The Iron Lantern Restaurant & Tavern

My wife and I just got home from a late dinner at the Iron Lantern. We’ve been there several times before and have enjoyed their salad bar, several specials, and their 50 cent wing nights. Tonight we thought we’d try their $ 15 pasta specials… big mistake!
Shame on us for expecting descent seafood in Vermont, but we each chose a shrimp dish: I had the Shrimp Tortellini Alfredo, my wife had the Shrimp Parmesan & Pasta. My tortellini itself was okay, the sauce had a lot of room for improvement. The shrimp were just canned cocktail shrimp stirred in with the sauce. Thy wife’s dish had the same kind of shrimp, just much fewer of them. She essentially had buttered penne pasta with some Parmesan cheese & bread crumbs, with a smattering of canned cocktail shrimp. Maybe we should have opted for the spaghetti & meatballs.
My advice: stick to the salad bar, the wings, the steaks, etc.

Go on Wednesday for 50cent wing night. 7 different kinds, and no minimum order. So good. Salad bar is pretty killer with many fresh options. Had the Maple Cremee cocktail, was indulgent and delicious.

Wow… looking at some of the bad reviews I’m pretty surprised to see that negativity. We went as a party of four. It was a holiday weekend (Labor Day) so we made reservations before hand and were seated immediately. Our server was quick to bring water and ask for beverage orders which we got in just a few minutes. She was back in about 5 minutes to take our orders. The place was packed, so we did have to wait about ½ hour to 45 minutes for our meals, but in the meantime we all headed to the salad bar. We all thought it was fantastic. I didn’t even think about a sneeze shield as mentioned by another reviewer. Oh well, I rode in cars without seat belts when I was a kid and somehow I survived so it’s not on the top of my list of things to worry about. Great selection, and to a person, we all thought it was the best salad bar in this area.
The dinners came and I got the seafood casserole which was excellent. I thought that they should remove the tails from the shrimp before cooking, but that was nitpicking really and no biggie. Not too much breading and nicely seasoned. Other meals were the maple glazed pork chops that were given 5 stars, Chicken Marsala, also got great reviews and the only negative was the Lobster Ravioli which was a miss. The texture was terrible, like it was put in a blender and piped into the ravioli. It had very little lobster flavor as well and the sauce was pretty heavy handed. The expectation was to have small chunks of lobster and herbs in the center with some in the sauce as well.
Then we had desert. We passed a Chocolate cheese cake and Key Lime Pie Crème Brûlée around the table and we all decided they were some of the best deserts we’ve ever had… ever. The texture of the Chocolate was like the center of a truffle. Truly amazing.
So, we’re already making plans to go back when we have our NJ leafpeepers come up in October.

We travel north 150 miles to ice fish on Lake Bomoseen. Our tradition is to visit the lantern on Saturday night. I’ll just say we won’t be visiting The Lantern next year. Overpriced, poor quality food. Great salad bar, that’s as good as it got. We had a reservation and waited 20 minutes as people who came in after us, we’re seated as we waited. Another 10 minutes before we saw a server, and anther 5 before our orders were taken. Burned chicken parm, flavorless stuffed shrimp dry end cut prime rib, and jumbalia that was way too spicy, and we eat quite a bit of spicy food.
Last year was fantastic, but I think that was. Rare night. I feel that our experience last night was probably more typical of the true Lantern. Take the extra time Nd head into RutlNd.

After we were sat it took 15 min before our server came and took our drink order. I ordered their specialty iron lantern steak, medium and it came out well done. My brother who had been there before said normally it came out on a plate sizzling, it was obvious mine had been sitting for awhile and reheated. The steak was terrible.
The prime rib my wife and sister in law ordered looked and tasted great. They ordered it medium rare and it was medium.
Salad bar was great.
Food is over priced for the quality.

We went on Wednesday night – the restaurant was extraordinarily busy which seemed like a good sign but as a result the service was terrible. It seems everyone working there are young (college-​age or younger), inexperienced and not terribly interested which is a bummer. The wings were good and my cocktail was as well. The salad bar wasn’t impressive by any means. My mom had steak and scampi which I sampled – the steak was alright but the scampi had a strange aftertaste and the shrimp seemed off. And the prices were astronomical for nondescript and not terribly good food. I don’t really have any interest in going back.

We were here on a Saturday night and the place seemed kind of crowded. We were able to be seated right away, which was nice.
Just a few complaints — the beer my boyfriend ordered apparently had just run out. Why wouldn’t you mention that in the beginning? Additionally — everything he went to order they didn’t have. What is that about? AFter ordering our meal, the waitress told us that we were welome to the salad bar… but didn’t mention where it was located. We had to ask another server where it was.
I got the flat iron steak, which had a bit of a kick to it. It was served with steak fries, onions and mushrooms. The mushrooms looked and tasted as though they may have come from a can?
It was an okay place. I don’t think I’ll ever go back, but considering where we were, I didn’t expect anything special.

I sat at the bar tonight and had the worst service I have experienced in years, and all I was there for was a beer. The bartender walked past me three times before acknowledging me, then she didn’t know her beers, and then after I was done I sat there while she chit chatted with some friends for over 10 minutes before getting up and standing in front of her to get her to make my change. I will never go back.

Had lunch with friends I can recommend the salad bar because everything was fresh and there were many many items to choose from. No sneeze shield however.
Clam bisque delicious, mushroom panini was good, coffee was cold and old on delivery. Wait person was disinterested but efficient.

This place is pretending to be an upscale restaurant — with pricing to match — but the food quality is not up to par for this kind of restaurant. They’ve made an attempt at decorating, but it didn’t work out. The salad bar was wilted. The wine list was meager. The entrees that we tried were amateurish attempts at things most could make better at home using good quality ingredients. There was nothing organc on the menu. As a gay person, I had a vague sense of unease in this restaurant, which is very rare to experience in Vermont. We will never go back to this restaurant.