The Valley Cafe

The Valley Café is charming and the food is delightful. There are many unique menu items. The ingredients are fresh and the food is well seasoned. My family and I want to stop here whenever we are in Bellows Falls.

Fantastic and fresh! My fiancé and I split the beet sandwich and the asian salad. The beet sandwich was smoky and the salad was crisp, no complaints whatever. We would go back in a heartbeat!

Excellent addition to Bellows Falls!
A tasty café dedicated to local and organic ingredients. I had the «Black and Beet Burger» which was one of the best veggie burgers I’ve ever had… perfect consistency, and a great flavor with those beets and black beans. The bread and veggies were fresh too. The iced coffee was excellent too, good quality beans and a good cold brew. I will definitely be back!

We had the worst chili, ever. More like mud, although it was supposed to be Mexican mole’-style, with cocoa and cinnanmon, as well as pumpkin. No sign of any types of peppers or chili powder. Very dark and thick, and it truly looked and tasted like mud. The beans were undercooked and the stew meat was slightly tough. BTW, a «cup» here is a generous amount and more like a bowl serving elsewhere.
We fared somewhat better with the sandwiches. The grilled cheese on French bread with Cabot cheddar was excellent, with a perfectly golden, crispy crust, plus a gooey, melted and delicious center. A good value at $ 4.50, too.
The chicken salad sandwich on multi-​grain bread was disappointing. It was tasty, but on the small side, and nothing special — certainly not brimming with chicken. The cook uses a tarragon mayo, with gave the filling an odd, dark-​green hue, which was not visually appealing. It also seemed overpriced at $ 8.95. It was served with a few slices of apple, which when combined, would still be smaller than my little finger.
The sandwiches are served in plastic trays lined with wax paper, which I always think are tacky. The basket was so deep, it was hard to grasp the sandwich. For $ 8.95, it would have been nice to have been graced with a plate, and maybe a few potato chips or a little serving of a cold salad like potato, macaroni or cous-​cous salad.
For dessert, we shared a chocolate/​peanut-​butter cupcake with a caramel frosting. This dessert was really over the top. It was not balanced in flavor, and I would recommend it for PB lovers only. The coffee was tasty, but weak.
Although the place is now called the Valley Café’, be aware that there is only partial table service. One orders at the counter and the cook/​owner brings the food to the table. There are a few tables, all with mismatched chairs. This is clearly an unpolished, shoe-​string operation. Also, one is not presented a bill. Instead, you go to the register to pay and the owner rings up your order. While I am certain we were not overcharged, I would prefer to see a bill and then pay.
The atmosphere is more like a day-​care than a dining experience, at least on the Saturday at lunchtime when we were there. There was a darling toddler running around, who was either the owners’ or their friends’ child. She dominated the space, and while she was charming, the atmosphere was not quiet or relaxing. I assume she is there routinely, since there was a child-​gate at the entrance to the stairs.
I appreciate that this friendly, welcoming young couple is attempting to provide homemade, locally-​sourced food in a casual environment. I cook this labor-​intensive kind of food at home, so I realize this must be a real challenge while tending to a young family. While they bring lots of enthusiasm to the venture, they need to get serious and fine tune their recipes, prices and their focus if they want this place to thrive and not seem so amateurish. We’d try other places before returning here.

Great lunch spot! I had the pumpkin chili and it was amazing. Sandwiches and cookies were great too!