Garden of the Gods Market and Cafe Downtown — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

This place has so much potential to be a five star restaurant. The decor is great! Spacious seating, the cafe/dessert area oh so cute( note: none of the desserts are homemade), and the bar area is very aesthetically pleasing!! The problem is this restaurant definitely caters to the new world of self absorbed people. The ones that are always on their phones and can’t wait to take a picture of their drink or food! In doing so they’ve missed the mark on flavor profiles on both ends! The drinks and food presentation is very attractive, but neither are mind blowing, mediocre at best!! My mimosa came with a flower in it, which made it pretty but was one of the worst mimosa’s I’ve had to suffer through( seriously how can you mess up a mimosa?!?!) and on top of that my whole glass was sticky, which makes you completely aware of using a recycled glass not properly cleaned! My second drink I requested, I was told by the cockiest bartender he could make it but that too was a huge disappointment. He did ask how it was, but I didn’t have the energy it would take deflating that ego, so I just went with it. The food we ordered, myself the eggs Benedict and I can’t remember the name of my husbands Sunday brunch choice, but neither had much flavor so when asked if we’d like hot sauce, I requested cholula. I’d like to compliment the fact that they properly bring out sauces here, which is what I mean they have potential!! You should never present the bottle, it should always go out as a side condiment in a ramekin, which they did, so kudos for that!! Attention to details like that is what sets you apart from other restaurants. The cutlery is a very poor quality. Both of our knives could barely cut through our food and mine is on an English muffin! Suggestions: If you could teach the people you hire to give better high end friendlier service. (We sat at the bar, so maybe it’s better in the dining room) If they could work on more attention to the flavor profile for the drinks and the food, instead of how pretty they are for social media, try making it something memorable for the palate. Last but not least, the older gentleman manager, I think I heard them say Chris- he could also use a lesson in managing properly like checking in on all guests and not just the ones he thinks makes him still young and cool. To see him cater to the customers that have no manners( a guy who sits at the bar playing his music on his phone as loud as possible in a restaurant( no manners)and he and his girl friend stayed glued to their phones the whole time, instead of interacting with one another)) I mean that’s the clientele this place and manager seem to want to spend their time with, so it’s not a fit for me!! All the way around super disappointing for the price point! I completely expected more, but as I said, it does have the potential to...

Have been here twice now and have mixed feelings. The first time was a couple of months ago and the food and service were both good. This is a relatively small place so it can get busy pretty quick. Came back this morning and had a completely different experience service-wise. It started when we arrived for breakfast around 915 on Sunday morning. We asked for a table for 3 and a high chair. We were told we'd need to wait for a table, even though the seating are was less than half full and there were plenty of waitstaff. We waited for about 10 minutes for a table to be put together. The hostess came to let us know that our table was ready, only to then realize that we really did mean three AND a highchair, and not three including a highchair as she'd assumed. That cost us about another 5 minutes of wait time for a table, placing us at about 15 minutes waiting for a table to be put together. Again, they were not busy. There were plenty of tables available to push together and plenty of waitstaff to take care of us.

We were finally sat at two small tables that had been pushed together. This is where I began to get seriously frustrated. We sat at our table for at least six or seven minutes before the hostess came by with some water. I'm guessing that our waitress was out for a smoke, in the bathroom, or otherwise occupied and had no idea she'd been given another table. Once the waitress came by the service picked up and the experience was normal. The homemade jam was delicious!

I'd give the service a single star and the food four stars. I'm rounding the average up and giving three stars total, which I feel is being kind.

I should note that my wife loves this place. She would absolutely give it five stars, but she's got her own Yelp account and can knock that out...

I visited on a Sunday morning during the brunch rush. It was pretty busy and the acoustics of the place make it pretty loud when dining inside. I was eating alone and took a spot at the corner of the bar. There was a wait for tables. There were two bartenders managing the bar with a third that appeared to be in training. I was offered water and ordered a drip coffee with cream. My water glass had a black speck in it, a coffee ground I think. I asked for a new glass and got one with a black speck on the outside. Definitely a coffee ground. The coffee was sour and not noticeably warm. Some cream made it tolerable. I ordered the chicken and biscuits. The best part of which was the pimento cheese and pickles. The sausage gravy on the side was lukewarm and not very interesting at all. The chicken, billed as Nashville style hot chicken, was not spicy hot at all. It was also difficult to cut with the standard table knife provided. A steak knife would have been better. My eggs were cooked well but they also packed the warmth of something straight from the kitchen.

The service was adequate but not outstanding. The bartender who greeted me gave her name and the name of the trainee as well as that of the other bartender. She did not give me silverware though, even after I ordered a meal. Also, curiously, the floor staff would come around the bar to drop off bussed dishes. The made the he corner seat very busy. That wouldn't be an issue if the floor staff did not also set things down on the bar in my dining space while they went about bussing their dishes behind the bar.

The food was not bad, but there was plenty to improve upon. The service was negligent but I don't think intentionally so. It wasn't a great experience, but it wasn't a demand my money back...