MacKenzie's Chop House — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

I have been coming to Mackenzie’s for years and the entire experience is usually perfect. You pay for an experience like you get at Mackenzie’s and the experience expectation is what you want when you want it. Our Anniversary: literally every part of the evening from the hostess to the cocktails on the patio, and taste of the food was superb. The rushed delivery of all of our food at once was not ok. Salads came out with appetizers at same time which was a lot at once. Then our entrees came out 10-15 mins later. I almost sent it back but it would have embarrassed my wife plus she was looking forward to her fish and me my elk dish. When you dine for a special occasion and pick this spot over any other you should never feel rushed as that’s what your paying for. We spoke to the manager who apologized. However nothing they could do then. I don’t want free dessert or my check compensated….I want the dining experience to happen correctly. I didn’t come to Red Robin for a reason. (I hate to say it but one of the best server’s I had in a long time was from them the other month). And the server who’s job was most important of all dropped the ball from lack of knowledge or carelessness … not sure which one. I did fine dining and other varied level restaurant work to include cooking, serving, and bartending for 6 years before beginning my professional career. Back then the guest was everything, you wanted their experience to be consistent, special, and unburdened on a basic basis. Please educate your waitstaff to have ample time to enjoy each course as we come maybe once a year to spend 2-300$ on one meal with all the “trim”. Dining has truly gone downhill over time and really bottomed out in last 4 years. I tipped 10% that night and this young girl who was our server was lucky to get that. She seemed from out of the country couldn’t tell from where but did not understand the process. I tipped the cocktail waitress and a busboy the rest as they had otherwise saved the night. My kiddos to the Chef and kitchen staff you always deliver. I will come with whole family at Christmas timeframe and will make sure to speak to manger beforehand to please place us with a better trained waitstaff for this visit as they hold all the cards to make or break the experience. As I write this I thought people are going to be angry with this response thinking “who does this guy think he is?”. I just remembered when dining was far better than it was today, tips paid accordingly to that performance and good restaurants were not that hard to find. I’m not a rich man but I have enough, and enough to splurge a little here and there. I hope Mackenzie’s stays a plays...

Saturday night was our first time at Mackenzie’s. We were celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. We got there right when they opened at 5. First issue, we got a table with a view of a wall, but I could see two other tables.

Our service was extremely slow, unlike the other two tables I could observe. We Informed our waitress of what we would like to eat the main course & starter maybe within the first 20 minutes of arriving, we didn’t get our main course until we’d been sitting there for over an hour and 20 minutes. Our total seated time was just over 2 hours, not because we happily chatting away but because everything we ordered took so long to make it to our table. My martini tasted like water, so bad I didn’t drink any of it. But my main irritation of the evening was during the dessert portion of our meal. My husband told me he had requested the chocolate writing for it, as this is something I enjoy for select special occasions, but our waitress had no idea what he was talking about. He has to verbally ask for “happy 10th anniversary” to be written on our dessert plate in front of me. It was embarrassing. Then our waitress, Lauren, proceeded to tell us that they can’t do that with the dessert plate but she would be willing to get a separate “b&b” plate and write it on the empty plate in sharpie. We were both horrified. Surely, a eatery charging $100+ per plate deals With special occasions all the time?! Moreover my husband had been assured that it would be taken care of by the manager when he made the reservation weeks before. Apparently, not. The couple sitting next to us, also celebrating their anniversary, left about 30 minutes before us because their services wasn’t slow. We got there at the same, opening 5pm, but we spent an extra 30 minutes without even eating our dessert.

Lauren did eventually come back with a plate with the chocolate writing on it, but not before embarrassing us. We were both so irritated that we didn’t take one bite of our $12 shared slice of cake. We couldn’t even if we wanted to, as we had been given no utensils. We had to ask another member of staff to bring us something to eat with but at that point we just wanted to leave. Overall the service was slow, the food was “meh” for the price and the incompetence of communication embarrassing. I have no intention of ever eating here again. This was my first...

Wow! What a place! We visited Colorado Springs for a local wedding (I’m from the east coast) My whole family decided to go to a very nice, upscale restaurant and boy did we find it! High end steak house, many other options like chicken, pasta, scallops, salads, and great appetizers! Great drink menu as well! When you arrive, there is either street parking, or surrounds lots. We went on a Sunday around 5:15pm, so we parked on the street. You walk down a flight of stairs and the restaurant is in a sense underground. To me that made more of the ambiance. Dark wood, surrounded by stone and brick, very inviting atmosphere if you ask me. There were 6 of us, and we were seated almost immediately. The waiter, Alex was extremely nice and inviting. 2 members of my family got the Manhattan’s which they said were amazing. We didn’t do apps, but I got the 16 oz. NY Strip which was very very tender and savory. The other dishes were scallops, chicken Marsala , fillet minion, again nobody Left anything in their plates. One member of the group, ordered the blackened scallops, but got regular scallops. Alex was very understanding, apologized, and got the right dish, within about 5 mins. Another member of the family ordered lobster and corn chowder, and received green pea soup. Again, when we mentioned to Alex, he apologized profusely, and they ordered the Cesar salad which was very good as well. Alex did state that we were One of the first set of customers for the kitchen, and had some bumps to work out. Then, we had desert, which was 3 crème brûlée’s and cheesecake, again, portions were huge and they were delicious! Those little hiccups that the kitchen had, yeah they were mistakes and they happen, and they corrected them With no questions asked! When I come Back, I am definitely returning! Great atmosphere, oh and I have to mention this was right around Christmas time, so they had it decorated beautifully and had Xmas music playing as well!...