Latest Reviews
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Great Spot, Great Food, Great People. My wife and I travel here routinely from Middlebury - and hour and a half. Why? Because these are some wonderful…
Holmesmjacobs
The Downtown Grocery
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I wish I could give it ZERO stars. As a foodie, I cant think of a worse experience in my life. Honestly, the concept of customer service is foreign to…
Dmel76
The Downtown Grocery
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The menu is very inventive, changes often with the seasons. The seemingly simple dishes have an astounding complexity of flavor. One of the best meals…
Ray Giolitto
The Downtown Grocery
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The Downtown Grocery serves American. Incorrect or missing information? Make a report, or claim the restaurant if you own it!Details
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7 Reviews on “The Downtown Grocery”
Great Spot, Great Food, Great People. My wife and I travel here routinely from Middlebury – and hour and a half. Why? Because these are some wonderful people who have passion for creating great food. From the moment you walk through the door, you can tell that they love what they do. The staff is incredibly pleasant and welcoming and the food is a fresh departure from what anything around. The ambience is warm and quint. This place is a treasure.
I wish I could give it ZERO stars. As a foodie, I cant think of a worse experience in my life. Honestly, the concept of customer service is foreign to this eatery (sorry, I am simply unable to call it a restaurant). Ashley, the manager, was focused on making everything possible to completely ruin the evening for our family. Rude, dishonest and pretentious. So much for Vermont’s warm welcome! Sure, the food was ok when we dined here a year ago. But a good meal is simply not enough – there are hundreds of places in Manhattan and elsewhere that are comparable (dozens that are infinitely better), but you are welcomed by nice people, decent human beings, as opposed to the kind at Downtown Groceries. I will make sure my family’s awful experience gets the attention of the owner(s), even though that is not likely to change anything. Stay away!
The menu is very inventive, changes often with the seasons. The seemingly simple dishes have an astounding complexity of flavor. One of the best meals we’ve had. And, try the house-made ice creams.
Delicious food! Had the 3 courses for $27. The portions were generous. Excellent farm to table cuisine. Wonderful chef selection dessert! Good wine list. Great service and pleasant atmosphere. Will go back if I ever return to Ludlow.
Delicious and Creative!. My boyfriend and I had a wonderful experience at The Downtown Grocery. This was a surprisingly trendy restaurant for such a small town, and the food did not disappoint. We began the evening with some creative cocktails off the drink menu. The bartender brought them to us along with some chips to munch on while we were waiting for our table. The drinks were delicious, as was the food. We went on a Thursday, and the $25 Prix Fixe three course meal was a great deal. My boyfriend’s flat bread appetizer was more than big enough to share, and he was very happy with his steak and desserts. I thought their salad on special (a caprese with heirloom tomatoes, baby mozzarella, and a pesto/balsamic dressing) sounded delicious, and I was able to order that as my entree without any problems. They did not charge me extra for it either, and I didn’t even come close to being able to finish it all. Our favorite part of the meal was dessert! I ordered the homemade ice creams and sorbets. You get three scoops in an order, but you can also order single scoops as well. They let me combine to order to ice creams and a sorbet, and the waitress’ recommendations were right on the money. The peanut butter and jelly ice cream sounds a little strange, but it was unbelievably good! I would get it every time if we were local. The pineapple basil sorbet was tremendous – the favorite for both my boyfriend and I. His meal came with a sampler, which included a house made doughnut, a blueberry ice cream, and a molten lava cake. All were ridiculously tasty – even the coffee was good! The overall dinner was not cheap, but was quite a bit less than we thought it would be after everything we ordered. We spend almost twice as much the night before at a nice local restaurant that we didn’t enjoy nearly as much. The $25 Prix Fixe really is a bargain and saved us quite a bit that night. The experience was more than worth the cost! Definitely make reservations though. We were walk-ins and ended up making reservations for an hour and a half later. The owner was extremely helpful and accommodating though, and seemed truly thankful when we came back later that night. She checked in on us twice and again after dinner to ask how everything was. Next time we’re in Ludlow, this will be our first dinner stop!
Average food, very small portions, takes forever = don’t bother.. Recently dined @ Downtown Grocery in Ludlow Vermont. Your site says Rutland, but it is Ludlow. It took 50 minutes to get a bowl of Gumbo and 1.5 hours to get our main meals. The Owner’s wife, she has a southern accent, who runs the front of the house acts charming, but if you have an issue, she avoids you like the plague. The Gumbo was very average and such a teeny tiny portion. The house made pasta with lobster was tasteless, yes tasteless. Just a lot of pepper, very spicy, but you just got the spice. House made pasta was below average. Lobster pieces, ok. I told the waitress about the spice and tasteless issue. She did nothing and told me the owner would come by. She never did. I expected more for a $30.00 entree. Overall, after two hours, we gave up and headed out to get dessert elsewhere. BTW, The chairs, from the former average Italian joint that used to occupy this space are very uncomfortable, so if you have to sit there for over two hours, you better own a hot tub! There are other places in town that are more worthy of your money and time.
High expectations…..bad experience. An apparently under-staffing on a recent Wednesday night resulted in a terrible and expensive experience. Our main dishes (party of four) were plated and then left in th kitchen for an extended time; They were served only after a walk to the kitchen to complain about the nearly one hour it took to get our meals. The meals suffered from the delay. Even the same entree served to two of us appeared to be cooked and plated differently….just BAD!!!