Denise H.
Yelp
So this is a difficult one for me. I'm a HUGE Top Chef fan and put this restaurant on my "must do" when I visited my son in Colorado Springs because the owner was an alumnus. I wanted to really love it!
Parking: Only street parking, we parked several blocks away on a Sunday night.
Interior: Warm to Dark colors, plenty of seating and a full bar.
Service: Absolutely fantastic - 5* experience! The hostess was pleasant and welcoming. The bartender came over and answered questions about a few drinks and even brought over a sample of Chartreuse - who knew of this liquor? Not I. Really liked it so ordered the cocktail with this in it - see Drinks below for words on it. Finally our waiter was superb. Discussed the menu, the 4 course prefix menu and the alternate 7 course tasting. He was amiable, with genuine smiles throughout the evening.
Food: This is where I am torn. We opted for the 7 course tasting at $125. Look if the food is excellent, then the money is a non issue, but the dishes were hit and miss - from outstanding, to mid, to disappointing.
* 1st course: jalapeno poppers - it was mid, the inside was creamy but cool inside, we were confused by the temperature.
* 2nd course: a story of fennel - fantastic, my son's favorite course of the evening and my 2nd favorite. The scallop was perfect but everything on the plate was delicious and was memorable - made me like fennel (which I normally don't)
*3rd course: marinated melon salad - why? The worst and biggest disappointment - no flavor, boring, we just looked at each other baffled.
*4th course: Summer Chowder - good. At first bite I had a vinegary hit which I did not like BUT each subsequent bite added something interesting each time. I think we maybe should have mixed the chowder first? Like I said, interesting.
*5th course: steelhead trout - it was supposed to be duck, but they were out. It was ok, weird piece of flat bread underneath? When my son and I discussed the courses from memory, this was the one we couldn't remember.
*6th course: NY Strip - excellent in my opinion, wonderful flavor when you took a bite of everything together. My son thought it was too oily.
*7th course: Serrano lime pie - good. Our waiter discussed the evolution of the heat in this dessert - we barely got any heat, so maybe they cut it back too far?
Drinks: Restoration Ten Eighty Four - this is the cocktail with the Chartreuse the bartender allowed me to sample, however, something smoky in the drink (mescal perhaps) overpowered everything else! Disappointed. Re-emergence that my son had was good, you could get the banana with citrus coming through.
Overall the service took this to 4 Star. Not sure we would go again but would encourage you to try it but perhaps not the 7 course tasting.