Totem — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Walking in to a beautiful space, I had high hopes for a good experience at this new spot. It wasn't very busy, maybe 4-6 tables, which was nice because my wife and I planned a date night after she picked me up from the airport.

We ordered drinks and spring rolls at first, service was slow but we weren't in a rush and had a good amount of time to catch up. About 20-30 minutes passed before the server told us they could not make the spring rolls because they were missing 1 ingredient. We asked what they were missing, said we'd probably be okay with them without the 1 ingredient, she said she didn't know but they couldn't make them without it. Okay. After another 20-30 minutes my order of 3 rib eye tacos and my wife's salad were served. Maybe I got my hopes up when the server had returned to the table after I ordered to ask how I wanted the rib eye cooked? I requested medium but when the food was delivered, the steak was overcooked, cold and tough. The corn tortillas were hard and cold. This plate had been put together with a nice presentation but tasted like it had been sitting for a bit. Overall it was hard to eat, even after squeezing alot of lime on the tacos, they were still incredibly dry. My wife's salad had good flavors and medley of textures but nothing at our table seemed to justify the extraordinary wait in a fairly empty space with an abundance of staff. I understand opening night hiccups, during our wait we were reminiscing about my restaurant opening in downtown Austin 15-20 years ago, last minute menu changes and forgetting to prep essential items but after a week or two we were able to sort it out. I think the key difference is that I was on site, as the owner and chef, I went to explain the issues to my customers, offered apologies and even token gestures to create good will in compensation for the fact that I was not as prepared as I thought I would be in those first few weeks. I felt bad for our server, she felt overwhelmed and confused at times. Obviously, I like the idea of this place, I'll give it another try after they have time to get better organized. To the owners/ managers/ chef; get out on the floor, talk to your customers, be honest and accountable about issues and shortfalls. That personal touch, even with the nonplussed dishes, would have led to a better review or perhaps I would have waited until my next visit to take the time to...

I really wanted to like Totem. I love the space and so happy a business was able to make use of it.

Unfortunately my first experience was quite rocky. The staff was nice but service was so slow just to get orders taken even when the restaurant was mostly empty.

After taking waiting quite a bit to get drink orders in we decided to just place our food right away too cuz we had all decided what we wanted 5 minutes prior. We were then informed the main dinner dishes weren’t available (no mention on the menu) which forced me to switch to a different option I was much less excited about last minute as the server was taking orders. I didn’t want to wait though as I was worried it would be another 10-15 before we saw him again.

I got the Umami Burger (Medium) with Fries. The burger was tasty but unfortunately overcooked to mid-well or even well done with absolutely no pink visible. My fries were quite a small portion and were mostly cold with 50% of them having no crispyness to them and being “soggy”, an adjective no one likes to use with French fries. Reminded me of the left over fries sitting in the seasoning for half an hour from when I worked in a kitchen. Not what I expected for a $20+ burger.

Mixed drinks were so creative but prices were wild with some cocktails going to almost 20 bucks and 8 dollars for a basic canned beer.

A friend requested a side of salsa and our server told us the kitchen said “No” with no further explanation than some sort of communication barrier between the server and cook but the chef was in a meeting and unable to assist.

Once we finished none of our plates were cleared, no check from the server to make sure our food came out how we wanted.

Although inattentive, the staff was all friendly, and I still love the location and what they’ve been able to do with the space.

I’m really hoping this is all just growing pains, but there will have to be some serious improvements...

Hate to write this but all the hype for this place ended up being a massive disappointment. I understand they just opened so I’m not going to factor the hour wait for food to come. But as we waited I went to the bar for a drink, the waitress with red hair said “I’ll be with you” and the proceeded to completely ignore me as she took her sweet time shuffling around not doing much then proceed to taking orders from other people next to me, eventually I just left the bar with no drink. After that we sat down and our waiter brings 1 cup of water… for 3 people. We then later asked specifically for 3 cups of water and they came back to refill the one water cup and our other cup we had with juice in it. Like what?

Now to the food: an hour went by and we finally get our food. I ordered the Egg Brioche, it came with missing ingredients like the crispy sweet potato and scallion (not that it would’ve made much of a difference) so it was just a scrambled egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich… for $19. I could’ve made that in 5 minutes at the house. So then I ordered a side of salmon and the salmon is literally what you would get at a hospital cafeteria. My partner got a Sinaloense and that was a huge disappointment as well. Finally we ordered 2 desserts from the bakery and the server brought it with no silverware, okay fine, but both desserts taste like they were frozen for 2 weeks and just thawed.

Overall just a terrible food experience unfortunately for a place that looks chic and cute. If they don’t at least change up the whole menu completely they’re not going to compete for long. $100 tab for what I could’ve thrown together at the house...