Aurum Food & Wine Breckenridge — Restaurant in Breckenridge

We were a party of five and arrived for a 7:45 reservation on a Saturday night. We were seated right away at a high top in the front of the restaurant. Our server, Bryan, was friendly, attentive, and explained the food in detail. We ordered many dishes to share, and we were impressed with the speed the plates came out of the kitchen and the efficiency of the staff to handle all of the food.

We started with four different cocktails that were all delicious, but the Spicy Cucumber Margaritas were the table favorite. The Mountain Time was refreshing if you like gin, the Ginger Pear Martini was on the sweet side, and the Smokey Alpine Glow was fantastic if you like Mezcal tequila. It is pretty smokey if that is your thing (it is mine).

Since we were with our adult children who are adventurous eaters, we shared all of the dishes. We ordered 9 dishes and that was the perfect amount of food as there was nothing left over and everyone was pleasantly satiated. Here is what we thought:

Parker House Rolls - pretty typical and nothing outstanding Crispy Curried Cauliflower - if you like a bit of curry, this dish is fantastic! Korean BBQ Pork Ribs - A-maz-ing! Everyone loved the sauce and they were so tender. Miso Asparagus Bisque - very well balanced. We ordered two bowls and we all really wanted just a little bit more. Note: if you are taking pictures for a review, this dish is a not well photographed. The bowl is presented with asparagus and pistachio dust and then the servers pour in the soup and it becomes a bowl of greatness that looks bad in pics. Hamachi Crudo - a very well balanced, typical (in a great way) version of crudo. The Hamachi was fresh and perfectly sliced. We had two of these for the table. Housemade Rotating Pasta - It was good, but we didn't get the notes that Bryan said we would taste. It was very unique. This dish changes all the time, so what I say doesn't really matter here:) Farmers Market Special - for us it was cantaloupe done 4 ways. Very interesting and very tasty. We all appreciated the Chef's creativity with using local ingredients in this dish and the pasta dish. We did not have an entree, but I'm sure they are all as good as the rest of the menu.

We all highly recommend Aurum (which is Latin for gold...we asked) if you are in Breckenridge. The standard menu is fantastic and the fact that Chef is creative with the pasta and farmer's market plates is...

I highly recommend making a reservation! We stopped in at 4pm after driving up to Breck in the rain for Happy Hour. We luckily got a table for 2.

Our main server was Burt; although several employees stopped by our table to check on us, pour water, deliver food, or clear plates.

I ordered the Camp Cabernet Sauvignon. It was smooth and a just right pairing for the rest of the meal.

We mostly ordered from the Snacks part of the menu (1/2 price for Happy Hour) and ordered one item from the Shared Plates section.

SNACKS

*Falafel (Gluten Free - GF) There were 5 total falafel. They were crispy outside and soft inside. Salty but just right. The red sauce and Tzatziki sauce were delicious. We both wish there was more sauce.

*French Onion Burger (Medium/Well on a gluten free bun [bread] cut in half with Lemon Parmesan Fries (Gluten Free - GF) The Burger was medium/well and had no pink. The gluten free bread was toasted and crisp. The Sweet onions were balanced by a salty bread (bun) and moist burger. Lemon Parmesan Fries were delicious! The fries were hand it and crispy. It came with ketchup and mayo. We would not pay $24 for this (full price) - definite happy hour order.

*Crispy Curried Cauliflower (Gluten Free - GF) It was a little salty for my taste but overall had plenty of flavor. There is a strong curry flavor. It was balanced expertly by the peanut, pumpkin seed topping. The cauliflower had almost a tempura texture. Crispy and light. Tastes fried but healthy...if that exists!

*Korean Fried Chicken (Not Gluten Free) Moist chicken. Crispy exterior. Medium hot spice. You need to like spicy food to enjoy it. If you think black pepper is spicy, skip this one.

SHARED PLATES *Hamachi Crudo (Gluten Free - GF) Jalapeños were spicy! Great balance to the smooth and rich fish. Red and yellow sauce balanced everything out.

DESSERT *Honey Palisade Cake This time of year palisade peaches are fresh from the mountains. The dessert was sweet, savory and tart. Smooth, rich ice cream, tart red sauce, perfectly ripe peaches. Honey cake was crumbly and sweet. The entire dessert held together with a crispy crust from the individual cast iron pan.

Superb! We will be...

So I recently came here with a group of 6 people on a Saturday night with a 8:30pm reservation. we order about 4 sides to share(bread w/ butter, the aquachiles, burrata, Korean fried chicken), the mushroom soup as well as the duck, ny steak, braised lamb shoulder and the risotto w/ trout for entrees. Overall we all found the food to be very disappointing and simply just not good.

The aquachiles had octopus and salmon in it that was drowned in a swamp of beans and this weird sauce(this was the 2nd worst out of all the dishes). The mountain trout and risotto was by far the worst, over cooked fish and the risotto tasted like a solidified mac n cheese made with rice. The NY steak was very bland, needed to be seasoned more. The duck’s sides were really spicy and completely over powered the delicate duck. The lamb shoulder is pulled and is not a solid cut of meat which was not stated in the menu(it tasted like pulled pork, some members liked it), the soup was very good but the pickled mushrooms blew my taste buds away and it ruined the soup, why the pickled mushroom in a creamy well balanced soup?!? Also a 3% “kitchen appreciation fee” on the bill?!? In all the restaurants i been to i have never heard of this, we would have been happy to pay it if the food was well made.

We really liked the bread w/ butter, the drinks and the service. Those were really good, can’t take away from that, but the bill was $735.00 without tip and 60% of the food left on the table. We thought the chef was having a bad night(which happens) but based on some other reviews, we can’t help but see the same consistent issues across the board. We just wanted to give others a fair heads up as we will not be returning to this...