Syrup Downtown — Restaurant in Denver

We live out of town. We visit Denver 7 days out of each month because we are Nuggets season ticket holders. We are a family of 6. We dine here every visit. Every visit up until Jan 1st has been “alright”. Nothing amazing but not bad.

Jan 1st was terrible.

We arrived and we happily said hello and asked for a table and was told 45 min. Cool. No big deal. We ordered a mimosa as we waited and we were just fine with that. We made small talk with others waiting. Complimented the bartender and everything was just all good.

Sadly, 15 tables sat with dishes on them. No one busing. The hostess was BRASH. Screaming out names for the next guests ready to be seated. Not pleasant and welcoming AT ALL! Our party and few other parties waiting got together and all talked about how if we had a restaurant, we would want a host that made people felt welcomed and thanked the guest for coming in. She made every guest feel like an inconvenience. God forbid she smile.

I get that you’re busy and may have had some call outs from your staff but that’s not your guests problem. If you can’t handle it, close your doors. If you can’t run a business under stressful moments and plan a plan b and c for call outs, don’t blame your patrons by treating US bad for choosing to dine at YOUR restaurant and give YOU OUR money. We had other breakfast options. We chose YOU!

At this point, we are annoyed but still chilling out and trying to be cool.

We finally get seated and we waited 22 min for our waitress to GREET us (if you would call it that). She also seemed to be in the weeds and stressed out. We ordered drinks and food at the same time to speed things along.

30 more minutes later, someone brings our food and we never got our coffee or mimosas yet. Food before drinks? I make the comment to the food runner that we haven’t received our drinks yet and she said, “we are busy” and i responded, “clearly but can we get our drinks”. She says. “WOW” and rolls her eyes at us.

We ate. We left. We will NOT be back. We basically laughed that we had breakfast, lunch and dinner there because we were there for what seemed like the entire day. Really it was 2.5 hours!!! We arrived at 11am and left at about 145pm.

Where is the manager running around to help bus, make drinks, run food, talk to tables?

One lady who looked like she could be a manager left the kitchen and came back with Cinnabon boxes and took them to the back. So weird.

This place needs a manager who knows what they are doing and sets high customer service expectations and ensures that the expectations are met.

I’m not a snooty patron. Like I said, we came in with a happy heart and made conversations and smiled and we were all nice and chill but the environment became toxic because the over stressed out staff didn’t know how to balance being in the weeds and still giving good service.

Not one apology from anyone for the service. Just excuses and bad attitudes.

Had they just apologized and acknowledged our frustration, we would have been fine and probably tipped $500 as a new year surprise gift which we do often.

I hope this review is used as a teaching opportunity. The good thing is that bad days can be turned around for teaching opportunities and improvements can be made.

Best wishes...

Atmosphere - the vibe is cozy, dimmed lighting, and they had tasteful music playing ( doobie brothers ) which I appreciate.

Food/menu - If you're a sweet breakfast person, there nutella banana french toast is SO yummy! They top it off with straweberries on top & it's delicious. ( see photo ) I had it with the maple vanilla syrup which I 100% recommend! I love how they have different flavors for syrups ( see photo ) I also love how many options they have for sides, and additions. When I order a savory breakfast I'm also able to order a side of french toast with nutella & bananas. I love their breakfast potatoes too! I've tried the breakfast tacos & the avacado bendict too ( see photos ). I liked their queso with the breakfast tacos. I recommend both dishes, but out of all 3, the stuffed french toast wins!

Staff/service - My first experience there was on January 1st. It was hectic and they did seem stressed out. I'm sure many restaurants were busy that day since it was the 1st. I've worked in the service industry so I get it, but the host was a little rude.

I wasn't sure I'd go back but I live in the neighborhood & really wanted to try the Nutella stuffed french toast. So I went back a week later, and a manager named Ryan was working and was super nice and carried on a conversation with me. I told him I wanted to bring my dad in for the blueberry pancakes & their blackberry syrup and he ended up giving me a BOGO free card to come back and use! That experience has made me return for a third time which was also delightful. My server was Alaina & she was attentive, kind, and did a great job. Whatever the experience or industry is, the people can make or break it. Alaina & Ryan were great - thank you for great experiences at your restaurant!

To other curious customers, hope this...

I heard someone speak positive and the price looked ok at first. Let's start by talking about the price. I ordered coconut french toast. It did not come with eggs nor meat. After adding 1 $2 egg and chicken sausage (they did not have turkey) I was over $20. The sausage was spicy with red pepper in it (I do not eat spicy food and wish the waiter told me before I ordered). The first thing I tasted was the French toast which was burnt on the side that was not showing. Imagine picking up something with a fork and the first thing touches your tongue is an extreme burnt taste. I then flipped the rest over and saw one was burnt and the others lightly singed. I told the waiter as he came by to see if we needed anything else. I asked him if it was normal for them to make it this way. He said he did not know, because he was new and had not tried it. Next, one scrambled egg with cheese. The cheese was burnt and the egg over cooked. It was obvious this new waiter was not taught what to do with a bad plate. He came by several times and each time I had discovered something wrong with the plate of food I had recieved. I removed the burnt sections and ate what I could, trying not to waste money. The other plate at our table was ok, but the potatoes taste like it had been opened in a freezer for a year. The waiter came by again to take the payment and asked how was everything, I said "again, everything on my plate was over cooked". He apologized. He was a nice waiter, just under trained. The furniture was in need of a paint job. I started thinking about the conversation of how great the place was and thought, I must have chosen the wrong location. I may try the other location, but will not be back...