Vineyards in Belmont, NH

My husband felt like having steak tonight so we searched online for any good steak houses near us. All of the chain restaurants came up and then we came upon a new restaurant named Vineyards in Belmont, NH. Their website looked pretty good, (http://www.eatvineyards.com/) so we decided to give it a try. The 25 minute drive up 93 took us past the Tilton outlets and Winnisquam Lake to a new strip mall in Belmont on Rt 3. The building seemed new and modern. When you walked through the doors you were greeted by prepackaged desserts ready to be served in 2 large cases with a small view of the busy kitchen area in between. The ambiance was warm and refreshing for that area. The decor was Italian vineyard themed with warm, rustic colors throughout. I was confused where the hostess area was until a woman finally came to greet us. She was a bit strange with a very busy patterned bright yellow and black dress on, white platform lace up sandals, and a cropped white sweater that may be from Old Navy's spring line. She took my name and spelled it incorrectly (of course) not asking me how to actually spell it, and told us the wait would only be 10 minutes. I think we actually only waited about 5.

We were seated in a nice booth on the right side of the dining room. The tabletop was smooth with a dark finished butcher block type pattern. The seats had a nice, rustic colored pattern and were high enough that you didn't see anyone else behind or next to you. There were fresh flowers in our booth. Our waitress was a nice girl who was prompt and polite. She asked us if we had been there before and we said no. She told us that they will be having a new menu soon and that some of the items are no longer available. The menus were well worn and didn't include a drink menu, which was surprising seeing as the name is Vineyards and you would think there would be quite a wine menu, but there wasn't. The specials were really well priced and sounded good. The waitress took our drink order and came back quickly, but not too quickly, so that we had time to decide what we wanted order. Not having a menu for the bar I just ordered water with lemon and my husband ordered Coke. The Coke was the good kind that tastes better than from a bottle because there is more syrup in it. I ordered the prime rib special, medium well, for $13 with mashed potatoes, broccoli and ranch dressing on my salad. My husband ordered the porterhouse for $23 with mashed potatoes, no veggies (god forbid he ate broccoli), and parmesan peppercorn for dressing on his salad.

After a few minutes the waitress came back with a family style salad, two great portions of salad dressing, warm buns, and a small plate with butter and garnish on it. We were really excited about the salad, there was a ton and it had great veggies in it like grape tomatoes, banana peppers, cucumbers, green peppers and great croutons. Both of dressings were really creamy and delicious. The buns were warm and delicious as well.

When the meals came out the waitress was not the one that had taken our order. She gave him my prime rib and me his plate. There was also a baked potato on his plate instead of mashed. The porterhouse was confusing to us because it had a t-bone in it. This could be correct, we're not really meat connoisseurs. The prime rib was a bit dry, but when I added au jous to the meat it was good. The mashed potatoes were delicious! There were bits of skin, just the right texture and great flavor. The broccoli was steamed well and was just right. His steak was very large and grilled well. The waitress came to check on us several times during our meal and was courteous. When the waitress came to check on us after we had finished she took our dishes and wrapped up the t-bone for Shelby. There was no dessert menu so she brought a tray with a couple of the dessert choices on it. They looked good, but we had our eye on the chocolate cake that was in the case when we entered the restaurant. We asked if there was any left and she said yes. Having seen it in the case I was a bit skeptical of it's moistness as it had already been cut and packaged up. When we got the cake the waitress had added some whipped cream dollops to the side and some powered sugar for decoration. I was right about the moistness. It was a little on the dry side. The frosting was nice and thick. It's not something I would order again.

Over all I would give it 3 stars out of 5. I'm sure we will go there again. It has a great location in between Winnisquam Lake and Lake Winnipesaukee. It's certainly a great addition in an area known for it's extremely tacky places like the Naswa, and the extremely outdated like Christmas Island. I bet there will be lines out the door during the busy summer months!!