Northside Kitchen — Restaurant in Avon

For breakfast: Very enjoyable. Nice alternative. Love the personal touches. Reasonable prices! Best donuts ever! For dinner: we went for the first time for dinner. Had been looking forward to it for several days. The food was great. The service was very disappointing. They had a nice special and we asked if we could split. Neither of us were hungry enough to eat 2 meals. She immediately became exasperated, essentially told us off and said it was $6 charge to split. I had no problem with the $6 charge and asked if they could keep it on one plate, you see we ordered prime rib, and when you split the order, they would typically cut two thin slices and put them on 2 plates. This does not stay warm well, plus we wanted to be romantic, being there for a private celebration, 6 months cancer free (yay!). Well, this lady pitched a fit, yelled at us more and finally listened to what I was asking and agreed. Phew! She never asked us for our drink order, and about 20 minutes after we ordered our dinner, she reappeared and my husband asked her if he could order a drink. She got very defensive and it took quite a while to get a drink, but she said she always asks for the drink order, but we interrupted [wow]- however, we listened to her at other tables, and she never took their drink orders either. She kept calling my husband "love" at least 24 times, right in front of me! Keep your hands off my date! Well, she could have ruined our evening, but life is way to short to let someone do that to us. We enjoyed the food, but had to celebrate somewhere else because she dampened the mood. We kept trying to just shake it off, but she kept coming back at us. At one point a manager came to ask us how things were, but she was right there, and so I told him I did not want to make a comment now. She interrupted and assured him everything was fine...wow! We never heard from him...

This is not my normal review. We were VERY excited to get a good steak somewhere in the area, but it was off season, so nearly all the places we tried to go to were closed. My wife happened upon Northside Kitchen. The menu looked great so I called to make sure they were open. Rodney answered as was delightfully friendly. We headed over and were seated right away and Rodney remembered talking with me on the phone. Once seated, our waiter was over promptly and handled all the typical specials and all. We ordered the Filet (with the Colorado upgrade), the 10oz prime rib and I ordered the Ribeye. The waiter continued to check on us often and kept our drinks full. The owner was walking around checking on tables and interacting with the customers. Our food arrived and looked delicious! The filet was tender but even better, the Colorado upgrade had LOADS of lobster and shrimp in it. The prime rib was tasty and the sauces with it were perfect. Here's where my review differs from the normal. My ribeye was a bit overcooked, but more so, wasn't really marbled at all. The level of steak was equivalent to around a sirloin. I still ate it and enjoyed it, as it was still a good steak, I just didn't feel it was up to the "prime ribeye" level on the menu. So why the 5-star rating? This staff went WAY above and beyond to do anything they could to make it right. It was all done subtly and with obvious care and concern. I can't overstate just how impressed I was with the level of service. I'm certain the next time I would go it would probably be just the right steak, but just know that if something isn't just the way you want it, these folks truly care and will make it right! That puts them way over most restaurants out there. Thank you so much to the incredible staff and I can only hope that anyone in the area will give them a try. You...

The food was genuinely good, but pretty expensive for the portion, and I felt a bit awkward about the non-optional "kitchen living wage fee" added to our bill. First off, either just properly pay your employees, or fold it into the cost of food. Lunch was ~$70 for 2 sodas, a sandwich, and eggs benedict +tip, so it feels a bit "nickel and dimed". I also took issue with this fee being non-optional because to be honest, I had concerns about the kitchen.

The kitchen is an open kitchen, so we got to watch a cook eat fries on the line, with bare, ungloved hands. He then served fries from the same bowl he was eating from, putting them onto guest plates. If he was so hungry he had to eat throughout our entire meal, perhaps a "kitchen workers lunch" fee would be more appropriate. Are the cooks so overworked that they don't get a lunch break? Are they so underpaid that they need to eat from food prepared for guests? It's not just unsanitary, it makes you wonder why he was eating, and why he felt comfortable doing that in front of the whole restaurant, including managers.

The service was also lackluster, though not as concerning as the kitchen hygiene issues. Shortly after we sat down, another table got up and left before ordering, clearly frustrated. It wasn't super busy, but people were being served out of order, and some tables were waiting quite awhile. Our server also forgot our drinks and we didn't get our sodas until after our entrees had arrived. We would have reminded him, but he didn't stop back by our table until he came with the mains. The food itself was pretty good though, and it's worth mentioning that if it weren't for some other issues and the fact that I'm traveling, I'd happily go back for the food. I can't let the hygiene slide though, and for the price, I think most anyone would expect...