The Nickel — Restaurant in Denver

The only reason this isn't a 1 star review is the person who I dined with thought their steak was delicious and the ambience is very nice.

We arrived without a reservation at 6:40 on a Monday and the restaurant was basically empty 1 table of women, a half dozen people at the bar, and a couple that was sat right next to us.

We were greeted promptly and the waiter was very quick to ask about our water preference and delivered them just as quickly. He was very friendly and was very knowledgeable about the menu. This is where the good service ended.

We ordered a Coke, a Whiskey Sour with egg white, and steak tartare to start. The coke was delivered quickly however after that we didn't see the waiter again for 20 minutes. During this time the bartender who was directly in my line of sight spent most of it watching the baseball game. So at 20+ minutes the waiter arrived with my drink apologising for the delay (which was okay to much egg white caused it be overly frothy diluting the flavor to almost nothing).

At this point I reminded him about the steak tartare. He went off to check on that, and as soon as he was 10 feet away our entree's arrived. So I told the person delivering the entree's to let our server know to not worry about the appetizer.

To sum up so far basically empty restaurant appetizer didn't show, drink ordered when sat down arrived with the entree's, and no one offered water or Coke refills.

The food: We had the spaetzle, the duck and the steak.

The steak was cooked perfectly and was very flavorful and excellently seasoned.

The duck was the perfect level of medium rare and tasted great however the skin was flabby and I prefer a crisp skin.

The spaetzle was inedible. It was beyond salty so much so that the rest of my duck had an overriding flavor of salt from the pieces of salt and over salted mushrooms in the spaetzle for the remainder of my meal.

We were unable to express the problem with our meal because we didn't see our waiter again tell after we had finished our entree's. He arrived at the table apologizing about the missing appetizer and offering to get us one and comp us for it. Well that offer might have meant something had it come before we had finished our entree's but it didn't. After he said this I said no thank you, as who wants to wait around for an appetizer after they have finished their entree's, and told him about the spaetzle (I almost never complain about food but neither of us were able to eat more then a couple mouthfulls). He offered to comp the spaetzle however when he brought the bill it was still on there. When he came to collect my credit card I pointed this out and he rectified it.

Overall a very dissapointing dinning experience. As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry I always tip well with my base being 20% and usually 25%. This is the first time I have tipped 10% in as long as I can remember and it was hard to justify that much but he only had two other tables so I felt bad. He was very friendly and courteous but clearly the FOH manager has failed in their training.

TL:DR Service was terrible in a basically empty restaurant and food was either very good or very bad and sometimes missing...

Why be fickle? Try yourself some Nickel!

For our anniversary, Bob and I tried The Nickel, which is the restaurant attached to the downtown Hotel Teatro. (14th and Arapahoe) Currently rated #193 out of the 2489 restaurants in Denver on TripAdvisor.

It was the Friday evening after Valentine's Day, but it wasn't too busy.  We also had a reservation through Open Table.

Our table was in the corner of the restaurant, which gave us a great panoramic view of the rest of the restaurant and the kitchen.

The service was great! There were a lot of people that checked in on us, and made sure we had what we needed. It was almost comical, because we never knew who was going to approach our table next. Jokingly Bob asked if random actors were just going to walk in off the street...ask us if we needed anything... and then walk out back to the street. Haha.

They offer an interesting sushi-style charcuterie menu, where you can order different meats and cheeses and the amounts of each for your build-your-own charcuterie platter. We settled on the parma cotto for our meat, and a Nord Hollander for the cheese. The cheese was excellent, and had large natural salt crystals. Bob loved the ham, but I also ordered the wagyu beef carpaccio. It was amazing! It had dollops of egg yolk and fried capers.

Before our entrees, we shared the brussel sprouts. They were prepared with a jalapeno vinaigrette, pickled shallots, and candied whole peanuts. The hearty crunch and taste of the peanuts complemented the brussel sprouts very nicely.

For our entrees, we each selected one of their signature plates. I chose the twenty-four-hour braised Buckner Farms lamb shoulder, and Bob got the short ribs, with chimichurri and sauce royale. Both were divine! I was a little nervous that my lamb would be overcooked, but it was super tender and juicy. It was prepared with carrot and potato foam. I tried some of Bob's short ribs, and they were amazing!

Overall a great experience and a romantic atmosphere for our...

We used to go all the time and arrived to impeccable food and service.

So, I was shocked and disappointed to find it's done a complete 180.

I went solo last night for a much needed (and deserved!) mom's night out to treat myself to dinner and theater.

My drink took almost 20 minutes. This should have been a sign... but I was optimistic!

My food hadn't come and after several polite inquires and 40 minutes later I asked my waitress for something quick/cold instead as I had to leave in less than 10 minutes to make my show. She offered to cancel and I confirmed as I did not want to rush eating a $50 filet.

I did not see her again, and then the filet came out (almost 10 minutes later, the time I stated I had) instead of my quick, cold (worth the money) cold plate (which she had not even returned to check on for me). She finally came by and noted I would get a 20% discount on my food. The food that was 40 minutes late and I confirmed cancellation on and you're still charging me for now? Insulting.

I noticed every table around me was unfortunately experience the same issues.

I understand sometimes there is an off night and issues I don't observe from the front as a customer. However, there was little to no ownership or apology for the experience. And just flat out insulting to ask me to pay for something the server asked if I wanted to cancel and I confirmed cancellation.

I am crushed as this was my go-to before the theater. But I deserve more than this for a special occasion with my hard earned money. Such a shame.

I never leave reviews, but I just don't want you to go through the same on your well deserved...