A plate of prime rib with mashed potatoes, au jus and horseradish cream sauce sets the tone at Windjammer: this is a place where dinner can be a proper occasion. In South Burlington, the large restaurant and its livelier Upper Deck Pub offer two noticeably different ways to spend an evening under one roof.
A couple can settle into the main restaurant for steaks, seafood and warm rolls with butter at the table. A group can gather at the bar, take over a booth, order pub food and cocktails, or make an event of a birthday or graduation dinner. The setting has enough moving parts to suit a range of plans without making everyone order from the same narrow playbook.
The scale is useful. There are indoor dining areas, booths, a bar area and an outdoor patio or terrace, along with the separate pub atmosphere upstairs. The decor is visually distinctive rather than stripped-down, giving the restaurant side more personality than a generic hotel-adjacent dining room.
A menu built for serious dinner orders
Steak and seafood are the center of gravity. Prime rib, filet mignon, boneless ribeye and a 14-ounce New York strip have all appeared among the choices, giving a steak-minded table several directions to go. A full steak dinner can be kept classic with creamed spinach or loaded mashed potatoes on the side.
Seafood is not an afterthought here. Fresh oysters can make a fine opening move, and the menu has included bacon-wrapped scallops, crab cakes, shrimp dishes and fried calamari. Lobstercargot, one of the restaurant’s more memorable-sounding specialties, is the order that tends to prompt a second look at the menu.
That range helps at a table where not everyone wants the same sort of meal. Chicken, salads, sandwiches, appetizers, sides and desserts give a mixed group plenty of room to order comfortably. A Statler chicken entrée and a filet special have made appearances alongside the more expected steakhouse selections.
Small plates with enough character to share
The bacon-wrapped scallops are more than a quick seafood appetizer. They have been served with crispy Brussels sprouts, bacon and a glaze, creating the sort of sweet-savory plate that can disappear quickly once it lands in the middle of a table.
Crab cakes and calamari provide familiar choices for a first round, while oysters offer a cleaner, more direct route into dinner. Warm bread and butter at the table keep the early minutes from feeling like a wait for the main event.
Even the vegetable-forward order has some substance. A vegetarian entrée has featured portobello mushroom baked in pastry, with carrots and a red-wine sauce. It is a notably more composed option than the token pasta or salad often handed to the lone vegetarian in a steak-and-seafood restaurant.
Salads, sandwiches and an easygoing pub side
Windjammer is broad enough that a visit does not have to become a long steakhouse dinner. Salad choices have included an Asian salad with shrimp and a harvest salad with chicken, both useful for someone looking for a lighter meal without abandoning the table’s dinner plans.
The Upper Deck Pub handles the casual end of the equation. Nachos and wings are especially popular choices there, fitting the pub’s social, high-energy mood. It works well for a drink and snacks before dinner, but it can also be the whole outing if the group is after something looser than a seated entrée.
The pub attracts a mix of business diners, professionals, vacationers and local groups, which gives it a busier rhythm than the main dining room. It can be loud and crowded during active periods, so it suits conversation with a little background buzz better than an especially hushed meal.
Cocktails beyond the standard steakhouse pour
The bar menu has enough personality to reward lingering over a first drink. A Maple Manhattan puts a Vermont-friendly note on a familiar classic, while a Bee’s Knees brings the gin-and-lemon side of the list into play.
Names such as Total Eclipse of the Art add some fun to the cocktail selection, and featured cocktails rotate. That changing piece of the menu makes the bar a reasonable stop even for someone who has already picked a reliable dinner favorite.
A drink in the bar or pub before moving to the dining room is an easy way to use the venue’s different spaces. The transition also makes sense for a larger party: people can arrive, get settled and visit before the full meal begins.
Save room for the last course
Dessert can go traditional with crème brûlée, or a table can sample more widely with a dessert trio. Raspberry donut cheesecake is the more playful choice, carrying a little bakery-case spirit into a meal otherwise dominated by steaks, sauces and seafood.
The extensive menu also makes a later takeout order plausible. Salads and entrées have traveled well enough to turn up as a hotel-room snack after dinner, a handy option when a meal begins with drinks and appetizers but the appetite does not quite line up with the evening’s schedule.
Comfortable for two, capable with a crowd
Windjammer has room to shift gears. The main restaurant can accommodate a quieter dinner for two, while the larger operation has handled graduations, birthdays and multiple sizable parties in the same service. That is a meaningful advantage when the guest list includes both people who want a composed dinner and people who want to make a night of it.
The many menu lanes help with celebrations. One person can order oysters and a filet, another can choose chicken or a salad, and the pub-food crowd is not left looking at a single token appetizer. Shared starters and desserts make the table feel communal without forcing everyone into a fixed format.
Dinner service can grow busier as the evening goes on. Early dinner has at times been easier for seating, while both the main dining room and Upper Deck Pub can fill later. Reservations are worth considering for dinner plans, particularly when the table is large or the occasion matters.
The practical side of a large night out
A free parking lot with plentiful parking removes one of the usual irritations of a group dinner. It is a small convenience, but a welcome one when several cars are arriving for a celebration or when a pub stop turns into a full meal.
The choice of seating is nearly as important as the menu. Booths and the dining room fit a more settled dinner; the bar is useful for an informal meet-up; and the patio or terrace offers another setting when it is available. The Upper Deck Pub is the place to choose when a lively crowd is part of the plan.
For a restaurant with steaks, oysters, cocktails, pub wings, pastry-wrapped portobello and raspberry donut cheesecake all in its orbit, Windjammer makes it unusually easy for a group to let the evening unfold in its own direction.