Thirsty Lion — Restaurant in Denver

After having more than one friend recommend this spot, I decided to head down here for dinner on Sunday evening. We had a reservation for 4:15, which was just around the time the Nuggets playoff game was ending. The restaurant was fairly loud and it was hard to have a conversation with the person across from me. After a little bit of time the spot eventually cleared out and it became a little more manageable.

We were seated quickly, however it took our server a few minutes to get to us. We started with the spicy fried chicken sliders, which were good, not very spicy. A small chicken tender on a piece of bread but had good flavor, 6.5/10. We decided to split a southwest smoked chicken salad, which for $20 was a fairly smaller salad. I found the chicken to tasted like it had been made a day or two before. All in all a 7/10. For entrees we had the cheeseburger, this was very good, great amount of flavor and cooked well 8.5/10. The fries were pretty good, I found that some were cooked better than others, but an 8.1/10 on the fries. I don't know why I decided to get it but I went for the grilled ribeye steak, it claimed to be 12oz and seasoned with their rub, but there was no seasoning or garlic butter as they claim. The steak was a very thin piece of steak and it was overcooked and tasteless 1.9/10. I had the server talk me into adding shrimp to this, this was another mistake, 4 over cooked, tasteless shrimp, no seasoning, all you could taste was the charcoal from the grill 1/10. The asparagus turned out to be one of the better items on the plate 6/10.

It was hard to find any street parking. We ended up in the parking garage behind the restaurant, which was $15. I would say for our $130 meal (including tip) for two of us, there are a lot better option in town. If you are going to eat here, try some of the other dishes. A lot of the food that passed us looked pretty good. I may come back for a burger, but not...

Atmosphere was a 5 dark mood lighting, higher end of tolerable volume of music and the decor adds a nice feel of a typical Gastropub experience. Service was an absolute 5 star. Our server was attentive and prompt! We ordered the soft pretzel appatizer first but it was unavailable on this night. Our server reccomended the spicy fried cauliflower that was absloutly amazing. The presentation was pleasing and playful. The rich sauce that coated the cauliflower was sticky and we'll balanced. Our entrees were served hot with very little wait time from order to table turnaround. I had the IPA beer battered fish and chips. The star of the dish was the cod as it was soft and flaky and cooked to absolute perfection the entree comes served with fries slaw and tarter sauce and ketchup. While the COD was cooked perfectly the IPA beer batter fell flat. The batter while crispy and delivered a nice crunchy exterior to the amazing cod, the batter lacked seasoning and was very one note. The lemon caper tarter sauce was also very bland for something to be called lemon caper I expected to at least taste caper it was very mayonnaise forward with very little lemon flavor. My wife had the seared ahi salad. The first few bites of the ahi were delightful with a nice sear. The end peiced which were the thickest of the slices were seared on the two small sides but the heel of the filet was covered in raw seasoning that was aggressive on the palate to the point of being inedible. While i did not personally try the Wasabi ginger vinegarette that accompanied the salad it to by name Wasabi ginger would promise a warming sensation from Wasabi and a balancing of ginger where there was little of each flavor in the...

3/29/25 update: Another noteworthy visit to Thirsty Lion before a hockey game. My daughter and I had reservations. We were seated immediately and then we were assigned a great server. She had a similar sense of humor to mine so I took to her right away. The food was so yummy! We shared a spinach artichoke dip which was the perfect size and had the perfect amount of chips down to the last bite. The chips were the right amount of salty but I do think the dip needs just a pinch more salt. I had the smoked turkey club and that was nothing short of amazing. The turkey was thick and the portion was great. The bacon was hickory perfection. My daughter really enjoyed her spicy chicken and waffles from the brunch menu. I also had 2 cocktails. The first one was something with blood orange and vodka. It was too bitter for me but then I got the Grapefruit Basil martini and loved that. I'll have to remember that for next time. There will always be a next time. I've been to Thirsty Lion 5 or 6 times and never been disappointed.

First visit 2021: We had a fantastic experience here. There was a great selection of ciders and sours which I don't always find. We started with the Queso Dip which was better than most queso's I've had. I had the Bacon Jam Burger and it was truly delicious. The char on the burger was perfect. The service was fantastic. Definitely recommend and plan to go again.

11/28/21 The 2nd time we went we had to send the queso back it was so gritty and gross but everything else was great. We plan to go back. I love the ambiance and the...