Steakhouse No. 316 Boulder — Restaurant in Boulder

I wish we had a great experience but it was below subpar. We had reservations and got seated rather quickly. That was one of two things that felt like happened with purpose. The atmosphere was charming and the sound level was good.

We got seated and were welcomed by a server who was assisting primary server. I thought “wow this is going to be a hand held culinary journey”. We then got our waters then we waited. And waited and waited some more. We had asked for the bottle menu as they just placed the by the glass menu on our table.

Fifteen minutes later our server come back without a bottle menu and asks to take our beverage order. I guess we are having cocktails and beer. In the mean time we had our water glasses refilled three times, second thing that happened with purpose. Twenty minutes past and still no beverages, okay maybe they are changing a keg. To my shock they arrived with bottle beer and two cocktails. The sommelier had brought them out.

Another ten minutes later our server came to take our order. By this time I knew what my entire meal was going to be but just took our starter order. At that point asked if we wanted bread. Strange, why didn’t the person who asked for our water preference ask us if we wanted bread?

We ordered a table Caesar and a wedge. The presentation of the Caesar was a nice touch and the gentleman preparing it was great. However, the romaine that was on the cart was the lower third of the heads. The salad was bitter since it was mostly the light colored part of the romaine. The wedge took another five minutes to arrive. The wedge was good.

Our appetizer was good and guess what finally arrived, the bottle menu! Their selection of wine was pretty impressive, too bad we had already went with cocktails and beer as a nice bottle of red would have paired well with steak. We put in our main course order.

We ordered two steaks and the special after the explanation of it being half a rack of lamb with two sides. I thought it was interesting that you had to order sauces for your steak and that they do not come with a side of sauce. Okay we ordered a sauce and horseradish.

Our food came out and our drinks were very low. We were not asked if we wanted a second round of beverages. Interesting the lamb wasn’t half of a rack it was a fourth of a rack. Someone asked one person in our party if they wanted another beer as their glass was empty. Oddly they didn’t ask anyone else before speeding away.

When questioned the server about the “half rack”, the waiter said depending on the size of the cut it was either two ribs or four ribs but was dependent on the weight instead. Okay… not how it was sold but okay.

The mushroom gnocchi had good flavor forward but lacked depth and the texture was too gritty. The creamy spinach was way too garlicky. The steaks and lambs were great and cooked to the desired temperature.

My glass of beer has been empty for atleast 10 minutes. At this point, I am holding my empty glass up in the air and someone comes up to me asking if I wanted another beer. I said yes and they immediately left the table without asking anyone else. Someone else wanted another cocktail but couldn’t order it. They were able to order their drink after my beer arrived.

Toward the end of our meal, the table next to us, which had obviously been celebrating an occasion as they received a dessert with a candle, started joking with us. As they too had been feeling the same experience. We obviously were not alone in the frustration with the service.

I’ve eaten at enough restaurants in Europe to expect some meals to be a long social affair and be a several hour experience. This was not that. It is frustrating to be spending this kind of money to not get good service, have to wait too long for your beverages and have parts of the meal be lack luster. Most places of this caliber have the general manager make runs to the table to ask how the experience was, this did not happen. Even though the steaks were great, we will not return to...

We had an incredibly disappointing experience last night. We usually love this place and I've recommended it to a lot of people, but can no longer do so. Steakhouse No. 316 is a fine dining restaurant and the prices reflect that. However yesterday both the service and food was subpar. The service being especially bad.

Perhaps since we were just a party of two and we didn't order alcohol, we were less of a priority to the staff, but we still spent almost $500 on this birthday dinner and left feeling really ripped off. I get that sometimes issues happen but at this price, things really should be impeccable, and in this case there were multiple issues.

First and foremost, after we got our food we were completely ignored. We no one ever checked to see how the food was or if we needed anything. I had to get up and find someone to ask for refills on our drinks. We both ordered the cowboy ribeye, but unfortunately mine was really tough. Since no one cared to check on us we just ate it as is, but at $75/steak this was not ok and should have been made right.

We also started the meal with mussels and frites. This was a little messy since we were not given any plates or a dish to place the shells in. The end result was some food residue on the table. In the past, a server would have cleaned this up but no one did. I realize this isn't a huge deal but this IS a fine dining restaurant so sitting there with a dirty table for the remainder of the meal was not acceptable.

Once we were done we sat there for at least 20 minutes with empty dishes, dirty table and empty drinks. Finally someone came and took our plates and we sat there for another 20 minutes with a dirty table and empty drinks until I flagged a busser over to ask for our check.

Last night was beyond disappointing. The things that happened generally wouldn't matter too much in a regular restaurant, but we chose to pay very high prices for a fine dining experience and got a diner experience.

We told the server at the end that the steak was tough and that no one had come by our table since we got the food and she just apologized and walked away. Something should have been done to make it right at that point. At minimum letting the manager know to apologize.

This was a special occasion and a splurge and we may as well have gone to any other regular restaurant for a...

Been here twice now. Once with someone my age, and then tonight with my dad. Both times as a younger female I felt ignored/dismissed. Service with my dad was weird, almost tense, and the server only spoke to and acknowledged him. Same deal first time with another guy. I find this not only discourteous, but also sort of baffling as I was taking him out to dinner tonight. Otherwise, service is a mixed bag of over-attentive as well as lacking on some basic cues such as cocktail refills and timing.

Cocktails do not get refilled. Water is constantly replenished. Like every five minutes. When you do order another drink, it takes twenty minutes or so to get to the table. Thirty for dessert. Rarely do you see your actual appointed server as they’d rather apologize for the tardiness of everything than be present for any part aside from introductory order or bill. Plan to spend at least three hours here as service is slow but not in a leisurely way. Table-side caesar salad is a memorable, novelty experience. $22/person with a 2 person minimum. It’s good, no better than an overpriced table-side guacamole endeavor.

Don’t get me wrong. The food is really, really good. Crab cakes are awesome. Side dishes are great and shareable. They’ve done a lot with the space, too. It’s a gorgeous red and wood interior, pretty swanky and dimly lit. Much different than the pub it used to be. One of the highest end fine-dining experiences in Boulder today. But something feels a little stiff and off about it and service needs work. I’m all for paying for quality but even this seems excessive. $55 fillet but you have to pay $10 for an accompanying sauce. All in all, not exactly a comfortable place to spend an evening even if the steaks are cooked to perfection (and to temp!)

If I’m exiting and say goodbye and thank you to the manager and am ignored, but then my dad steps through and is instantly exit-greeted, I’m a little confused. This place is big bucks expensive; you’d think they’d have the service to match. There were six or seven people circling our table like sharks both visits; maybe one of them could have...