The Herb Lyceum at Gilson’s

Wonderful and unique dining experience. The restaurant is set on a rustic farm. A pre-​dinner meet and greet sipping garden starts the evening. Diners are lead in for a single sitting prefixed dinner. The edifice is a refurbished barn. On the night I was there, there were two tables, one larger and one smaller. While I was at the smaller table with my party, I believe the larger table was comprised of many smaller parties seated side-​by-​side. The purveyors are happy to uncork your self brought wine with no cork or pouring fee. The chef came out and introduced each course. I believe there were six; main courses being chicken and scallops. The chef explained when food items were grown locally; or, in some cases, literally on the premises. I am not a foodie so I will not describe each course, except to say it was fresh and pleasing. Go there!

We had our daughter’s wedding (65 guests) in early September at the Herb Lyceum. It was spectacular. The beautiful weather helped, but the meal, the venue and the service was all outstanding. I would wholeheartedly recommend it as a rustic, outdoorsy setting for a not-​so-​formal wedding.

Attended a wedding here for 50 guests. If you’re considering a wedding here, some things to know:
— The food is amazing. Wonderful. I was very impressed by the freshness and that despite such a large group, every dish was served hot, nice presentation, including edible flowers.
— Lovely backdrop for pictures — nice garden, lawn, a rustic-​chic barn.
— The venue is HORRIBLE in the rain. We were especially unlucky to get a very rainy, cold day in June, but a combination of poor event planning and a site that doesn’t lend itself well to rainy days made it very unpleasant. There was a two-​inch deep river of mud walking from the parking area to the event area. Anyone wearing fancy shoes had their shoes ruined, and multiple people almost fell. The dance floor got covered in dirt and gravel. The tent was unheated, and FREEZING, and we went to the barn hoping to warm up – but that was completely unheated as well, and freezing. (Add to the complaints, one bathroom for 50 guests — a constant.) It was so awful that I left early, which I never do because I want to support wedding people.
Mother nature didn’t cooperate, but the owners of this place should have been able to better advise the couple on how to make their guests comfortable. It felt like amateurish event planning to me.

Just wonderful. We had a pre graduation dinner here for my daughter. What a lovely concept. Just hint, don’t eat until the chef comes out. But everything was fresh and was just the right amount. Glad we made the drive
Love that its a BYOB as well, its save you plenty

I live in Los Angeles but I’m home for Christmas in NH. My sister made us reservations far in advance and we were all looking forward to this spot. (She has been there before)
Thanks to good ol’ New England weather, a snow storm hits rendering us unable to drive to the restaurant.
We then call to cancel our reservations (obviously due to safety) and are met with a rude woman informing us that if we don’t show we will be charged full price anyway. They have our card number «and will be charging it». While we explain that, yes, we understand the cancellation policy in terms of personal conflicts, etc: this was none of the above. This was weather beyond anyone’s control and it would be unsafe to try and drive.
She explains more or less that she doesn’t care («we’re running a business here») and the best she can do is charge us $ 100 dollars for the food we’re not eating. My sisters husband once again explains the situation and the woman hangs up on him.
Food may be great (they’ll never get my business, so I guess I’ll never know) — but to put money/​profit over the safety of the customers gets one star from me. You charge good money to eat there. I get charging people who cancel willy-​nilly or even for personal reasons. However it should be policy that you can take a small hit due to inclement weather for the safety of your customers.
They say on their site «reservations are like having tickets to an entertainment event». Well guess what: events are cancelled/​rescheduled and tickets are honored when bad weather hits. Practice what you preach.
TL;dr:
Had to cancel reservations due to nor’easter. Rude woman explains «they’re running a business here», says they’re charging our CC the full price of the meal anyway, and hangs up on us.

This was the perfect venue for my small wedding. The scenic grounds were in full color for the autumn wedding. After the outdoor ceremony we went into the charming farmhouse barn for dinner. Our delicious 4 course dinner consisted of roasted pumpkin soup, roasted apple salad, duck breast with root vegetable, and crème brûlée with lavender flowers. I already can’t wait to go back for my anniversary dinner.

Made reservations for Saturday November 29^th. Showed up to the restaurant and the place was completely closed. It turns out that they had to close the restaurant. They had called everyone ahead of time but us. They initially stated that we cancelled the reservation which was not true. After realizing their mistake they made up for it by paying for our next visit to the restaurant. Thank You Herb Lyceum! This is the type of customer service that is needed when a mistake is made.
We were fortunate enough to visit the restaurant a few weeks later. The meal was a take on a traditional English meal where we had sirloin and yorkshire pudding. Like our past review we would characterize the meal as some highs, lows, and middle of the road moments.
The appetizer were some nice heirloom looking carrots that were delicious. This was followed by a mustard green salad that were very delicious. This was followed by a turnip and apple soup. The soup was pretty good.
Like before, the main meal was good, but not great. It was seared sirloin and yorkshire pudding. The sirloin seems like it was seared in a pan at a low temperature. The meat was gray on the outside and lacked a ton of juice which made it tough to cut. The yorkshire budding was delicious but we were only given half. So rather than a full yorkshire pudding (i.e. popover), each popover was sliced in half and each guest got half a popover. The chestnuts and mushrooms were awesome.
The cheese course was okay. I believe it was some form of cheddar with some honey to accompany it.
The dessert course was okay but not what we expected. We were served a deconstructed brownie. It was supposed to be a chocolate torte. The dessert was good, but was not a home run. The best would have been a little more sea salt. There was one bite that had the sea salt which made the chocolate really pop. That was the only sea salt that I tasted.
One of the guests said that they don’t come for the food. They come for conversation and experience. While I love the experience, I go to restaurants for the food.
We will definitely go back to Herb Lyceum. The service is really nice and the atmosphere is great. The food is good, but somehow we expect just a little more for this type of experience.

Lovely place for a scenic dinner. Absolutely worth the drive from Boston. Ideally, you should come when you can walk around the grounds and enjoy the surroundings. Even in the winter, though, the setting is charming. The food is generally outstanding. It’s a great place to host large parties, especially since it’s BYOB.
I also love their crystallized honey and pick it up when I can at the SOWA open market in Boston.

This is a tough review to write — because this is not a dinner destination for all. Gilson’s offers a locally based, small plate dinner menu. A huge part of the draw is that it is a destination evening — plan to arrive at 7 and enjoy small plates over the next 3+ hours. The menu is fixed (check to see that you enjoy what they are serving before you make your reservation) and it is BYOB, which is a great opportunity to play with wine pairings.
We went with one other couple on a beautiful summer evening. After enjoying the grounds (which to be fair are lovely but could use some weeding!) we were all seated in group tables in the barn (which is beautiful). The tables were artfully set, and it seems sort of a self-​selecting process for dining companions. We met people we actually had a great deal in common with and exchanged email addresses with.
The food, over all, is very good. The portions, however, are small. I enjoyed the size of the meal, but of the four of us (all women) at least two left saying they were still hungry.
Our Amuse course was a beautiful salad served inside an edible lily flower. The starter courses included a beautiful snap pea/​mint soup and roasted asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and served with a poached farm-​fresh egg. I’m not a fan of egg and avoided it and still found the course delicious and satisfying. The main portion — beef — was a very small serving. I was good with that. I’m not sure if I were more of a carnivore, or a hungry man, I would have been too pleased. They make a point at the beginning of the meal to say that they don’t serve bread because they don’t want you to fill up on «extras», but personally, I think the meal would have been improved with a small bit of bread (and I’m not even much of a carb person!).
The cheese course? Fabulous! Dessert — I remember liking it but at this point I cannot remember what is was and I’m not that motivated to go back and check my notes. I guess I would have to say dessert was not memorable.
Unique and special: The presentation of all the food. The fresh flavors. The novelty of the dining experience. Negatives: We felt all the (hot) courses should have been hotter when they got to the table.
Would we go again? Absolutely — for a treat night out. Tips/​suggestions: try going with at least one other couple. If you are wine drinkers, it allows you to bring a couple different wines to enjoy with the various courses and you know you will at least have someone there you have something in common with. On the other hand — talk to the person next to you! There are lots of interesting people in the world if you pick your head up and say hello. Book well in advance. And believe them when they say it will be long evening. We were actually there until after 11 pm. Not suitable for vegetarians, unfortunately.
I did enjoy that by the end of the evening you could see that there were many people who had arrived not knowing one another enjoying each other’s company.

My wife and I go to Gilson’s several times a year. My first experience was their (last) Robert Burnes Night Dinner. The Scottish poet shares a birthday with my wife, and they used to do a big Scottish fare feast. Usually the BYOB is a bottle or two of wine, but this night everyone BYO’d single malt. Glad we live nearby!
Last time was 6÷15÷2013. New chef. personally vetted by Will Gilson: he can handle a kitchen! Molly K posted 6÷17÷2013 and we were there the same night, so I’ll let her describe the food.
The lack of the fifth star: I save five out of five for truly transcendent dining experience, which I’ve had at the Lyceum many times. But the seating is a bit of a crap-​shoot. Unless you go in numbers, you don’t know who you’ll be next to. Most of the time, it old friends that you haven’t met yet: the clientele is somewhat self-​selecting. But some folk just don’t get it.
Five courses, six including the amuse. It is a long evening to savor. if you don’t have the time to savor. try Gibbet Hill.

Friday evening we visited the Gilson’s Herb Lyceum in Groton for a relaxing evening. Arriving with our own wine selections at 7:15pm, we enjoyed a nice glass of wine under the sweeping branches of the hickory tree while basking in the beautiful weather.
With dinners offered on only Friday & Saturday, reservations are required for the 6 course meal that began at 7:45pm. Within the large barn sit 2 medium tables and 1 long table where strangers meet for great food, good foodie conversation & a memorable experience. With all locally-​sourced ingredients (mostly from on-​site when possible) and thoughtfully crafted dishes, this experience is a real steal at only $ 60 per person, despite the fact that the whole experience lasted 3.5 hours.
We started with a delicious succotash…
followed by grilled proscuitto wrapped asparagus, farm egg, tallegio and thyme mornay. This may have been T’s favorite, it was one of mine mostly due to the mornay sauce mmmm.
Third was the chilled sugar snap pea and mint soup with tomato concasse, chili oil and crème fraîche. Another of T’s favorites, this was a bit too cucumber-​y for me, but was still deliciously light and refreshing, and the hint of chili oil was a perfect contrast.
Our main dish was the best of all, perfectly sized herb rubbed hanger steak with pommes duchesse, baby carrots, and a sauce choron. Unbelievably delicious and tender. The potatoes were T & my favorite bit, they were pretty much twice-​baked mashed potatoes piped out into the pretty shape. Everything was perfect with this dish.
Our cheese course was a blue perfectly paired with a few slices of green onion & a house tomato.
We finished with a strawberry gelato, short cake cookie, fresh cream, and some crumbles that tasted just like gingerbread, but turned out to be lavender cookie crumble.
As the night dwindled and the stars came up, we headed home full, happy, and looking into the menu for July. With dinners being offered Fridays and Saturdays year-​round, with a monthly-​changing menu, we are definitely looking forward to trying another evening, and bringing along some friends to share in the experience.

Gilsons is my dream come true. I get to eat a lot of delicious things without feeling overstuffed or like I need to go on a diet. Everything we ate was absolutely delicious. I had my first experiece of fois gras and it is one I will never forget.
From the service to the host and hostess, the chef and wait crew, including the rustic barn setting, it was a great experience! It is so refreshing to have the checf be so excited about what he is sharing with you and treat you to a dining experience that, though it may take you out of your comfort zone, will certainly open up doors to gustatory potential.
Although you don’t get to pick who you sit next to, there is definitely adventure in this. We did not make lifelong friends, but we certainly had a great time!
We are going back next month for my birthday celebration and I can’t wait!
Maria Skinner

I’ve been to this restaurant a few times over a period of almost a decade. While the restaurant has never been a real top tier restaurant, if my most recent visit was an accurate representation of its current state, the place has declined remarkably.
The gardens were no longer beautiful country gardens but instead were unkempt, weed-​infiltrated areas mixed among walking paths with occasional litter strewn about. The food was incongruous, lacking any apparent forethought. The preparation was poor (steak served well done; soufflé indescribably). For more details on the food, see David’s (currently filtered) review as he goes into more detail on the food (he was part of our dining party).
Bleh, we don’t ever intend to revisit.
Food — 2 (maybe 2.5) stars
Service — 2 (maybe 2.5) stars
Ambiance — 2.5 stars
Oh, almost forgot…
The best part of the meal was the wine list. Well, it’s BYOB. So, I got to pick my own wine from my own cellar (and without a markup).

While the food was tasty and imaginative there was very little of it and within the tiny portions there was confusion and a lack of symmetry. For example, the chunk of uneatable salt pork in the center of the soup completely overpowered the dish and competed in size with the salmon in the main course. The amuse-​bouche was notable as an example of how many portions one could wrest from a single, undersized, fingerling potato: apparently 5 or 6. After dinner the gentleman to my right said he was ready to go out for a hamburger.
Kathy our hostess, who was charming and friendly on the phone taking credit card numbers, was in person, indifferent to the point of rudeness. If you arrive late as we did, you will be first ignored, then scolded, and then watch in horror as she tersely makes previously-​seated guests move themselves and their plates and drinks to make room for your party. Seating is apparently neither prearranged or planned to accommodate expected attendees.
Add in crowded tables, cramped quarters making trips to the rest room uncomfortable if not impossible, noisy dinner guests who talk over the chef as he comes out to discuss courses and interminable time between courses and it makes your local diner look downright posh and inviting.
The coup-​de-​grace happened when I called a day later to make arrangements to retrieve an inadvertently forgotten gift and learned it had been thrown out in the trash.
Three words sum up the experience: Pretentious, parsimonious and paltry.

I took my husband here for a surprise on his birthday. I had no idea what to expect, except that it was on a farm. If you are looking for a different kind of dining experience — with incredible food — this might be for you. It’s a crapshoot who you sit with, so hopefully you will have good company at the large shared table. If you are 25, you might be bored out of your mind, but anyone in their late thirties or older will fit in. More than anything — the food was fabulous. The food was better than most restaurants I’ve ever eaten at/​. Really. It was that good. I live pretty far from here — so I don’t think I will be back often — but I will definitely return in the future. We still talk about the cauliflower garlic soup… and the sausage covered lamb. This was finer than fine dining — and it wasn’t pretentious or stuffy. Love the barn setting and how you pay via iPad right at the table!
PS. The people across from us didn’t tip AT ALL. I thought that was inappropriate since they had nothing but good things to say about the service and meal. It is a restaurant and they do serve you. If you can afford the $ 60/​person, you can afford to tip. Especially if you spend the whole evening talking about the «incredible new addition with slate fireplace» and how you spend the day sewing. You jackass. Yes, you.

(September 2010)
One of the most memorable, creative, and unique dining experiences I’ve ever had. Artful, educational, organic, and savored by all… so wonderful that it demands a significant occasion in order to be experienced again.

Let me start by saying that Will Gilson is a very talented chef.
If you don’t mind waiting 30 to 40 minutes between every 3 or four bites of food while sitting in a hot room full of sweaty people then check this place out! Unless you like touring a decaying and unkempt garden, don’t show up early to tour the grounds. If you’re hungry you’ll have to bring a sandwich because the portions are minuscule. Don’t worry if you don’t bring enough wine because you’ll have plenty of time for a trip to the local wine shop in between courses. It’s very sad because the food is great!

I was recently here for family wedding. The place was the perfect fit for the bride. The grounds are beautiful and the food was delicious. I am curious on what the place is like for their standard dinner service and am planning on coming back for that eventually.
The only drawback is that some of the staff seemed really awkward. That they were uncomfortable with such a large group (it was about 60 – 74 people).

Outstanding. Our first ever visit in June 2011 was amazing. The weather was lovely, the ambiance was delightful. The antique, rustic barn dining environment was so simple, it allowed the food to take the spotlight.
The food was simply perfect. I ate at Menton 6 months ago and this was equal to that experience in terms of food quality and creativity.
Book waaaaay in advance as it fills up 3 – 4 weeks ahead of time.
You can bet we will be back, probably every month (menu changes once a month) until we burn out on this new eatery.

This is fine dining at it’s best. has lovely gardens and terrace. Serves local meat and in season produce herbs and flowers come from on site gardens. totally gracious living.
Thank to Melissa B my Unilocal friend for pointing this out to me.
Its BYOB so bring some of your favorite wine and be sure to make a reservation. Open seasonally in warm months.