The Painted Pony Restaurant

Friendly service, great country music playing. Food was good as well. 10/10 would come back!

Trust me: Build-Ypur-Own Cauliflower Flatbread with Alfredo Sauce, Mozzarella, spinach, onions, and black and green olives!!! Unbelievable taste mixture.

We were driving through Bethlehem around lunchtime yesterday and found the Painted Pony on Yelp with mostly positive reviews--and one bad one. We thought it would be worth checking out to see if that one reviewer was wrong. They were.

We went in the early afternoon, closer to 2pm, so there was no lunch rush or crowd. We sat at the bar. We got a wine and a beer, pretty straightforward drinks, with quick service from the bartender. The only criticism I had on the service was that we didn't get menus very quickly, but after we did the bartender checked in us with just the right frequency and made sure all came out right.

I ordered the Harvest Salad with chicken plus a side of fries with ranch. The salad was everything I wanted (I did change it up a little and get honey mustard dressing instead of balsamic). The fries, bruh, the fries. Don't skip the fries. Ranch is a personal preference for fry dippage. The ranch was nothing to write home about, but got the job done.

No photos to show of the following, but my fiancé is a bit of a burger snob, and he got the Bistro Burger medium rare and loved it.

If you are in the Litchfield CT area The Painted Pony Restaurant would be a great spot for lunch or dinner. The staff is great, service was excellent. The menu had any number of choices including steaks, seafood and pasta. The stuffed scallops were tasty and my wife had ravioli and short ribs also excellent. They offer a small and predictable wine list. I know folks are always interested in pricing. They were clearly a $$ category which is rare in this part of Litchfield where many restaurants are significantly higher.

They changed their menu but did not change their website so I had gone there wanting the pork belly flatbread which had a fig glaze, Gorgonzola, pork belly, and caramelized onions instead it had what I think was arugula, caramelized, onion that looked/tasted more like pickled onions and bacon. the fig glaze tasted like extremely sweet honey.. I was not impressed. It was soggy on the bottom and just overly sweet. I could only eat 2 pieces.

The crème brûlée cheesecake was phenomenal. It was light and absolutely delicious!!

The jala mango wings were super crispy and delicious not overly spicy, would absolutely recommend

had 2 mixed drinks that were good.

Also brought home a steak sandwich the steak was basically rubber. It was gag worthy unfortunately... I would go here again but honestly pricing and quality of food were not well matched.

Cute little pub restaurant. The food was ok. The service could have been a little better but they were a bit crowded, I guess they need to be more organized. Place is pretty.

Completely awful. Had my family of six there for dinner and two got horribly sick for two days from the fish and the chicken parm. Would be very cautious eating here.

The food was meh. My husband did like his clam chowder but we weren't impressed with the rest of the food.

We had a celebration dinner Friday night with a group of 8. Everything about our experience was wonderful. Everyone enjoyed their meals, prices were reasonable, and the service was phenomenal. We will definitely return.

Came here for lunch after pumpkin picking with some friends. The decor is awesome. Although it was a little chilly as they just opened, I still felt warm and cozy. Very rustic feel, and everything seemed pretty new (I did not know it was recently transferred to new management). We sat in the area that would normally be a screened in eating area, but they had the plastic on the windows and the fireplace going.

For drinks we got a couple of beers and iced tea. Our server recited the list of draft beers to us. To start we ordered the jalapeño popper dip and fried mozzarella. The dip was delicious. Not spicy at all, very flavorful. It comes with 4 thick and salted pretzels (should come with more like 6). The fried mozzarella were large triangles that they may in fact make in house because they were delicious. Int seem frozen I also ordered a NE Clam chowder. It was good. Spiced a little different than I'm used to but still tasty.

For lunch, my wife ordered the Build your own Flatbread. Great idea by the way. She really enjoyed it and took some home for dinner. Buddy's wife ordered the chicken sandwich which on the menu says "Chicken" as the menu item. She enjoyed it, however it was oozing smashed avocado. Maybe a little much on it. My buddy ordered the steak sandwich which came with a side of AuJus. He said it was very good. I ordered the burger with everything on it. Flavor wise it was good, although the overuse of smashed avocado plagued me as well. I asked for a rare burger and it came out medium well. But, sweet tots? These are a real thing? They were 100% amazing! I have find out how to make these or where to buy them cause wow. The food took a little long to come out as well.

All in all, a good visit. Our server was very nice and did a good job with our table. She also let us know there was a brunch going on for a large group in the other room which is why our food took long.

Service - 5 Stars
Food - 3 Stars

We will visit this place again next time we're in the area.