Restaurant 1858 — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

It was a poor choice for a dinner outing. There is no point in placing a "fine dining" dinner restaurant in a place where public transportation is a mandatory part of the experience. 'Twould be better as a burger barn).

Our dinner experience began with hunting for a parking space at the Penrose Event Center and walking across the street to catch the shuttle bus filled with screaming children and bickering riffraff for the ten minute ride to the entrance to Seven Falls. There, we were treated to a 100 yard hike on a gravel trail to go around the perfectly good pavement from the drop-off point to the ticket booth that is inexplicably blocked with a vehicle gate that they evidently open only for service vehicles.

There, we stood in line for ten minutes to pay admission to the park ($55 for two adults plus 2 seniors). Then we queue for the tram. We waited in line with more screaming children for about 10 minutes before the first tram came. Our party of 4 really only needed seats for the two seniors, as my wife and I could easily walk the 0.7 mile / 190 ft vertical climb up the hill to the restaurant. We 4 were 16th through 19th in line for a tram that holds 18 people. My wife was promptly ignored as she explained to the loader that our party only really needed two seats (for our seniors). They instead pushed us all aside as they loaded three from behind our party in line. We waited 20 more minutes for the next tram.

We choked on exhaust fumes from the underpowered tram, which was burning way too rich, for the ~10 minute ride up the hill to the restaurant. It was very scenic. I noticed when we got to the top that the hitch-pin (the thing that prevents the people-trailer (with no brakes) from accidentally disconnecting from the hitch on the tram) was dangling loose & unsecured, rather than being inserted properly in the hitch to avoid unnecessarily killing their guests, 18 at a time, off the cliff and into the stream. I mentioned this oversight to the teenage driver who clearly had no idea what the hitch-pin was even intended for. He brushed it off and headed off for another load.

The restaurant has beautiful decor, and very nice, clean restrooms.

My wife ordered a Grey Goose vodka. She was told they had none of that, but no alternative was suggested. We pried enough information out of the server to order a substitute. I asked what beers they had available. The server, Rachel, was able to name three choices, and wasn't volunteering to go learn what the others were. They had very nifty LED-lit menu. Main dishes were mostly limited to trout. Buttermilk biscuits were very good. Venison gumbo was good. Trout was moist. Ham was WAY too salty. Wait staff was very nice, but not skilled or motivated. Desert was finished before the coffee that was supposed to accompany it arrived. One drink was delivered in a timely manner, and one came an hour or so late, when we were ready to leave.

When we headed out at 8:15 pm, there were about 100 people waiting in line for the 8:30 shuttle. After some quick math in our heads, we walked down. I took note on the way down that the nearest restroom to the area at the bottom of the hill where people wait for the tram was in fact half-way up the hill to the restaurant, so keep that in mind if you go with people who aren't able to climb the hill on foot.

By the time we got to the bottom, they had opened the vehicle-gates to allow in the buses to load everyone back up for the return trip to the Event Center parking area, so we got to skip the gravel trail hike around the fencing that we’d taken on the way in.

In summary, it was Disneyesque in cost, waiting, and being pressed against sweaty, argumentative families on public transport, but not very magical, and very haphazard in operations. Really the worst of all worlds. I've mixed feelings about the Broadmoor buying Seven Falls, leaning toward the positive. The restaurant (Restaurant 1858), on the other hand, I'm unequivocally...

I have never been more disappointed in the lack of professionalism and absolute disregard for customer experience ever. We made a lunch reservation for a business meeting, and based on the details we read online it would be a shuttle ride from parking then a golf cart from the entrance to the restaurant after purchasing tickets to Seven Falls. Simple enough.

We were more interested in the views for this particular meeting than hiking, but for the local experience with our clients it seemed like a unique way to go about a lunch, so the $96 for getting into the park was just fine.

What they don’t explain on OpenTable or website is that the shuttle ride from Norris Penrose Arena is waiting in line for 30-45 minutes for a shuttle to show up, then a 15 minute ride up. We all tried to laugh it off - but puffing a “simple” solution to parking when it’s a chaotic fiasco is not great.

Once we arrived at the gate we walked in, bought our tickets, and waited for a golf cart from the gate to the restaurant. Here is where it all fell apart.

A golf cart came down the road about 10 minutes after our arrival and dropped off maps to the gatehouse, but said he didn’t have enough battery power to take 4 people to the restaurant. He drove away. Another 10 minutes later a shuttle pulled up from the Broadmoor (15 person shuttle) with 3 people on board. They got maps for the 3 people, but when we asked if they were our ride they said that the shuttle was for Broadboor guests only and drove off. They circled back 5 minutes later empty and PARKED at the turnabout by the gate and just sat. A couple minutes later a van with “1858” on the side pulled up - BUT WAIT - it was for a private party that had not yet arrived. Another 15 minutes goes by and a shuttle from the Broadmoor comes through the gate EMPTY to pick people up from the restaurant. They stopped and the crew at the gate said we had been waiting for a ride , but this shuttle driver said the same thing; Broadmoor guests only.

Keeping in mind this was a business meeting, and we were all dressed in business clothes - it was sunny and warm and we were getting pretty uncomfortable. We decided to leave and asked for our money back - but the kids working the gate didn’t know how to process a refund. We left, took a shuttle back to parking, got in our car and went downtown for lunch where we were seated immediately.

The follow up to all of this includes that after emailing Seven Falls and the Broadmoor about our experience, not a single person returned my call or email. I left a message with the restaurant as well. Crickets!

They got my $96 and seemed to be too busy to reply. The business meeting involved selecting a hotel for a convention and restaurant for an awards ceremony for some of our top tier partners. I can guarantee neither the Broadmoor nor the 1858...

Third time here since it opened and I'm not sure it could be much worse. First of all, you park in the rodeo parking lot. The rodeo is great. The smell of fresh horse manure prior to dinner, not so much.

The shuttle we rode in was broke down. Literally. One bench seat was unavailable because it was literally broken in half. The seat we sat on wobbled like it was jealous of the condition of the broken seat. The shuttle smelled. My mom was on her first trip to Seven Falls and said she would never bring guests back simply after getting in the shuttle. Go Broadmoor.

When we got to Seven Falls, we bought the overpriced tickets as expected. What was not expected is that you now have to pay for the tram, $2 a person. For a tram? Really? At any rate, they don't tell you this at the ticket window so we had to go get back in line. When we made the comment that the tram used to be free the attendant behind the ticket window proceeded to start arguing with us. Go Broadmoor service.

When we got to the restaurant (1858), they gave us these schmancy menus that light up. Nice effect except mine didn't work, not that I really cared too much. The hostess quickly replaced it with one that did indeed work, at least for about 90 seconds and then it went out again. I think it was made by the same people that made the shuttle.

Our server was nice but entirely unfamiliar with the menu. To be fair, we eat a gluten free diet so have a few questions. That said, she tried to tell us that items marked as gluten free had gluten in them. She then asked if we wanted the gluten products on the side instead. Another server came by and we inquired to find out that no, the gluten free items are indeed gluten free. We waited about 25 minutes for our salads and another 25 for our meal after ordering. Half the salads came out and we had to inquire for the other salads before they appeared a good 10 minutes later. One of our drink refills I had to go to the bar and collect myself after a decent amount of the ice had melted.

There is an automatic "service charge" applied to the bill for a tip. I guess the staff must have been upset when they received no gratuity for no service. To be fair, our server was perfectly nice - there was just a lack of service.

All that said, the food was indeed good.

If you want a canyon experience, hike Cheyenne Canyon which is a stone's throw away and then go eat at any of the great restaurants in town. No entrance fee and no crappy service. The Broadmoor is at least consistent in that they perpetually get worse and worse in their service levels and more and...