Wide Awake Eatery — Restaurant in Castle Rock

Update - changed to 1 star (from 2)... in addition to the below... when I actually got home to eat the food (after everything below) It was missing an item, called the restaurant to get them to take it off my bill and get a refund, no one picked up.... ----end of update-- original review below

Giving this place 2 stars is giving this place the benefit of the doubt.

I want to open with the fact that our actual waitress was very nice, courteous and apologetic of everything. I’d give her 5 stars individually if I could, now on to the establishment’s review.

I could see how this place would be totally fine/fun as a group of single people with nothing but time for a Sunday funday.

But from the perspective of a parent with young kids this place really gets 1 star.

We ordered the cheddar biscuits as a starter… they were dry and the butter was overly sweet, id describe them as a very very distant fifth place to red lobsters cheddar biscuits. So that was strike 1, you only have 3 apps on the brunch menu , they better be good… spoiler…this one wasn't.

Next, We ordered some juice and ice tea. My wifes drink and mine came out first, mine came out wrong, I informed the girl who dropped off our drinks( not our waitress) and she looked at me dumbfounded for a second saying that the drink she delivered was the grapefruit juice I ordered ( it was clearly OJ). Then after me asking her to double check, she looked at it again and admitted she was wrong. Meanwhile, Someone else snatched our kids juices, our waitress informed us apologetically, that happened and had to reorder our kids drinks, which she “put to the front of the drink line” not a super great sign that there’s a massive line to just get a drink. Which discouraged me from ordering an iced coffee later in the meal. To top it off, when my grapefruit juice came out it had a fermented smell and taste when I took a sip, either it had gone bad or they put it in a dirty glass…. We’ll call all of that strike 2.

On to the food. As of me writing this review I have no idea how it tastes. I’m in the car riding home from the meal.

The reason I don’t know about the food? We sat in the restaurant for 58 min, and outside of the sub par cheddar biscuits , our food had not yet come out, when I kindly asked the waitress to either make ours to go, or bring some boxes out with the food if it was too difficult to change it to a take out meal and bring us the check.

The waitress informed me she’d check and came back and told us that there were still 3 tables worth of food ahead of ours and would change it to take out. So that was strike 3. I get that a popular place is gonna have a backed up kitchen, and thats all well and good, but you can go down the street to B&B cafe, which is also very popular and delicious for breakfast/brunch, and the wait is long, like all popular places are. But once you get in you are not waiting to eat for over an hour.

When settling up, I told her about the bad grapefruit juice, not to get it taken off the check but just so she could inform her bar.

She kindly took the juice off the tab, without my asking.

Again I’ll close with that our waitress was great, not her fault at all we had the experience we had. So between her kindness and actions and the fact that this place is probably fine for folks trying to just have a long lazy Sunday funday, I tacked on an extra star to give this place 2 stars.

But as far as how this place suits a family with young kids goes… I’d say stay away or at least...

This is an absolute nope for me. I don't know where to start. I guess with the menu. You have no idea what you're going to get because not everything is listed and don't expect your server to inform you. So for example the chicken fried chicken comes with potatoe hash I guess. So since I didn't know that, I ordered a side of potatoe hash. So then I got a side of potatoe hash with a plate of potatoe hash. I told the first person that came by the mistake and they just said sorry about that and just walked off. Almost in a tone of they didn't care. So then I tell our server and at least she said she should of told me that and then took them. But didn't take them off the check.

Then there is the fact both our meals are loaded and I mean loaded in bell peppers. So if you love bell peppers this is the place for you. Sadly we do not and both of our meals do not indicate they are loaded in bell peppers. Also the biscuits come with bell peppers cooked in them. So yeah even more bell peppers. So we only ate half of our meal because it was almost unbearable.

But the worst part was my over cooked, dried out, tough as leather chicken fried chicken. That shouldn't have even been sent out. But maybe that's how they want to serve it to you. So no quality checks to be expected leaving the kitchen.

Portion sizes? Expect to leave hungry.

Service? Yeah what service? Emtpy water glasses from when are food was dropped off until we left. I guess you have to also order water refills here. Idk why I tipped because she came to take our order, bring us a bill, and then come back after she realized we still there waiting to have out bill corrected.

Just not my cup of tea. An experience like that out the gate is not going to bring us back. Maybe will check back after they...

Food was good, but wow what an experience we had close to an hour before it arrived to our table on a slow night.

Arrived at 4:40, told we had to order off the lunch menu until 5:00. 4:45: asked for a high chair with our drink order 4:55: server took our kids orders off the lunch menu. Asked for a high chair again. 5:05: server told us the kids order had to be changed to the dinner menu. Asked for a high chair for the THIRD time. Also asked if they had gluten free buns, server had to verify 5:10: server came back to verify gluten free buns and we finally had our order put in. Asked for a high chair the FOURTH time. 5:20: kids food arrived with the item from the lunch menu we were told could not be ordered and not the dinner item we were forced to change to. Asked for a high chair for the FIFTH time 5:25: after no high chair arriving, we went to the back and grabbed one 5:35: adult orders arrived and the food was surprisingly good

We connected with our table neighbors next door and noticed they had a similar experience. Appetizer ordered never arrived, extra shot with drinks never arrived. The manager even brought the server to their table to discuss the placement of the drink order before agreeing to pull the shot off the bill and instructing the server how to enter the order next time (very awkward).

Safe to say this place may survive because the food is good, but they have a...