Bistro Del Lago — Restaurant in Colorado

This begs the ultimate question: do you grade food on an easier curve because the restaurant is in evergreen and there isn’t much here? I think not.

We started with the blackberry burrata, which was top notch. It expertly blended the sweetness of the blackberry coulis with the tanginess of the cheese.

However, for our mains, we ordered the Carbonara and the Gnocchi. The carbonara was decent but felt like something you’d get at a cafeteria that was quickly sautéed in a pan to heat it up. The spaghetti noodles tasted cheap, the sauce was somewhat broken, and the flavors were muted. It was fine.

The gnocchi was some of the worst I’ve had. They advertised that it came with a brown butter Sage sauce but the sauce was extremely oily and tasted like it was 95% olive oil. The gnocchi had no color whatsoever and ultimately were chewy, flavorless pillows. If I was feeling more feisty I would’ve sent this dish back because it honestly felt like they forgot some crucial ingredients (such as fried Sage, which was mentioned on the menu and clearly wasn’t in the dish). In fact, looking at other reviewer’s photos, I’m positive they forgot ingredients in my dish. However, those missing ingredients wouldn’t have changed the fact that the dish tasted like something pre-made and thrown together in 3 minutes at a food court.

For what it’s worth, the people next to us got pizza and it looks like they make some killer pizzas here. If we come back in the future it’ll be to get the pizza.

Finally, the atmosphere is unsuited. They had old-timey Italian music playing—which was great—but they chose to paint all the wooden walls black like an art gallery. It makes the space feel more like a coffee shop than a romantic Italian spot. I don’t get it.

The whole experience begs the question: did we just come here on a bad night when the chef was checked out and not tasting the food? Or is this par for the course? Based on the other positive reviews, I hope it’s the former, and I’d love to give Bistro del Lagos another chance. However, on this night, I’ve had much better pasta dishes at the likes of Macaroni Grill. The two pasta dishes we had here felt akin to Olive Garden. Which is fine, if that’s what you’re looking for and...

We had high hopes but they missed the mark for us. My husband's cocktail arrived unstirred. A mistake you might overlook in a casual restaurant but not something we expected here. The menu prices are a bit odd, appetizers, pizzas and mains all in the same range. Perhaps it is just me but I seldom expect the appetizer to cost more than the main course. The shrimp appetizer was good but expensive. We wanted to try other dishes but they were out of marinara sauce and mussels, quite a surprise for a Tuesday night. We were offered bread and we were surprised to see a charge for it when the bill arrived. No issue paying for bread, plenty of places charge for it but, they also list it on the menu.

The server was very apologetic that the items we wanted to order were sold out and the other entrees available were not to our taste. Oh well, we had high hopes. It wasn't the servers fault and perhaps the kitchen will figure out how to better stock so an Italian restaurant doesn't run out of a...

Solid 2 star for the 2 hours we spent waiting for food. Barely any vegetarian options and the pasta dish we did order, we swapped the sausage out for veggies, we then learn they couldn't do it bc there is meat in the sauce. Didn't find that out until 45 minutes in (no clue what was happening for 45 minutes). 4 pasta options and you can't be flexible enough to just make them veggie on request? Wasted an entire evening here because the "2 people in the back" couldn't handle making food for the very small dining room of people. Is that always the vibe? Probably won't be back unless that menu changes considerably. Vegetarians don't want to eat salads, and you don't need to default put meat on everything. Mushroom pizza was good, but the pasta we did get was basically just...