The Reservoir & Big Tree Brewing — Restaurant in Waterbury

I will mention the food, I promise I will. I would first like to speak about the staff. I live about an hour and a half away. I have come to the Waterbury area several times now to use as a home base to see the lady-friend I've been making time with.

This staff here has gone above and beyond. Their warm, welcoming attitude and attention to detail is impressive. I also appreciate that they used my name after two days of pickup service. Also, I had to tie up my pooch outside for pickup. Some of the staff members offered a bowl of water while we waited.

One of the reasons I ate here was due to the menu selection. Online, the food and it's treatment looked good, so I went on a date there. Fish in restaurants is usually "One-note". It's fish, you know what you are getting.

The Toasted Sesame Salmon was prepared perfectly. The kale was treated right, orzo was perfect, fish was perfectly hot and the moisture was excellent. Kale is not my favorite. We split a Kale salad. I ate the lions share of it.

When we went back we did fish Tacos. Again. Fish is easy to mess up. They hit it off again. The Curry was also very well executed. I love curry, and I've eaten a lot of it. This is the curry to eat if you are thinking of trying curry for the first time. There was a nice mix of cooked veggies and meat, with a fresh veggie component to the Curry that was really well thought out.

Again, I'm very impressed with the food. Most places that deal in this "genre" of food always have one, maybe two small miss-steps in a dish. I haven't found it yet.

I don't drink beer, so I can't help you with that. I have dietary restrictions due to Crohns, so I can only drink hard cider. I really appreciated the selection of hard cider they had. I also like how the staff checked our water and didn't seem pushy with dessert.

This place gets my vote when I'm in town for eating and generally hanging out.

Oh yeah, style and decor is great. Good attention to lighting, art isn't pretentious, and outside seating is clean. Place is comfortable without...

This restaurant has lost some of its edge.

Came here to eat several weeks ago (7/5/23). The wife and I usually pop in every few months, but I don’t remember exactly when we were in last prior to this.

1. The physical beer list is gone. Previously every table was seated with a physical copy of the beer list—it was even above the urinals in the men’s room. They’ve gone to a QR code now—impossible to easily look and sort through the list and have a clear snapshot of what is available. No longer able to easily choose VT local beers—previously marked on the beer list. Just sucks. They beer offering in general felt less/light, and there were less offerings from VT local breweries. Womp. A bunch of national brands. I felt like I was at Chili’s.

2. Waitress wasn’t great. Name on the receipt if you’re really interested. Service was infrequent, and she literally waited until the kitchen was closed to give us the check without asking if we wanted desert. My wife had her heart set on a particular desert and even asked if she could have it to go, but no dice. ‘The kitchen is closed.’ Well thanks for the poor follow up, service, and warning. They hate dessert and upsells at the ‘new’ Reservoir.

3. Menu was blah. No firehouse burger, no steam buns, no specials. These guys were felling super basic on a holiday week. I literally was sitting at my table and thinking about howni could have had the same experience at Chili’s in Burlington. I ordered a burger and asked if they could add some jalapeños—no jalapeños in the kitchen. What? Nothing? No spice in the kitchen? So crazy. Very blah menu. Maybe it will ‘rotate’, god willing.

Did this place sell? New owner? New management? Did Chili’s buy it? It has lost its edge and quality—at least in this visit. Hoping they can pull...

Update: After posting the review below, I thought we'd forget about the negative experience at the Reservoir. We paid with a debit card and forgot about ever going back to eat there. I noticed a charge yesterday for $115 to my debit card when I checked my bank account. It was from the Reservoir. This was almost 4 weeks after eating there. There was not any charges pending up to that point, so I did not bother to check and see if the Reservoir had charged my card previously. I think they waited so long to charge my card to spite me for my negative review below. I guess they think that they got the last laugh. I called the bank and they said there was nothing they could do. DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE. Take my advice.

We live in South Burlington and I usually order the pull pork sandwich from the Res which is very good. Today I ordered the mussels from the small plate. Half of the shells were empty, which I know happens when the mussels fall from inside the shell and end up in the plate. That did not happen. They were not in the plate I told the waitress and my companions felt she though that I was lying. She checked with the manager and they brought me another plate which would have been more than I was wanted (I just wanted a small amount of mussels to replace the ones which shells were empty). The replacement plate of mussel were cooked, but they were cold, the sauce was not the same for some reason and the baguette was not toasted. I did save a piece of baguette from the first plate which was toasted and very good. I felt like I was being punished for pointing out that I received only half of the meal I had ordered. We still left a twenty percent tip for the waitress, but I will probably not go back or recommend it to anybody. This is the first time I have have commented on...