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The not-so-creatively named Vermont pub in downtown Burlington serves a lot of purposes. It's a functional "inner city" bar (if you can call Burlington a real city). It's a decent restaurant with traditional American food. And it's a pretty decent brewery.
They have a lot of different beers on tap of their own making, and some of them push the experimental side pretty far. Which is great! The sampler is a beautiful single-line deck and it's one of the few places I've been that brews an actually tasty Irish Red.
A note to beer tourists - Burlington will overwhelm you with it's breweries and they all are open at odd and different times. Use the Vermont Pub as your "downtime" or mid-afternoon stop when other places aren't quiet open.
Tonight was my 1st trip out of the capital city and i was so excited to go anywhere. We were headed to the big city to watch the jazz festival which was pretty tame and mellow. While we were there, we walk around everywhere to check out burlingon and finally we found this place so we got the table outside and try all of the sample for $6 and some of the beer were pretty good. I personally like the one w.the fruit in it and everything was ok. My class order the fried oyster and there were like 3 or 4 pieces for $6, crazy
Finally i order the onion rings which was pretty tasty and we order a few more pints..overall it was ok
Our waiter were slow but it was a ok place to go again
The food wasn't bad, The beer excellent, atmosphere crowded and stuffy, the service not so good, we sat at the bar and ate dinner cause there was an hour and a half wait for two, good beer selection and excellent taste sampler, the fish good and the chips cold french fries, buffalo chicken Rollie Pollie was good, wasn't pricey. Just crappy service. GET THE BEER SAMPLER
Recommended to me so I could feel the "Burlington-esque vibe". I can now confirm that it's nothing like a burlesque vibe.
Waited 20 minutes for a table, had a beer while I was waiting. I don't remember the exact name of it, but it was delicious - a trappist brew seasoned with curacao oranges, peppercorn. Something-XXX, try it!
Our waiter gave good recommendations leading us to the house specialties, I had a bacon cheeseburger with cheddar and swiss. Delicious! Best part is that it wasn't overpowering, there were delicate tastes and it didn't leave me feeling as if I was going to burst.
Overall a friendly vibe, good food and drink, with good company. I don't think that you have to be from Burlington to appreciate that.
Great microbrew place. Smooth assortment of staple brews and always some great cask beers on tap. Burly irish and dogbite bitter are two that have been around the longest that I prefer. Smooooth. Smoked porter is a meal Itself and delicious if you like this angle. It's a strong brew but you'd guess that from the title. Whiskey cream steak and teriyaki chicken combo (called cock and bull) is a fav here for dinner. Meat loaf, yes you read that correctly, is excellent. Get it with mashed and gravy and crispy roll. Beer battered onion rings are the best out there. I don't eat fish but the folks I go there with say fish and chips is great. Same beer batter, go figure.
VPB, like many other places in downtown Burlington, had a 45+ minute wait on Fri. night. The good news was that our wait wasn't as long as the hostess estimated. VPB might as well have stood for Volume-heavy, Popular Business.
I'm not a huge beer drinker, but I gave the Beetlejuice - a Bavarian style ale - a try, and it was decent.
The newspaper style menu was chockful of options: fried appetizers, sammiches, burgers, and steaks. My 6 oz steak was okay, as in Very Plain Bovine.
Man oh man, they have great burgers and fish and chips and the prices are extremely reasonable. They're hard to beat.
If you're not a beer drinker I highly recommend their Ginger Ale. It's made on the premises and is fantastic!
Great pub & grub with their own beer! It's an excellent place to start your night that will undoubtedly take you to many places experiencing many different beers.
I love Burlington, VT, and this place helped a lot with that.
Good craft beers. Lots of cheap sandwiches. Live music (seasonal).
And they've got a chill lion sculpture outside.
Hey, at least it's not Nectars!
I'll keep this short and sweet:
Low prices, great pub fare, unique beer, friendly servers and staff.
^5 VPB!
Solid pub food. I picked a girly berry beer because I was afraid anything else would be too dark and indeed my boyfriend got one which would have been way to heavy for me. I did enjoy by girly beer though! My favorite was the stuffed jalapenos but that may be because I miss them so much. We tried the cock'a'leekie pie which I was not so fond of but the bf liked it, and the fish and chips which were good. You will most likely have to wait for a table.
I've been here a couple of times and have some hazy memories of the place. It was a favorite of my brother when he lived out there, and as such I found myself there whenever I visited.
The beers that they do are very tasty. Nothing fantastic (but again - I'm a San Diego Beer Snob), but still very solid beers. The food is your basic pub food.
Because Burlington is a major college town, you will find the place infested with college kids on many a night - you have been warned. But it does make for a fun atmosphere, and a great place to spend an enjoyable night.
yummy beetlejuice...
try this banana-ish beer - it was my fave brew in VT. great service - we sat at the bar and the bartender was not only friendly but FAST and did not miss a beat. loved that you could order beer by the buck (samples) or by the half pint. although we did not eat, the mainly irish menu, seemed promising. every dish that walked by looked enormous. i liked that the bar seated all around but wished we could've sat outdoors - they have a great outdoor area.
Their fish and chips are pretty good. Most everything else that I've eaten there was boring or disappointing. They served me a horrible steak there once. Tough and cooked to death. Hard to forgive.
The beer is uninspired and boring. Typical heavy microbrew junk. Still, it does the job. I'm not saying I hate it, I just see no reason to commend it, when the place has "brewery" in the name.
Am I missing something? My friends all love VPB and always want to go here...so I go, and every time I fail to love it the way they do. The beer isn't bad, but the food and the service are distinctly unimpressive. I do like the sweet potato fries, so my recommendation would be to go with some friends, get a pint or two and have some appetizers, but nothing more. The overall vibe is pretty good. Definetely do not order entrees.
I don't know, I don't have anything against it, really...it's just kinda...boring.
Take the menu away. I know exactly what I want.
Beer Sampler and some of those Spectacular Sweet Potato Fries.
DONE. BAM.
Every time I return to my Alma Mater I must go to VPB and get those two things. Maybe they're not the best but in mine eyes they are exquisite and they make my soul feel warm and happy and when you work in Boston in a Sky Scraper "warm and happy" is few and far between. I'm usually somewhere around lukewarm and apathetic.
Plus, if you like beer, and by Zeus's Beard I know I do, the beer sampler is great way to start. You get a nice little smattering of some of their current brews and then you can narrow that ish down to whatever you'd like to enjoy for the remainder of your meal...
...or...
If your name is Natalie and you currently harbor lukewarm and apathetic feelings towards life just stick with the Beer Sampler for the rest of the night.
You will go home happy, that is for darn sure.
What a waste of time and money. I had the fish and chips and a Raspberry Wine Spritzer. We had a nacho appetizer, which was nothing to write home about. And a bowl of chili with more beans that meat, the flavor was bland and just not on point. The spritzer was pretty decent and the fish and chips were supbar at best. I won't be returning...I was better off eating leftovers at home.
Our waitress was pretty nice though..
I'm so sad that my recent visit lacked VPB!
I LOVE the Forbidden Fruit. However, I do get tipsy after one glass. The past few visits to VT, I went here at least 2-3 times for it. It's too bad I don't check bags, because I would bring a growler home with me.
The pub food is decent and pretty cheap. I like their menu design. Lots of seating and outdoor seating is nice during the summer.
This place is great for truly superior micro-brews. I can't tell you how many a beer enthusiast has remarked about the quality of the beer and the food as well. The "Beetlejuice" is a favorite of mine, as is the Porter. Vermont is a state with about 19 micro-breweries to date, and VPB is by far one of my favorites.
To the "San Diego Beer Snob," I lived in San Diego for quite some time, and have found it has nothing on the exceptional beer made in VT. You can't even compare the two!
Also, the burger is great, and cheap! You can get a Vermont local LaPlatte Farm burger for five dollars! The beef is divine!
I have not eaten here, but that have a big menu and I have heard that the food is decent pub stuff. I came here and tried a sample of six beers for six dollars. I was very pleased. The beers are all distinct, and there should be something for everyone. Their smoked stout was great. I am a fan of a smoky flavor, and this certainly has it. Their Duyvil was also good. It has a sour apple flavor, not like you are drinking cider, but it is definitely there. They have a very fruity beer, a hogarten-esque beer that was probably my least favorite but my friend's top choice, and I had a sweet and sour beer that was certainly that, and pretty enjoyable too. The waitress was a little absent, and had forgotten to put in the food order we made. Otherwise, this was a great place to go get some interesting and unique microbrews, and because of this, I am not opposed to trying out some food the next time I go.
Great food! I don't know how many times I've been here, all I can say is I've been here a lot! New Years, lunch, late lunch, dinner, late night, etc. A great locally owned pub with lots of beer on tap(says my dad). Cannot wait to go here for new years again!
If you are in Burlington for lunch or later do not miss the Vermont Pub and Brewery and make sure to try their bagel sized onion rings! Don't expect Crème Brûlée and foie gras, expect pub classics at a reasonable price
This really is a Vermont Bar. The beer? It's only the stuff they make. The food? So-so, it's pub food, greasy and messy, but sometimes you find small treasures on the menu that like little secrets that you discover. The building? Old, leaky, cold/hot, strange smells, never quite right - it has personality unlike half the chain resto's you go to these days. The service? Slow, sometimes rude and inept.
You don't go to VPB b/c you want great service, awesome food, sanitized atmosphere, or a Guiness. You don't always want a VPB experience.
When you go, you go b/c VPB (and all of the above) is what you want.
Great pub food & tasty microbrews. Sit outside in the summer, get cozy inside in the winter. A fine place to begin and end a night in Burlington.
Solid place - I tried a sampler of six of their drafts for the incredible price of $6. Each was very good, although nothing blew me away. Add a delicious VT cheese platter for $6 as well, and wow, what a deal. I would consider giving this five stars if it weren't for the standard pub-fare atmosphere.
A damn fine brewpub.
I was going to criticize the gal who wrote the first review for going to a brewpub and not commenting on the beer, and then I realized she's probably not old enough to comment.
The beer is great! Mixed drinks are actually pretty cheap too, but it took me years of beers before I noticed.
Yeah, the servers can be slackers, but the bartenders are usually superb. The food is good if you like it fried, but what could be better with some of the finest house-brewed ales and lagers.
Recommendation: take a risk on the cask conditioned ale, even if it's not exactly what you were in the mood for.
Part of my "Best of Burlington" list. Guess what people? They don't serve any beer here but their own. So suck it up uncultured Budweiser drinkers and indulge in something different (and I don't mean Zima).
If you're a total pussy the staff will tell you what each of their beers are comparable to. Of course that's ridiculous because VPB's beers are far superior than any of their domestic mass market counterparts. If you like beer, even a little, prepare yourself for a religious experience of wheat and hops. Go ahead and get the 3oz sampler set if you've never been here before.
Regarding the food: VPB is pub food at its finest. The menu is HUGE. I can sincerely say that I dine here for the food just about (but not quite) as much as I do for the beer. As far as I'm concerned, you never visited Burlington if you didn't stop by VPB while on your trip.
What a charming place. And what's better, the office we were working at for the day was conveniently located ten steps away from the front door which definitely helped make those "I need a drink" longings you feel at the end of any long day that much more realistic.
The bartenders were pleasant; however, their hostess could use a new attitude. When we asked whether we could sit at the bar, she paused, then spoke loudly and slowly "I'm seat-ing some-one else right now," clearly challenged by handling two customers at once, one who didn't require more than an affirmative nod that yes, the bar was open and accepting patrons.
The patio seating looked inviting, but feeling eventual chilliness outside in the air, we chose to sit in the enclosed atrium-like area between the bar and the patio. A great thing about this place was the price -- for a total of $19 we had drinks for four covered!
Good, standard pub. The food is heavy and greasy and the beers are micro brewed and affordable. The menu has various veggie friendly options however the gravy fries are not veggie friendly (sad!). My boyfriend got the steak and said it was cooked perfectly. My veggie burger was exactly what I was looking for and tasted great with the hard cider. I would come again to VPB, but not until after visiting some other fine Burlington pubs first.
I love this place, but I took off a star because the entrees are not that good. Why do I love it, then, you say? Because of the drinks.
If beer is not your thing, do not worry, my friend. Though they have ample amounts of beer, they also have other tasty selections. They make BADASS spritzers. And they have cider. Really good cider. And I am of the impression that really good cider is hard to find, unless you cross the pond to Great Britain.
Appetizers= good stuff. Go for the nachos. Always my favorite.
Waitstaff always looks like their trying REALLY hard to accomodate everyone, but they are so busy. Have some empathy when you see them running back and forth. They'll get to your table as soon as they can.
If you want to sound like a local, call it VPB.
Start with some gravy fries if you're just drinking-- but if you're eating I recommend the Cock and Bull (why choose between steak and chicken?)
I'm not a beer drinker, but the house brews are always good-- and if you like it you can get a growler on your way out.
Me, I have a shirley temple with my meal, I'm trying to give them a little adult social cache.
In the summer, be sure to wait for a table outside-- especially if there's music happening. A summer evening, a beer, some good greasy food, people watching, and whatever is playing...those are the best nights.
for some reason people this this place is the bees knees, as it is not. Go somewhere else, get better beer, get better food and a better experience. But people respect their pulled pork, which is decent. Menu is too large. Beer is not great. It is ok price and the lighting is not great and that bar is too small with the TV's
We went here on a rainy Saturday afternoon, what had attracted me to this place was seeing a vegetarian reuben on their menu. I love sauerkraut, and not a lot of places offer this sandwich without the meat!
It wasn't a long wait before we were seated, which was a total plus because given the crowd there I was expecting more than just a few minutes. The waitress was great and very honest about the drinks (the lemonade is not "real" and the root beer was tasting odd). I went with iced tea, and my boyfriend tried one of their beers.
To start our meal, we ordered the Vemont cheese sampler. While its presentation was lacking, it was totally made up for with the taste. The were arranged on the plate in a certain order, and we received a list to go along with it so we knew exactly what we were trying. There wasn't a cheese that we didn't like. In fact, it was hard to stop eating them to save room for the meal.
For our lunch, we each ordered a different veggie sandwich and split them. My boyfriend got the VPB Wrap which was DELICIOUS. The Veggie Reuben was also good, but I actually likes his choice better. What really made the whole lunch was the sweet potato fries. Seriously some of the best I've ever had, with the perfect dipping sauce to go with them.
Cheese, sauerkraut, and sweet potato fries. Heaven.
This place is always packed. It's always dim, which gives it that seedy feel. The onion rings are great, their homemade sodas are delicious, and the fact that I feel like I should be eating peanuts and throwing the shells on the floor is nice. Now if only they served peanuts...
Again don't let my 3 be seen as a negative. This is great place for good solid pub type food. They seem to have the "as little work as possible to be technically a brewer" attitude. It doesn't seem to be a highlight, they have growlers and they have some tanks not working in a glass cage somewhere. I have had beer there more then once and can't tell you 'their' brews vs others on tap. Wouldn't recommend a huge party and people in our group have gotten funky chicken on their sandwiches, but we did take a stroller there and the host was very accommodating and it was during a busy time. Nice place for a beer and burger and nachos.
Great patio seating with umbrellas that actually guard you from the rain. Friendly and quick waitstaff, tasty beers for the typical Burlington price of $4-$5. I'd recommend the Beetlejuice: it's especially amusing when 3 people at your table order it and the waitress says Beetlejuice three times. Or maybe we were the only ones that found that funny...
food was ok. I wouldn't go out of my way for it.
Food: Pretty good. I prefer a good cheeseburger and fries.
Beer: Great. Excellent micro-brews.
Location: Right in the heart of it all, not too far from the shopping, the Wyndham Hotel, and the bars.
As an out-of-towner VPB is one place that I know that I can count on getting a decent bite to eat when I am in town.
They only serve the house brewed beer, which is not very good. They are all really heavy and are just not worth writing home about. They have the normal pub fare which is good (great frys), but that's really it.
The place is dimly lit, and the there is usually a 20-25 minute wait for a table at peak dinner hours. They do serve food till midnight, which, is convenient.
I spent Valentine's Day with a coworker at Vermont Pub and Brewery this year. Should have been depressing, right?
Not so! Coworker's sparkling personality aside, the place was a lot of fun. We had to wait about 15 minutes to get a table (at 8:30 p.m. on Valentine's Day!), but it was worth it. Our waitress was also from the Midwest, which might have been why she was so helpful and friendly - but the service across the board was attentive and relatively quick. The menu was huge, and the vegetable lasagna I settled on was really good. And big enough for two meals.
We also tried the six-beer sampler, and although I'm not much of a beer drinker, some of the options were remarkably good (or at least interesting). Plus, they came in really cute miniature beer mugs.
If it hadn't been February, and if Vermont hadn't been under a foot of snow, I would have loved to sit on their outdoor patio. Indoors, the atmosphere was still nice (low lighting, spacious rooms), and pretty casual. I would definitely revisit this place.
Food is kind of greasy. Very typical Amerian food. The deco is very interesting. I like to have the food at the porch, Having a local Vermont beer.
Winooski, VT
Category: Breakfast & Brunch
Burlington, VT
Category: Coffee & Tea
Burlington, VT
Category: Italian
South Burlington, VT
Category: Breweries
Burlington, VT
Category: Delis
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