Palace Arms — Restaurant in Denver

We attended the Palace Arms tonight 1/7/23. We were attending a good friends birthday dinner her husband had reserved for 7:30, a party of 6. We were all on time. It took a bit for our waiter to ask us For our drinks. My friends husband ordered a dirty martini, but was not asked gin or vodka. So they brought the gin dirty martini that was on the menu which he did not like. So he asked for a bud light. The waiter then took our orders. The birthday guest and her husband ordered a Cesar salad.. None of the rest of us ordered any starters/appetizers. The waiter never returned… We never got bread, he never checked on us, never brought back the bud light, nothing. Finally he returned after an hour.. We politely reminded him about the bud light he never brought, and asked if bread was not a complimentary item that they provide? He was apologetic and stated he was new, and he wasn’t aware that there was never bread brought to the table and did end up bringing some. So after asking him what the asterisks on the menu meant which he did not know, we figured out on our own. Then he vaguely proceeded to explain the more popular items on the menu to myself but not the entire table. He then took our orders. The salad finally arrived and was made table side for the birthday guest. Which she was pleased with. At this point it’s now 8:50. (We were sat at 7:30) and the entrees finally started to arrive (literally a couple minutes after the salad) The food was average at best for the price point. We’ve definitely had better at other higher end restaurants like Colt & Grey, STK, Morton’s, the Broker, Elways, Capital Grille, I mean the list really can go on. We really were trying to show our waiter a little bit of grace, because he said he was new and you could tell he was nervous. We were never rude at any time. The waiter did bring a chocolate truffle ganash type of thing to everyone at the table along with our checks. By the time we left and got our valet tickets validated it was 9:50-10:00 pm. And it wasn’t because we were having a good time and talking. Once we got our entrees we basically ate them as fast as we could because we really just wanted to leave at that point. Really the service was just completely horrible. For the price tag on the menu, I expect so much more professionalism. I expect a waiter to know the menu and typically explain the menu items or the special of the night, I expect them to come back and check on us to refill drinks while waiting for our entrees, I expect them to bring the complimentary bread or whatever item is provided. Our table spent well over $600. We could have gotten the same quality food and way better service at Outback Steak house. Our guest party love to go out to eat, and we have no issues paying for good food and service at higher end restaurants, but we expect the service to match that. And It did not.. We all agreed that none of us would ever be back. Such a huge disappointment. I will say that even though our waiter really just dropped the ball and was very subpar, he was very polite the entire time. Had his service been better, it would have been easier to overlook the prices and average food. Honestly, if you’re looking to go out to a fancy higher end dinner, there’s plenty of other phenomenal restaurants to spend your money in, and get the service that’s going to match the price tag. Do yourself the favor and go to one of them. Also read reviews. They don’t have a 3.6 review average...

After a long week, my wife and I wanted a really nice date night. We were surprised to see that a reservation was available on Friday night at Palace Arms during normal dinner hours. Now I see why. This place was by the far the most disappointing upscale dining experience I have ever had. For reference, I am comparing this experience to Prime Steakhouse at the Bellagio, Penrose Room at the Broadmoor, Elways, Capital Grille, Del Friscos, and Shannahan’s just to name a few.

The only redeeming part of our entire dining experience was the bread and the gentleman who was serving it. The bread was fantastically flavored. The gentleman, who was also responsible for topping of our waters, was very attentive our entire dining experience. Also, the ambience is beautiful in there.

Now start the negatives: We ordered a bottle of wine. They did great on the presentation of the wine. However, with the exception of one time, I had to refill our wine glasses. This is tolerable in a mid-level restaurant but not in a restaurant like Palace Arms. We ordered an app based on the recommendation of our server (the heirloom potatoes that are served on top of salt brick). Sounded interesting even though it was $17. What we received was maybe 3 small tomatoes that had been cut up, a couple small pieces of cheese, and some chopped up basil, on a plate (not the salt brick). When we told the server who dropped it off, they stated they were running low. Why were we the ones they decided to skip?! We told them that was the main reason we were intrigued about the dish so they fixed and brought out the dish. Despite this dish being a complete rip off, that may have been the best tasting dish we had (bread was still better but not a dish). We then shared the lamb lasagna. Not much to say about this. It was completely flavorless and terribly small for $26. We shared the wagyu filet ($56). We had it cooked just a little more than mid-rare. It was supposed to come with some type of side but that was maybe a bite. The meat was tough. The only other thing is that the restaurant is next to the cigar bar. I love cigars but when in a nice restaurant, I prefer to not have the smell of smoke and my wife always prefers no cigar smoke. The restaurant was completely odorless until one server went through some other doors to go to the smoking side and left the door cracked. That created a draft. I kindly asked the server to close the doors and his response was “well we are next to a cigar lounge”. I informed him that I am aware of that but the smell didn’t start until the door was cracked and created a draft. He finally closed but I don’t why he bothered arguing with me.

Bottom line is that this place only had pros on the bread, topping off of water (not wine) and the atmosphere. Absent that, service was not impressive, food was not good, and I will never be going to this restaurant again. It is really sad as I had high hopes for Palace Arms given...

We have a friend who was celebrating a big birthday on December 24, so wanted the evening to be special for him. I spoke directly with the dining department when making my reservation. Once seated at our table, we were surprised to learn that rather than having the entire menu to choose from, our only option was their prix fixe dinner, which included a small salad, beef wellington and a dessert, and there was no price quoted on the sheet they gave us describing the meal. These are details I would have expected to hear when I made the reservation, but were never mentioned. Sadly, the service was terrible - our salad was served before our dinner drinks arrived, and the entree was served right on top of that. We had to ask for the same things several times: a new fork, bread, etc. I can understand that in an average restaurant, but certainly not this one! The salad was surprisingly small, and the dressing was undetectable. We were told our beef wellington would be served medium rare (which we preferred) yet it came out medium well and with undercooked vegetables. The best course of the three was dessert. So imagine our disgust when the bill arrived, and the price of JUST the meal was $175.00 per person and no, that didn't include drinks!!! Normally, their highest priced entree is in the $70 range, so this was well more than twice what we were expecting! Should we have asked the price? In hindsight yes, but we never dreamed a restaurant held in such high esteem would stealthily and blatantly rip off its guests! I will never set foot in any Brown Palace restaurant again....