Meadowlark Kitchen

I had the pleasure of enjoying Meadowlark for dinner for a friend’s birthday.  She is very familiar with the place and goes quite often, so I was stoked when she said that is where we would be celebrating her birthday.

The place is quite small but they manage to fit a lot of people inside.  We wanted to be on the patio, but there was a private party already taking over the whole outside so we were seated right by the front door.

The table shared the Denver nuggets and the chips and dip.  Both were absolutely delicious. I really liked the dill sauce that came with the nuggets. It was the perfect amount of tangy. Brian went with the Meadowlark burger. That thing was HUGE! Oozing with cheddar sauce. It almost took over the burger, there was so much.  He said it was amazing and I don’t doubt it.  It looked phenomenal. I went with the BLT.  The best part about it was that it came loaded with candied bacon. When I say loaded, I mean loaded!  Fantastic food and drinks! The service was even better.  I felt like we were family.  The whole table was well taken care of, always refilling waters and cocktails. What a great place! I will be back for sure!

Henry’s Tavern

We were strolling down 16th Street Mall looking for a place to grab a drink.  I had remembered that Henry’s opened recently and we hadn’t checked it out yet. We walked in and sat at the bar. Immediately we were greeted by a bartender and handed the happy hour menu. Then it was like we disappeared. The bartender helped another couple that arrived after us sitting at a table. They ordered their drinks and received them before we were even looked at again. We sat their patiently waiting and watching as the bartenders kept walking past us.  I was starting to feel ignored. We were about 2 seconds away from getting up and leaving when the bartender finally circled back to us.  We ordered drinks and an appetizer. He put the app into the computer right away.  We sat there and waited, and waited for our drinks to be made.  He finally mentioned that someone had to get some liquor from the back, so we waited even more.  Our food arrived and we began eating.  We got a crab and avocado roll.  It was okay.  I would compare it closely to sushi you would get from King Soopers in the sushi section.  It wasn’t bad, just not worth the cost. We finally got our drinks.  I asked the bartender then for some napkins. He didn’t respond, so when he looked up again, I started to say it again. He cut me off and said, I know, you want napkins. As if I didn’t already feel like this was a bad experience, that topped the cake. We then asked for our tab.  Between the rudeness of Adam (the bartender) and the douchiness of other bartenders wearing sunglasses inside and running into you, I will not return. I wanted to like this place, but that was not a very good impression and I don’t want to waste my time or money on this establishment anymore.

 

Red Square Restaurant and Vodka Lounge

We were wandering around Mandalay looking for a place to grab a bite to eat and stopped in front of Red Square.  It looked very interesting and different compared to most cafes that you come across. We talked to the hostess for a bit on what she suggested and decided to sit at the bar. After glancing over the happy hour menu, we ordered some cocktails. The bartender handed us some drinks and started to take our food order. After trying my drink, I realized that it wasn’t what I ordered. Neither was my fiance’s.  The bartender apologized and made us the correct drinks and let us keep the original ones if we wanted them. The food that we ordered wasn’t much food.  The hostess suggested the meatballs.  I wouldn’t normally order meatballs at a restaurant, but since she talked so highly of them, we decided to go with it. Her suggestion was great! Everything else that we got was meh, but the meatballs are where it is at. Several large meatballs in a skillet topped with cheese were ready to be placed on some crunchy toasted bread.  It was delish! By far the best thing we had there.  Thank you hostess lady!!

 

Blue Sushi Sake Grill

Blue on 16th street is one of my favorite sushi restaurants out there, so I figured it was only a matter of time before I went to the South Glenn location. My fiance and I decided to stop by for lunch on Valentine’s Day for an excellent sushi lunch. We started with the blue balls and the tempura vegetables. Both are breaded in a light tempura covering. Then we moved on to the yellowtail serrano, which is my favorite. To top it all off, we ordered a couple of sushi rolls. This location is just as great as the 16th street restaurant. Great atmosphere, and friendly staff make the experience worth all come together.  Thanks Blue for always being so awesome!!

 

 

 

 

 

Hops and Pie in The Highlands

A coworker talks very highly of Hops and Pie, so I planned a dinner with a group of friends to hit this place up. They don’t take reservations on Saturdays, so we arrived about half an hour early to put our name in. We then went down the street to enjoy a cocktail while we waited.  The wait was almost 2 hours long before we got the call that our table was ready.  We walked in and the place was dead. Seemed a bit odd since our wait was so long. We were seated and ordered our drinks.  I had been so excited all day because I heard that Hops and Pie would have the collaboration beer between New Belgium and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I asked the server for it and he stated that they ran out a half hour before. That kind of upsetting since I had waited 2 hours to get seated. I picked another beer and focused on the pizza. I ordered a personal pizza with pepperoni, green bell peppers, tomatoes and roasted garlic chunks.  Sounds amazing right? Well, wrong.  The pizza was bland.  I was shocked since I heard great things about their pizza and beer. Overall, I would say this place is meh. I was not blown away, let alone impressed. I know of plenty other pizza places that have phenomenal pizza and I don’t have to wait hours to get in.

 

Ophelia’s Denver

My girlfriend’s and I are part of Bitches that Brunch Denver and are constantly trying new brunch spots.  We had heard about Ophelia’s and wanted to check it out.  We had an issue with seating right off the bat. All of their tables could really only accommodate a table of 4 and we had 6 girls. We had to all sit side by side, which made it difficult to have a conversation. They were playing a samurai type movie on the screen with a lot of blood shed and grossness.  Not exactly the type of movie you would like to see while eating. The server came over and took our drink and food orders. The specialty cocktails were very good. A little pricey, but well made.  I ordered the chicken and waffles served with slaw. It was interesting.  I felt it was pretty dry.  It had barely enough syrup to cover the chicken, leaving nothing for the dried waffles. I wasn’t impressed by the food and from what I could gather from everyone else, they weren’t either. We couldn’t find our server for another round of drinks, so our glasses sat empty. We were all done with our meal and ready to leave by the time he came back around, so we paid our bill and went elsewhere for drinks afterwards. I would maybe suggest this place for a show and drinks, but otherwise, I feel like it was a bust.

 

RA Sushi

First off, I am going to start this post by stating that RA needs to open a location in Denver.  I don’t understand why there are multiple locations throughout Tucson, AZ, but none in the whole state of Colorado.  With that being said, I absolutely love RA.  It is in my top 5 favorite sushi restaurants of all time. They have excellent service, great happy hour prices and amazing sushi.  I have taken someone who didn’t even like sushi to try RA,and they became a fan. Literally. Open one in Denver!!!

I always rant and rave about this place. I don’t think I can say enough great things.  This time, we stopped in to the Vegas location across from the Wynn Hotel. This location is a bit tough to get to, but well worth the trek. We ordered off the happy hour menu and really couldn’t decide, so we actually ordered entirely way too much food. We started with the calamari, which I had never had there.  It was lightly battered in tempura batter.  I would suggest getting this if you are sharing for a table of 4 or more.  The dish was a pretty large portion. It was good, but I am not sure if we would order it again based on the size. It is usually just my fiance and I.  Then we added the shishito peppers, which is one of my all time favs. We have ordered these at other restaurants and no one can replicate these to be anywhere near as great as RA. We then got the egg rolls and the gyoza. Both equally as tasty, just a ton of food. By that time, we should have stopped ordering, but, we needed to get some sushi.  Bring on the yellowtail! Yellowtail is my favorite fish and RA does it right. Soaking in ponzu sauce and topped with jalapenos, this dish will surely make your taste buds tingle. Top it off with more yellowtail and I was set for the day. I seriously just wish that they would open a location in Colorado.  The state will be very happy if they did.

 

Williams and Graham

Some friends were in town from Chicago and wanted to check out the now well known, Williams and Graham.  This place is basically a speakeasy. Located behind a bookcase and down some stairs, this extremely dark swanky place lies. I am glad I made a reservation based on the horrible reviews about the wait time. We arrived about 20 minutes early, so we walked next door to a bar called Occidental. After ordering our drinks, we found out that it was the soft opening of Occidental. We got our drinks, and one was the wrong drink from what we ordered. We asked the bartender to get us the correct drink, and he got a little huffy about it. Once we all got the correct drinks, we sat at a high top table to wait for our reservation next door. I sipped my vodka and diet coke. It was gross.  The soda was flat and the vodka tasted cheap. No one was happy with their drinks. For being a soft opening, they sure suck at wowing people. We finished the not so great drinks and headed next door to start our dinner.  We stood in the lobby for a few minutes and then were ushered into the restaurant. We were then asked to stand next to a bookcase while they got our table together. Isn’t that what we already did in the lobby by the hostess stand? A waitress came up and asked to take our drink order. I had heard that this place is well known for being able to come up with a concoction of a drink based on things that you like. For example if someone likes rum and watermelon, they would make something with both and the drink would be fantastic. I asked her what she would suggest with vodka and something sweet. She just pointed at a drink on the menu called the Vesper.  I told her I didn’t like Gin and she said I wouldn’t really be able to taste it. No other suggestions, just what was already in front of me on the menu.  I ordered it and figured, why not try it. We got our drinks and then our table was ready.  We sat down and began looking over the dinner menu.  I sipped my drink and it was harsh. Gin harsh. I wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I settled with the fact that I was going to have a bad first drink. Two of us ordered the steak. It was a sliced sirloin served with corn, garlic mashed potatoes and topped with onions. The other two ordered the scallops. Everything was cooked perfectly.  It was absolutely amazing food! I wouldn’t have had it any other way. After dinner we ordered another round of drinks. Different drinks. I figured I would go with what I know and got an extra dirty vodka martini. When it arrived, I seriously thought that I was finally going to get a good drink, but I was wrong. The dirty martini was served ‘their’ way with mint in it. Yuck. Again I chocked it down and paid my extremely high bill. Overall, I am very disappointed in this restaurant. I had heard so many great things about it, and I was let down. Even the service was pushing on average. I don’t think I will return.

 

 

The Hornet

The sun was shining and enjoying some patio time was on my mind. My girlfriends and I walked down Broadway and picked the Hornet to enjoy some grub and light cocktails. We were seated on the patio with a great view of people watching. We ordered some mimosas and began looking over the food menu. The waitress seemed to take forever bringing our drinks and finally taking our food order. I got the cheeseburger and fries. A friend got the lobster mac and cheese. The food arrived quickly, which was brought by someone else other than our waitress. My burger was bland. It was as if they didn’t season the beef at all and just threw it on the grill. I was a little disappointed.  My friend’s mac and cheese however, was legit! The lobster chunks were huge.  It was ozzing with cheese. I learned my lesson.  Next time, get the lobster mac and cheese. The waitress took her time coming to check on us, which at that time we wanted more drinks. She took the drink order and brought out the wrong ones. She seemed little distracted.  Other than her and the bad tasting burger, I would say this is a good place to check out for drinks.

 

North County in Lowry

Some friends invited us to join them for dinner and suggested we try North County. I looked over the menu and saw tacos.  I was sold. I love tacos!! We arrived and there was a bit of a wait, so we sat at the bar for a drink. I ordered a skinny margarita and Brian got the drunken burro which had homemade ginger beer, serrano pepper, ginger infused Absolut vodka, and mango puree.  Mine was mixed perfectly.  The drunken burro was a kick in the chest.  Felt like heart burn to me. I couldn’t handle drinking one of those. We were seated shortly after getting our drinks. The server was prompt and very helpful with recommendations. We started with a dozen oysters to split between the 4 of us.  I got the build your own tortilla soup and a chicken tinga taco. Brian got the carne asada fries and a fish taco. Our friends got salmon tacos and the duck quesadilla. Everyone was extremely happy with their choices. My build your own soup was creative and seasoned very well.  A tiny bit spicy, but not enough to make your mouth burn. The tinga taco however, was spicy and had a fantastic bite.  It was juicy and a hearty size for what I thought was going to be a street taco. Great service, excellent atmosphere and phenomenal food. I must go back to try other items on the menu. Great place! I love it!