The Red Rooster – Woodstock, VT

On the way home from our trip to Essex Junction, VT, the wife and I decided to treat ourselves so we decided to spend a night in the little town of Woodstock, VT. If anyone is looking for a great B&B, allow me to recommend The Woodstocker Inn. Ask me about this place and I’ll gush about it until you tell me to put a sock in it. What I will gush about unprovoked is the dinner that we had at The Red Rooster, located in the Woodstock Inn & Resort, about a 5 min walk from the Woodstocker.

I couldn’t really find too many reviews for this restaurant online but from what I saw on their menu, I was intrigued…afterall, they did have pork belly and bone marrow on the menu, two of my favorite food items in the world. I also know that the wife has a soft spot for any place that has a cheese platter option and after seeing that on the menu I felt good about making a reservation here.

I won’t bore you with details about overall decor and stuff like that (it somehow manages to look nice and modern and yet very warming due to its abundant use of wood everywhere and a big fountain in the middle of everything) so on to the food. Our meal went like this:

• We started with a selection of 5 cheeses and they were all excellent. The bleu was especially stinky, and I mean that in the best way possible
• Appetizer 1: Oysters Rockefeller was next and it was simply the best take on this dish I’ve ever had. The oysters were really fresh as was the spinach and all of the other toppings
• Appetizer 2: Braised Pork Belly served with a mache, tomato, and onion salad with a citrusy dressing. This dish was amazing. The pork belly was beyond tender and also had great flavor and texture. After braising, it goes on the grill for a few minutes to just so slightly crisp up the outer layer. And the dressing had just enough acidity in order to complement the fatty pork just right.
• We split an order Fried Chicken as our entree. It is served with real Vermont maple syrup and was cooked to absolute perfection. The meat was very juicy but not oily at all. The coating on the chicken was also perfect…not too heavy, not too light…and having the maple syrup was a nice touch. For those of you that have been, imagine Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, but about 100 times better. The restaurant makes you order your sides separately, but there is no limit to how many of the 14 different choices you can make. We picked spinach, green beans, and mashed potatoes. See Dan Cook will not make a habit out of recommending vegetables to anyone, but these were all excellent. I actually enjoyed eating my greens and they were not coated in bacon fat or cheese or anything like that, they were just well prepared and incredibly fresh tasting.
• For dessert, we split the Chocolate Bruno cake, which is basically a flourless chocolate cake served on top of a hardened white chocolate base which is then drizzled with caramel and hot fudge and served with homemade chocolate and vanilla ice cream

I’m sure I’ll say this everytime I have a really good meal and then write about it but the fact is I don’t really like giving restaurant reviews. I feel like there’s just too much subjectivity when it comes to food, but sometimes a really great meal comes along when you don’t really expect it to and you just feel like sharing that joy with others.

4/22/2009 Update: This review was written before I had introduced the See Dan Cook rating system. The Red Rooster easily earns 4 stars and I’m looking forward to our next trip to Woodstock, perhaps at some point over the summer, so that we can dine there again.