Free Range Kitchen — Restaurant in Basalt

The potential here is off the charts, and that roasted red pepper bisque was a top tier soup. Soup does a lot to move the needle forward for me obviously, but I couldn't in my heart go above three stars for the kind of night we had. The food here is the true star of the show; our two pasta entrees were compelling deviations from the usual valley menu staples, plated beautifully and absolutely delicious. Portions for everything from appetizers to dessert are well above average. Overall there's a lot of value for your money here, (for food anyway).

Service is where things get rocky, and it started from the first cold greeting from the hostess. The vibe was just so incredibly off from everyone we came in contact with. Our waitress was attentive at least, but not personable and woefully uneducated about the menu. Free Range has a well deserved reputation for a diverse and unique wine list, but our server could not pronounce nor remember the order of our three glass wine flight. A shame considering all three were heavenly.

Preferring to get a bottle but left hung out to dry not knowing the names of anything we tasted, we decided on cocktails instead. Woah boy! This valley has a high bar for craft cocktails, so it's baffling that Free Range hasn't even mastered the basics yet. The whole menu needs to be stripped down and redone by a real mixologist. Like the wine, the server of course could not tell us what brand of liquors were used in any of the drinks. For a restaurant at this price point that is just bewildering.

There were confused and dissatisfied looks from many diners in our section. Plates were slammed down unceremoniously without a smile at our table, and we noticed more than one server carrying wine to tables by literally palming the bowls of the glasses. We watched this whole scene while thoroughly enjoying our dinner, sometimes in amusement and sometimes in shock. Huge shout out to our one food expo, she was literally the only authentic employee interaction we had all night. Other than her not a genuine smile was in sight, or even a "thanks for dining with us" as the check was dropped off. Everyone was just so indifferent to our patronage. Truly baffling.

My sincere hope is that this was just an isolated incident of epic proportions. Maybe the owners were out of town and the staff was letting their hair down for the night so to speak. The aesthetic here is refreshing, welcoming and comfortable. The view from the picture windows untouchable. The food delicious. Still, one of the weirdest date nights we've had in a...

This was our first dinner at the new location. We sat on the patio and enjoyed the live music. Lovely ambience - the restaurant is modern, very lively, and the the patio is spacious. We enjoyed the atmosphere. The prices are very reasonable 👏 The views from the patio are not very scenic but sitting outside listening to pleasant live music makes the experience nice. The food is flavorful and has an awesome aesthetic appeal (see pictures!). We had the ceviche, buratta board, brussel sprouts as appetizers; the trout, coconut curry with shrimp, and burger with fries as main course; the soft serve ice cream and skillet cookie for dessert. Everything was good except for the ceviche. I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m a big fan of ceviche, did not like it at all. The skillet cookie was extremely sweet, my friend who is a sugar addict was hardly able to eat one third of it. Compliments to the bartender for the best spicy paloma I’ve ever had. Better than the ones I drank in Cabo San Lucas two weeks ago. Outstanding. The service was okay, our waitress wasn’t very attentive. I wasn’t able to order a second drink for a very long time. I guess she saved me from drinking more than 2 Palomas because they were so good that I was probably going to end up drinking 4😂 But the restaurant was very busy and she seemed to have a lot of tables. We definitely didn’t feel rushed. Overall, a great restaurant in downtown Basalt. I would recommend it for its ambience, outdoor seating, affordable prices, and live music. Most food options are delicious and creative. We’ll go back...

In May of this year, we went to celebrate my mother's birthday. Based on the good experience we received and the incredible attention from the owner(lady), we decided to return for my birthday. Unfortunately, this time the experience was not pleasant at all. We sat inside and we could not enjoy our food as much as there were too many flies, we asked the hostess to help us move to another table but the situation did not improve. The worst part of the experience is that a hair was found in one of our dishes(trout dish). The hair was in the piece of trout and my husbandit out of the trout and put it on the edge of the plate. This was communicated to the waitress, she only took the plate and returned it two minutes later. In the kitchen they only wiped the hair off the plate. It was totally disappointing the little hygiene that the chef manages in the kitchen and the little respect that is shown to the clients. There was never a floor manager who came to the table to apologize. The bill arrived and the plate obviously was not removed from the bill as a courtesy. The waitress just said "the owner says that if you are going to order dessert it will be on us due to the hair".I know obviously they can do better and we all have bad days. At that time it was more disappointing to know that one of the owners was on site and never came by. what it tells me is that the proper personnel were not working that day.We left and obviously won't be back. I worked many years in hospitality and a sincere apology...