Euro Italian Underground Restaurant. — Restaurant in Glenwood Springs

Where do I start?

This place is best described as "meh".

First impressions: this restaurant is a neat little basement themed place. Very small and cozy, dimly lit, but loud and busy. The staff is friendly but obviously overworked- with 2 waitresses running food and servicing around 20 tables. It isn't a romantic place, it really leans in on trying to appear as though it is more upscale while still being approachable.

First- the complimentary bread was a low quality grocery store bought baguette that was sliced, served with a small tub of room temp butter that had garlic powder mixed in. It also came with an oil/balsamic mix that had settled and separated and just wouldn't mix. All of this was presented in a disposable cardboard tray.

Second- the drinks. I ordered an old fashioned and the wife ordered a long island iced tea. After waiting about 5 minutes we hear the bar tender yell out "no iced tea" and then our waitress hurried over to tell us they had no iced tea for the long island. So she switched up to a Moscow Mule. The mule was fine, but my old fashioned was the actual worst I've ever had. It was a yellowish color, and tasted as if it was just literally watered down whiskey with a spritz or orange in it. I drank half of my drink and left the rest.

Third- out comes out appetizer. Fried calamari. The breading was actually decent on it, but the pieces were clumped together, and we had several full squid (at least cleaned). One of the chunks was the size of my fist, and there was absolutely zero seasoning in anything. We had to put quite a bit of salt on it to make it worth eating.

Fourth- The entrees. My wife had pesto fettuccine, I had shrimp scampi. My wife's food was edible, but again seriously lacked seasoning. The pesto itself tasted vaguely pesto-ish. My shrimp scampi- to my dismay, was also the worst shrimp scampi I've ever had. No flavor whatsoever, and the shrimp was dense- obviously overcooked- and gauging by the color (or lack thereof), I would put money on it being microwaved. Lots of salt, parmesan, and pepper flakes on both our meals made them a bit more palatable. And in case you are wondering- no, the pasta is not made in house, it is bulk dry pasta. Which I normally wouldn't mind- except their prices are well within "fresh pasta" ranges.

Lastly- They don't accept AMEX cards. That's not a big deal, but I'm usually very careful about making sure to look to see if there is any signage one way or the other. I was lucky enough to have my backup Visa on me, but double checking the doors, windows, walls, bar, and hostess desk- there was no signage for any cards, and definitely nothing to show they don't accept AMEX. Our waitress didn't even know this, and even went to run my card and eventually came back and told me after trying to run it a few times.

Total cost for app, 2 drinks, and 2 entrees: $113 and change after tip. Well above average prices for what is quite possibly the worst food we've had from a sit down experience post pandemic. The wait staff was friendly- even if they were too busy, and the atmosphere is really neat and makes you feel like it could be a gem of a restaurant.

$50 a person after tip- you are competing with high quality mid tier restaurants. Even when compared to mediocre quality chains- your meals are a solid 25-30% more expensive than Olive Garden for example, but your portions and flavor are considerably worse. I would place Noodles and Co. Well above the food here.

When we walked down the stairs to this place we were so excited! There is some real potential in this location. It's a shame the execution was so bad though. This really was a huge let down, and it is some place I just cannot...

Dec, 2024 at Euro-Italian Underground (formerly The Italian Underground)

Read and believe the other negative reviews! See the defensive responses from this restaurant to critical reviews to fully appreciate their cluelessness--and it reflects their poor service and management. I have never written an online review of a restaurant--let alone a negative one. But my recent experience at Euro-Italian Underground in Glenwood Springs was so bad that I had to post this one.

I have been to this restaurant several times over the years in past visits to Glenwood Springs. It was fine for a quick, affordable, casual meal where you could walk in without reservations. Food was decent (often good, never great), but service was consistently good and the long-term staff was always attentive and friendly. A warm, family kind of place. They've gone through a few changes over the years, but now with their apparently new ownership, a slight name change, and a disappointing and overpriced euro-menu revamp, other things have clearly changed for the worse--significantly.

I went there for an early dinner with my wife, our grandson and his mom. Service was slow as there was just one server covering a lot of tables in our area. My wife ordered the pork shank, but when the server delivered all of our dinners, my wife was given a plate of schnitzel (!). The server admitted that she had screwed up the order and explained that a re-do to get the pork shank could now take up to an hour. Any other dish on the menu would take another 15 - 20 minutes. So without asking us, she had brought another pork entre as a substitute that she hoped would be acceptable.

Resigned to our fate and a time delay, my wife tried the schnitzel and ate a few bites, but it was dried out and tasteless. To make a long story short, the rest of us did finish our meals (fair at best) and I asked for the check. To my surprise the bill included full charges for all of our food. No adjustments.

I complained to our server and she said she would talk to her boss to see what she could arrange. She returned to report that there was nothing they could do on the bill. I asked to see the manager, but the server returned again to say that her boss was "too busy" to come to our table.

After the bill had been paid and we were getting up to leave, the boss (owner?) did finally arrive, but couldn't understand what we were complaining about. She said she had not made any adjustments to the bill, let alone comp my wife's meal ("because she had eaten some of it"!!!). All with an attitude. No apologies. No acknowledgement that there had been a problem. No attempt to correct the situation or make things better in any way.

Needless to say, that's the last time we'll visit Euro-Italian Underground. One can only hope that the owners see this review, re-think their changes, service and entire approach--and turn things around. Otherwise they are guaranteed more negative reviews and will surely continue to lose long-time customers like me to their poor service, terrible customer skills, and clueless management. (Not to mention that food quality needs an upgrade as well, especially given the uptick in prices.)

DougS

Happy New Year--do...

Very disappointed. We haven’t been to this restaurant in many, many years and was looking forward to dining here. What an incredible disappointment. First- there are approximately 15 tables in this restaurant. When we got there, there were 4 available tables. We were the only party (2 people) waiting. We stood at the “Please wait to be seated” sign for close to 10 minutes before we were even acknowledged. Once we were seated, our waitress came to take our drink orders. I ordered a white wine, my husband a red wine. I was sitting so that I had a clear view of the bar. The bartender was pouring drinks rather quickly and drinks were sitting at the end of the bar for quite some time. When the bartender finally brought our drinks to us, 12 minutes after we ordered them, she brought 2 white wines. This actually happened twice. Tables were close enough together that we could hear what the table behind us ordered. One guest ordered a gin and tonic and never got it. I watched the bartender make it and it sat on the bar the entire time. The waitress kept telling the guest that she was waiting on the bartender to make it. She actually came back after they were about finished with their meal to tell them that she was taking it off their bill since the drink was never made.

Second- extremely small menu. Choices are very limited. Salads are served “table style”. We ordered a salad, lettuce was warm and limp and we were told that we had to use our small bread plates for our salad “unless we wanted bigger ones”. A couple of pasta dishes, shrimp scampi, a lasagna dish and a couple of pork dishes. We decided on the shrimp scampi, which ended up being a horrible choice. Pasta was definitely dried spaghetti, the description on the menu says large jumbo tiger prawns (there were 2) the rest was very small extremely overcooked, rubbery shrimp. It was described as having a creamy, lemon aioli. They clearly missed that.

Third- from my vantage point, I could see right into the kitchen. There was a girl leaning against a counter eating! She was clearly an employee because she was wearing an apron! Dishwasher? Cook? Not sure, but as everyone was running around doing whatever they were doing, she was standing in the kitchen eating. This place seemed so disorganized and wasn’t running well. While our server was nice enough, she was very scattered and rushed. She would still be talking as she walked away from her tables. I remember it from years ago being so much better. The menu has changed drastically and not for the better. For the 2 of us it was $130 (tip included) and not money well spent.

I heard some people talking nearby saying that it has changed ownership. For the sake of the new owner, I hope they make some changes soon or the Italian Underground will be a thing...