NECI on Main

OK, I get it it’s a student chef restaurant and food is mostly prepared by cooks-​in-​training a lot of whom may have great potential, but, I’m sorry, I was so very disappointed with my experience there.
Food, for food that price, I would DEFINITELY expect better, and especially after strong recommendation from multiple friends, I was hoping to get a treat. But maybe I was there on a bad day, and everything I had tasted very plain. I would give the overall food experience only two stars, but the waitress was so nice and friendly, I decided to vote another star for future improvement.
Again, I know lots of the food are prepared by food, but I don’t think we need to only say nice things to a horrible dining experience only because they are not mature enough yet. Students needs criticism and suggestions to improve, if we only say «yes» to failed test runs, how are we ever going to see growth? I saw some nice cooks there and I certainly enjoyed the conversation, but the food is not yet what I would say «recommendable», work harder, improve, we expect great things from you!!!

I hate people. Yes you — the kind of people that take your self importance so seriously that you have to rip apart some kids trying to start their lives.
Look is the food good — I thought so when I lived in Montpelier. Is it the best I have ever had — no but it is good food with good kids trying at their first attempt at a career.
Were you great at your job at 18. No? So shut the hell up and realize that it is a culinary school restaurant and it sometimes may be great and sometimes not.
I read these pathetic reviews in which the true losers of society complain about issues like their mojito mint not being properly mashed (a real complaint in the reviews) or how apparently expensive the menu is at the place. (FYI — it’s normal $ 13 – 22 which seems normal these days). Really?
I have written a number of reviews but I decided several months ago to stop posting (and I deleted all of my posts) because I realized that most of these reviewers lives (and I guess my life had as well) had become a bunch of stupid critiques of other people’s hard work.
In the end, I realized that most of the nasty reviews, mine included, were just sad attempts to feel like I was important. I’m not and none of these nasty people are either.
Ultimately I decided to re-​review this place because I felt people were unfairly judging the students and restaurant. This will be my only review but to those who are reading this — go make a judgement for yourself. If you don’t like it — fine. But do you really need to rip apart a restaurant that is simply trying to help some kids start a career?
In the end, it is a decent restaurant that is far better than many in Montpelier, and is reasonable and is done so by kids at basically their first job. It is people that write nothing but nastiness that make me pray for a plane crash every time I get on a plane or a fatal brain aneurism.
Just relax. Enjoy your trip to one of the most beautiful places in the country and just take a breath and realize that these are just kids trying their best. If you still must give a nasty rating, keep in mind that karma has a way of keeping score.

Extremely disappointing. Menu items were unimaginative, and not cooked well. As a new transplant to the area, my foodie spouse and I were excited to see what the Culinary Institute was producing here. Bland food in a restaurant that needs updating. This not only disappointed as a restaurant, it made us worry about the education these kids were getting.

Trekked down to Montpelier to meet a friend. After we wander around checking out menus of various restaurants, we decided on NECI. Years ago, there had been one on the Church St. Marketplace that was spectacular.
Well, my experience fell short of spectacular starting with the appetizer. The calamari had fried onions in it. Weird. Maybe it makes the portion look bigger? I am not paying for onions when I want calamari & the menu did not state onions. Seriously strange indeed.
I had hope moving onto our main entrees.
Unfortunately, both arrived overdone & were disappointing.
I had the Turkey Burger, very dry no flavor. The bottom bun was soaking wet. The salad side was all coarse greens slathered in a creamy dressing. My friend’s Char was dry & the tiny pieces of root squash not even identifiable.
The dessert was the highlight, we shared an Inside S’more. The flourless cake was perfect & flavorful. The presentation exquisite. Coffee was so-​so & not hot enough.
Sorry I was really disappointed for the price and not usually so picky, but my rating reflects the food. Service was good and our wait staff attentive. Not enough to convince to go again.

Nothing spectacular. Service was slow. Food was average. Ordered the turkey burger medium but came out well done and too dry, and lacking of any flavor. We also got the cheese plate but the waitress didn’t explain any of the cheese on the plate, so we weren’t really sure which one we were eating.
I expected a bit more from a restaurant that is connected with the New England culinary institute…

Phenomenal dinner last night with CG students. Impressive staff. Their passion makes the tremendous offerings even better. Start to finish is was great culinary and social experience. The duck was by far the best course. Appetizers were a close second.

Would not recommend — food and service was pretty poor. The restaurant wasn’t even busy, so it’s hard to imagine what caused all the mistakes. This was our least favorite restaurant visited during our stay in Montpelier.
We started with the cheese plate as an appetizer. It basically consisted of three small pieces of cheese, not worth the $ 9. The bread was fantastic, however.
As for our entrees, my husband’s burger came out raw (ordered medium well) without any sides. The waitress had no idea if it came with any (which of course it came with fries). I ordered the tagliatelli pasta which was incredibly flavorless and every component of the dish tasted the same and had the same consistency. Also, they forgot to add the vegetarian sausage.
To top things off, our drinks didn’t come out until after our entrees arrived.
The waitress offered free desert to make up for the drink issue, which was nice (we never complained or even pointed out the issues with the undercooked burger and the missing sausage). The cheesecake was great, but the brownie sundae was not so good since the brownie was cold.
Overall, this was a big disappointment!

Ribs were so tough hardly eat them. The fish on the cushion chips was not cooked enough. Probably won’t eat here again

Wow very impressive. This place is where students in culinary arts come to practice their work and my expectations were modest. But I found a beautifully appointed restaurant that was comfortable and enjoyable. The staff were somewhat hesitant and each waiter has a assistant that they are mentoring come to the table with them but that part was amusing.
The food was super. I couldn’t decide among multiple entrées so I just ordered three different appetizers and paired them into a great meal.
I got A very nice spinach salad that was dressed with radishes and fresh mango slices. I would recommend that to anyone.
I also had a cup of the gazpacho that was OK but didn’t blow me away. Finally I had a nice plate of fresh hummus and pita chips on a bed of greens and really savored the whole thing.
Oh and I had an unusual drink, a cranberry fizzy concoction it was refreshing and worth ordering.

It has been quite some time since I have experienced the combination of bad food and bad service. Two of our party of four ordered fish and chips. One whole order was undercooked and not good, the other order had a large thick piece of fish more suited for oven baking, which was also undercooked. We informed our server and he said very insincerely that he was sorry. Never offered to get anyone anything different, and when the bill arrived, there was nothing to reflect even a discount for the two orders of undercooked food we received. Since then, both parties who ate fish have gotten food poisoning. The other two meals were mediocre at best, with eggplant also undercooked and cut far too thick and sausage which varied greatly in how well it was cooked.

I live in Montpelier and have been coming to NECI in one of its incarnations or another for 30+ years. When Michel LeBorne ran it, it was fabulous. In recent years there have been a lot of ups and downs. After today’s sad lunch I’m ready to stay away until the current crop of students and (hopefully) managers have moved on.
My friend and I came in at 1 pm and ordered salads — Cobb for her and Hawaiian for me. Both were priced at $ 10.95. Her Cobb was lackluster with only a small selection of vegetables and precious little protein (a bit of chicken, tough ham and a couple slices of egg.) The Hawaiian consisted of a big bowl of Romaine lettuce with a few thin slices of red pepper and onion plus a kabob with a few small pieces of grilled steak and pineapple. The «dressing» seemed to consist of oil. Period. No salt, no pepper, no vinegar, no flavor. If there was a teaching chef in the kitchen, he should be ashamed of himself.
The waitress did not return to the table to ask about our food. When she came to remove the plates she did not ask why most of my salad was uneaten.
My friend ordered coffee, tea for me. After letting the tea steep for 5+ minutes I poured it and it was barely tan. The water had not been hot enough to brew it. When I called her to the table to have it removed, she didn’t apologize and never asked my friend if she wanted a refill on her coffee.
Throughout most of this the manager was nearby, but didn’t bother to step in. When we asked for the check, there was no comment card included like there has been in the past. To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

Was all excited to have a great meal … Made reservations and everything. Upon arrival we were informed that the only table available was a bar raised table … Strike one. Not thrilled with the delivery of the message either.
Service was lackluster at best waitress took my drink before I was finished … Strike two
Main course I ordered the prix fix skirt steak and potatoes … Tough to screw up … Waited 45 minutes for the meal, steak was tough, cold and potatoes were undercooked … Strike three …
Skip it … They’ve hit the wall
PS we tried to communicate our displeasure to the «manager» Neil and we were told «he knew our complaint and get the hell out of his restaurant». Hopefully he isn’t a student because he won’t make it in the real world

Well since I live in the area I figured I would give it a try. I have been looking for a high end restaurant with food I wouldn’t typically cook or think of the different combinations of flavors. I ordered duck wings appetizer and when it was delivered they appeared to be really over cokes and were, more like jerky on the bone, dry and warm, not hot. Ordered the duck breast and that too was served warm to cool temp, although the flavor was good, the temp of meal very disappointing. My wife ordered a pork chops and was unimpressed with flavors and again was served warm. There were maybe 3 different couples in the restaurant, so I failed to understand why the food was was cool to the touch. A huge sign should have been seeing a restaurant empty 6pm on a Friday night. Most likely won’t be back.

Their Valentine’s Day prix-​fixe meal was first class. I was very impressed.

Visited here on a quiet night with some coworkers. Our waitress was very attentive and pleasant. She was assisted by a group of «trainees» who pretty much just hung out in the back of the restaurant awkwardly. I am wondering if this would be the case on a busy night, but it was certainly awkward to just have them standing near our table.
They featured a three course menu for $ 25 in December. The local greens salad was excellent. The main dish was duck prepared two ways over kale, pan seared and another way. The pan duck was decent, but whatever the second preparation consisted of was amazing. The dessert was a chocolate mousse was somewhat bland, but not off-​putting.
Overall, the meal was pretty good. I think you have to know what you are getting going into the meal being that this is a culinary school. There is definitely an attention to detail in all of the dishes with excellent presentation. However, I could easily see mistakes being made in the preparation of dishes leading to some of the unpleasant experiences others on here have mentioned.
Hopefully my next experience is able to match or exceed this first visit!

Note: This review applies to cocktails at the bar, not their full dinner offering.
In Montpelier recently and passed NECI on Main St. Sandwich board outside noted $ 5 cocktails. I thought, «Why not?» Went to the cozy downstairs bar and ordered an Old Fashioned and my wife got a dirty martini. Wow (and not in a good way), way to bring the D-​Team to cocktail creation.
First, the Old Fashioned was just straight up terrible. Next, the bartender sets the martini down and asks, «Do you want olives in that.» Seriously? That’s like asking if you want cheese on a triple-​cheese pizza. The martini was bad too. Did tell the bartender the martini was not so good and he kindly offered to make another or something else, but he’s 0 – 2 so far with nothing to indicate anything new would be any better. Left $ 20 on a $ 15 tab and noped it out of there.
Summary: For dinner it may be great, but was disappointed by the lack of skill in the mixed drinks department. #firstworldproblems, I know, I know…

Very nice staff. Burger cooked medium exactly as ordered… very tasty… great work… roll too sweet and dense… fries did not taste like potatoes and they were way over salted. French bread for the table had superb crust… good butter and served in an artful manner.

First off, change the $$ rating to $$$$!! (Not even close!!) I got dragged here AGAIN by people from out of town. I have never had a good meal here. It is expensive and the service is horrible. The food is average to horrible. This time in (I went once voluntarily and this will be my 5^th forced visit), again, my fish was cooked till cardboard, friends steak way under done, and 2 expensive crappy apps.
It won’t happen to me again EVER. You can save yourself $$$$ by NOT GOING. Also, management has a horrible attitude that they apparently teach their students…

It saddens me to give this place only 3 stars, but honestly that’s what our dinner should be rated.
Pros: I love the fact that this is a teaching restaurant. The burger was good, as was the hanger steak. The waiter was friendly, but not quite as knowledgeable about the food as he should have been.
Con’s: The seafood «soup» was bad. First, it was not a soup at all, but a bisque. Second, it tasted «fishy» meaning the fish used to make it– or the soup itself– were spoiled. Tip to chef: Learn how to make a proper bisque, like lobster or crab bisque, and don’t try to cover up dated fish by over-​using cayenne pepper.
One other con: The French fries weren’t evenly cooked, some were almost raw and others were crispy/​burnt. While this isn’t a big deal, I think it’s indicative of a restaurant that is really rough around the edges.
While this was an interesting experience, I wouldn’t waste my money on another mediocre meal here. Sorry kids.

We ordered the cheddar ale soup to start, was a little too ale-​y for me, but my boyfriend loved it. We then had the pork medallion and the open face steak sandwich. The pork medallion was slightly disappointing, nothing overly special kind of bland. The open face steak sandwich was awesome, a bit hard to eat, but the flavors were so great. We finished it all off with toasted angel food cake, which came with rhubarb sorbet and rhubarb jam.