SEASONED - An American Bistro — Restaurant in Estes Park

As a local business owner myself, I understand the value of honest feedback, especially when the experience misses the mark. I don’t make a habit of leaving negative reviews, but I know firsthand that we only grow when we’re open to hearing where things went wrong.

My family and I chose your restaurant for my birthday dinner on April 4th. My partner and I regularly support and enjoy many of our local restaurants, and we were excited to try something new. Unfortunately, we left disappointed, not just by one aspect, but by the overall experience.

My son and I both ordered the salmon Wellington, and my partner had the eggplant dish and a salad. We also shared the mushroom soup. I’ll start with the portions and pricing: at nearly $250 for 3 people with tip(we had waters), for the meal, we were genuinely surprised by how little food was served. So much so, in fact, that we stopped at McDonald’s on the way home. That’s a first for me, and I’ve dined at many high-end restaurants across the country.

The salmon Wellington was beautifully plated, but it lacked substance. My son and I both kept asking each other, “Where’s the salmon?” Seriously, It was difficult to find more than a few very smallbites of actual fish. The mint sauce overpowered everything, which made the dish look better than it tasted.

The eggplant, while flavorful, also came up short. The portion was small, had to dig to find the one eggplant, and we all agreed it would have benefited from a good crusty bread and a bit of grated parm to round it out. For the price, it simply didn’t measure up. I could have fed my whole family eggplant parm dinners from the Olive Garden for the cost of one at your restaurant. Extremely overpriced dish. Although all the dishes felt like that.

We really wanted to like the mushroom soup, but it fell way short of the mark. Very little flavor and something wasn't right about it. Within an hour of getting home, all three of us were experiencing stomach pain and severe diarrhea. I personally ate the majority of the soup, and I spent the rest of my night in the restroom hating life.

As for the service, our server was kind and friendly, which we appreciated. That said, the level of service did not align with the pricing. When asked about the dishes, she wasn’t familiar enough with them to offer real insight or recommendations. I’d expect a server to be well-versed in the menu, especially at a place charging premium prices.

I’m not writing this to tear anyone down. I’m writing because I would want to know if one of my own customers had this kind of experience. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and unfortunately, ours was not a good one. I hope this message is taken in the spirit it’s intended, with honesty, respect, and the hope that it might help strengthen your business in the long run.

I sent this above letter to the owner and his response was what's your address I'll mail you a check. Nothing else.. Don't bother going here, they don't care enough to be...

Long story short, paid $120 dollars for 2 for a meal that wasn't just sub par for the price, it was completely unpalatable. If you're looking to pay high end price for something marginally worse than Applebees, this is a good choice.

We started out with a bowl of Rockefeller soup, it was good. Nothing really too special about it, not really $12 good for a tiny thing, but this was the only thing we were able to actually eat during our meal without regret with each bite. We ordered a pork dish, and after an awkward 10-15 minutes after ordering were told it was no longer available. so we ordered again. I got colorado bass with risotto. The risotto was grossly undercooked, both chewy and crunchy. The bass was ok, but relatively bland and didn't really complement anything else in the dish. My wife got a succotash which ironically given the name of this restaurant, had no seasoning whatsoever. This thing looked and tasted like someone took whatever vegetables they had left before moving from an apartment, had already packed up their salt and all of their spices, said screw this threw it on a plate without cooking or seasoning anything and called it food. It really would've been better if they had opened the canned versions of the vegetables and dumped it onto the plate, at least this way it would've had some flavor to it. On top of that, she upgraded the dish for $14 dollars to include bacon. So on top of the "succotash" were several thick, unsliced, slabs of bacon. Essentially giving us large sloths of lard that in no way enhanced or incorporated into the dish at all. No reasonable individual would ever serve this to another human, let alone charge $36 dollars for this dish. We ate a few bites of our entrees and quit. Our waiter didn't seem to care at all of our aversion to our food. After we paid the $120 bill and all expectations of being served something edible were crushed, we were given some complementary truffles. To our disappointment, we were told these were made in house and to no surprise, the inside of the truffles were thick and chewy and something we couldn't finish, despite still being famished after our "meal."

All in all, of the 4 different things we ate 1/4 of them were edible. It took us $120 to figure that out. In somewhat fairness, they did try and be nice with their service, they did ask us when we made our reservation if we had a special occasion. They gave us a menu with happy honeymoon presented on it, and were nice regarding this.

Summary: $120 dollars for 2 people, disgusting food that we could only eat 1/4 things we ordered. No one seemed to care about our aversion to their food. Would recommend Applebees over this, and you would have to pay me to eat at Applebees. Stay at home, eat a hot pocket, or do anything else for a more...

My husband and I are celebrating our 15 year wedding anniversary in beautiful Estes Park, CO this weekend. This is our first time in Estes Park and we did a ton of research on places to see and good restaurants to eat at. We made reservations for Seasoned Bistro because of the rave reviews and we were very excited by their menu. When we made our reservation, we were asked if it was a special occasion. Upon arrival we were seated promptly and given custom printed menus that said "Happy 15th Anniversary" as souvenirs. My husband ordered the 70-day aged prime ribeye and I ordered the sea scallops. We both ordered a cocktail and my husband ordered a single malt scotch to go with his steak. We also ordered the cheese puff appetizer. The cheese puffs were delightful and the cocktails were very refreshing. The server was prompt, courteous and incredibly knowledgeable about the menu. Here is where the 1 star comes in. This place is named Seasoned. The food was anything but. My scallops had NO seasoning on them that I could recognize and the flavor was just sweet on sweet on sweet. While beautifully cooked the sweet scallops were layered with sweet corn sauce and sweet, lumpy mashed potatoes (called potato puree on the menu). The micro green salad had no dressing. Just a pile of bland veg. I had to get fresh lemon to cut through the sweet richness just to eat them. Not to mention that 2 of the scallops were very gritty. My husband's steak was gigantic! It was served on a bed of the same lumpy, sweet and unseasoned mashed potatoes. The asparagus was very undercooked and none of the veggies were seasoned. The steak was cooked per the chef's recommendation to maintain tenderness. It was still very sinewy and very tough. My husband had to excuse himself to the restroom to spit out a bite that could NOT be chewed up. My husband even had to ask for salt to help him eat the steak. Needless to say the remainder of the steak will be fed to our dog. The bill came to just over $200. We were so incredibly disappointed and feel like they are trying to be something they aren't. I really think the chef should go back to culinary school. Unfortunately, he's close to retirement age. Beware if you don't want to drop a couple bills on a very unremarkable meal! Save your money and eat at Smokin' Dave's...