Penrose Taphouse & Eatery — Restaurant in Fort Collins

Update: One of the managers reached out and apologized for our experience. I’m updating my review from a 1 star review to a 3 star review thanks to her willingness to go the extra mile to try and make things right. When we get the chance to return I will update this review again. Hopefully our next experience will be more akin to the other reviews left for this business.

We arrived to celebrate my husbands 30th birthday. Our party was small just my husband, my daughter and myself. The hostess was kind and seated us promptly when we arrived. Unfortunately that was when the good experience stopped. Once seated our table was rather sticky and the floor under our feet was sticky as well. We ordered an appetizer of cheese curds and tots and sat down to consider the menu.

They arrived, and by that time our drinks were already low, the waitress left without offering to fill them.

When she eventually returned my husband and I both decided to splurge on the ribeye steaks, as we were celebrating, and even got the steak kids meal for our daughter. Our waitress all but disappeared after that, we had to get our own ketchup for the tots and curds, from the waitress stand, and we didn’t see her again until after someone from the kitchen brought us our cold food, even then she only appeared after I requested the kitchen person to fetch her for us.

Horrible service aside, my ribeye was paper thin and partially burnt. The mashed potatoes and corn had solidified into a mass and didn’t so much as slide on the plate once the unappetizing dish was delivered.

This entire time our drinks went untouched and only after our waitress reappeared was I able to request refills. She denied my daughter a refill stating they don’t refill children’s drinks. I was pretty fed up at this point and I told her I didn’t care and that I’d pay for it. She begrudgingly took the drinks to refill them.

Once it was time for the bill I was honest and told the waitress at the end how horrible our food was. She had asked during our dining and I admittedly brushed her off trying my best to cut into the chewy paper thin steak. In response to my complaints she offered to bring us a box not once, not twice, but three separate times to take our still full plates of food home. She said “maybe you can fix it up at home.” Each time I responded no and told her again how horrible our food was. Our plates were practically untouched.

This meal was not worth a single penny of the money we spent. I was recommended this place by a coworker and we will NOT be back. Nor will we recommend this place to...

We’ve been to DC Oakes many times and like that place so when we found Penrose we wanted to try it out.

On a Friday night, we called and were able to get reservations very quickly, walked in and were seated immediately.

Great atmosphere, great location, indoor and outdoor seating. We could already tell this had a similar vibe to DC Oakes but it was different enough.

The menu was very similar to DC Oakes as well but again, different enough. Plenty of choices for varying tastes but not too many. Everything looked good so we all ordered different items.

We started with the salmon dip appetizer, it was great. My son and I split the bacon marmalade burger and the hot honey chicken sandwich. Let me tell you, that’s the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever had. Period. Daughter got the Mac and cheese with shrimp and bacon (ended up being the most expensive item we ordered) and my wife ordered the Bomb Diggity. Everything was amazing. Not a bad thing to say.

Overall, for a family of 4 (the two kids are basically adults now) with an appetizer, drinks and 4 entrees, it was right at $100 which these days is not terrible considering 5-Guys for the 4 of us is $80.

The only “negative” thing I have to say is the server wasn’t as attentive as we’ve seen before, especially at DC Oakes. Had to ask more than once for water refills and waited a long time for her to come back ti ask for the check. But I’m not holding a single experience with one server against her or the restaurant.

We are definitely putting Penrose on our list of restaurants to frequent. Great place in...

This place has gone downhill. Don’t waste your money. My $20 Cajun pork came without mashed potatoes on a half empty plate. No mention of this from the waitress, I had to ask why they were not there. She then said they were out. This could have been avoided ahead of time or at least they shouldn’t try to sneak one by a customer who paid for a $320 bill. They offered to comp a portion of the meal, but then didn’t. Another unkept promise.

After that, we ordered ice cream with a birthday and the cinnamon bread dessert. They were also out of vanilla ice cream, which they only mentioned 20 minutes after we ordered it. We asked for extra whipped cream to make up for it, they said they could do that. Then when it came out it has so little whipped cream that it looked as if the cook spit on it (not even kidding). I think they were out of that too. It just looked like dry bread and a few white bubbles - $9.00. We were only one of only three total guests in the entire restaurant and it took 20 minutes for that lack luster desert to come out with plenty of time to clear the dirty dishes off the table, but nothing.

Honestly, all of that would have been fine if the manager would have come out to apologize, if they would have discounted a portion of the meal as they promised, or if they would have given us the desert for free. It is the total lack of empathy and customer service awareness that has me writing...