The Block & Bottle — Restaurant in Castle Rock

I was fairly disappointed tonight. I had high hopes but was let down by the food quality. First of all the service and atmosphere was fantastic. I give the service 5 stars. The food on the other hand is like 2 stars.

We got the Tempura Smoked Shiitake Mushrooms. We love fried mushrooms. These would have been great if they didn't get over smoked. I smoke mushrooms on a regular and these tested like they were smoke on super low for over 4 hours. They tasted just like the smoke and only smoke. Way overpowering. The homemade sauces we had them put them on the side were actually fantastic!

Both my wife and I got burgers. She got the Pastrami Burger and I got the Hatch Green Chile BBQ Burger. Both burgers were a major let down and for being the major section on the menu. I had hoped for phenomenal burgers with that much real estate on the menu. They were also severed incorrectly. I asked for my BBQ sauce on the side and it came out on the burger with a side of BBQ and my wife's burger came without any sauce. So they mixed that up.

The Hatch Green Chile Burger is anything but. It's an onion burger with BBQ sauce and bacon. The menu is listed incorrectly. It says the patty comes with cheddar and green chiles in the patty. However it's mostly sautéed onions, hardly, if any green chiles in the patty and topped with even more onions. All I could taste was onions. I couldn't even taste the BBQ sauce, bacon, or the meat. I will say the bacon was cooked good. I took that off the patty to eat it and left the other half of the very expensive low quality burger.

My wife unfortunately had a similar experience. The pastrami burger wasn't that great. The pastrami came out gray and had bit of a funk to it. It's definitely a low quality pastrami and potentially old. She also didn't get the 1000 island dressing with her burger. So it was also a disappointment.

Overall the place might just be having new restaurant pains but I didn't expect this. If that's the quality of the food this place is ridiculously overpriced. I'll give this place another shot in 6 months and hope for something better. However, I'm not sure they have a bit of randomness on the menu. Not sure what it is they specialize in as a...

I cannot BEGIN to recommend Block & Bottle restaurant in Castle Rock enough to EVERYONE!!! Not only is their food delicious and superb, and their drinks, specials, and Happy Hour (3-6 pm weekdays) a wonderful deal, but their customer care is ABSOLUTELY UNPARALLELED! We visited recently with a large, loud group on the patio, and our drink orders were misheard and we were served similar, but not quite the drinks we ordered (which were honestly so good we didn't even notice...until the bill came and the charges were different than expected...). We questioned our waitress (who, along with the other servers handling our large and boisterous group did so very well!) upon paying the bill and received a discount according to what she was able to do, and left. But, having been in the Service Industry myself for many years, I couldn't stop thinking about how that same situation might have been handled by a patron with perhaps less understanding of how such errors can be made, and I decided to send an email about the situation the following day. Not only did the manager appreciate being made aware of a potential vulnerability of the establishment and server via a very understandable error given the situation, but he also went the extra mile to fully remedy it from his position as manager and, when I say they gained a loyal patron FOR LIFE, I mean it!!! We have our favorites in the area, but they jumped straight to the TOP OF MY FAVORITES LIST!!! So, MAJOR KUDOS to the management of Block & Bottle for showing exactly what integrity and customer care should look like and for going ABOVE AND BEYOND the average to make sure this patron felt well taken care of in a way not every establishment might have!!! We WILL be back again and again, and I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that everyone visits at their next and every possible opportunity when looking for a fabulous place to dine out!!! Tell 'em I sent ya...and you HAVE to try the queso and chicharrons AND the wonderful deli they have next door!!! THE BEST sandwiches (and I'm not usually a sandwich fan...)! WAY TO GO, BLOCK &...

Fresh on the block, Block and Bottle offers another venue for eatery to the downtown Castle Rock area. If you didn't know, next door is their deli shop and up the street is their pizzeria. Parking can be nuts unless you can find one street front. We happened to score a spot in the parking garage after doing laps for 20 minutes. The public parking is pretty limited so be patient.

Staff is always great and friendly. Madison was our bartender and also waited on us. Service is pretty quick even on weekends. Both times I have dined here, it has been for lunch. Plenty of seating without much of a wait for a table. The patio is quaint and would be perfect for al fresco dining with the fire pits. If you want to warm up, order the New Holland Brewing Bourbon Barrel-Aged Stout or have the spicy Bloody Mary. They also have wine bottles ranging from $30-70 and carried my faves like Boen and Katherine Goldschmidt.

The shiitake mushrooms were good and had a great smokey flavor with the touch of spice from the sriracha sauce. The mussels and chorizo is hearty as an entree with generous portions of chorizo in the dish. I will say the black and blue burger lacked flavor but the rosemary truffle fries made up for it. I still haven't tried the veggie sandwich but it looks tempting.

The ambience is more a casual neighborhood spot to grab a meal. I support any restauranteur trying to add to the local food scene here in the South Suburban area. Given they have two other sister properties, you have a variety to choose from depending on...