Kerby R.
Yelp
This is a conflicted review. I hate to cast shade on a place that's been open less than a month. But The Hunton has been conceived of and implemented by a team from other successful local venues, so there should be less room for error and a better first impression.
Let's get this out of the way right now. It's overpriced. By a LOT. The ambiance is nice, the service is attentive, the menu is credible, and the bar is capable. But for the same price, you won't leave feeling like it was a magical night at the Inn at Little Washington. You can get a similar visual experience at Lightfoot and arguably a better dining experience at Tuskies.
On the plus side, flavor-wise, the appetizer choices were pretty good. The beet salad was universally regaled by the beet lovers at the table. The hushpuppies, while a bit non-traditional, were tender, tasty, and served with a nice herbed butter. Forego the expensive "bread and butter", which for $12 was a small baguette with some grill marks, a quenelle of butter, and a splutch of goat cheese. Petrossian caviar made a surprise appearance on the menu, but at $130, you'd better be seriously into fish eggs.
Cocktails were serviceable, with some unique menu choices, but all were basically some tinge of pink and fruit and a weirdly shaped glass. Most were in the $15 range. Small beer selection, bigger wine selection, but it the menu prices made avoiding the wine list a must to avoid a home equity loan or a lengthy tenure as indentured dishwashers.
For entrees, let's start with the baseline metric of the burger. Even though 5 Guys has done a great job of elevating pricing expectations for a burger, $28 for a basic hamburger is crazy. I better be getting ethically sourced unicorn meat for that price. And $14 for sides would be $42 for a burger and fries. Every other great burger in town is half that. Brioche bun with a reasonable patty, some caramelized onions, and some melted Fontina cheese. And don't get me started on the default side, "house made chips", which were a half-plate full of potato shrapnel which might have been chips before getting crumbled to dust and heaped on the blank space on the plate.
Other dinner choices around the table included a whole trout (arguably the best price/performance ratio), salmon (a single slab on an empty plate in the $40s), saffron risotto (with gold leaf), and the "Game Pie." The latter was a frighteningly tepid, watery broth with some gristly chunks of venison and some cubed carrots and (maybe) parsnips or potatoes. While the taste was OK (mostly rosemary), this dish was an insult (thankfully comped after a sidebar with the waiter) as it was nowhere near "stew" in consistency, the temperature was literally room temperature or less, and the puff pastry on top made it impossible to get into without involving fingers and hands.
Now on to a few more plusses and minuses to round out the evening. The service by the waitstaff was professional and friendly. But the table setting and food delivery needs a lot of work. Plunking down a knife and a fork in front of each diner, on a bare table with no linens, no charger, no centerpieces, and no condiments (oil, salt, pepper, etc.) made for a decidedly Spartan tablescape. For the prices, there could at least be table cloths or place mats and a place setting ready for guest when seated, rather than delivered long after orders were placed.
Oddly, the food delivery involved a cast of many hands, with a food runner for each plate and a maitre'd like overseer who provided a recap of the menu, with less accuracy and detail than the actual menu. Plates were presented to the wrong guests, food "explanations" were skipped, and it just seemed awkward. I know this improves with practice, but it was a bit cringy in its attempt.
In short, if you are actually staying in the Hotel Burg with an expense account for dinner, you will enjoy the dinner far more than the in-hotel dining at any place within a 25 mile radius. If you are from the local area looking for a "fancy" dinner and are more impressed with visuals over style and cuisine, you'll like it. If you think this is a place to have a repeatable date night out, you might need to wait and see if The Hunton recalibrates the menu, prices, and presentation before sinking too much into recurring visits.
