The Bearded Frog

We have a daughter who attends UVM and are visiting from out of state. We consider ourselves frequent restaurant goers who know when we have had
a good meal. We had a very mediocre meal last night at the Bearded Frog for my birthday.The best part of our experience was a sweet cheerful waitress who recommended a caipirinha cocktail.

Our  $13 scallop appetizer came with 2 scallops. I have never even at the best restaurants in Manhattan ordered a scallop appetizer that came with two scallops. Can you explain this? Are scallops that expensive or that endangered?

Our three entrees were mediocre:

Substitution for bison which was not available : grey- looking strips of steak,
maybe enough for an appetizer portion, accompanied by starchy orange potatoes.
Duck which was asked to be medium, came out very rare.
Lastly, a burger that was on a roll from a grocery store and not half as good as a
burger from Barkeaters down the street. Ok, the french fries were not bad, but
again not as good as Barkeaters.

It seemed as if each course took at least 30 minutes to receive. Thank goodness
we are a family who enjoys each other's companyr!

This was a Sunday night, not a Monday, when the chef may have had the evening off.

I understand it is easy to rest on your laurels when you have a successful restaurant,
but there are quite a few restaurants that are successful for years and still turn out
great food. Before you open any new restaurants please make sure your current restaurants are turning out "great" food.

By far one of my favorite culinary experiences in Vermont and well ever. There is a certain dish here that is the best i have ever had. No restaurant not in NYC or anywhere else has yet to top the Calamari here. It's like the Calamari was handcrafted by Jesus himself and sent down for us to enjoy. I am not over exaggerating here, there are plenty of places that we all know that has a certain dish that has been over hyped or touted as world famous but in all honesty this dish should be one of them. That show on Food Network "Called Best Thing I Ever Ate" or whatever should definitely have had some one of the chefs come up here for the seafood edition and had this dish.

The dish is officially called the "Graham Cracker Crusted Calamari" and literally from the first bite it was love love love. My girlfriend kept telling me days in advance, that i didn't understand how good this dish was. Usually when she keeps raving about something repeatedly she is usually spot on. She took me here for my birthday and i was so happy, it made for a great night. Definitely call and make sure you get reservations because this place is a hot ticket. Upon going in we were seated i think within about two minutes of arriving, staff is very courteous and wait-staff makes sure that your needs are catered to, you don't feel like you are being ignored. The ambiance of the restaurant was beautiful, great layout, everyone around us was dressed appropriately, definitely classy not amateur hour here. Everything about this place exudes excellence and intimate romance.

I will be coming back here again hopefully next month in May , and i can't wait, get the Calamari on deck for me.

We had a great experience at The Bearded Frog! We had reservations and ate on time. The food was delicious and the service was great too. Overall, I would totally recommend this to anyone looking for a classy, delicious and reasonably priced dinner. They were great catering to my dietary restrictions as well!