The Troutbeck’s dining room is on the first floor and is a long room divided by stone structures and booth backs.  The small bar, with about 6 stools is in the hallway where you check in.  A couple fireplaces are in the dining room and some bench seating is along the walls.  Lighting is way lowered and no music was in the background one night and on the next.   The bare wood tables were small and in some instances quite close.  Many of the guests are staying at the lodge but just as many come from surrounding towns, likely to celebrate a special occasion.  They have added on to the original structure and now have a large event space at one end of the building but also have firepits outside so that one night they had a large dinner party outside.  The portion sizes varied but the staff was able to help steer the ordering process.  Unfortunately they didn’t know that much about the food but still were very pleasant.  The menu likes to feature locally produced items and changes little night to night but rather monthly.  We repeated the duck from the previous night, it was that good but had to pass on dessert because we were too full.   I would encourage you to book a room and give it a try.

Set-Up

Food

Celery and fennel salad came with Asian pear, dates, goat gouda and toasted walnuts.  It was not a heavily dressed salad and all the components were tasty with lots of textures.  The nuts were roasted to perfection and the sweet dates added a counterpunch.  The celery could have been sliced as thinly as the fennel but perhaps they wanted the contrast.  Overall, this one was good, not great but with nice flavors and a ton of textures.

Et Cetra Farm brown rice “risotto’ was mixed with Koginut squash, pine nuts and Garleek.  It was nicely moist with a sweet squash.   Garleek is a new vegetable developed in the last decade to combine the sweetness of leeks with the savory flavors of garlic greens.  The greens here were quite tasty and overall this one was a better starter.

Lamb Loin was plated with chanterelles, Caraflex cabbage and Habanada pepper.  The meat was tougher than I expected and needed a hint of salt to bring out the flavor.  The peppers were not too spicy and combined nicely with the savory mushrooms.  It was a good plate with lots of flavor.

Long Island duck breast was with Hakurei turnip, apple and sunchoke.  Tonight’s version was cooked a bit more or just less juicy duck.  It was still good but better last night.