Big Jay Tavern

Probably the best apres ski location at Jay Peak — but it requires you to do something ski resorts hate for you to do: VENTURE OUT! Just a quick drive down VT-​242 eastward nets major rewards, great restaurants, bars and B&Bs. And the first one you hit is the Big Jay Tavern. The décor reminds you of a European ski lodge, complete with huge fireplace and long bench or table seating. The food is a wide menu of different types of food, most with a distinctive touch of Greece. The Braised Leg of Lamb ‘Youvetsi’ with Orzo was wonderful, and we appreciate that you can order a half-​entrée for those times you’re not famished. Great place — don’t miss it when you’re skiing at Jay!

great food after ski spot, the quality is consistant they change the menu all the time never disappoints and that is after i had a over cooked steak that was the only so so experiance i had, going back tonight :)

Just waited an hour and 10 minutes for 3 burgers and an appetizer of poutine. Food was great, the waitress avoided all eye contact whenever possible. I’ll never go there again. Sorry, hire new (and more) waiting staff. The building is not very big, and there were not that many people there.

I have to start off by saying this restaurant is within 5 miles of Jay Peak Ski Resort. We have been up to the resort from out of state several times in the past few years and we were excited to be up with our family, trying a new restaurant.
We were seated at 5:45PM at a table and started by ordering drinks. Our waiter, Gar, was personable– he took our drink orders and delivered within 5 minutes. We placed our food orders– multiple orders of the same types of wings, two pizzas, a burger with fries, two sandwiches with fries, and an order of Mac and cheese.
By 6:30PM, we were beginning to get antsy. Gar, our temporarily absent waiter, was back to get refills of drinks. We began to notice other tables that had arrived after us getting meals we had ordered.
Finally, the pizzas and a single order of wings arrived. This meant that 2 of our party of 7 was able to eat their meals. When we asked about the rest of the food, our waiter told us that our order had «backed up the kitchen» and walked away briskly. This was pretty confusing, given that the restaurant was next to empty when we arrived and ordered food.
At 7:05PM, when no other food had arrived, I approached Gar, who seemed to have been avoiding contact with our table. I informed him that, while the pizza and the few wings we had received was quite good, our group was growing impatient and if we did not receive our food soon, we would be forced to take our business elsewhere. Without missing a beat, Gar insisted it was on its way.
The food finally came out at 7:20PM, almost 2 hours after placing the order. One of the members of our group with very specific dietary restrictions, however, had not received her wrap. The burger in our group was burned to a crisp on the outside and partially raw on the inside.
Eventually, we gave up and asked for the bill, paying $ 97.52 for our meals and drinks, after the Caesar wrap and burger had been taken off the bill. It was only on the delivery of the bill to our table that it even occurred to Gar to apologize.
I have never had such an expensive, disappointing dining experience. I’ve never provided feedback like this, but I feel compelled to do so. I can see this being an excellent location for (not-​so-​quick) drinks, but do yourself a favor and do not order food of any kind until the service improves. This place has such great potential and I really hope things get better.

Oy. We were excited when we walked in — busy, good vibe. Then we sat ignored at the bar for 15 min. Then we had to ask again for menus. Then after we ordered, it was 40 minutes until someone came out to tell us one of the entrees we ordered was out. We still don’t have our salad. And our drinks (and everyone else’s at the bar) have been empty for 15 minutes. Worst part is, bartender turned down help from someone else on staff at one point.

We hosted a rehearsal dinner at Big Jay Tavern, in August, and couldn’t have been happier with the evening. Nelson and his crew did a fantastic job! Appetizers, salad, dinner and dessert were delicious and the drinks were, too. The bride and groom had a great time and returned the night after their wedding with twenty friends. We’re glad we chose Big Jay Tavern for our special event.

Food was good, service was great. We had the special chicken wing apps. My husband had a burger and he loved the bun. I had mousakka that was a bit watery but the tzazaki was terrific.

We live a little over an hour away, but recently have needed to go to Montgomery on a weekly basis, so we started checking out the local food scene when there. Their website claims they are open at 4pm, but the first time we went they were clearly closed at 4:30. So we tried again on our next trip at a later time, and found they were open but the place was dead. Outside of a regular at the bar, we were the only customers at 7pm. However, not much later three other couples came in, so we didn’t feel quite so conspicuous. The atmosphere is the very typical bar scene, but with the nice option of very long family-​style seating if you have a group. The other tables are high tops, so be prepared to sit on a stool or share you bench with a stranger.
The first thing to note is just as other reviews have said — do not expect to get in and out with a quick meal. Even with under 10 customers in the place, my boyfriend and I found we had a lot of handholding time sitting across from one another as we waited on our appetizer and then our entrees.
For the food — it was mixed. They had 50 cent wings that night and we decided to try the Thai wings. I didn’t really taste Thai so much as a hot sauce (maybe Siracha) sprinkled with chopped peanuts. They were good, just not screaming Thai to me. They were also a bit small — those chickens needed to put a little more meat on their bones! Boyfriend had a small pizza (sausage with mushrooms) and said the pizza was okay, but not worth repeating. He said the super thin crust was nice and crispy, but had a texture more like a Matza cracker and just about as much flavor. Then again, my guy is a pizza guy and may be pickier than most. On the other hand, I had the moussaka. Correction: I had the amazing, smoky, sweet and spicy dreamy heaven moussaka. It was not the standard layered casserole, more done as stuffed rolled eggplant slices. Then the sauce was generously poured over the top. Oh there was definitely an issue with either their supplier or their kitchen preparation, as we were clearly the «early crowd» and yet were told they only had a single burger that night and the leg of lamb (foundation for three different dishes) was not finished cooking.

We had dinner here during a 5-​day snowboarding trip.
Highlights:
— food is very good. The lamb meatball sliders are a must! My wife and daughter really liked the warm spinach salad, although they were skimpy with the portobello. I had the trout, which was cooked very well and sides were delicious. My son and daughter split the hanger steak, but they loved it so much we should have ordered 2.
Lowlights:
— service was so slow.
— other comments about noise is spot on. There was a loud woman with 2 families that had such a big mouth, and the acoustics made it worse (although she would have been bad even if the acoustics were better).

Third visit. First weeknight. All very good visits. Thai specials are great. Wings are awesome. Nice gourmet flare and not your typical styles. And the burgers are local from Braults and delicious.

We went there after a day of skiing at Jay Peak. It was Greek night which was good for us since we are Greek. We had excellent spinach pies. The kids had good meals and the adults did as well. The service was excellent. The atmosphere was fun. It was a nice restaurant for a small Vermont town. We definitely would go back.

Went here last weekend for dinner and they were very accommodating for my party of 8. They allowed us to make a reservation over the phone and the table was ready when we arrived. The sliders appetizer was so good I could eat it everyday! Four of us had the lamb wrap for dinner and it was out-​of-​this-​world delicious! I’ve been to many Greek/​Turkish restaurants in the NY/​NJ area and Big Jay Tavern has them all beat! The only downside was many of their items in the menu were sold out by the time we got there at 8pm. I will definitely be back next time I’m up at Jay Peak.

Big Jay tavern bar/​restaurant is a must after a long day of skiing in Jay. We started off with some switchback beers which I highly recommend. We then moved on to the soup and pilenta soup. No complaints here, everything was great! But then the worst thing happened to us… we were still hungry so we decided to order burgers after we watched about 20 other people order burgers and fries. We called over the waitress and order a burger and fries. She later came back and told us they ran out of burgers. Are you f*cking kidding me, I thought how do you possibly run out of burgers at a place like this. I almost got up and stole one of the kids eating one in front of me. But then we order the sausage pizza and it was delicious. The chef is awesome and everything is fresh. Highly recommend sitting at the long table! Also recommend a couple ski shots if you like that kinda thing just make sure you don’t have to ski home

By far my favorite place to eat and hang out when I am at Jay Peak!
Nelson never ceases to amaze me with his dishes. The menu is very diverse and well thought out. His burgers even come on a home made English muffin! There are always great specials and deals available! The $ 5 sandwich menu is my absolute favorite. Everything is very well priced and the proportions are perfect.
They have truly created a wonderful environment to eat, relax, and hang out with friends from the mountain. Nelson and Johanna are very welcoming wonderful people. They bring in great live music on the weekends, we always make an evening of it when we head over the hill. The great atmosphere is the icing on the cake!
If you are going to stop by I recommend taking your time to hang out! And for big groups there are two very large family style tables which are wonderful to sit at with friends. Small group? Sit there anyways and you will be friends with the other people at your table by the end of the night!

Found the ticket times to be excessively slow. Prob took 25 min to get my poutine appetizer, and it didn’t look the same as another order that I saw pass by (which looked better)…so the consistency was off. Got the fried chicken special (after close to 1 hour after ordering). Everything was mediocre except the cornbread, which was inedible. Expected more out of this place based on the high ratings. Had live music which was nice, and the waitress was funny. Would possibly go back, but would try other places first.

I really wanted to like this place, but my first visit for dinner will probably be my last. Why you ask… Ssssllllllloooooowwwwwww food service and then the waitress just basically ignores you for 2 hours after taking our order. Yup, an hour for our appetizers and then an hour for our entrée! Food was okay but if you are going to call yourself an après ski place, you should know that folks are going to be tired and thirsty!!! Is the kitchen is going to slow with pushing out the food, the wait staff should at least make sure there are enough drinks at all times!!!

A local treasure, founded by chef Nelson Cognac who ran several restaurants in Boston. A wonderful kitchen with some great local taps to boot. I had a lamb stew that was out of this world and my wife had a stellar braised trout. Highly recommended.

Great comfort food from Greek, pizza, and burgers they have something for everyone and very tasty.

We came here for an early dinner having looked it up from the resort.
The interior is very nice and very welcoming.
I got a beer that I didn’t like but still drank it; I won’t blame the beer for my tastebuds haha. My wife got one of the $ 5 dollar martinis.
Our waitress ((I forget her name– sorry)) but was very good. She answered our questions without issue and also helped me alter my meal as I wasn’t a big fan of greek salad ((what the lamb leg)) came on. We ordered the Polenta soup and a bread basket for starters and also decided to get a hunk of cheddar that came with someform of chipish bread
The cheese and chips were good and the breakbasket was farm with great flavor. The polenta soup was OK I think it could use a little more salt but dipping the bread in there was a hit.
My wife ordered the taco’s– as it was taco night. They were really good the flavor was there without being overpowering and her mashed potatoes were all very flavorful.
I got the leg of lamb over a bed of rice pilaf with tatiziki sauce. The lamb was a bit over-​cooked but still very tender and with great flavor.
We finished with their Crème Brulee trio of Pumpkin, Maple and Vanilla; while the Brulee hadn’t fully set the flavors were great. Our least favorite was perhaps the Vanilla but we definitely ate it all.
If I am ever in the Jay Peak area again I will be checking this restaurant out again. Also since I forgot above– my wife’s martini was really good ((5 dollar martinis with 2 dollar tacos on Thursday nights))

Great menu, great beers, great space. Psyched to have this off-​mountain option close to Jay.