15 Best Restaurants in Southern Vermont, Vermont

Chelsea Royal Diner

$ Fodor's choice

Built into a vintage 1938 Worcester diner, one of the few remaining in the country, the Chelsea Royal Diner serves all-day breakfast and Blue Plate specials from produce (eggs included) sourced from their backyard farm. Save room for homemade ice cream made with local milk and cream from the St. Albans Co-op Creamery—flavors range from VT Maple Cream to Blueberry, Pumpkin, and Mocha Malted Milk Ball.

Moonwink

$ Fodor's choice

May and Wes Stannard opened this counter-service spot in 2018, spotlighting May's native Burmese cooking in Wes's childhood hometown. In one of the best stops for Burmese fare on the East Coast, you'll find vibrant noodle bowls like Nan Gyi Thoke (thick round rice noodles with chicken curry), fermented tea leaf salad, and "Burma Bowls" with sprouted peas and chicken curry.

Mystic Cafe & Wine Bar

$$ Fodor's choice

This spacious, brand-new, Euro-chic restaurant is earning plenty of local praise for its gussied-up takes on international cuisines with a Vermont-farmhouse accent. That means plenty of kale, butternut squash, sweet potato, and cheddar in the salads, sandwiches, and tapas-style shared plates.

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Arlington Dairy Bar

The big red barn with a sprawling lawn and walk-up ice cream window is a quintessential summer snack shack. It's where paper boats holding cheeseburgers, loaded hot dogs, and lobster rolls make way for soft-serve sundaes, stacked ice-cream cones, and root beer floats.

Dot's Restaurant

Under the classic red neon sign at the main corner in downtown Wilmington, Dot's remains a local landmark and a reminder of diners of yore. Residents and skiers pack the tables and counter for American comfort food classics, starting at 5:30 am with the Berry-Berry pancake breakfast, with four kinds of berries.

Goodman's American Pie

This place has the best wood-fired pizza in town. It also has character to spare: sit in chairs from old ski lifts and step up to the counter fashioned from a vintage VW bus to design your pie from 29 ingredients.

J.J. Hapgood General Store and Eatery

You won't find a better meal at any other general store in the state. This is really more of a classic American restaurant, serving farm-to-table breakfast, lunch, and dinner, than a place to pick up the essentials, but like any good general store, it's a friendly and relaxed gathering spot for locals.

Madison Brewing Company

Since opening in the 1990s as the area's first brewpub, this enclave of exposed brick and bubbling brewing tanks has become a watering hole for fresh IPAs and stacked burgers. A full bar and myriad pub fare offer plenty of reasons to elbow up to the wraparound bar.

MKT: Grafton

When the 19th-century Grafton Village Store shuttered 174 years after opening, locals June Lupiani and Alexandra Hartman decided to revive the abandoned building and give it new life. Their modern, newly renovated general store opened doors in 2015, and quickly became a meeting spot for locals and travelers seeking groceries, deli sandwiches, prepared foods, and homemade pastries. It's an idyllic stop for a cup of locally roasted coffee and a cider doughnut on the front porch.

Ponce Bistro

$$$

The Spanish influence adds much to the charm of this small, atmospheric restaurant, as does a fireplace in the front room. No alcohol is served, but glasses are happily provided for any who bring their own beer and wine, and no corkage fee, to boot.

The Village Roost

This bigger-on-the-inside café and lunch joint comes with ample space, especially in the barn-chic back room that serves resting travelers, gaming locals, and conferring coworkers. Keeping them oiled is a menu of organic, non-GMO, locally sourced sandwiches, burgers, soups, and salads.

Top of the Hill Grill

Don't let the diminutive size of this roadside smokehouse deceive you. The place produces big flavors locals line up for: hickory-smoked ribs, apple-smoked turkey, beef brisket, and pulled pork, to name a few.

Village Garage Distillery

An old highway equipment garage is now filled with a shiny copper still and barrels of aging spirits, visible through big windows from the attached tasting room; cocktails made with the distillery's gin, vodka, rye, and bourbon are twists on the classics, detailed in blueprint-like sketches on the menu. The food is surprisingly inventive for tasting room fare, including chicken and waffles, bowls of ramen, and a burger made from cattle fed the distillery's spent grain, served on a spent grain bun.

Wayside Country Store

The motto of Arlington's one-stop-shop says it all: "If we don't have it, you don't need it!" This charming country store is known for carrying anything from toilet paper to boxed cocoa mix and boasts a popular deli complete with build-your-own sandwiches, prepared foods, and house-made specials like freshly baked biscuits.

Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery

One of Brattleboro's most happening hangouts is this nano-brewery and restaurant perched over the Connecticut River. The beer and classic American comfort food are good, but it's the view of the river and its forested banks that drops jaws.

Southern Vermont

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