Leaf — Restaurant in Boulder

Before May of this year (2025), I don’t think I had been to Leaf since before or during CO-VID happening. That long absence was not just because CO-VID started, but also because one of the people I used to go to Leaf with passed away so that feeling of emptiness going there alone was difficult enough. We used to live for happy hour when time permitted making the nearly 1 hour drive (that’s in less busy traffic). However, going to Leaf after my job interview in May on that hot day was definitely a huge mistake. Later on I was actually quite relieved I didn’t get the job in Boulder because I don’t want to return there after the mistreatment that occurred at Leaf by the incompetent, uncaring “staff”. Every single previous visit to Leaf was nothing short of knock my socks off perfect and the staff they used to have were awesome. But now they are all Gen Z kids who have zero work ethic, no respect for others, no clue how to communicate and are fake, and would just rather ignore you to be on social media in their own world. They also have no concept of what ethics and veganism are and could care less. Unlike older generations who are atually intelligent, competent, understanding, and know how to give real and genuine customer service through their actions and verbal communication. When I went in I ordered a few vegan items to go for happy hour, because it felt awkward to eat there alone in the small space since it was rather busy. (The previous location in Boulder was bigger inside, less busy during HH and more places to park.) I paid while waiting for my order before it was handed to me in a closed brown paper bag. The kid never told me he was waiting on my other side of fries, so I walked out not knowing so and walked back to my car (which was parked far because that was the only open spot on a 100 degree day). When getting to my car I opened the bag and noticed the one order of fries was missing. When I went back in there was no apology for not telling me to wait before I left, so I told him he shouldn’t let customers leave if their entire orders aren’t even in the bag since it was his fault and he wasn’t sorry for the inconvenience. Shortly after leaving for good, I had to drive into a nearby parking lot because my car sounded like ot was going to die in the hot weather. I checked all the fluids and found out the antifreeze mixture reservoir was empty but didn’t have any with me so waited an hour before leaving so things could cool off. While I was waiting I ate what I got from Leaf. It took over an hour to get home, and I barely made it before getting sick for the next few days with what I later found out was mild food poisoning. When emailing Leaf to ask for a refund (I also called and left a voicemail but no one ever called me back), the general manager took a week to email me back and refused to give me a refund. He instead wanted me to come back to risk me getting food poisoning again and being mistreated again by his lousy “staff”. Then he stated they don’t do happy hour orders to go and that making mine to go was the biggest burden in the world. Before and during CO-VID Leaf never had a problem making any of my happy hour orders to go (everyone had no choice but to do everything to go during CO-VID anyway). He also denied me getting food poisoning by lying that they have no quality issues. Next, he admitted the side of fries at Leaf isn’t even 1 serving which is 8 oz (like it used to be but they increased the price so overcharge customers now). When I ate the food the servings were noticeably tiny so I mentioned this as well, because they were never that small in the past. You can’t decrease something then raise the price, it’s dishonest and deceitful. Just like the...

Mostly vegan fair at a bit higher class restaurant (as in not sweatpants, it is a nicer place), doesn't matter what you order because it's all going to be delicious. Great place to take someone on a date! They also really know how to perfect balancing flavors in their dishes and not missing any of the flavor profiles in each one.

We ordered their sushi salad, mushroom stroganoff, and tomato bisque when we went. I love tomato soups and this was easily one of the top tomato soups I've had, and will be attempting to order a vat of it to take home with me next time I go. Their mushroom stroganoff was so flavorful and creamy, my boyfriend and I kept passing our plates back and forth because we liked everything so much! The sushi salad I ordered was the 'smaller' salad, and was actually the perfect amount of food for a dish. I'd recommend ordering the larger version of the salad if you'd like some to take home.

We ordered the cheesecake for dessert (but the carrot cake we saw go by also looked fantastic) and were a little disappointed because it didn't have the full body flavor or texture of a normal cheesecake. We asked our waitress about this and she also explained that she felt the same way, and told us they used to serve a peanut butter cheesecake instead of the plain cheesecake we had. I definitely think the peanut butter cheesecake would be great since the peanut butter as the creaminess needed for cheesecake, and hope it comes back on the menu so we can try it!

Thanks for being a great local vegan hot spot! Such good,...

First off, the bartender is cool and provided great service. They were friendly and clearly cared about our experience. We got their old fashioned and some herbal tea which were great. The criticism below does not reflect our experience with the bar staff.

The atmosphere is also nice, open air, and generally clean and comfortable.

I docked a star from the service category because no one was present to greet us. We just sat at the bar since there was no host or any welcome.

The food: underwhelming and poorly executed. We ordered ramen and the Jamaican jerk tempeh. The ramen arrived with so little broth it couldn’t be seen underneath the other ingredients. We asked for more broth, but it took them a solid 5-10 minutes to bring back out the ramen. To top it off, the new batch of broth was extremely salty - even for ramen broth. The tempeh wasn’t bad but was underwhelming. It was essentially a puck of seasoned tempeh sitting in a coconut milk sauce with a ton of balsamic glaze drizzled over it. …it just wasn’t great. I was kinda expecting something more like strips of fried tempeh tossed with a more traditional jerk sauce, but maybe that’s my fault for not asking about it more clearly to the staff.

Leaf may do well to tighten their scope of offerings; perfecting ramen and a Jamaican jerk dish, among many other cuisines on their menu, is a challenging feat. They’re certainly creative but should revisit the basics of the cuisines from which they pull...