The Yellow Carrot — Restaurant in Durango

We used Yellow Carrot as our caterers for our wedding, and honestly everything they were in charge of was a complete disaster. They were taking care of our flowers, bar, food, and servers. The flowers we wanted were very simple, sunflowers and baby's breath. They used some other flowers without ever telling me beforehand that they couldn't get the flowers I wanted, although they could have gone to the local grocery store to buy them. I had my husband wear these awesome yellow laces that were supposed to match his boutonniere of sunflowers, since there was nothing yellow on it he had to go find some wildflowers that were yellow and stick them in it. There were supposed to be flower petals for the flower girl, they never brought them. So my family had to pick wild daisies and she dropped those. The refreshment stand wasn't at the ceremony like I had wanted. The Bartenders had no idea how to make our signature drinks, nor did they have the ingredients to make them. And I am not talking about the booze, because we brought those ingredients I mean the mixers. The bartenders told guests they had never bartended before and asked guests what was in a gin & tonic, used grapefruit juice in a manhattan etc. They didn't have necessary tools to make drinks like a jigger, muddler, etc. The bartender and server ruined a keg of bud light, they were observed rolling it down the flight of stairs and shaking it greatly and then over pumped the keg after tapping. The full keg was unusable. The servers and bartenders did not know how to open champagne bottle and had to be shown by guests how. There were no dipping sauces served with the cigar bar like there were at tasting, there was no meat on our charcuterie station, the owner said there was but we reviewed the pictures and there was no meat, just cheese and vegetables. All hot food was cold except the fingerling potatoes, the short ribs were inedible because of toughness, nothing like the tasting. Service was extremely slow 2 people running 3 food stations that required service. I had to request servers during food service to serve wine and other beverages. When the servers finally arrived they were pouring white wine in champagne glasses and my husband ask that they pour it in the wine glass and the server replied that he thought that was champagne. We also requested that they offer red and white wine at the same time and was told they could not and they would come back with the red, but i found out later they didnt even ask guests what kind of wine they wanted and just poured what they had in their hands. Not enough plates were brought to the event, about half of our guests including myself and my husband ate dinner on appetizer plates and the rest on dinner plates. Some of the tapas that were served was not the food agreed upon. When a dietary restricted guest asked for dessert it was brought to him whole, he requested that it be cut and he was handed a chefs knife. The cod was never served, arancini balls inedible. No knives or forks were placed at dessert table, cutting knife not available for bride and groom to cut the cake, water not filled at the table and when guests asked for water were told we were out?! The cake was then cut by the staff but not actually delivered to the tables, just left on a table in the back of the room so no one knew to get any. There was no coffee bar that we paid for. Over 12 bottles of wine were opened and then recorked unused and could not be brought home to be consumed later. Provided and discussed vintage hot cocoa jug that we wanted to use for our hot cocoa at the fire pit, they instead used small plastic containers, paid for 5 gallons and received 2. Guests were making their own drinks because the bartenders were incompetent. Do not book they...

I had been a customer for 8 years, despite some eyebrow-raising circumstances concerning staff behavior. I gave them chance & chance again. The first odd experience was years ago, when I waited for a sandwich to go that took roughly an hour when no one else was even in the restaurant. When my food finally came, the owner walked out with my bag, set my bag down, & started chatting with a delivery man. She did not deliver the bag to me. Fortunately, another staff member saw the incident & quickly handed me my food. Isolated incident, I thought. Recently, I paid $15 for a mediocre sandwich & realized that it took them TWO WEEKS to settle my credit card transaction. A $30 overdraft fee incurred on my account. I did not even think to check my bank account to see if it cleared same day- I’d never had this issue with any transaction from anywhere I’d paid before. I went in respectfully & asked to speak to a manager about a credit card issue. The restaurant was quiet. Only me & 4 other customers (who were dining) were present. I was told “One moment.” The young man behind the counter comes back, without the manager, & asks what my situation is. I explain, show proof, & ask what could be done. He proceeds to go back & forth between me & the manager/owner/whomever was in the kitchen, who was clearly hiding. He compared my situation to a rent check that had yet to be cleared. While admitting the mistake of not getting the transaction settled sooner, due to what he said was a half million dollar wedding they had apparently taken on around that time, he told me “There is nothing we can do.” I politely reminded him that “There is nothing we can do” is a pillow statement for “Too bad for you.” For an establishment that has such a strong mission statement about integrity & that customers are #1, they certainly don’t live it. As for the food itself: While the food & baked goods have always LOOKED appetizing to me, the taste fell way short especially for what I paid every time. Very overpriced, especially now that they’ve moved locations. It was the previous friendly service & cute cupcakes that had me coming back....

Yesterday I stopped in to check out The Yellow Carrot to experience their fine dining and excellent service, but when I arrived I received none of that. Instead I was greeted by rude servers and terrible service. I had to ask around to be seated and the lady who then seated me said rudely, “Where do you want to eat?!” I tried to remain calm and understanding that she might be overwhelmed. After sitting down for a long time my waiter finally showed and took my order which was the sweet tea and the poblano ham & hash. The tea was water downed and had no flavor at all, and the burrito didn't taste quite right, for example the meat inside tasted undercooked as there were bits and pieces that was cooked and others that were undercooked, and the chipotle sauce was in no way shape or form right in taste. Later during my dining experience my drink ran low and the owner had asked my waiter to ask me for a refill, my waiter sighed and rudely asked if I needed a refill of my sweet tea. I said yes, she then took my glass away and didn't return for about an hour. After waiting a very long time a kind woman in a red cardigan and brown hair came over to my table and kindly asked me about my status of my refill, then after listening to what I had to say. She went and quickly made my sweet tea and returned to my table. The tea that she made was honestly one of the best cups of tea I have ever tasted, this tea was unlike my waiter's tea. It was full of flavor and delight! I truly wonder why couldn't my actual waiter serve me with this level of respect for professionalism and service. This woman isn't even my waiter but made my awful experience here actually enjoyable. From what I saw here at this restaurant there were truly only two people here who cared enough about the quality of their service at their restaurant, which was the owner and the woman in the red cardigan. The other workers slacked off in their effort to run the restaurant and showed nothing but a rude and lazy attitude as though I was an annoyance for...