Margot — Restaurant in Denver

My wife and I had the tasting menu at Margot this past weekend. This is not a review of the main room, which looked good in its own right. We've been to a few other 'high end' tasting menu and restaurant experiences in Denver and beyond (Beckon, Rootstalk, Temaki Den, etc) We didn't think that our experience was reflected in the current set of reviews so I wanted to leave a review.

Pros: -The space was beautiful and the music was right up our alley (alt/indie rock, LCD Soundsystem and the like) -The person helping serve us was amicable and attentive -The food was generally presented well -The cocktails were well prepared and delicious (we did not get the wine pairing)

Neutral observations: -The 8-person counter was in front of Margot's full kitchen. The dishes going out to the main restaurant looked quite tasty. There was a little overlap with the tasting menu but they were primarily different. -The tasting counter space is wide enough for everyone to sit but a little tight behind the chairs. No hooks below the seats -The tasting room wasn't quite ready when we arrived at our time, they seat all 8 people at once, and there isn't really a good place to wait with their current setup. We were given some bubbly while we wanted though which was nice. -We left feeling full (in opposition to some other reviews I read here)

Cons: -A lot of the menu fell flat for us. The ideas and presentation were interesting but in terms of flavor the primary ingredients often felt overpowered by the accoutrement or did not provide a lot of flavor. Not all the combinations worked well for us and we were generally hoping for more 'wow' bites. There were a few dishes that did feel cooked well (lamb, mussels). I don't know if our palates didn't match the chef, if our expectations were misaligned, or if it was an off night but for the price we felt disappointed. -The pacing of the meal felt a little off. It got a late start but we had arrived around 7:40 for a 7:45 seating and ultimately left the restaurant at 10:20. Some of the spaces between courses felt quite long and then had some that were more bunched towards the end. Based on the 5:30/7:45 seatings I was expecting closer to two hours.

Overall, we wouldn't return for the tasting menu experience alone, especially given the price point. The space, service, and cocktails were all great and the main restaurant looked wonderful, so hopefully the tasting menu will match...

Please consider this review my formal protest of the Michelin star award. It was one of the more disappointing meals in recent memory and the high reviews for this place are very confusing. We'll start with the service - for any restaurant (much less a Michelin star restaurant), the service was lacking. Starting with the water - first of all, charging $9 for a Saratoga sparkling water bottle is ridiculous, but more ridiculous is charging for this water and then having the server come around and top off the glasses with tap water! Inexcusable.

The food took SO long to come out that by halfway through our meal, we decided to stop ordering, otherwise we'd never be able to leave. We sat in the restaurant for 2.5 hours because that is how long it took to get 7 plates. We ordered a 1/2 dozen oysters and after 45 minutes of not seeing them, we canceled the order - and for whatever reason, the server seemed surprised. No one would find this dining pace enjoyable.

On to the food. We ordered: the roasted new potatoes, croquettes, Parisian gnocchi, lamb meatballs, peach salad, country terrine, and sausage tagliatelle. Potatoes and croquettes - delicious. Gnocchi - the gnocchi themselves were perfect but the plate lacked in flavor. The lamb meatballs were disappointingly dry and hard - for $25, you'd expect 3-4 large, succulent meatballs, but the ordered consisted of 5 tiny (smaller than golf balls) rock hard balls. Country terrine - small portion and served without any bread or toast points. We ordered bread (which was $3 and very good) and honestly, the dish should have just come with it. The tagliatelle was a bit of a strange dish - it had good heat but the greasy sausage and preserved lemon flavors didn't really work. The peach was rock hard. I could go to Safeway and blindly select a peach and it would have been better.

And at the end of the night, they gave us someone else's check. Good thing I am militant about reviewing the tabs (unlike my husband, who just throws his credit card down, willy-nilly). This would not have been any big thing if the rest of the dinner had gone smoothly, but this was yet another hit on the service, which was, in a word, careless.

The space is beautiful - hats off to the designer.

The food + 5 glasses of wine + 3 cocktails was $330 for a table of 4, and we left HUNGRY. We came with our neighbors and we live 2 blocks from this place. We will...

Look, listen to me. Eat here. I beg you. Chef Justin has put together a phenomenal dining experience. It is unfathomable what kind of creative dishes and flavor profiles you will salivate at while eating here.

The food is made with affection, and passion. We've eaten here 3x in the last few months. You can taste the joy and fun that Chef is having with these dishes. He's always trying little tweaks and new dishes. It's always evolving and improving.

The staff that Chef Justin has chosen to work with him are an absolute delight. John has been making us non-alcoholic pairings to go with our dishes and has adjusted the drinks for us in real time based on our feedback.

We've had the privilege of being served by Cassie and Sam, both just wonderful personalities that really know how to keep you excited.

The price is an absolute STEAL. It actually feels criminal that we've been able to enjoy food of this caliber for the price they charge. $125 for TEN courses. There's no way that the price point is long for this world. Enjoy it while we can.

We look forward to every future meal we have here, and we can't wait for Chef to have his own space, because I have every confidence that it'll earn every accolade you can imagine.

Ask the staff, I've licked every plate clean every time we've gone....