac and cheese I split with my gf was quite, tasteless. Soupy as if they never drained the water from the pasta. The sauce and cheese they serve it with was very saddening - honestly a 99 cent mac n' cheese box for kids comes out better than this. The green beans were undercooked and left the after taste of soap in my mouth, at least the carrots were ok. The waitress personally told our table to not order the brisket - it looks like a can of wet dog food served on a plate. She also said there are often complaints about the taste as well. She was not kidding either, as a table next to us ordered it and I don't think I've ever seen brisket so poorly made. Do they grind the food in a nutri-bullet before putting it on the plate? Girlfriend's dish was served fridge cold.

Drinks: I believe I had a specialty drink, but nothing fancy or innovative here. Drinks are drinks :)

Service: Clearly understaffed/poorly managed. We had waited well over an hour for our food from the initial order to when we got our plates. They didn't even come out at the same time, one of the dishes came out 10 minutes after everyone else and we were almost done. The waitress we had was clearly doing her best and was very nice to us. No complaints specifically as she was clearly managing far too many tables. If we didn't have the waitress we did, the service would get 2 stars.

Misc: Loud acoustics, be ready to yell at your friends 2 feet away from you. Disingenuous environment, at least for my experience (take some queues from the Ditch in Litchfield). If you're a 60+ salt and pepper hair, fake cowboy hat, basis flannel white guy wanting to relive their hey-day and pretend to be cool, man you'll fit right in! Sketchy rumors about this place, but who knows what is true and what isn't.

Gordon Ramsay needs an intervention with this place, or new management is needed. Something needs to change before I...