When I was thinking about the good food that we would have up in Vermont, Hemingway’s was the restaurant that I had in mind. Josh used to talk about this restaurant reverently when we were dating in high school and through college, though it was years before I finally got the chance to go. My first time was in 2005, to celebrate Josh’s successful defense of his Masters thesis. It was MLK weekend and we headed up to Killington immediately after his defense to have dinner and get in some skiing. I don’t remember exactly what I ate but I remember being blown away by the food, the presentation, the atmosphere, and the service. Granted, at that time I wasn’t as into food as I am now, but we had eaten out enough to know what separated good restaurants from spectacular restaurants.
When I started joining in on the February family ski trip a year later, Hemingway’s became an annual destination. Although we had never had a bad meal there, over the years we started to notice that the menu had gotten a bit more limited, the choices starting to repeat themselves year after year, and the food was slipping slightly. Still, it remained the best restaurant in the area, receiving accolades such as four diamonds from AAA. We had a pretty good meal there last year, and I was really looking forward to our meal this year. Josh’s parents tried to get a reservation for Valentine’s Day but we had to settle for Saturday night instead. No biggie, as I was excited to start our trip off with a bang.
The restaurant is located inside a large country house, and has the coziness of dining in someone’s home. You hang up your own coat in sort of a mudroom in the front, and when you walk through the door the restaurant is warm and cluttered with knickknacks. There are several different dining rooms, though we always end up in the same one, with tall ceilings and funky art hanging on the wall at unusual angles. The lighting is dim, giving off a romantic atmosphere, and it’s easy to see why the restaurant was booked up for Valentine’s Day.
Our meal started off with two different kinds of bread, a french roll and a slice of raisin almond molasses bread. The french roll didn’t have a super crispy crust but it was light and chewy in the middle. The raisin almond molasses bread had an interesting flavor to it, was slightly sweet, and had a nice texture.
French roll and raisin almond molasses bread with creamy butter
We also had sort of an amuse bouche, which was a plate of profiteroles filled with Vermont cheddar cheese. While it was tasty (mostly due to the cheese), it was kind of a departure from other amuse bouches that we’ve had here, which were usually more refined and a bit more exciting.
Cheddar filled profiteroles
Looking over the menu, it seemed like it was the same exact one from last year, with repeats from the year before that as well. While I understand that restaurants have their “classic” dishes that patrons will complain about if they don’t see it on the menu, I think having some variety from year to year is important as well. With only five options from each category, there really isn’t much to choose from. You tend to eat the same things over and over, and it just gets boring after a while.
Per usual, Josh and I picked out the dishes we wanted to eat and then swapped plates halfway through. I started out with the risotto with exotic mushrooms and truffle essence. This was a dish that I remember Josh’s sister having two years ago. I had tasted her dish and loved how creamy and comforting it was. This time, however, the risotto was a complete disaster. It wasn’t cooked long enough so that it was unpleasantly crunchy, and the starch hadn’t released to make the dish creamy. The mushrooms were unseasoned, and there was hardly any trace of truffle essence. What a huge disappointment.
Undercooked risotto with exotic mushrooms and truffle essence
Josh’s butternut squash soup with a scallop and crab cake was better, though it was also something that we’ve had before. I like that the soup isn’t too heavy or rich, focusing instead on the flavor of the butternut squash. The scallop and crab cake was a bit small but fortunately didn’t have too much filler in it. It wasn’t spectacular, but this was my favorite dish of the evening.
Butternut squash soup with scallop and crab cake
For our main courses, Josh started with the duck breast with a confit of duck strudel. I had ordered this dish last year and remembered that it was pretty good, with the duck being well prepared. Josh wanted to make sure that the skin of the duck would be crispy, as he hates fatty duck skin, and our waiter said that “it could be.” Sadly, the duck arrived sans crispy skin. Instead, it had a weird, congealed quality about it, and was definitely still quite fatty. The duck was overcooked in my opinion, rendering it dry and tasteless. To add insult to injury, it was also cold. The only thing I liked on the plate was the strudel, which was kind of like a duck spring roll with a flaky crust. At least that was hot and crispy and had some bit of flavor to it.
Breast of duck with confit of duck strudel
The veal tenderloin we ordered fared slightly better, but not much. At least it wasn’t overcooked, and it came crusted with fennel that provided some flavor. It was accompanied by a corn cake, which was like seared polenta and had a nice creaminess to it. I was excited to have the Brussels sprouts and bacon that came on the side, but the Brussels sprouts ended up being really mushy, and the whole dish just lacked basic seasoning.
Fennel crusted veal with corn cake, brussels sprouts, and bacon
Because the menu seemed so limited, the risotto and the soup were the only appetizers we had on the table, and everyone encountered the same issues that Josh and I had with each of those dishes. For the entrees, both Jess and Lloyd had the beef filet, which was cooked well but also lacked seasoning. Alice was not too pleased with her sea bass, lobster, and couscous dish, as the fish was coated in cornmeal and had an unpleasantly gritty texture. The couscous turned out to be Israeli couscous, and there were only about three pearls altogether. Seriously. She ended up barely touching her dish.
Needless to say, none of us were impressed with our food and we even passed on dessert because we couldn’t wait to get out of the restaurant. They did bring us a little plate of sweets that had a tiny chocolate macaron and a maple pecan truffle for each person. A nice finish, but a little too late.
Tiny macarons and truffles
Even service was subpar, as our waiter seemed indifferent and inattentive. The only time he appeared was to refill our glasses of sparkling water, and we ended up going through more bottles than we would have liked. But even as he was pouring the water, he did it quite sloppily, spilling his way from one glass to the next. When it came to our wine, however, he disappeared with our bottle of pinot noir after the initial pour and didn’t resurface with the wine until after we were already finished with our entrees. He also didn’t bother to take the time to explain our dishes to us, and he didn’t come by to check on us and ask us how things were.
We were all really disappointed by the overall experience we had at Hemingway’s this year, although it did feel like this was bound to happen eventually. Over time, the menu has gotten very boring and limited, and I kind of feel like they’re just resting on their laurels at this point. We saw that the restaurant earned another four diamond rating from AAA in 2010, and that just makes me question the authenticity of a four diamond rating. We were so disheartened by the lackluster meal that I don’t think we’ll be coming back here anymore. The restaurant is very pricey, even by NYC standards, and the mediocre food really just didn’t justify the cost. It’s sad when a restaurant you love falls apart, and I kind of feel like it’s the end of an era for us at Killington.
Hemingway’s Restaurant
4988 US Route 4
Killington, VT