Alforno Restaurant and Pizzeria — Restaurant in Golden

We had an unfortunate experience while on vacation. Arrived around 8:45 pm for a late dinner (family of 5). Placed orders for burgers and drinks around 9 pm. Was told it would be a 40 minute wait at least. We were hungry, so asked if salads could come before burgers. Answer no, they come on the same plate. Also told our kids would get only 1 drink refill. Okay. At the time of ordering the restaurant was fairly busy but quickly emptied out. After over an hour of waiting, no one had checked on us or even offered drink refills, so I went to the bar to politely check if the food was on its way. When someone finally addressed me, I was asked to sit down. The burgers finally came around 9:15. Salads and sides came on separate plates after the burgers. A server came by to apologize for the wait and offer free dessert. As it was very late and we had plenty of food, I suggested a discount instead of dessert. I was told no. The kids got their one free drink refill. The cheeseburger ordered from the kids menu was overcooked and half of it was too hard and tough to eat. We were told it would be removed from the bill but nothing was offered in its place. After eating, it seemed the servers were avoiding us due to my request for a discount. Finally I sent my family to the car. Then the server came and asked if she could help me. I asked if I should except a bill? So she brought me a bill for the whole meal. I explained that we’d already been told the cheeseburger meal would be removed, and that I’d been offered dessert but declined in favour of a discount. I would be happy with 50%, and we had been there for a very long time (2 hours) and were eager to leave. She came back with a 25% discount. So we paid over $80 for a terrible experience. Management needs to be a lot less cheap and provide more training and support for staff. I feel that we could have had our salads brought out while we were waiting for our burgers, and given the extremely long wait time, drink refills and a free appetizer should have been offered. As well, a discount should have been readily and not grudgingly offered.

Edited to add reply to owner: I didn’t want to spend more energy on this review, but I need to correct some of the owners’ statements: We were told about the 40 minute wait after ordering our food, not before. Our food came within 90 minutes of our order, not 15. We did not order a Shirley Temple, nor did we get a free one. I mentioned the drink refills policy, not because I felt it was unfair, but because when customers are waiting longer than usual for food, it would be nice to relax the policy and offer a few soda refills during the wait. We did not receive 50% off our food order. We received 25% off our total bill. I have attached a photo...

This place had the trifecta: 1.Great Service 2.Great Location 3.Great Food

Travelling through Golden and staying at the adjacent hotel, we stopped by for an early supper at Alforno Restaurant and Pizzeria and immediately knew we'd be coming back in the evening for more. Our first time 'round we had a Hawaiian pizza and it was delicious! Our waitress, Gur, was super personable and polite, and made sure we had a high chair for our toddler, even outside on the patio.

When we came by later that night for a date night, we sat on the patio and watched the sunset on the mountain range view from the restaurant and it was amazing! Prabh served us in the evening and we had the best (I'm not over exaggerating here), the best lemon pepper wings I've had in my life.

I was really impressed by the service and overall experience here, we felt like we were repeat customers even though we were just passing through. They forewarned us that they were short staffed at the moment when we dined here but we didn't even notice, the staff here were top notch. I am going to make a point of coming back here on our...

Initially, when we contacted the restaurant, we felt rushed, particularly since we did not have access to a menu and had never ordered from them before.

Fortunately, we were able to locate the menu online. Despite the initial rush, we proceeded with our order, selecting the meat pizza and Greek salad. The "Mighty Meat" pizza was enjoyed by my husband, while I found it to be greasy and salty.

However, the Greek salad was not authentic, as it contained spinach instead of the traditional ingredients. Typically, I do not complain when restaurants modify Greek salads by adding lettuce, but in this case, I was expecting an authentic Greek salad. Furthermore, the salad was topped with tzatziki dressing, which is not traditionally used in Greek salads.

Authentic Greek dressing is typically a vinaigrette, and the addition of carrots and the absence of cucumber were notable. In conclusion, while the spinach salad with tzatziki dressing was pleasant, it did not meet my expectations for an authentic...