Brunch & Co. — Restaurant in Estes Park

The food was overall pretty good, with one star off for a few relatively minor issues.

I got the Mrs. Grady (chicken & waffles), and my wife got the Room 237 (French toast biscuit).

The chicken & waffles tasted quite good - the breading on the chicken was flavorful, and the maple glaze added just the right amount of sweetness. It came with an apple/fennel slaw, which I enjoyed well enough, which is pretty high praise from me as I ususally don’t enjoy slaws. The chicken was a little on the dry side, which made it a bit difficult to cut, which we’ll come back to. It also came with home fries, which were execllent - well seasoned, crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. The waffle was… a waffle. It went well with the chicken, but nothing in particular jumped out at me about it.

The Room 217 biscuit was also quite good - I tried a bite of hers, and it was a nice combination of eggy and fruity. It’s similar to a stack of pancakes with a bit of a different texture and filling between the layers, with a firm bottom that made it difficult to cut.

The portion sizes are well-calibrated - my wife and I each ate most of our plates, but ended up full with just a bit left over. Which is nice, as you typically don’t want leftovers from brunch.

You may have noticed I mentioned both items being difficult to cut. That was due not just to the items themselves, but also how they were served: the “plates” are more like large bowls, and pressing down with a knife caused the plates to tip over, so it required being very careful to not spill the food while trying to cut it. This is exacerbated by the fact that we weren’t given sharp knives, just butter knives, including for the chicken and waffles. Come on, if you’re going to make me cut meat, at least give me a steak knife.

Overall, quite good - a little on the pricy side for the food, but that’s to be expected given its location not just in a hotel, but in a relatively high-end hotel like the Stanley. The experience would be significantly improved by just serving the food on normal plates, instead of fancy-looking but impractical dishware. They’re also running a bit short-handed at the moment, but who isn’t? That doesn’t contribute to my star rating, but expect a slightly longer than usual wait and sparser service if you go in Summer 2021 (I assume this will be fixed as the labor market...

My family and I have a standing tradition to go to Estes Park for Labor Day and eat at the Stanley Hotel as a celebration to the end of summer. It’s something we all look forward to and every other year it’s been a great experience. This year however, our lunch experience was a disaster. We had to wait an absurdly long time to order, and then for our food, our waiter never brought out our drinks and I had to go inside and find him to get my wife’s coke brought to the table, we’re vegetarian and expressly asked for no meat on anything and still managed to have bacon in one of our entrees (the kids grilled cheese that doesn’t even include bacon), we asked for avocado for the baby and it never came, my wife’s poached egg was so under cooked that it was essentially soup (I’ve made better eggs in the microwave), her food was also under seasoned if seasoned at all, I was told that my entree (Power Bowl) wasn’t going to have beets because they ran out and then had to order a new entree after being told they didn’t have enough ingredients to make it at all, I also asked to sub avocado for the cheese in the omelet I ordered and I never received it. Of course when we got the final bill everything we didn’t receive was still included. They did comp the kids meal, but honestly, we shouldn’t have been charged for anything because it was probably the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. There were only like 3 other tables besides us, so it’s not like they were slammed. If anything, I think it was nearing their closing time and they cared more about leaving than the quality of service or food. And what a terrible way to end our end of summer...

Amazing food! One quibble keeps this from being a five star review, but I’ll get to that later.

The Good: I got the Lodge Burrito with chorizo at the servers recommendation, and asked for extra chili sauce on top. Excellent! The best breakfast burrito I’ve found outside New Mexico. The Colorado chili sauce was a bit spicy, which is to my liking, but if you can’t handle a medium heat then you may want to avoid this one. The flavor was spectacular.

My wife ordered the Room 217, and thinking that it didn’t sound like a large item, decided to order eggs and ham on the side. She definitely didn’t need to, as the “biscuits” here are the size of your head. The eggs and ham were great, but the 217 was excellent. It’s tart and sweet - in fact a little too sweet in my opinion, but it was perfect for my wife and her sweet tooth.

The Bad: what is the deal with great restaurants serving lousy coffee?? I asked for decaf and got what was basically hot water with a slight brown tint. It’s not hard to make good coffee! Restaurants seem to try and save a few nickels by making weak and flavorless coffee. Stop doing this! Just increase the amount of grounds you use. It may cost a little extra to make good coffee, but it’s pennies, and for people that love coffee it can spoil a meal. Why skimp on such an integral breakfast staple??

This restaurant just needs to double the amount of coffee grounds they use in their coffee and the problem will be fixed. steps off soap box

Anyway, other than the dishwater coffee dragging down the overall quality of the meal, this place was fabulous. Great servers too, and a spectacular view...