Wild Ember Kitchen — Restaurant in Colfax

I really wanted to love Wild Ember, truly. I was so excited to visit when it finally opened up. The burger was good, taste-wise, but the price is truly insane. 19$ for a relatively plain burger and thin shoestring fries just doesn’t sit right with me.

In comparison, an 8oz barrel aged specialty burger with the works is $18.25 at Birch and Barley and a normal 8oz cheeseburger is $16.00. Then at South Fork, any specialty burger is under $18.00 and a plain cheeseburger is $15.00, both coming with fries and the chance to eat anywhere in the restaurant and not just the bar. Sure, you’ll have to drive into town for it so I guess maybe that large price difference is what covers the cost of convenience.

Also, the seating is honestly quite uncomfortable. The chairs at the bar aren’t very sturdy and make you feel like you’re sliding down and the chairs at the tables are probably some of the worst I’ve ever sat in as they’re metal and dent into your back and bum. I know they’re going for the standard metal modern rustic look that places are going for these days but it doesn’t work. Sitting there wouldn’t motivate me to stay very long and have a drink.

The positive is that the staff were incredibly nice and the service was good. Even the staff kinda seemed iffy about the rules on sitting at the bar for the “all day menu” so it felt a little validating when we were surprised we needed to move to order burgers. Again, the food was good taste wise, but the value and worth was not there for me.

I hope to give Wild Ember another chance in the future but as of today, I can’t in good faith recommend it to anybody yet. I hope that some of those kinks get worked out and maybe some of this feedback will be...

Thrilled to see a new place in Colfax, but there's still some kinks to be worked out. Arrived to a warm, friendly greeting and was promptly seated. Ordered a beer (good selection with 3 taps) then food. Things went a bit downhill from here. I requested no queso but when my entree arrived, it had queso on the side (no means no?). Also, my food arrived on a metal kitchen sheet - at $25 and seeing literally everyone else in the restaurant served on ceramic, this made my meal not only less appealing, but left me wondering why my group was singled out (tip for the future: keep the metal pans in the kitchen where they belong, particularly if you're trying to upsell basically fries). Steak was well prepared but went cold while I was waiting to make contact with any staff to ask for a knife (they were gracious once I requested the cutlery, but there was literally no one on the floor for 5 min). Overall, my visit was ok but I hope they get the details worked out - I'd like to be able to update my review...

Food was mid. Kids get burgers everywhere they go and like them except here lol. Our appetizer was okay. The atmosphere was dull. People seating themselves but sometimes being seated in what felt like a large empty room. The service was the worst part. It was this guy trying to hit on my wife. Ignored it since it was funny at first, then I ordered for our kids and asked what was their cup of fruit, like which fruit. He looked at me for the first time since we got there and acted like I was an idiot and said idk it's a fruit cup. Took about 30 minutes after we were clearly done with our food to be noticed and given the check. Yes they got busy, and openly talked about the help being their first day. So I give them a little grace. Still never coming back. She wasn't...