Warehouse Restaurant & Gallery — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

I threw a surprise birthday party for my husband's 30th birthday there this evening and was really disappointed in the manager in charge of my reservation. When I initially called to book the room, I was quoted $150 for their open "Gallery" space and $45 for the cake that I was assured "will be more than enough to feed all guests, and is made in-house." The very next day I called, however, and the price for the room was $200 and the cake was now $50. Really? In the matter of less than 24 hours the price goes up? I booked the room, but continue to look for other places. With my husband's birthday coming up so quickly and not being able to find another space suitable at the time and on the date that I needed, I stuck with my reservation. The third time I called to speak with the same person, I asked if there were any way that we could adjust things to include appetizers, explaining that I just was not financially able to cover the very expensive meals for all the guests that I was planning to have. After being repeatedly told that I would have to pay for everyone there to eat their dinner meal, that same person finally acquiesced and said they would drop the room price to $125, include "all the fruit, cheese, and veggie appetizers [we] would need", and of course still include the cake they made in-house that would more than be adequate to accommodate all the guests. When I got there to pay for the reservation, I mentioned something about the timing of when they would bring the cake out. This same person looked at me and said, "You mean the cake you're bringing yourself?" And I responded, "No, the cake that you said you would provide for us." At this she argued with me and said that the cake wasn't part of our agreement. I told her it was, and she rolled her eye and said with a huff, "Whatever." Then she asked what kind of cake I wanted and I told her whatever cake the had there already made or could have made by the time of the party (now only two hours away) would be fine. When I arrived with my husband, I saw the food they set out that she had claimed would be "more than enough to feed all the guests". It was two SMALL trays - one of veggies and the other of fruit - and a third even smaller dish of some sort of cheese dip thing and a tiny basket of crackers. This was supposed to accommodate almost fifty people?! Are you kidding me?! How incredibly embarrassing! Then, when I asked for the cake - you know, the one that was supposed to be a large sheet cake bigger than Costco's and going to be "more than enough for all the guests" - a small round cake and about a dozen cupcakes were brought out. Hmmm, that's funny...I just saw those very same cakes yesterday in Safeway and they sure didn't add up to $50! Not only did the food NOT cover all the guests, but my own family didn't even get anything to eat!!!!! At our own party!!!!!!! To say I'm pissed is an understatement. I spent $300 for this??? All of my guests left in ONE HOUR or less because, frankly, they were hungry and what was supposed to have been "more than enough" was LESS than what I could've gotten in a Costco veggie tray. I will NEVER eat there, book there, or EVER recommend this place, and I will make sure everyone I know is aware of how absolutely lousy the accomdations were. I had wanted to eat dinner there, but after how crappy and minuscule the amount of food was for such a price, we headed toward another restaurant and enjoyed a hearty, totally satisfying dinner there at P. F. Chang's instead. The only plus? The young man and young woman serving at the drink bar were very nice and friendly, quick to clean up any messes, and helpful. The rest of my experience there sucked and I wish I could get my money back and rate them in...

Round one - our boss got here first, and had ordered the lamb ragout. It came out at the same time as our first round of drinks; I ended up drinking water - they carry limited coke products, and no sweet or seasoned iced tea, and since I avoid high fructose corn syrup like the plague I didn't have any other options. Disappointing, but pretty typical of over-ambitious 'pubs' lately...

Imagine my utter disappointment when the online menu said house chips, the paper menu said house chips, and the waitress said, "Oh, yeah, sorry - we had to get rid of those."

When we were ready to order - a process which took time, between bites of divine ragout and talking shop - we literally had to wave for our waitress for more than 3 minutes. It took two of us waving both hands before she finally 'ambled' over to offer us the opportunity to request food.

The lamb ragout with gnocchi was un-freaking-believable. Sweet, salty, savory, and just a touch of punch at the very end. Thrilled, we ordered another tapas (small plate) and this time shared the green chile and cheese fries. This, too was divine - shoestring potatoes, chunky chile ground fine enough and thickened well enough to scoop it with greasy, salty goodness - oh, yes, please.

These dishes had us salivating and anticipating our impending lunch. Please keep in mind - while we were waiting between servings of tapas (10-15 minutes between each round) a banquet had started in the conference space on the other side of the dining room. Even though the restaurant was still relatively empty (only another 2-3 tables besides us), their kitchen was slammed. This was not our fault, though we got to enjoy the consequences of it. Such as, waiting 15 minutes between tapas (two orders = 30 minute wait) plus another 15 or so for our entrees = 45 minutes total spent on waiting for food. It's a good thing we didn't have a job to go back to or a business to run or anything... Oh, wait ...

So... lunch. Total disappointment. Out of 3 dishes - a bison burger, a cuban sandwich, and eggplant parmesan - nobody was completely happy. My boss loved his burger but the hush puppies were overcooked - the exterior teeth-jarringly hard and the interior non-existent thanks to overcooking. My office manager, after spending three minutes explaining to the waitress not to bring her a crunchy, burned eggplant parmesan got a towering stack of sliced eggplant that was over-cooked in the fryer and still too crunchy (un-cooked or parboiled) inside. I had the most delicious potato croquette (although it DID need salt), but my 'cuban' carried none of the authentic cuban tastes I expect in a cubano - I tasted no mustard, ham, pickle, onion, just salty stringy stuff (from the middle) which was supposed to be pickled cabbage and tasted like neither; there was some red sauce slathered all over the sandwich that felt spicy but lacked flavor. I think the kicker for me was there 'homemade' cuban bread which was so over-grilled that it was like biting into sandpaper covered bricks. It literally cut my mouth while I was trying to eat it. Halfway through half of my sandwich it started tasting fishy and I just gave up.

From one set of professionals to another - if you really want to succeed, focus on doing everything...

Let me preface this review by saying that this is for their latest Valentine's Day special. Regardless, I think this experience has clouded my previous one and I will not be returning for some time.

The meal featured two signature cocktails made for the event, a shared mini bottle of prosecco, and two appetizers, entrees, and desserts for $130 ($140-ish after tax). The star of this entire affair were the choice on appetizers, which my wife and I enjoyed much like our first visit to the restaurant, but everything afterwards was extremely underwhelming.

For an establishment with such a talented bartending staff, the Between the Sheets cocktail was not a series of choices to suit the customer's tastes, but a single drink that you would either love or hate - a cognac lemon-ish cocktail that was a bit strong as a starter for both my wife and I. The entrees, while nice, paled in comparison to the alternatives available on the regular menu in both taste and portions (and price). What was worst was that our waitress, to no fault of her own, had no idea of the taste of any of the dishes on the Valentine's special.

The desserts were another love or hate affair that featured chocolate mousse stuffed crepes or an apple strudel with the latter being a more thought out dish - the mousse just oozed out of the crepe and overwhelmed the otherwise light texture of the crepe, fruit, and mint topping.

For $140 before offering the wait staff a modest tip, I was completely and utterly disappointed in the offering and could have had more delicious food from the regular menu for half of the price. The fact that a wonderful establishment as The Warehouse would create a lackluster and overpriced special for this occasion is upsetting, especially since I know the staff is more than capable of providing excellent meals per...