The Family Table

First time here, looked at Unilocal for the reviews and decided to try this establishment. We were pleasantly surprised, the food was cooked with a upscale flair and the quality was top notch. By the looks of the restaurant it offers a much better experience than what you see from outside. All of the meals were delicious and I would recommend any visitors to the area to enjoy the flavor.
Also we had excellent service from our waitress Katrina, you may want to request her if possible.

Very good service, food was just… ok.
Buttermilk Chicken takes 30 min for them to make it fresh.
We wait…
It’s dark brownish bordering black in spots and not crispy at all when it arrives.
I did pick at it and chicken itself was juicy but I had visions of golden brown crisp delicious chicken. Not so much. Other meals were ok/​good.
Would probably try going again just not ordering that chicken.

We came here hoping for a good dinner and turned out to be a disaster. The staff doesn’t know how to handle a crowd. We thought that 1 ½ the would give us plenty of time to get back and watched the fireworks at Smuggler’s Notch. We ordered appetizers and it didn’t come until after 1 hour. There was no one who checked on us to let us know that the kitchen staff were behind. After 45 minutes, the waitress dropped a basket of bread on our table. Even though there were 5 five of us in the party, they only gave us 3 slices of bread.

Maple glazed pork chop was excellent.
Beet and goat cheese salad was a bit short on beets and too much arugula.
Wild asparagus was great! Good portions as well.
Mussels were undercooked, but to me better than overcooked. But being so far from the coast I had my worries.
Fried chicken was good.
Fries and mashed potatoes were great!
Next time I’m at Smugglers Notch I will be back. Like a 5 mile drive from resort.

We still just love this place! It is quite consistent, which is the failing of many restaurants… We went over the weekend for breakfast with our toddler and had another fantastic meal. I had one of their benedict offerings while my husband had biscuits and gravy which he was quite pleased with as well. The homefries served with each were crispy and perfectly seasoned, and usually I’m ambivalent on homefries. The toddler had pancakes which she wolfed down — what we got to try of them was fluffy and delicious. To top it off, the service was wonderful; friendly and prompt! We hope it stays around for a long time!

Clean environment. Food was decent and fresh. Crab in the holland was slightly bland but passable, small portion so left still hungry. For the most part the ambiance was family friendly the staff was super sweet. I would return but select a different fish.

Pros: Friendly staff, lots of food, fair prices, good pancakes
Cons: slow kitchen, omelettes were dry

My bf and I wanted a good meal while staying at Smugglers Notch and this place did not disappoint! The meal was delicious and just what we wanted :) try the shrimp scampi it is perfection!!! We were frustrated with the food at the resort and I am so happy we came across this restaurant. A must try!

Really good food! We got the Morse Eggs Benedict, Steak and Eggs, and the Smugglers Breakfast and all were great! Bloody Mary was spicy and mimosas were delicious! The server was super friendly and service was quick. Gave 4 stars only because the décor/​ambiance was minimal and not a priority.

Some seriously delicious food. Wait staff is super friendly and the chef makes a lot of the sauces from scratch. This place is my new after skiing jam!

Food was good. Service was good until the waitress took my left over money after my bill was paid as her top. Wasn’t impressed. I keep being harassed for updating my review. My whole point of the review was to say the food was good, service until the girl took my money as her tip. I didn’t appreciate that. 3 stars is better than 1.

We are pretty much regulars here, despite it being a) on the pricey side, and b) not open Tuesdays. I want to give a big thumbs up to the chef for starting to include some lighter entrees among the specials — the main reason we have for not coming here, on non-​Tuesdays when money is plentiful and we are deciding where to eat, is because we have to be really in the mood for a heavy meal. The pastas are ALWAYS in cream sauce, for example, and all the entrees are large and protein-​heavy. But on our last two visits, there were fish specials, done in interesting ways. Keep it up!

The chief/​owner has some amazing specials each night they are open for dinner. Some very creative dishes with excellent taste/​flavors. Best restaurant in the Jeffersonville, Vermont area. Reasonable prices.

Took my inlaws here for an early-​ish dinner tonight. I’d been there a long time ago and remembered enjoying my shrimp scampi.
Pros: Food was great! We all enjoyed our meals. I was perhaps least impressed with mine (crab-​stuffed cod — the fish was a little dry but still tasty). Antipasta was super balanced and flavorful. The maple crème brûlée was so creamy, sweet and crispy. Coupled with an espresso, it was perfect. Our server was super pleasant and had a nice rapport with us. Our service was comfortably paced. The rustic wood in the décor was nice, and some of the artwork was noteworthy.
Cons: Something about the tables and laminated menus feels diner-​y while the menu items and prices are more upscale. The dining room also gets really noisy when the tables are filled.
There were definitely a lot of locals there, and we were lucky we went when we did because it filled up fast. I’m glad we tried it again, and I look forward to going back for a date night and to try more of the menu items! Recommend!

Came here for breakfast as one of the two real options in the area. I ordered Eggs Benedict and it was great! Their homefries are the best I’ve ever eaten. I also ordered a blueberry pancake on the side and they came out with a pancake the size of a dinner plate! It was light, fluffy, and just sweet enough.

I ate here with my boyfriend, sister and her husband on ⁰⁸⁄₀₈ before hitting the road to go back home after spending a wonderful week in Fletcher, VT. We were all feeling bummed that The Mix was closed, and when we headed to 158 Main St. Bakery/​Café, we were ignored for a good 20 minutes before we left with a sour taste in our mouths. In other words, we needed something to boost our morale and blood sugar levels before things turned nasty.
Fortunately, we were greeted and seated quickly as soon as we walked in, and our waitress (I think her name was Pam) was very friendly. I decided to order The Johnson breakfast sandwich (eggs served any style, mushrooms, roasted tomato, and goat cheese) on an English muffin with home fries on the side. It was pretty good, although the muffin was a bit too small to contain the eggy goodness inside (for the record, I asked to have my eggs scrambled).
The reason I’m subtracting two stars from the rating here is twofold: one, our service was sluggish, even though it wasn’t very crowded (when we came in, we were the third small group of patrons in the place; only five other people were inside, and they looked like they were finishing their meals). At least Pam was nice, so it didn’t bother us too much. The second thing was that someone who came in after us must have ordered some type of fish entrée, and man, that fish did NOT smell good. It smelled like something dead had washed up on the shore, and it almost ruined my appetite.
I would like to come back here again the next time I’m in Vermont, although I’ll stay away from their seafood.

Nice little place. Staff was nice, food was done very well. Calamari was probably the best I ever ate. The rib-​eye was ok, not great, not bad, maybe just overpriced and over– hyped. Just be aware of the area… most places close at 9PM for some odd reason that even the locals cannot explain to any satisfactory degree LOL.

Be prepared to wait. 45 minutes for French onion soup. 1 hour for the appetizers and 1 hour 45 minutes for the entrees.
If you’re coming for the buttermilk chicken you won’t be disappointed. All of the other dishes on the menu were a let down. The veal and steak were both tough and overcooked. The muscles were too heavy on the cream and too light on the seasoning. The steak was not the size that was advertised and the shrimp scampi was mush.
Make sure you order water, they won’t bring it automatically.

One of the most disappointing dining experiences of my life.
We came here today for the first time. Given all the 5-​star Unilocal reviews, our expectations were pretty high. We arrived around 1pm. It wasn’t busy and we were seated quickly. At this time of day, they serve breakfast and lunch concurrently — we opted for the lunch menu.
Four of us ordered the following:
— Spinach salad
— Roasted portobello sandwich
— Turkey, cheddar, apple sandwich
— Burger
For some mysterious reason, it was 20 minutes before the drinks arrived (just water, root beer and coffee), and the food followed another 20 minutes later.
Let’s start with the Spinach Salad. I asked before I ordered if it was a full size portion suitable for a whole meal and I was assured it was. And with a $ 9.95 price-​tag, I had no reason to think otherwise. When it arrived I really could not believe my eyes. It consisted of a small handful of barely-​fresh baby spinach tossed on a plate in some kind of unremarkable, tasteless dressing, 4 small crumbles of feta, 4 slices of cucumber, 3 tiny rings of red onion and less than 1 tablespoon of pine nuts. That was it! For $ 9.95?! The ingredients on my plate could not have cost more than $ 1 at retail prices, likely much less at wholesale. I had to ask for a side of bread and french fries to at least give me some semblance of satiety.
I took a bite of my wife’s roasted portobello sandwich (with sauteed spinach. roasted red peppers and smoked mozzarella). I was left surprised and disappointed that something sounding so delightful tasted so bland and insipid.
The turkey sandwich was haphazardly prepared. It looked like leftovers from 4 different meals, tossed together into a sandwich. Half was left uneaten. The accompanying potato salad was completely inedible.
The beef burger was ordered medium-​rare and was delivered medium well. It looked thoroughly unappetizing, but my father in law gave it his best shot and somehow finished most of it.
Now, I’ll be honest with you, we probably would not have even come here if the prices on their website (
) matched the prices on their actual menu. For example, the Spinach Salad is listed as $ 6.95 on the website with a $ 3.95 upcharge for chicken or shrimp. On the actual menu, it’s $ 9.95 with a whopping $ 6.95 upcharge for chicken or shrimp. That’s a 55% increase! What happened here?
The tab came to $ 66 including tax and tip.
What a rip-​off. You couldn’t pay me to eat here again.

I’m honestly scratching my head as to why this place only has a 3.5 star average rating. My girlfriend found The Family Table in a VT dining magazine and although it sounded promising, I almost wrote it off for that very reason.
However, after perusing the various reviews, it became apparent that most of the really negative reviews pertained to very specific personal anecdotes regarding the service. Anecdotes which are nearly impossible to corroborate and /​or even written by disgruntled ex-​employees. Almost every Unilocaler who reviewed the place agreed that the food was quality, so I decided to make the 45 minute drive around Mt. Mansfield via VT Route 15 (a nice scenic drive, might I add!)
And very glad I am for doing so! While perusing the menu, my gaze almost immediately landed upon the ground lamb burger with Tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, and roasted red peppers. I’m a big fan of Mediterranean food in general and well-​seasoned lamb is among my favorite meats, so I was pretty much sold. The burger ended up being as delicious as I envisioned — delicately flavored, warm, and juicy — and I even remarked to my girlfriend «If only regular hamburgers could taste this good!» The flavor could be likened to a decent gyro /​shawarma, except with better quality meat and fresher ingredients than typically found in most gyros /​shawarmas! The French fries were «handcut» as promised, lightly salted, and proved a fitting side.
My girlfriend thoroughly enjoyed her rib-​eye steak. Although I’m not a big fan of steak myself, I sampled the bacon and caramelized onion mashed potatoes and was again thoroughly impressed not only by the taste, but also the quality of the ingredients. Rather than the «artificial bacon bits» typically used in such a recipe, these mashed potatoes had ENTIRE STRIPS of bacon dispersed throughout. So in terms of both quality of ingredients and zest of flavor, this dish also merits two thumbs up in my book!
Service was good, too! No complaints at all.
All things considered, this is a very good choice of restaurant if you are looking for an unpretentious yet delicious home cooked meal made with the highest quality ingredients. The Family Table is a true hidden gem nestled in the woods of Central Vermont that defies both its humble interior /​exterior appearance as well the lukewarm reviews of some of my fellow Unilocalers!