Devil's Kitchen — Restaurant in Grand Junction

My wife and I are disappointed by our experience this evening at Devil's Kitchen. My first review of our evening was the intense cologne/perfumes the staff was wearing. I know it sounds petty, but all those smells really influence flavors and tastes and should not be present while on the floor. From the menu we started with the artichoke dip. Flavorless and the dip was unpleasant to look at. The flavors and ingredients were not well incorporated within and pools of oil were floating all around. Next we shared a beet salad that also was very simple and bland. The dressing was a carrot ginger puree and a hop-infused vinaigrette. I think they forgot the vinaigrette because the mixed greens were dry and as far at the carrot ginger puree only a small amount was squeezed onto the beets. For $15 I was expecting a bit more than dry greens and minimal garnishes and dressing. My wife ordered the bison tamale and that was a big strikeout. The attempt to "stack" the food for aesthetics showed promise, but unfortunately the lack of flavor and texture over shadowed the presentation immediately. I doubt it was bison as I've eaten bison dozens of times and it tasted and had a texture of a beef sirloin. Regardless...it has zero flavor. The "locally-sourced" mushrooms were button mushrooms sourced from a local seller probably. The poblanos had the most flavor, but because they are poblanos. The sauce and demi glaze were bland and didn't contribute to the dish. The kicker though was the masa "cake". A traditional tamale as masa that is soft and delicate. This dish presented a masa flat bread that was impossible to cut with a fork and even difficult with a knife. Dry and flavorless. Each element of the dish alone was under-seasoned and very disappointing. I ordered the beer braised short ribs. First "bone" of contention...don't sell it as ribs when all you serve is 1 rib. Sell it as a beer braised short rib. The rib I got was 50% fat and ygristle and the meat I did find was fall off the bone, yes, but zero flavor. No beer flavor but only a teaspoon of a so-called demi glace reduction sauce. The cellar mash was undesirable and my server couldn't tell me what it was. The roasted broccolini would have been wonderful I bet had I got it. Instead I was served up Brussels sprouts that were pan seared, very mushy with some sort of sweetener, like agave. Why in this wild world would you ever sub out a vegetable Brussels sprouts. I happen to like them (not what I was served this evening though), but many people do not. Very risky move! I really am disappointed in my experience tonight because I feel this spot can be really great. The ambiance is chic and classy, but the food is not at all up to caliber to what it should be. The executive chef and kitchen staff need to fine tune some technique and flavor profiling and they need to taste the food before service to know it's on point. Taking the ideas they have for each dish but tweaking the presentation and magnifying key flavors will go well for them. At this point, not worth the price...

What an incredible experience we had! The setting was beautiful, the food was excellent, and the drinks were delicious.

My wife, daughter, and I received a complementary chips and salsa appetizer from the chef to start. Beautiful presentation, very crunchy and thick chips which was a wonderful and unique surprise with a light balsamic glaze.

The house chips appetizer were essentially a delicious variation of French fries but with a unique cut that provided an even crunchy meaty texture. A light balsamic glaze with a side of lavender ranch to light up the dish made this an appetizer worth getting a second round of. (This was actually our second round as I had met my wife earlier at Devils Kitchen due to its proximity for happy hour and we had returned again for dinner)

Entrees were the Salmon walnut dish with a side of Brussel sprouts and grilled zucchini and a gnocchi salad. The salmon was cooked perfectly, nice juicy center without, while not giving you the feeling of eating a piece of sushi, light sweet sauce with earthy walnuts to balance. The brussels sprouts were the best part of the meal, roasted perfectly allowing the variety of textures along with a gentle sweetness that easily neutralized any bitterness that may have existed. The zucchini spears were grilled in a way that I have not seen before, softening about half of the spear while maintaining a crunch on the outside, complete with a nice juicy bite.

The gnocchi was lightly covered in a fine pesto and included an excellent distribution of roasted cherry tomatoes that made for a delicate meal with an abundance of flavor.

We finished the meal with a deconstructed pumpkin spice cheesecake, a banana foster, and a lava cake.

The pumpkin cheese cake presented like a thicker feeling moose. The spices were not over the top, allowing the pumpkin flavor to be the main feature of the dessert. It did not have a sickeningly sweet pumpkin spice flavor that I have come to expect from a fall themed dessert.

The banana foster was prepared table side, with a fun explanation of the process and a small fire show to finish. Delicious, with sprinkled cinnamon on warm banana slices coated with a hot brown sugar sauce and poured over a wide plate of two generous sheets of ice cream.

The lava cake was my daughters favorite for obvious reasons as it was as chocolaty you would expect with some fresh berries as a garnish.

All in all, a very impressive experience but what made this meal so very special was the excellent service that we received from our server, Payton and the rest of the staff at Devils Kitchen. We were celebrating a unique event and Payton went above and beyond in her service that at one point brought both my wife and I to tears. We felt so valued and felt so thankful. Thank you Payton so much for such a special evening, we are both...

With it being Mother's day my wife and I decided to take my Mom out to dinner and try the new restaurant that we have heard so much about.

Yet, we were disappointed in the entire experience.

When we arrived, we were happy to see that it was pretty empty and we were seated instantly.

However, after we were seated by the host no one talked to us for about 10 minutes until the manager came by with water and asked if our waitress had introduced herself to us yet. Which we told him she had not.

A minute later our waitress, whose name I believe was Aubry, came by and asked for a drink. She did not seem too excited to be helping us based on her tone of voice.

Drinks come in about 10 minutes and then our server seemed to forget that we were there.

After flagging her down to put in our appetizer order, we do not see her for a while until said appetizer comes in another 15 minutes or so. In the meantime I have to take our glasses up to the bar to get refills on our cocktails and sodas, which we had to do 2 more times during our meal.

By the time we have finished the meat and cheese plate, which is amazing, we had been there just under an hour and still had not put our food order in again, which required us to flag our waitress down again to get that started.

Soon later the Manager comes by to ask how our food was and if he could clear the table. We told him yes but that we were still waiting for our actual orders, which seemed to confuse him based on how long we had been there by this point. He said he would go check on it and within a bit of time he returns with our food.

Our server still has not come back to check on us.

The food arrives and it looks amazing and everyone at our table is really excited. This, however, was the only really good part about the main dishes.

My steak, fries and potatoes were cold. My Mom's side dish was burned. Thankfully, my Wife's burger was actually really good. Normally, we would have said something but no one came to check on how things were until we had already decided we were done eating.

We were severely let down by the entire experience. Our waitress was very rude and unwelcoming. We left like she did not want our business. The Floor Manager was very nice and I am glad that he at least came by a few times and after talking to him after the check came he thankfully discounted our cocktails.

After reading some of the negative reviews, it seems that management as a whole constantly falls back on "this is a teaching hotel" to cover poor experience. This would be fine and acceptable if not for the price to eat here. For the 3 of us to each get a meal, a cocktail and a shared appetizer, our bill came out to $170.00. You can not charge that with the expectation that those that work there are still...