Red Lion Inn

www.redlioninn.com

The Red Lion is maybe the most well-known inn in the Berkshires, and there are dining options in the main dining room, the tavern, and the courtyard. The dining room is a bit stuffy for my taste, but the courtyard is delightful. However, the hallmark of any dining experience at the Red Lion is the haphazard, bordering on terrible, service. The food is good (in general) - a blend of seasonal, local ingredients and warhorses such as roasted turkey and prime rib. Actually, it's a little refreshing to see prime rib on a menu in a world of aioli, jus, confit and the rest. So between the charm of the courtyard setting and the good food, I keep going back. It's also one of the few places in the Berkshires where you can make a reservation for breakfast with a large group.

In any event, the service has been so bad in the past that once a waitress was fired in the middle of our meal. Last night was no exception. The pattern seems to be that very nice, ill trained people are hired for the summer season and seem over their head all through service. Last night, our very nice waitress had trouble juggling her tables, didn't get the descriptions of the specials correct (the lobster cake I ordered had truffle oil on it - and I hate truffle oil), and stood next to our table holding our bread basket, after a long wait, talking to the hostess. The bartender kept yelling out to the wait staff that he was out of stuff - mineral water, wine glasses, martini glasses. I ordered a glass of wine after the first course that arrived when I was almost done with my entree. One patron at the table next to ours was so tired of waiting for his glass of wine, he went up to the bar himself, which flummoxed the waitress completely. SO - be warned. This has been the experience regularly.

On to the food. For an appetizer, I had lobster cakes which were not what I was imagining - too heavy on stuffing that the rich lobster meat did not need. The salads my parents had were nice, however, and I had their house salad earlier this summer - local greens, oranges, Marcona almonds, goat cheese and maple vinaigrette. For a main course, my dad and I both had pan seared scallops on greens with a citrus vinaigrette and waffle chips. The scallops were done beautifully but the chips - we each had about three sad, lonely chips on our plates. My mom had a risotto with English peas, pureed carrots, and shiitake mushrooms, which she reported was delicious. However, the best course of the meal was dessert - warm brown sugar cake with peach ice cream and caramel sauce - gorgeous. Exactly the melt-in-your-=mouth experience you would expect form the description. And the coffee was excellent as well.

So go for the food and atmosphere and not the service... you have been warned!