Forest Room 5 — Restaurant in Denver

I came here with a friend on Friday night (9/18). I've always thought Forest Room 5 was a neat place to go hang out and have a drink - until my most recent experience. It was a busy Friday night - the waiter came and took our drink order. I gave him my credit card and he walked away. An hour goes by and I completely forgot about my credit card and we left. The waiter never asked if I wanted to start a tab - but in retrospect, I should have probably remembered that he took my credit card and never returned it.

The next day, I called Forest Room 5 to confirm I left my credit card there. The person who picked up the phone said to me that he remembered me and that I did leave my credit card. He wasn't particularly friendly - but I didn't think too much of it. I went in around 7:20pm on Saturday to pick up my credit card. I spoke with the female bartender about my credit card - the waiter that I had the night before, the same one that spoke to me on the phone, overheard and went to grab my credit card. I asked to get a receipt because I noticed that they had helped themselves to a 20% gratuity (I get a text msg for every charge that goes through on my credit card) - which I did not think was earned. When asked why they helped themselves to a gratuity, the female bartender replied, "because that's what we do." When asked about the receipt again, neither the waiter or the bartender said they could provide me with one.

The male waiter and I had a brief discussion about this incident. I told him I called earlier and I would be fine leaving a gratuity if they weren't so rude over the phone and if I had the opportunity to authorize a charge that would go onto my credit card. The male waiter tried to convince me that the person I actually spoke to over the phone was the owner of the establishment and he accused the owner of being socially awkward and that he apologizes on behalf of the owner...all in while, I remember him distinctly saying per our phone conversation that he remembers serving me and my friend.

Keep in mind that I had one belgian beer ($8) and paid for my friend's martini ($10) and that was it. Granted, a 20% gratuity on $18 is still small, but the principle of it all (refused to provide me with a receipt and helping themselves to gratuity) is pretty poor practice.

I've already reported this charge to my credit card company as fraudulent. Great ambiance - overpriced drinks - crappy service - bunch of thieves who...

If I wanted this kind of service I'd go to the DMV.

Saturday night, and I'm feeling alright. A brisk 62 degrees, a beautiful evening for a drink....or so I thought.

7:30pm: We approach the host stand, we get seated pretty promptly. It was myself and a group of 3. We're all commenting on the cool scenery, ambience, and that it was honestly pretty unique.

7:48pm: It took a while to get our initial drink order in. Amongst our group there was 2 vodka sodas, a tequila water, and a gin and tonic. Mixology 101 kinda stuff.

8:10: ...where are our drinks? We're starting to get a bit antsy, we were really just popping over for a drink or two, and thought this would be pretty easy to accomplish. The bar was about 2/3 full and we ordered extremely simple drinks.

8:25: Our drinks - they were solid! This process took forever, so naturally we built up a small appetite. Since the drinks were such an ordeal, we decide to go pretty basic with our appetizers and got some hummus for the table.

8:55: 30 more minutes for a plate of hummus (which actually tasted great). At this point we're ready to eat a full meal, but given our experience so far, we decided we should eat elsewhere. So begins the painstaking process of paying..

Legitimately cannot find our waiter anywhere. I'm just walking around trying to flag down anyone who will take my money. I eventually find someone who wasn't even our waiter to give them my card to close out.

9:15: Where in the world is C̶a̶r̶m̶e̶n̶ ̶S̶a̶n̶ ̶D̶i̶e̶g̶o̶ my card?! I start walking around trying to track down my card from whoever has it (while simultaneously checking for any fraudulent purchases that may have been made during this abysmal wait).

The table next to us was also sat probably about 20 minutes ago, and still hadn't put any drinks in. We warned them to leave now, before it is too late.

9:25pm: Finally get my card back, and get the heck out of dodge.

At this point, the level of service we received at Forest Room 5 has become a running joke between the groups of friends that met on that fateful night. So, thanks for...

If I could give zero stars I 100% would. My friend and I were just walking around waiting for our other reservation when we stumbled upon this place, we thought it was so cute & charming so we decided to check it out. At the very beginning it was confusing. We finally found the entrance and were told to wait outside to be seated so we stood outside, then another waitress came up to us and said we could sit anywhere, I told her that we were told to wait to be seated and she replied “well I work here too so just sit down anywhere” my friend and I were kind off put by the attitude as this was our first time and there is no clear directions on what to do. So we finally found a table, ordered a drink. Within a couple minutes we got super uncomfortable at the table, the chairs were not big enough so both of our backs started to hurt we saw a bigger table had opened up so we moved over there because we were told we could just sit anywhere. When our guy waiter came back with our drinks he said “I would love to have you guys sit here but we are saving this for a bigger party” which I totally would of understood but there were 4 other couples taking up the same size table and we told him that we were told to “sit anywhere” after this he ignored us for about 30 minutes while helping all the other tables around us. Then finally my friend flagged him down and asked when we could place our food order, he was very rude and clearly couldn’t care. After we placed our order he looked at us and said “ so are you sure you were told you could sit here” and started yelling our order across the restaurant for everyone to hear. the fact that he insinuated that we were lying about what we were told set me over the edge. We left before our food even came out. Terrible service, they are not friendly people, so many other good bars DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY. They do...