Brooklyn's At Ball Arena — Restaurant in Denver

IF YOU HAVE ANY RELIGIOUS DIETARY REQUIREMENTS, ALLERGIES, OR ARE VEGETARIAN/VEGAN DO NOT EAT HERE!!!!

Earlier this week before a concert at Ball Arena I visited this restaurant with a 7 person party. Another party member made the reservation, and although there was a lack of meat-free options on the menu, there seemed to be ~3 options to choose from: mac and cheese, various burgers that can be made with a veggie patty, and salads. So I was OK with the options available.

Unfortunately we ran into a number of issues with our food. In addition, I was also very disappointed with the lack of information on the menu. There was no indication of which items were vegetarian or vegan, and the descriptions of the dishes were not very helpful. This made it very difficult to order food that I knew I could eat. The food I did end up ordering after carefully considering my options was NOT veggie friendly.

Our visit was upsetting and reflected strong negligence and I don't think its the staff's fault, I think the owner has purposefully created a difficult environment for people with dietary restrictions to navigate (which is bad for business and bad for his staff who are put in uncomfortable positions due to the owner's lack of consideration).

I have been a vegetarian since birth (this means I have never had a bite of meat or fish in my life- this also makes me very cautious when visiting new restaurants that are not veggie friendly).

Heres an overview of some of the issues I encountered while at Brooklyns:

I ordered the mac and cheese with added green chile, expecting JUST green chile as chicken is a separate option to add to mac on the menu which is an extra $4. When my food arrived, it was a green chile stew type thing with chicken pieces in it. (I am from NM so am very familiar with what green chile should entail). I was very confused, because the menu did not mention that the mac and cheese included chicken. I asked the waiter about why there was chicken in the dish, and he said that he "just didn't even think about it" (In my opinion this reflects a lack of proper training as the staff does not seem to know how to handle vegetarian and vegan orders, despite there being no way for customers to self-determine which items are veg-friendly).

My partner who is also vegetarian and has been for ~6 years, ordered a veggie burger, which ended up coming with a meat patty rather than a veggie one AND chicken chile. When the server placed the food down he assured us it was the veggie patty. Again, the menu did not say that the green chile would come with meat, and we were not informed of this until after we had already ordered it.

Another member of my party ordered a veggie burger with chile, this burger DID come with a veggie patty but the chile had beef in it.

Two out of 3 of the dishes were remade (the burger came back with a veggie patty and the mac n cheese without chicken pieces) - that said, I was unable to eat/enjoy my food because I was worried about more oversights and still believe the mac n cheese was made using chicken broth the second time (which I cannot confirm or deny as there is no allergy/ingredient information at the venue OR on the website.)

I would like to emphasize that I do not blame the staff for my experience. They were clearly doing what they could on a busy night. However, the lack of vegetarian options on the menu and the lack of training for staff is a reflection of the owner's priorities. I urge the owner of Brooklyn's to take steps to improve the dining experience for customers.

I would have preferred to keep this private, but it is near impossible to contact the owner privately. I called to check if this was possible and was told I would have to go through a manager who could only be contacted during opening hours.

I would like to invite the owner of Brooklyn's to contact me directly so that we can discuss my experience in more detail. I am willing to work with the owner to help improve the dining experience for ALL...

The employees are indifferent, prejudiced, preferential, and rude and the managers are even worse because they offer no solutions except for meaningless apologies and blame shifting. That on top of subpar food that is only passable because it’s the closest bar/food establishment to the ball arena makes this a place that banks on taking complete advantage of low hanging fruit.

I have had two horrible interactions in ONE week (had to return to pick up a lost card) with this entire establishment as a whole. If you’re thinking of visiting this place during a concert, etc., you’d save yourself the hassle and grief by venturing further out for food and drinks. Trust me, take the extra five minutes to go somewhere else.

Their service is extremely disappointing as they obviously benefit from business near the ball arena and could care less about their treatment of individual customers. They are more concerned with volume, not value.

Our server intentionally skipped over our table repeatedly and proceeded to serve 5 other tables, except ours despite my repeated questions as to why we were being overlooked and what the reason was for his intentional skipping of our table. EVERY time I wanted service I had to stand up in the waiter’s direct path just to ask him to give us menus, to take our order, and to give us our check. We only ordered soup, coffee, and dessert and they could not deliver. That’s with my dad being generous and tipping our server $20 off the bat in the hopes of good service…obviously we did not. The manager on this evening (Matt) was amenable and did compensate our check. This did not undo the horrible treatment and service but at least he made a half attempt.

My interaction with Jessie the manager the following week was by far the most unpleasant. She pretentiously presented herself as the “manager”, but when her employees made an error that created a major inconvenience (they turned my dad away saying they didn’t have my debit card, when they DID IN FACT HAVE IT…not an easy trip to make when I live far north of Denver), she had no idea what was going on. In fact, she stated “I don’t know who told you we don’t have the card, but we do have it…I don’t know who would tell you that…” I asked her, “You’re the manager are you not? Are they not your employees? Are you not aware of what your employees are doing?” She had no explanation, she was unapologetic though she went through the motions to say the word “sorry” and nothing else; she was completely dismissive. She did absolutely nothing to provide customer service, to rectify the situation, and she did not care about the customer.

Absolutely horrendous. It’s never okay to treat any customer this way. She should not be working with people because she was unkind, incapable, and removed. This place lost lifelong customers. I will never...

I would put a 1/2 star if I could . We arrived two hours before game time and ordered food for the four of us with over 90 miutes to spare. We waited an hour for our food only to have the runner give it to the table next to us. These jerks actually accepted our order without showing any class. This dive is unorganzied, sloppy, poorly managed and there are other options I will choose in the future. I go to numerous events and will Network with several contacts to avoid this pathetic food source. Horrible, PERIOD!

In response to the Owner's reply: I understand it is the closest food establishment to the Ball Center, however hearing my waiter say " We've had a group of 20 at a table..." is pointless since our order was placed in sufficient time to eat and walk across the street to the Venue. How does it matter as a full seating is full seating regardless of table numbers, the kitchen needs to perform. The obvious concern here is the runners are unable to count, apparently. How are table numbers confusing? For example, is Table 17 table 17 or is table 17 actually Table 16, 15, 14 etc? When we pay $300 per seat for an event and show up 2 hours early and spend over an hour waiting for the food order, then watch it delivered to the adjacent table, I'd say that is unorganized on both fronts. I'm not concerned my little misplaced order is going to affect Brooklyn's bottom line or that this will deter fans from using your business so I said my piece and you acknowledged it, which is better than most. However, I will spend my few cents elsewhere and consider this a learning curve on the Denver side of dining out is, once again, as dysfunctional as the City of Denver, it's mayor and politics. Lakewood, it's Mayor, Dining out and excellent number of food options will always be the one and only choice...