Garden + Grain Seasonal Kitchen — Restaurant in Aurora

This place was astoundingly bad, worst food I’ve had in Colorado yet. TLDR: the service was terrible, wait was LONG, and the food was bland with miscellaneous chicken parts in it.

Garden + Grain Seasonal Kitchen looks like a quant healthy option at the Gaylord Rockies Resort, but looks can be deceiving. We had a two hour wait for our table (granted it was a table of 10). Finally when we were seated, the menu looked promising and the service had a great start as our drink orders were put in right away. Then came the wait. It was about a 35 minute wait for our drinks to come in, no check ins from the waitstaff or apologies. Only a few cocktails and simple beers and wines were ordered, in a dining room that wasn’t at full capacity. Our food was ordered before the drinks came in.

Then was the wait for the food, another 30 minutes. Our food came in an hour and 10 minutes after we were seated, and between drinks and food coming in, no one checked on us. We felt that our waitress was avoiding our table, she came by once to sheepishly ask if everything was okay, and before a response from the table came. She answered her own question “good?” and then scampered away. It would’ve been appreciated if she asked for another round of drinks, as most of our drinks were finished way before the food ever arrived. Or offered some light appetizers or bread to tie us over for the food to arrive.

Most of our table have been working all day at a conference so we were hungry, and our food finally arrived at 9:40, again, an hour and 10 minutes after we got seated. I ordered the mushroom risotto and added chicken to it, my partner ordered the pizza of the day which was a meat lovers pizza. The risotto was lukewarm, and clumpy, yet somehow the mushrooms were undercooked and still very earthy tasting. The risotto was severely under-seasoned, and I had to add copious amounts of salt and pepper to make it edible. On top of that there were spare chicken parts in the risotto. I pulled out an inch long chicken keel (breastbone) cartilage out of my mouth, disgusting. There was also another 3/4 inch large piece of fat and a bone fragment in my chicken risotto. If I am paying 40$ for a risotto, it should not be under and overcooked at the same time with spare chicken parts and a huge lack of seasoning.

The pizza was alright, it looked like it came out of the Target freezer section, but nonetheless edible. Another person on our table ordered the same pizza, and it came out 10 minutes later than everyone else due to some kitchen issues. The pizza looked completely different than my partner’s for some reason. The cheese was dolloped (almost looked like a different cheese) on his but evenly spread on my partner’s pizza. Strange that the same pizza lacked consistency.

We had a 20% tip automatically added to the bill. Just because the servers are getting their check on a large bill no matter what, doesn’t mean that the service needs to be lacking. Overall, the service was unacceptable, a local Chili’s would’ve checked on us more; mind you this restaurant is rated 4.8 stars. And our server had the audacity to ask us to vote for her as the best server in an in house competition. I wish we could give her negative points.

This place was so bad that it earned my first Google review, this place is a waste of money and calories. McDonald’s would have given me a better experience. I wish I could give it less...

We went around 9am on a Saturday morning and the place was not very busy. I have some mixed feelings about this restaurant. This restaurant is very niché, and if it’s not your type of food you probably aren’t going to be very satisfied. With that said it is not the type of food I am looking for for breakfast, but it is where my family wanted to eat. So this is where we ate.

Like I said the restaurant was not very busy, and it felt like the kitchen responded in kind with taking a while to get our food out to us. I will say this restaurant shares a wall (and I assume kitchen) with a much busier restaurant. It may be that even though this restaurant was not very busy the kitchen may have been backed up by orders from the other restaurant. Either way, I felt the food we ordered should have come out quicker.

If you are looking for a traditional breakfast place (egg choices, breakfast meats, and breakfast sweets like pancakes, French toast, or waffles) you probably will not be happy with Garden + Grain. You should not be surprised by this based by the name. The menu is very much what I would imagine the Boulder, hippy, vegan (not saying their food is vegan because I don’t even know what makes something vegan) crowd would want.

With that said the food was surprisingly good. Even if it wasn’t what I was looking for I was impressed with it. I had the berry bake and it was delicious, my daughter had the açaí bowl (she picked the berries off the top and didn’t eat the rest) which I sampled and thought was very good too. My wife and other daughter had some sort of oatmeal that they both really liked. I think the only one that was disappointed was my youngest daughter because she wants pancakes for breakfast when we eat out, and that wasn’t an option.

The service was good sans one awkward interaction with one of the servers that was not our server. Our server was attentive and very friendly. She was very positive, smiled the whole time, and made sure we got everything we asked for.

We only had two negative things to say about the service, and even that should not be a reflection of the server. One was they ran out of coffee so it took a little longer than expected to get our coffee. Second, they only brought one spoon out with our coffee for the two of us that ordered coffee to share. They kindly explained it was the only clean spoon, but they promptly brought us more spoons once they were washed. This is another reason I suspect they share resources with the much busier restaurant next door because it did not seem like Garden + Grain was even close to busy enough to run out of coffee or spoons. The only other thing I will mention about the service really is that I was surprised that the manager never did a check-in at our table. I honestly get frustrated when managers check-in while we are eating, but with how empty the restaurant was I just couldn’t believe they didn’t visit every table.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Garden + Grain. The food, while not what I would normally want to eat, was good. Our server, Joey, was fantastic, and every one working there (servers, hosts, and food runners) was very friendly and pleasant (even the server that we had the awkward interaction with).

I am confident I would find something good to eat if...

We went to have breakfast here and it was a colossal mistake.

First, we were sat and it took roughly 10 minutes for someone to acknowledge us. Mind you, the restaurant wasn't very busy. 1/3 full. Second, we ordered drinks and food at the same time since we had a feeling that service wasn't good already. The waitress brings me coffee with it filled to the very top. Dead serious couldn't even add sugar. But ok. Minor mistake. No biggie right? Third, a couple behind us, who was there before us mind you, gets served ONE plate 10 minutes after ordered. They brought ONE plate. Not both. 20 minutes goes by and we get served. (Btw, still haven't gotten water which we asked for at the beginning of the order). Food was lackluster. They served a grain salad with my eggs. All kale. Which is fine if the menu said "kale salad" which it didn't. My wife had the egg bake. Flavorless and they skimped on the ingredients. Now coffee is empty and waitress nowhere to be found. No water yet. Waitress also never came to check on our food when it was served to make sure everything was in order with is food service 101 stuff. This is where it gets even more interesting. The couple hanging us STILL doesn't have their second plate. His partner has sat there the entire time, with her plate getting cold, while they figure out his plate. Coming from food service, my wife and I were blown away at how incompetent you have to be to serve one person at a table when they are clearly a couple. Finally, his plate comes 40 minutes after we got there. Here's another fun one. There was a family table of 4 near us and they did the same exact thing to them. They served the mother and she sat there while they waited for the rest of the family to be served. So, a couple things we noticed. The manager isn't doing their job. When it's not busy, the manager should be spot checking tables and asking how things are. Had they done that, I would have mentioned that we had asked for water three times and our waitress ignored us. But they were nowhere to be found. The staff is zig zagging through tables with food trays where space is limited. There are no defined serving lanes. I'm a taller guy and so was the guy behind me so we took up some room. The staff still felt the need to ask to wiggle through us. Not professional at all. Lastly, when we asked for the bill, that took 15 minutes. I'm not exactly sure what is going on here but this experience was absolutely abysmal and we will never go back. This restaurant is not being run by the appropriate management and their staff is untrained. The food wasn't even very good either for how expensive the menu items are. Eat here at...