Popolo

Excellent food. Friendly staff. A great cocktail. Not outrageously expensive. Highly recommend. Best place in BF to eat.

I’m a fan — let’s start with that! Pros: convenient location, thoughtful décor and hip atmosphere, delicious locally-​focused food made with great finesse, creative cocktails, generally great service and appropriately priced. Cons: beer/​wine selections tend not to thrill me and occasionally the service is a bit lackluster. Overall, I highly recommend giving it a try.

I love this place! Really cool location, amazing food, solid service, reasonable prices. You shouldn’t miss it if you’re in the area.

Just a heads up,… looks like maybe they’ve changed their hours and so posting on Unilocal isn’t so accurate. They don’t seem to have any lunch time hours any longer in the week, so double check. It doesn’t say so on their website either, but you might want to call ahead to see if they’re open. We weren’t so surprised it was closed on Monday.

It’s really the only place to eat a decent meal in the town.
The waitress was fantastic and she alerted us to the fact that the building actually had a train track underneath! That was super cool (I think more towns should invest in that). She also let us know a lot about the history of the building. The upstairs (an old hotel) the ballroom (still a lot like the original), it was super neat.
I think they’d make a ton on tours of the upstairs as this piqued all of our interests to see it.
The meal was okay, not hugely notable. Very limited menu. It was expensive for three people in a small town with no drinks at $ 100
Appetizers
Fried artichoke hearts — (not crispy, just oily)
Calamari — I didn’t have this. Calamari has too many bad reports about it being pig anus. Can’t do it.
Dinners–
Pork chop — bone in. Not a lot of meat for big eaters. Great for gluten free people.
Wonder burger — I had this, no cheese, bacon added. It was a burger. It was prepared correctly so they get points. But nothing notable about it.
Cast Iron Rib Eye-​cooked a little to much but okay.
The ambience of the restaurant is very low light romantic.
It was good. I would go back.

Two stars for your male server who thought it acceptable to give me the NON-​detailed tab for my review and payment for a meal costing nearly $ 200. Who does this?

Great food, great service, great friends… every time we visit Popolo. Period. Thank you for being a wonderful and necessary part of Bellows Falls!

I love this place. The specials ARE special and worth getting. Recently I had a great swordfish entrée with an olive tapenade on chic peas followed by a strawberry shortcake done right… fresh strawberries, warm biscuit and whipped cream.
A favorite salad is the blue cheese. But all of the salads are excellent. They have a way with dressings.
The staff is friendly, attentive and welcoming.
Call for a reservation since they get busy, especially from 6 – 7 pm. Try for a bit earlier or later.

Had Sunday brunch here today. The service was excellent, the food delicious and the chef accommodated us with making the special breakfast pizza, even though it wasn’t on the menu. Sometimes it can be noisy in the restaurant, but it was just right in there today.

Not very good food and a bit pricey. We got a burger and pizza. Both were bland and needed seasoning. The burger was dry and small with a minuscule amount of gorgonzola for an added $ 2.00. If you want a great burger go to Shona’s Grill down the street.

The food is just fabulous– I love the calamari, pizza and a great burger. There is always a creative and delicious special. Drinks and cocktails are always special

lunch recently, nice looking place was not too busy although it did get some late arrivals, service was very pleasant and food and drinks very good, we had some of their special drinks and they were both very good, burger was excellent as were the fish cakes with excellent rosemary aioli… nice

The food here was wicked yummy. Had the calamari at lunch time. Our server was great but she was the only one on and the restaurant filled with guests shortly after we arrived. It was difficult for her to keep up with the amount of people but she did well. The atmosphere was very nice. It was an enjoyable lunch time stop and I would love to go again and try something else. Great environment and fairly affordable!

Terrific addition to dining in the BF-​Walpole area. I usually order from the specials menu and everything I’ve had has been creative, well prepared, and very high quality. Can it get any better? Service is also good. Now I just need to go back for some drinks on the back patio!

Oooooh Yeah! Excellent food, great staff. Many fresh local foods used and you could tell! A strawberry rhubarb margarita if you can believe it! Flank steak was a little tough but the broccoli raab was to die for! So diverse! Come and enjoy. We sat out side on the deck it was casual yet you still felt as if you were eating at a high end restaurant. Simple class act.

We ate at popolo last Saturday night and I would really like to rate the place higher but I just can’t
Overall food was great but our friendly but terribly un professional waitress just brought the meal experience down
She asked us what wine we would like to order we chose and she said the owner thought that it was a great choice. A few minutes later she came back and said they didn’t have that wine, fair enough. So I asked if any of the other whites were available by the glass and she said yes and could give us a small taste of two other choices, great
We chose one and she comes back to the table with an opened bottle and says this was just opened at the bar (for our test) and asks us to accept the already opened elsewhere bottle. Now this just isn’t done, if they offer this by the glass than this is the bar bottle not ours. For $ 38 they can bring a bottle to the table and open it up.
I said OK this is bellows falls not nyc. .
But then she just plunks the bottle on the table and walks away. Not serving a drop… I mean come on .do the owners train these people?
Good food and lousy service…
Will i go back, yes, but if the service is the same then shame on the owners…

Maybe because it’s been awhile since I’ve had truly fresh Italian food out, or that it was due to eating out with two close friends, but Popolo’s proved a really fun, refreshing surprise!
Situated in downtown Bellows Falls, it’s arguably the classiest place in the whole town but not so much that it wards people off but rather invites you in. The simple yet crisp, modern wood décor and bright wall space certainly helps alongside a generous bar serving Trapp Family seasonal brews and other tasty regional beers and no small cocktail list.
Then, there is the food! I don’t think I’ve had calamari so tender, especially with a light picante taste with the most subtle chile flavor on the outside coating. Fresh, basil-​seasoned olive oil with rye bread helped whet appetites until our main courses came, including a Parma pizza topped with mozzarella cheese, prosciutto, arugula pesto, San Marzano tomato sauce, and black olives. Strikingly crisp yet tender pizza dough worked its rounds, as we finished off the whole pie. Even the dessert stepped up a couple notches, with offerings of tiramisu, gelato, and my order of pannacotta which were subtly sweet in the best way without being overwhelming.
Definitely worth a drop through should you come by Bellows Falls in the evening…:-)

We went out to Popolo last night for dinner. The restaurant was full, but no one was waiting. Our Waiter was relaxed and helpful. Some people have commented that the place is noisy but we did not find it so. The dining area was open and airy, but not cold and it was a miserable Vermont night.
We had the Calamari and Mussels for apps. Both were good. The Calamari was tender and tasty and the broth for the Mussels a delicious spicy tomato base. We shared a Gorgonzola salad. It tasted good but the presentation was uninspired.
For dinner — the special steak with a red wine reduction. I am not a hunk of steak fan generally, but this was cooked well, tender and the reduction was delicious.
The Green Mountain Burger which my son says is as good as any he has had in Vermont and I would agree. The fries were also very good.
The Pollo Saltimbocca — I liked to pairing of flavors on the dish; swiss chard, gnocchi cakes and the chicken and prosciutto all worked well together.
The selection of beers on tap is small but they are all winners.
Our takeaway is that Popolo and Bellows Falls are well worth visit.

While BF needs a decent downtown restaurant, Popolos doesn’t cut it yet.
The staff, especially the front end, is unhelpful and unwelcoming. The air of pretension doesn’t fit the town. While we have had a decent lunch here, dinner is so so and takes far too long to arrive.
Communal tables are ridiculous and a waste of space. Let’s hope they grow up a bit!

Started with mozzarella fritters stuffed with mozz. and ricotta cheese. Lightly coated with, I think corn meal, and some smokey spice.
Second course was hanger steak with greens and house made gnocchi. Nice char on the steak and gnocchi done to perfection.
Bambolini for dessert = fried dough goodness with custard inside.