Element 47 — Restaurant in Aspen

It's really more 3.5 stars.

American wagyu is my favorite variety of beef, A5 kobe seems more like beef flavored butter, so I was naturally excited that wagyu was so prominently featured. The service, wine selection, and atmosphere are great. Exactly what I wanted for an early Christmas dinner with my fiancee. Unfortunately the food was rather confusing. Perhaps it is because it was a limited menu because of Covid-19 however the direction of the dishes were incoherent. Almost every component was good on its own, but they didn't work well together.

Greetings We were served with an amuse bouche of butternut squash and apple jam, which was a great way to start. It opened up the palate and made us excited for dinner. The Parker house rolls with flaky salt was good, but my first hint that perhaps this menu will be too salty.

Firsts We both opted for the Wagyu tartare. It was great, until you add the Parmesan crisp which completely over powers everything. I wasn't sure of the purpose, especially the side basket of extra crisps.

Seconds The Wagyu short rib is an odd mix of sweet sauce, (overly) salty vegetables, and savory short rib and spatzle. I wouldn't fault this except none of them paired well together and the trio was cacophonous. The duck confit gnocchi was good, but the sauce was salty to the point where I wonder if it isn't the same sauce as previous night's sauce that just kept simmering.

Mains The dry aged Rohan duck with apple, spinach, and carrots was good with a sweeter than I would have preferred puree accompaniment, but perhaps the cooking method needs to be altered because there was a smell of wild game before you taste it. If you could get past that then it was a pleasant dish. The Emma farms Wagyu was paired with a confusing pomme pont neuf (really, a single potato made rectangular by cutting the sides off? That's food prep, not something that's served). The Maitake mushrooms were very good as were the roasted vegetables, but this was all paired with an again overly salted sauce (demi-glace?). This was honestly hard to figure out.

Desserts The chocolate+hazelnut was very good and easily my favorite course. The lemon meringue again was also good, but why was it so huge? A quarter slice of an 8" tart is more than enough, why would you serve half a tart?

Mignardise OK this ruined what I thought were great desserts. A white chocolate chip with pistachio, dark chocolate, and black cherry served on a bed of powdered sugar. Why? This was unpleasantly sweet, very tart, and nutty in a pleasant way but one right does not fix the bite.

I don't know if the quality issue is because of Covid. This restaurant clearly has potential, but tonight it...

Like many of the "5 Star" restaurants in this town, it seems that Element 47 has joined the competition to see how much they can charge, while providing as little as possible.

My wife and I stayed at the Little Nell, and naturally all of the staff here were highly recommending Element 47. They love to tell you that element 47 is a "Michelin Recommended" restaurant, which actually just means that they do not have a Michelin star - however, their prices sure do make you think they should.

To preface this review, I fully understand that this is a resort town, and a restaurant inside of an expensive hotel, so a slight increase in pricing is to be expected. I have no problem paying premium prices for premium offerings, but when they do not align, I take great offense.

We started our evening with two drinks. A glass of wine from the standard menu, and an old fashioned. The wine was an 8oz pour of Evesham Wood Pinot Noir. This is a $25 bottle of wine, and Element 47 charges $30 per glass. The old fashioned was made with Angels Envy Bourbon, and they charged $36 for it. Ridiculous

The appetizer we selected was the Fall Squash soup. The portion is not even enough to fill a soup ladle, and no better than any canned squash soup that you can buy at a grocery store. $30.

Next up were our entrees. My wife selected the Ravioli Alla Carbonara. 4 tiny ravioli's at the bottom of a bowl, with a drizzle of sauce. Not enough food for a small child, let alone a grown woman. The dish was cold, the bacon was raw, and quite bland. $36.

I chose the Antelope Loin. 3 tiny pieces of nearly raw, cold tenderloin that combined were not more than 4oz. This dish is served with what they call Ricotta Spaetzle, but much more closely resembled a handful of Corn Nuts from your local gas station snack bag. 3 tiny dots of cranberry puree, that wouldn't even fill a tablespoon. $65.

We also shared a side of vegetables, the Beet Carpaccio. You expect a bowl or plate of beets, but instead are served a few paper thin shavings of beet, and a tablespoon of Creme Fraiche.

All in, maybe $50 of Ingredients (being very generous with that number) and our bill with tip was $300. We left hungry and disappointed, and went to City Market afterwards to get some fruit and nuts.

If you are hungry, avoid this restaurant at all costs. Regardless of the price, there is no value in what we were served, and the quality was mediocre at best. Fancy presentations and attentive service do not excuse providing a satisfying meal (especially at these prices). The owner and head chef should be ashamed...

My husband LOVED his food (ordered the 'indulgence') and I liked mine quite a bit, but the service was unacceptable for the amount of money it costs to patronize this restaurant:

1. We had two waiters, one who was clearly in training and simply not ready to be a waiter. He couldn't recommend a cocktail (because he wasn't of age) or tell me what cut of lamb I was ordering. When he brought out our cocktails, he announced the name of the mocktail I had ordered while placing my husband's drink in front of me; then announced the name of the alcoholic drink my husband had ordered while placing my non-alcoholic drink in front of my husband. We figured this out after talking a sip of our drinks, but I'm pregnant and definitely was trying my best to avoid alcohol. I had indicated to the lead waiter that I was pregnant when asked about food allergies earlier on, so all was out in the open.

2. The lead waiter informed us that it would be solely his responsibility if anything went wrong with our service, but this doesn't make for a good idea experience when the tasks are being juggled between both waiters and we're focused on enjoying our meal rather than providing feedback about an employee-in-training. This dual act also resulted in us getting asked the same questions multiple times, such as what we'd like to drink, whether we had any food allergies, etc.

3. The table next to us had an awkward situation where the cheese-less burger they ordered showed up with cheese, they sent it back, and then the kitchen scraped off the cheese and sent it back to the table. Definitely not appropriate for a fine-dining establishment, and the reason they requested no cheese was due to lactose intolerance...

4. While we were planning on a long, several course meal, it was too slow. We didn't get our drinks until at least 25 minutes in, and when it came time for dessert, the lead waiter let me know that it would be 13+ minutes more since I ordered a souffle. I had ordered the souffle 2 hours prior when putting in my entire prix fixe selection, so this excuse didn't really work for me.

Again, the food was tasty. But the service left quite a bit to be desired -- especially for the...