Penelope's Old Time Burgers — Restaurant in Estes Park

I’m from out of town and decided to come here because it was talked about all online and the reviews were great…The food came out quickly, my family and I spent $110 for 3 elk burgers (which one was a buffalo that came out instead) and some kids meals. The presentation and outside of the meal when brought out looking amazing, but the meat was so dry, not sure why it’s “world famous” if they say the elk burger is the best then I don’t want to know how the buffalo and regular burgers are like. 2 of my elk burgers came out fully assembled the other one the lettuce, onion, tomato’s, pickles, etc toppings all on the side.

My biggest reason besides paying $110 for the driest burgers I’ve ever had, is the COMPLETE unprofessionalism from the manager. Today he was in a white button down short dark hair, I asked another staff member if that was the manager. Unfortunately it was because I was about to let them know about him.

As I was going to get a refill for my drink an older woman was trying to get Coke and it was clearly not dark brown coming out of the soda fountain, the manager was close by to hear when the lady asked a nearby female staff member if she could check the syrup, before the staff member could even say anything the manager comes behind us and rudely says ”It’s fine” when clearly the woman is saying it tastes weird. Instead of saying let me go check that for you or apologizing or literally anything else but gaslighting the woman saying the soda was fine when indeed it wasn’t. AFTER THAT, when the lady walked away he looked over at his staff member and rolled his eyes like he was annoyed that the lady asked about it.

Do not waste your money here, PSA especially to out of towners. Not only is the place so tight and packed to sit down and eat, who would want to give service and pay for expensive burgers when the managers act like that.

ALSO the website showed $11 for single elk patty burger but in person it’s $16.

Only thing good was the fries because they actually were...

It has been a few years since we made it up to Estes, and when my wife asked what I wanted to eat, I told her Penelope's without hesitation. Unfortunately, this may be the last time we do so. Overall, from start to finish, the entire dining experience was rushed. We were met at the door by a roving order taker (while this could streamline the process, we found it to be unpersonable and had no time to organize our thoughts on the menu) who, despite us telling her we were not ready to order, stared us down until ordered from her. The disappointment continued when our food arrived before we could even get our drinks. I know, sounds like first world problems, but considering there were five of us, for the food to be cooked fresh, you would expect a bit of a wait. Unfortunately, our suspicions were confirmed as we received bland, gray, chewy hamburgers. Gone were the freshly prepared, seared, tasty patties we fell in love with; replaced by previously cooked off patties stored in a steam pan and thrown onto the grill when ordered to remove any remaining moisture. This is the type of burger I have come to expect while visiting my grandmother in the hospital, not from the "world famous" Penelope's. The quality and service, combined with the rising prices of ingredients (while not their fault, $96 for 5 people eating burgers and fries seems excessive) has taken one of my fondest memories of visiting this beautiful mountain town and left a sour taste in my mouth devoid of any redeeming qualities, much like the food on this visit. While service time is important, if the product you are "rushing" to get to me is inferior, you've lost more than you've gained. I'd gladly go back to waiting 20 minutes for a freshly prepared burger over the streamlined process in place now. Be better Penelope's....

So I scheduled for my family to have a little getaway to Estes for my birthday. We specifically did not eat in Boulder because we were looking forward to Penelope’s. I have been going to this restaurant for over 20 years. Every time we have relatives that come into town, I take them to this restaurant when we go to Estes. For the first time I was completely disappointed. The prices keep going up and up. However, the food was always so good I thought well it’s worth it. I take that back. The buns were dry. The burgers were dry. The customer service was poor. The young lady who took my order would not stop asking me: Do you want anything else? Do you want anything else? I told her when I was done ordering , I would let her know. Then when it was time to pay my over $50 bill, she rushed me with Apple Pay. There was one family behind me, and they had ordered with a man with a tablet who worked there so there was no need for her to be so kurt. My phone takes just a little bit longer to activate because I have to use my fingerprint. I told her please just be patient, it will go through. A manager stopped by and asked us if we enjoyed our food. I told him we did not and he just said that’s too bad. He said he would talk to his staff. That was it and kept asking other people. I think he could care less what kind of experience we had. I doubt very highly. He probably shouldn’t ask people if he didn’t want to hear the answers or do anything about it. He didn’t offer to make it right. He really just didn’t care. I will not come back to Penelope’s. The first time I came there was a 1992 my sophomore year in high school. It’s a shame because it’s something that I looked forward to whenever I would come...