Alchemy — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

First night in was on Halloween night and they were packed. Despite being super busy we (and from what we could see everyone else) was being taken care of very well. Staff was very friendly and attentive. No one made you feel rushed and everyone made sure everything was good. The food was amazingly delicious as well as the drinks.

Our second night back was not as fun. Don't get me wrong, the food was still excellent. The service however was VERY bad. We felt VERY rushed... our server wouldn't stand still and finish listening to us at all. I ordered the same drink I had the first night. The first reply I got was "that can't be, we haven't had that drink in years". When I showed a photo and explained it was Halloween night I then got "oh well then someone brought in the Gummy bears to make that". I asked if the drink itself could be made without the Gummy bears "We don't make that drink, you'll have to get something else". ZERO recommendations on what would be similar or anything. I gave a different drink option and he left us, brought drinks back and left.... even though we stated when we were ordering the drinks that we were ready to order everything. We were nearly done with our drinks when he finally came back over to see if we wanted more drinks.... no we want to order our appetizers and food. He took the order for appetizers and while we were still talking to continue with our dinner order this guy walked off. It took a while to get our dinner order in and to us. We were very unhappy about the service this night. What made it worse was we came back this second night for our actual Anniversary dinner since we had missed our reservations at our restaurant of choice. We figured this was going to be an excellent option based on the service the last time.

The ONLY reason I'm still recommending this place is 1. the food is AMAZING. 2. Service the first night was good and 3. I refuse to give a place a bad name due to ONE bad apple in the bunch.

We will be back and I'll update my review from there. Hopefully bad apples can be removed from the good or trained how to interact...

This trip was the second time I've been to Alchemy. I remembered from the first time they have an eclectic menu + well-crafted cocktails; that hasn't changed.

Located in Old Colorado City, Colorado Springs, Colorado this establishment contradicts a lot of the negative preconceptions of Colorado Springs. This is more like a place you would find in Boulder.

After the Colorado Springs pridefest, we decided to beat the heat and have a nice lunch in their shaded back yard patio. The patio had more of a hippie ambiance, than a pub, but was still fun. It's a little strange that customers have to walk through the kitchen and pass an office to get to the back patio. It seems like this is something new that they are still working through.

Drinks: I had the Clover Club, made with egg whites and raspberries. Jeff had The Alchemist, which was a more sophisticated whiskey based drink. Travis had absinthe. He ordered it "cold" which I thought was odd, but he explained that they also serve warm absinthe here.

Food: trying to be a little more healthy, I chose the emerald pea soup. The soup came with a beautiful presentation, including edible flowers, creme fraiche, and was poured out of a little tea pot. The brightness of the fresh peas was great for a summer afternoon. For my entree, I actually selected something from the appetizer menu - the honey lavender smoked salmon and pesto with pita wedges. The flavors were not as extreme as the title implies, none the less it was very tasty. Bob also had a couple of appetizers which were the hummus made of a fresh pea puree, and a Caprese salad. Jeff tried the Irish onion soup. This is a basic French onion soup, but with rye bread. Travis got the garden wrap.

The atmosphere was pretty laid-back. I could see at night time this place might be a little more hoppin'. It's always a fun time in Old...

I hate to write this review and hope that our experience was an anomaly, but this was by far my worst dining experience in Colorado Springs. We sat on the patio and someone had their dogs there. My sister is allergic to dogs and it kept walking up to our table and drooled on my sister’s leg. The wait staff was incredibly slow, our waters blew over (it was wind, not their fault), but we didn’t get new waters or napkins for over 5 minutes, and it wasn’t busy. The worst part of the experience was the food. I ordered salmon and the skin was so slippery the fish could have swam away. Everything was sloppy and dirty. My partner ordered a sandwich. Prior to dinner, we watched kitchen staff smoke a cigarette out back, then go into the back cooler, and grab wilted lettuce with their bare hands. The worst part was that when my partner bit into his food, there was a bunch of wilted lettuce. Finally, our family friend has celiacs and she ordered fish and chips, which is gf on the menu. About an hour after we left she was in so much pain we almost had to bring her to urgent care. Of course, we can’t prove it was cross contamination that led to her illness, that is the only reason we didn’t sue or ask for a refund.

I hate to bash a local business, but this experience presented serious health concerns. I would not recommend this establishment, we will not be returning, but hopefully our experience was an anomaly for the sake of...