The Reluctant Panther Inn & Restaurant

My wife and I enjoyed yet another outstanding dinner this week,with the new summer menu in place. As usual the service was terrific. We both had as an appetizer the crispy Japanese eggplant with chorizo,shishto peppers and whipped goat cheese -TRY IT! The Misty Knoll chicken breast and my halibut were both accompanied with a creamy corn,kale, scallion risotto.Both were excellent.

Dining at the Reluctant Panther was a pleasure, the meal was very enjoyable and we certainly will return to try out some of the other items on the menu!

We come up for a week every summer and Reluctant Panther is always on our itinerary for a resort/elegant dinner. Gentlemen, bring a blazer or sport coat!

Fabulous good in a beautiful setting. What a lovely evening. We try to make it here every time we cisit Manchester. Highly recommend.

Belinda and Terry along with all the others in the team make this a very memorable and fun experience. Such great characters are missing in most of the eateries around, the place is blessed to have such cool ladies taking care of their guests. Wonderful cocktails, perfect food, great value and a fun experience make this our favourite place to go by far - and we are locals! Please don't change a thing .. Best wishes, Anne and Neil, Dorset VT

Lovely room, low noise, nice separation between tables. Sweet wait person. It went downhill after that. The stone ice bucket in which the bottle of wine was place on the table leaked all over it. Had to move tables. The half bottle of Sancerre was a very poor rendition of that white wine, usually my favorite but this vintner fell far short. Poor choice by the restaurant, but I didn't complain. As a gluten-free diner who usually gets 2 starters, I went expecting the excellent quail dish I'd had once before but which they had changed to a breaded version. Breaded quail, really? Even if I could eat bread why would I want such a delicate bird to be cloaked in breading? Very little else to choose from. The gluten free roll they brought to the table was very hot and hard as a rock. When I asked for a replacement it came also very hot and stone hard. 3rd attempt was identical. Too odd. Why offer GF bread at all if it comes inedible (frozen & microwaved or...?) By the same token the "normal" dinner roll for my husband was a pretty sad heavy little lump in its own way. [Good bread is NOT hard to procure for an upscale restaurant! The tuna tartare was remarkably tasteless. Cubes of bland raw tuna with a bit of dressing but nothing else to flavor it. Plated on top of two slices of raw undressed zucchini, the world's most tasteless vegetable at the best of times. The stingy beef carpaccio was more an amuse bouche than a starter. Four tiny rounds of marbled, transparently thin beef sitting in the middle of a dinner plate with some dressed garnish. One was tempted to say "Where's the beef?" At that point, the whole meal was so "blah" that we just gave up. The waitress was so sweet and attentive - she was the high point of the evening.

We had a lovely dinner. The wait staff is really fun, attentive and helpful. I was so happy with my menu choices. I had the scallops with zucchini noodles - yum. I would have preferred slightly less seasoned salt on the scallops, but the veggies and sauce were perfect. For dessert I had the trio of sorbets. I loved cucumber basil best. Who knew??? I felt like I had the best of summer served to me here.

Best food we had on our 12 day vaca including our stay at 5 star resorts. Flavor combinations were amazing. Very unique. Staff was attentive and very friendly. Wonderful date night.

Food was outstanding, as always, and service was impeccable. We ordered halibut, stuffed shrimp and scallops for entries and creamy asparagus soup, feta watermelon salad and mixed green salad for appetizers. Ambiance and views of the garden are wonderful. Would highly recommend.

Great service but food was disappointing. Although fresh ingredients have no taste, very bland.

We had an outstanding dining experience consisting of excellent food, wine and service. We look forward to returning.

Excellent. Very refined experience. Elegant without being stuffy. Really liked the food and good wine list.

Our dinner experience was exceptional. We went to the reluctant panther and had a very lovely accommodations. The tomato soup was very unique, but very scrumptious. I had the halibut and my wife had the vegetarian cauliflower while the boys had  the pork chop which he said was amazing and the short ribs which were done to perfection. I am not sure, but it tasted like some type of cheese and croissant in the tomato soup which made it very very tasty. My wife had coffee afterwards, which she enjoy from a French press I would have to say the overall experience with excellent the servers made sure we always had water and everything we needed. It was a very wonderful experience.

Love this local gem in Manchester VT food service and ambiance are excellent. We started dinner with duck liver pate with rhubarb sauce and asparagus spears which was great. We both had the roasted halibut which was also so excellent. Highly recommended!

For a Wednesday evening early dinner I found the ambient noise in the dining room a bit too loud for my taste. The food was excellent and that made the dining experience worthwhile. But personally I prefer a fine dining experience to be in a less boisterous atmosphere. Perhaps a few room dividers would make the dining room more pleasant and intimate.