Sazón — Restaurant in Lone Tree

Pretty disappointed in this place. The reviews here are very high....I really don't know how...but the reviews somewhat brought us here. On Saturday night between 730pm and 830pm it was never more than half full- a place as good as these reviews might imply should be far busier on a Saturday night...hmm...maybe we'll see why during dinner.

Our server Pedro was great...real nice guy...and professional. And the big nachos plate was pretty good. I bumped it up to 2-stars for Pedro and nachos! But that's where the fun ends.

The decor in this place is very sparse, it's also unreasonably loud given every surface (wall, floor, tables, ceiling) is hard and lacks any absorption. This is especially concerning given the place was never more than half full. I think they had booth-type seats along the wall, but all the tables had hard wooden chairs...and those things sucked....hard and uncomfortable.

The calamari was terrible. Think breaded fish sticks you get in the large frozen bag in the grocery store. These might have been exactly like that because they were delivered cold to the table. I don't mean just not hot, I don't mean room temp, I mean COLD. Pedro brought them back to the kitchen. They returned hot, on the same plate...including the one we took a bite out of....it was not re-plated for presentation, just re-heated.

I had the carnitas. They were good except that half the pork was fat and gristle that I couldn't eat ....clearly they didn't trim the meat properly. But taste and portion was otherwise acceptable.

My daughter (13) had 3 different street tacos, two of which had a steak item that was so tough she couldn't eat it....and those tacos are very small (two bites) and not cheap....what a waste.

My son (9) had the sonora burrito. The cheese sauce they use is not good...and this burrito was absolutely swimming in it...and I mean LOADED in cheese sauce. My 9yr old son lives on cheese, but even he said it was gross and scraped it all off onto another plate. I say "cheese sauce" because that's really what it is....it's not velveeta quality, but it's not far off. He also mentioned that the burrito isn't "mixed up." I wouldn't have noticed this, but he said it was weird because the meat was by itself, then beans by itself, then rice by itself...so basically like eating three different burritos and you couldn't mix it together unless you destroyed the burrito. So that might be a nitpick...you can decide...but the cheese sauce made it inedible...even for a 9 year old who eats everything.

In total we ordered 5 items for 4 of us, and 4 of the 5 items (nachos excepted) had issues. Sorry Pedro, you were great, but after writing this out, and realizing we had problems with 80% of the items we ordered, I'm dropping this place back down to 1-star.

No need to follow up...we definitely will...

Went to Sazón last night based on reviews and the desire to try someplace new. The place was crowded, a good sign. People were waiting patiently, also a good sign.

First off, Sazón has not been open long so they are working the kinks out... and we saw that last night. We made the choice to be chill after realized this was going to be a long dinner.

Waitstaff was disorganized and had problems picking up every table. The owner stepped in and handled us, but her staff could never pick up our table and she wound up being our server for the night. She is super nice and clearly cares about her business. You could see that as she handled what was a slightly rough night.

Minor issue between the front and back of the restaurant, delayed our food by a little. Again not a huge deal and the owner explained what was going on. She went above and beyond to make sure we were happy.

Ultimately a restaurant will be successful because of its food, anything I mentioned above is due to the place not being open long. Nobody is perfect and it is clear they do strive to be great restaurant.

A detail to pay attention to is cleanliness, Sazón was exceptionally clean. The staff clearly pays great attention to this detail.

How was the food? If I based my review only off of that, this would be 5 stars. We liked everything that was put in front of us. I had the carne asada and in a word: amazing. Made perfectly with a small fried potato side, sweet corn tamale and more than enough homemade flour tortillas.

My wife had their signature Oaxacan Chicken, which while just a shade dry was flavorful and the sauce was incredible. The cheesy rice as a side, was so good.

My kid had the street tacos, which she loved.

We shared their churro desert and the bebe rellenos appetizer. The churro met with mixed reviews from okay to love. Well really liked the bebe rellanos.

All the food was prepared exceptionally well and looked as good as it tasted. Their kitchen is top notch.

They get their liquor license (a couple of weeks), which is the lifeblood of any restaurant. If Sazón's drinks follow their food, this should be an amazing pairing.

If you have read this far, Sazón is a place I would put on my restaurant rotation and is worth checking out. In a city filled with Mexican and Latin restaurants, this one is unique and should be a...

I really wanted to support a new local spot and had high hopes coming to Sázon. It is worth noting that I really hate leaving bad reviews, but this experience was so atrocious I felt I had to warn others. It wasn't particularly busy and I was sat pretty quickly (I'm just one person and it was 5pm on a Thursday in the suburbs). From there, the server took forever to bring water and come by the table. It was happy hour and I asked for the happy hour menu since they didn't provide one when I was seated. I asked her no less than FIVE times if the chili queso on the happy hour menu was vegetarian and each time she confidently said "yes!". I ordered it and the vegetarian de la casa enchiladas. She asked if the queso was supposed to come out as an appetizer and I, again, confirmed with her that it was vegetarian. 20 minutes go by and she comes by to ask me what I ordered and if it was the shrimp enchiladas. I hadn't gotten my food yet and I hadn't ordered the shrimp enchiladas either so this was alarming, but alas. When the food finally came out, the de la casa enchiladas (all cheese) were incredibly salty and lo and behold, the queso tasted like it had meat in it. No one came to check and see if everything was okay until it was time to pay the check. They hovered until I put my card down to pay the check and then the manager (I assume?) came over to grab it and that's when I finally asked him. He was surprised and told me that the queso is NOT in fact vegetarian. (I knew at this point since I watched the server pour it into a to-go cup and chunks of meat were in it). Overall, a horrible experience and incredibly unsafe if you have any dietary restrictions no matter how careful you try to be by asking the server over and over if your meal is vegetarian. It also doesn't mention any meat on the menu description of it, either, for what it's worth. I would steer clear of this place unless you want to get sick from contamination and end up with a brutal stomachache. You might have better luck with Rio Grande right next door.

Note: they did take off the queso after this debacle (and the manager confirmed it wasn't in fact vegetarian) but they did discuss the situation near me and were very unfriendly about...