Aspen Perk Cafe — Restaurant in Colorado

First off, I never post 1 star reviews, but our experience here was terrible.

The good: The burger I ordered was tasty

The bad: the amount of fries that came with the burger was less than half as much as comes with a burger from any other restaurant (skimping to save money).

Second, a kids $7 'egg and sausage' was literally one egg and one sausage. The volume for price was outlandish. Double it and pay $14 for two eggs and two links of sausage and then claim its reasonable -nope.

Third, and most disappointing, my wife ordered eggs benedict with the eggs poached hard. They came out with runny eggs. No problem, we simply asked for it to be corrected. Well, it took 5 minutes to flag down a server to explain the problem. When the server did come back to the table we were told that the cooks had cooked the eggs for 5 minutes, and that they "can't cook it hard". Well, it takes 2-3 minutes to cook eggs Benedict soft, and 4 minutes to cook hard. Our server insisted, without talking to the cooks, that the cooks had cooked them for 5 minutes. This claim is highly dubious, unless the server speaks with the cooks about every plate cook-time before it leaves the kitchen. We were made to feel as it we were asking for an impossible request = gas lighting.

So, the waiter took the eggs Benedict to the kitchen and returned two minutes later and asked my wife if she wanted either runny eggs benedict or fried (not poached) eggs over hard. No option was given for hard eggs benedict and we were again made to feel as if we had done something wrong.

At this point, I was halfway through my food and my wife's food would not be ready for another 5minutes at best. Moreover, our two year old was reaching the middle/end of her attention span, and we knew (although we had a tablet for her to play on) she would be ready to go soon and we wouldn't be able to finish our meal in peace. Further, the rest of the restaurant would be affected by her expression of her readiness to go (she is a two year old, mind you, and we had made an effort to order quickly to specifically avoid this issue).

So, we simply declined a re-attempt from the kitchen and asked for the check. Well, it wasn't that simple - we had to flag down our waiter and then when he dropped off the check he immediately left before I could hand him my credit card to pay. I literally had my credit card out and ready to hand him, but he put the check on the table and turned heel. We flagged down another waitress (tall lady with short hair) who gave us grief for asking whether we should pay up front (I was confused about this and wanted clarification because our waiter had put the check down and immediately turned away and left). The same rude waitress also gave us grief for asking for a to-go box, seemingly taking joy in making us feel as if we had done something wrong. Her intentional disrespect and rudeness was the last straw. All we wanted was the food we ordered, as ordered, without being made to feel like we were doing something wrong or that what we asked for (eggs cooked hard, and a to-go box) was impossible and unreasonable.

We will not be returning to this establishment. We will go to Conifer Café, or Ebony and Vine, or Primo's Café, or Coffee Bean n' Bakery, or any place in Evergreen first. There are too many better options to choose to be treated this way at Aspen Perk.

Kitchens make mistakes, and we get that. No problem, we can roll with it. And if attention was paid to our circumstance (2-year-old with a 2-year-old attention span) we could have stayed and been hopeful that the kitchen would have been on top of fixing the challenge in a timely manner. But to make us feel terrible for their mistakes was absolutely ridiculous, and for two waiters/waitresses to treat us disrespectfully indicates it is not an anomaly, but rather am accepted and habitual practice that should be expected. There are better options...

We were so excited to have another restaurant in Conifer to try. (We ate here a couple of times a few years ago and the service was terrible.) When we heard they had new owners and saw some good reviews, we put it on our list. NOT good for dinner service on 8/5. There were FOUR tables in the restaurant occupied and EVERY one of them had a problem. An older gentleman (with a small oxygen tank!) behind us said he was leaving because he had waited over an hour for his food. The server (who said he didn't know anything because he was just called in) said he would get their food right away. Ten minutes later, they stood up to leave. A party of three older ladies were getting something removed from their check. A lady in the back GOT UP AND WENT INTO THE KITCHEN to complain about something and was told by the lady server that she "wasn't the owner but would convey the problem". Our turn. There were only a few entrees for dinner (none of the lunch items were an option per the server). I just ordered artichoke/spinach dip and chips. My dining partner went for the "ribeye pork chop". When our food finally came out, my dip was cold with a layer of chilled mayo on the bottom and unmelted parmesan cheese on top . No thought went into this simple dish. I asked for it to be heated up and he said a new one would be right out. My dining partner had the pork chop said it was too tough to eat and just ate the mash potatos. (No vegetable on the plate). 15 minutes later, he brought out another terrible dip and we were just ready to leave. No staff was in the dining room. I finally got up and flagged the server down for the check. He asked about the dip and I said I didn't want it any more (seriously it was not good) and that my dining partner was long finished. He said ok and offered NO reparations. No dessert or drink or check deduction. (I didn't ask as I didn't want that BUT this is what a good restaurant does if they make a mistake- and I was over sitting there). On another note, the ladies room had a broken trash can, broken paper towel holder and toilet paper roll was just sitting on top of dispenser. No one cares enough about this restaurant to keep it up or keep it open- at least on this Monday. A truly...

My son who just turned 4 and I were looking for a place to have a weekly early dinner for him before his theater troop that he just started. . I chose this place over Sonic thinking the food quality would be better. The food quality was better but over 4 times more expensive. I ordered a child's cheeseburger for my son for $6.00 and it didn't even come with fries. Almost half-way through his burger he accidentally dropped it on the floor. I went to find the waitress Becca and told her what had happened and she just looked at me expressionless. I asked her if she could do anything for me. We were the only customers in the restaurant at this time. She said that she couldn't do anything because the owner wasn't there. Now my son is asking for his burger. I explained to him that he couldn't eat it because it fell on the floor. I didn't want to spend $6.00 more on a small child's cheeseburger. I was feeling distressed. I had already paid my bill with my debit card and left a 20% gratuity. I asked the waitress if the owner had a phone that she could call and ask. She replied that the owner does have a phone but that it was her day off. At this point I became upset. I told the waitress that in my 4 years with my son this has happened before and the restaurant has always replaced the food. She said nothing. I told her I would not spend another dime in this restaurant and that I couldn't wait to write a review of my experience. She very nastily yelled from the back of the restaurant for me not to forget to write that it was my son that dropped his burger. I yelled back that I guess she never has had children and I hoped she enjoyed her 20% tip. I will never return. This is a terrible shame that this was handled this way. In such a small area with such few restaurants I would think that a business would practice more hospitality. Then again, the owner may have handled things differently. It sounds like the owner may need to hire...