8 Best Restaurants in Manchester, Southern Vermont

Originally a tiny bottle shop when it opened in 2017, the cozy beer-and-wine bar now has an excellent restaurant, a weekend morning café, and spacious summertime backyard serving wood-fired pizzas. It's a destination for hyperlocal drafts, seasonal small plates, and brimming Vermont cheese boards, plus a thoughtful stock of unique ciders and natural wines to go.

May and Wes Stannard opened this counter-service spot in 2018, spotlighting May's native Burmese cooking in Wes's childhood hometown. In one of the best stops for Burmese fare on the East Coast, you'll find vibrant noodle bowls like nan gyi thoke (thick round rice noodles with chicken curry), fermented tea leaf salad, and "Burma Bowls" with sprouted peas and chicken curry.

Husband-and-wife team Mark and Melody French spent years in Puerto Rico absorbing the flavors of the island that are reflected in their eclectic international menu. In 2020, the couple moved their restaurant from Main Street into the newly renovated, 123-year-old Skinner Library, fashioning a bartop from the 1897 wooden shelving. Reserve a table ahead of time, or sit at the bar for a casual and romantic dinner with a maple martini or a bottle from the impressive wine list.

Traditional güveç pots aren't the only elaborate housewares at this Turkish restaurant, which consists of tables in the middle of a high-end antique showroom. The wood-fired oven yields masterful results—and piping hot pide (a flatbread)—making this a great place for lunch or a satisfying dinner.

This classic French restaurant is tucked in a grotto on the climb to Bromley Mountain. The two dining rooms are perched over the Bromley Brook, and at night a small waterfall is magically illuminated—ask for a window table.

The dining room at this luxurious inn is a large, modern space where rich woods and high ceilings meld into a kind of "nouveau Vermont" aesthetic. The contemporary American cuisine emphasizes farm-to-table ingredients and has earned the restaurant "Gold Barn" honors from the Vermont Fresh Network.

Home of the World Famous Mrs. Murphy's Donuts, this beloved shop turns out fresh doughnuts daily from its small storefront. Old-fashioned doughnuts come hot from the fryer in the wee hours of the morning, so arrive early for the best selection of flavors like cinnamon, maple cream, and cakey cider doughnuts loaded with warming spices.

This circa-1790 Colonial inn dishes up Yankee favorites along with plenty of New England charm, made all the more intimate by the candlelight. Elk and venison share the menu with good-ol' pot roast and cheddar-and-ale onion soup.