[Burlington, VT] Trattoria Delia

[Harters (John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)]

Hi

We ate at both Leunig and Hen of the Wood. All three places were very successful dinners, albeit in their different ways. I see from my reviews that you mentioned you had made reservations

[Burlington, VT] Hen of the Wood

The restaurant gets mentioned on foody websites and forums as the city’s best. With only three dinners in the city, we had no way of validating that view, or otherwise. But there proved to be no reason to doubt the claim. This is a serious foody restaurant. There’s a very tight menu – seven or so starters, half a dozen main courses (including two for sharing). It’s clearly designed round the seasons with an emphasis on local produce. Service is excellent and is well paced in an almost European f…

[Burlington, VT] Leunig's Bistro

We liked it here. It’s a bustling sort of place on Church Street – the pedestrianised road at the heart of the city. We’d made a reservation here on the strength of a single menu item – duck confit poutine. I knew poutine to be a “down and dirty” Quebec concoction, although I’d never eaten it. I’d sort of assumed this could be a more refined restaurant starter dish – a bit prissy even. Well, that’s me wrong again. This was an immense portion – easily main course size. A vast quantity of fries, …

Difficult to make a straight comparison between Hen and Delia as they are different beasts. I’d say that Hen is probably the more “gastro” of the two, but Delia may have been the more “fun” experience. I’ll be interested to hear how you get on in Burlington.