Brasserie Brixton — Restaurant in Denver

From the moment I enter the door I felt unwelcome. I was greeted as if I was trespassing. The greeter got in my face and said, may I help you in a tone that made me feel very uncomfortable. We had never been to the restaurant before…Of course we had reservations. We are both black. My friend arrived before I arrived the greeter greeted her rudely and took her to a community table. She told him that she reserved a standard table. He said no “You reserve a community table” which is a lie because community table is not one of the options on Open Table. Then she asked if instead of being seated in the middle of the community table could we be seated on the end? He said “I’ll just follow you”. around and you pick were you want to sit. Our server came with a nice smile, she seemed very nice. I ordered sparkling wine, a brut champagne for $16, I showed her on the menu and asked if that was the only sparkling wine they had she replied yes…..she bought me a Chardonnay instead no bubbles to be seen! She was busy for a while so when the bartender passed by I told him what had happened and he agreed that the drink she brought me was not a sparkling wine he was very nice. By this time the greeter is staring me down and continued to stare at me until I started staring him down so finally we got up and left. He followed us outside the door and said he was sorry we felt uncomfortable . I don’t know what’s going on in there. There was no other Black people in there. This restaurant is in a gentrified area of rhino and I don’t know if there is a problem with black people going there, it sure felt like it to the point of us having to leave. To the bartender’s credit he was very nice. I still don’t know what was up with our server, we discussed my drink order in detail but she still bought me the wrong dink and when I told her she acted as if...

This was a solid, often fantastic place. There were a lot of unexpected things about the menu and the restaurant in general.

I think even for a French restaurant, the table spacing is specifically horrendous. I guess it’s meant to create a sense of community but there’s community and there’s cramped to the point of no personal space. It was primarily the latter for us. Like, I’m sorry Karen but I don’t need to be within earshot of your having zero curiosity about food. We might wanna snatch the chef’s table or the bar next time.

That annoyance aside, I thought the food was very solid. I was surprised by the amount of SE Asian and Asian influences that were in a couple of the main plates. The Crying Tiger Beef Tartare was quite unique. It reminded me so much of a Vietnamese rare beef salad called Bo Tai Chanh. No wonder all the white ppl were complaining about that here cuz it’s spicy af and was made for SE asian palates. Bravo to the chefs for putting that on the menu! The duck also felt very fusion-y, but while it’s still good I think it’s less successful. Each component was good (the radish cake especially) but together, it ate heavy; I didn’t understand why the duck egg was there. I tried the steak from the giant steak frites plate and they were cooked and seasoned to perfection. The hamachi itself was great but overall it was a forgettable dish; very much lacked acid. The French onion soup is a bit more tomato forward than I’d preferred but it’s a must-get.

Finally the dessert selection was small but wonderful. The seasonal apple cakes are a must-get. It’s so buttery and the caramel is one of the best ever. It’s such a perfect little end to the meal.

Denver needs an amazing French restaurant stat, but I think it is a step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to the next...

Good food but I won't go back due to poor service and inflated prices. I have dined here several times in the past and had fairly positive experiences. Most of the food here is quite delicious, fresh and made from quality ingredients. The last time though wasn't enjoyable at all. The restaurant is now very stuffy, there's about a foot between your table and the table on either side of you, so you feel very crowded and it gets loud easily (it wasn't like this before). Then I order my food which came out super overcooked, I asked if they could fix it (since the previous times they cooked to perfection) but a manager came out and started to argue with me, telling me they never allow customers to select meat temperature (TRUST me I would not have eaten here multiple times if that were true). Since I came to eat and not argue I said fine ill just eat it, then he came back (maybe felt bad) and said he will redo it properly for us. The food came out again overcooked, no one bothered to check on it or ask, so I ended up not eating most and still paying in full. This may have been a bad one-off, but even if the service was better I'm still not sure it's worth it anymore. They raised their prices insanely, I compared side-by-side and they increased menu items by 40%-70% which is nuts. I get everyone taking another dollar or two but this is ridiculous. I won't come back, since I did have some better experiences in the past it wouldn't be fair to leave a one start review but unless you enjoy good but overpriced food with condensed seating and poor service,...