5 Best Restaurants in Southern Vermont, Vermont

For the best of French-inspired fine dining, look no further than the Left Bank, the signature restaurant of the luxury boutique hotel The Weston. The cozy wooden interiors give off major English countryside pub vibes, but the menu, which changes seasonally, is all French bistro; you might start with the exquisite onion soup gratineé, followed by the fantastically tender beef cheeks braised in red wine and served in creamy polenta. While seafood, chicken, and vegetables all make appearances on the menu and don’t ever miss (the Brussels sprout chips are a particular highlight), beef is really where the kitchen shines, with other stand-outs being the steak au poivre and a simple but pitch-perfect burger. And of course, don’t skip dessert—if it’s on the menu, go for the espresso crème brûlée.

There is something wonderful about eating by candlelight in an old barn; and with the rooster art above their rough-hewn wooden beams, Chantecleer's dining rooms are especially romantic. The international menu runs the gamut from veal schnitzel to New York strip to Dover sole.

Walk to the very back room of the Equinox's Marsh Tavern to enter this special, very expensive, and very delicious steak house, with aged corn- or grass-fed beef broiled at 1,400ºF and finished with marrow butter. The marble above the fireplace is chiseled "L.L. ORVIS 1832," and way before he claimed the spot, the Green Mountain Boys gathered here to plan their Revolutionary War–era resistance.

This classic French restaurant is tucked in a grotto on the climb to Bromley Mountain. The two dining rooms are perched over the Bromley Brook, and at night a small waterfall is magically illuminated—ask for a window table.

The dining room at this luxurious inn is a large, modern space where rich woods and high ceilings meld into a kind of "nouveau Vermont" aesthetic. The contemporary American cuisine emphasizes farm-to-table ingredients and has earned the restaurant "Gold Barn" honors from the Vermont Fresh Network.