Pepper Tree Restaurant — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

My wife and I try to come to the Peppertree once a year. It holds a special place for us as I proposed to my wife there 9 years ago. We came to the restaurant tonight (10/17/2020) to celebrate my wife and brother in law’s birthdays.

We were excited to have a delicious meal and enjoy the evening. My wife and sister in law both had the Pepper Steak and their food was cooked perfect. My brother In-law and I order the bone in Ribeye. We ordered our steaks medium and they came out medium well, and in some places it was well done.

We don’t like sending back food for a number of reasons, especially because we wouldn’t be able to enjoy our steaks with our spouses. But when you spend $70 a steak, you want to eat it the way you ordered it. We both ate a bite from the middle to confirm it was over cooked, and it was. Two of the wait staff came and looked at it and both agreed it was over cooked.

We sent it back and enjoyed our scallop potatoes while we waited. When our new steaks came out, they were medium rare. The manager came up to check on us and proceeded to tell us our first steaks were cooked perfect but presumed we didn’t see clearly because of the lighting. I was shocked to hear a manager tell a customer that we were wrong in the evaluation of our own steaks.

I told him that this time they were undercooked and he proceeded to tell us, “my cook went more medium rare because you felt the first steaks were over cooked.” We sent out steaks back a second time to cook them a couple more minutes and they came out correctly. “Third times a charm right?”, was his response when they came back out. We have never had a poorly cooked steak in all the years we have come here. And, we have never had a manager speak to us and tell us we don’t know how to evaluate steak.

My brother in law and I are our steaks while our wives watched. We didn’t finish our steaks because it took so long to get it right and we both had baby sitters at home.

When we got the check, I felt the need to address the way the manager spoke to us. I told him I didn’t appreciate spending over $200 on a dinner, having it come out wrong and having the manager explain to us that we just don’t know how steak is supposed to be cooked. The manager “apologized” while still trying to justify his actions, until finally I think he realized he just needed to say sorry without any “but”.

While we enjoyed each other’s company, we were terribly disappointed in our experience tonight. This is the first time we have seen this manager. Needless to say, our tradition of returning to the special spot where I “popped the question” has come to an end.

I hope the manager learned a few things about customer service from our interaction and hope things change for...

Not quite the Peppertree of old. Have dined here several times in the past, but has been about 10 years since. Tried it again. Starter bread was good sour dough, but for a super high end restaurant, barely warm, not crispy crust, and sort of plain. Would expect something a little more “special” for the this caliber (and price) of dining. The house salad was a little lazy, just greens with some chopped tomatoes and cucumbers. House dressing is good, but they under-dressed the salad so it’s a little dry. Appetizers; Crab cakes were OK but not spectacular, mushroom with Gruyère cheese was delicious, but I think used to be several mushroom caps, now just 1 medium sized. Ordered 2 pepper steaks, medium rare. Cooked quite rare, had to have them returned to the pan to be recooked. The fillet itself was very good, the chutney was not so much. They did say they have changed chutney, it actually was a little weird, and flavor did not complement the fillet, it actually detracted quite a bit from it. Again, for a high end restaurant, you’re buying jars of chutney not making homemade? Also ordered 1 steak Diane. I didn’t taste it, but the one in our party did like it. Was also cooked a little too rare. One other issue of note is when they brought out the table side cooking they only had 2 steaks, we had to tell them we had ordered 3 total, they had to check and then go back to kitchen and get our 3rd. Halibut was very good. Potato gnocchi quite good. Desserts were all very good! Service was overall was decent, I wouldn’t say over the top, but pretty good. Overall it’s decent, not as good as it used to be, and for the price, not sure I’d choose to go back. Just felt like it’s a little low effort for expensive higher end dining. In that price range, not completely “wowed”, there are other places I’d choose to go. ($600 party of 4, 2x shared appetizers. 2x 8oz pepper steaks, 1x 6oz Steak Diane, 1x halibut, $85 wine+ $44 wine. Manager comp’d the dessert for the undercooked/recooked steaks which was greatly appreciated, but adding those in would have been close to $700...

Not off to a good start from the beginning. Made a reservation for my husband's 50th, wanted it to be special so I decided to take him here as I was told they have spectacular views and fantastic food. We arrived 5 min prior to our reservation (last weekend of May), we were told they didn't have our table ready and to sit at their bar and order a drink while we waited for our table. Ordered a glass of wine and an old fashioned. My husband was in shock, the bartender was using a used carafe to pre-measure the wine and then poured it in his drinking glass, take in mind that as we sat at their bar, they were using the same carafe without rinsing it, so you get remains of whatever other wine they had previously poured in there. As a "fine dining place", I expected better. Then came the old fashioned.... My husband was watching and unfortunately, he was in disgust after seeing the bartender using a mixing spoon to stir my drink, a spoon stirer that was sitting in an "unknown solution" out of what looked like a used utensil metal bin. There were other utensils in that bin and who knows what liquids or things had been put in it. After all this, we waited 25 min until finally someone approached us and said they had a table but not window seating (like I had requested in my reservation), so we could sit there or as he said "take your chances" to wait for a window table. We waited another 10 minutes and left as they weren't worth anymore of our time. We asked for the check and left, they didn't say or ask perhaps "was there something they could do" maybe tell us "oh it's going to be another 5 min"... NOTHING..... So it shows me they don't care hence lack fine dining etiquette. Last thing.... Don't train your employees in front of customers, the bartender that served our drinks was showing their front host how to open a wine bottle and was showing her how to serve it. She was clueless and it just looked awkward to see at a fine dining restaurant, there was another couple seated next to us that were watching with confusion in their faces. Overall...