The Den on Eleventh — Restaurant in Longmont

Update: 5/17/25: This is my most current review which I have switched to a 5 freaking star. This is the best place to eat in Longmont. My top 3. They continuously improve, they listen to their customers and their dishes get better and better! Whoever makes their risotto, PLEASE CONTINUE. Be it mushroom, butternut squash, lobster, etc, you are The Risotto King/Queen. In my previous review, I wrote about their Bucatini & Clams - guess what? they have changed their clams to be larger and no sandy clams! HUGE success and it's still my favorite dish on their menu. Also, TRY THEIR FRENCH ONION SOUP - I tried it 3 separate times and each time they add something extra that blows it away further. I love the bread, cheese and everything in between. Cocktails have also improved immensely and if I wasn't moving out of Longmont, I would still be coming here every other month. Thank you to all the wonderful waitresses, you have also given us the best service that I've had in Longmont and I'm so happy to see this place grow and improve. I love the coziness, music (please share me your playlist!), ambience and it's been our favorite place to eat at in Longmont, hands down. Sad to be moving, but I HIGHLY recommend this place to all!

Old Review: 6 months ago: We've been here about 4-5 times and I love the staff and presentation. But the food/drinks can use some work. I'd really like for this place to succeed! Which is why I keep coming back to try new dishes. :)

The Good/Bad/Ugly:

Mushroom Risotto/Butternut Squash Risotto - Y'all nailed it out of the park with these! Very delicious and definitely a hit.

Bucatini & Clams - the first time I had this, it was so delicious! The last time I had this, every clam had sand in it. It completely killed our dinner and I did mention it to the waitress who stated she would bring this up to the sous chef. All the flavors are there, but no one wants to crunch on sandy bits in a meal!

Scallops St. Jacques - this is probably the ugliest dish I've had. 5 scallops, 4 shrimps and cut up mushroom in a bowl of cheese? with two bread pieces on the side? I don't know what kind of flavor they wanted to present, but it was not tasty at all. And for $29? This dish has to go.

French Onion - Please keep this forever!

Salads - Too much dressing!

So-so dishes - Paccheri Pasta (where is the flavor? maybe lose the garlic/cream and stick w/tomato?), Chicken Marsala (a safe bet!), Buckner Farm Pork Chop (so-so), Fish N Chips (can't mess this one up!)

Appetizers: Yes! Keep them coming!

Cocktails: Less on the bitters on all the drinks and balance out the alcohol/mixer. We've tried the Old Fashioned, Den Margarita, Classic Manhattan, Spicy Dog, Bourbon Sour, Martini (asked for extra dirty, did not get extra dirty) and espresso martini. They either had too much bitters, too much alcohol or a...

The food was delicious. My steak was cooked exactly as I requested and the chimichurri sauce was great. My wife's salmon was cooked to perfection. My daughter had the Tuscan Chicken and the chicken was juicy and the cream sauce was something I'd eat with a spoon, no kidding.

The garlic shrimp appetizer was outstanding.

The oysters were "meh". There wasn't anything off or bad. They were fresh, just not expertly shucked. I ran into this the last two times I had raw oysters locally and maybe it's just not commonly ordered around here. (I'm not knocking the review for the oysters, as they were fresh and the mignonette was very good, but all of us got shells in one or both that we ate which ruins the experience.... Maybe this will get better as the kitchen gains experience with that item)

What knocked this down from 5 stars to 4 was my substitute. I'm not a fan of potatoes and prefer protein and veggies. I asked our waitress if they could sub the potatoes with any kind of veggie, I'm not picky with subs. She offered to sub a side salad (Caesar or Arugula). I choose Arugula and enjoyed my meal. I was surprised to see a $7 charge for a side salad, especially considering how simple the Arugula salad is, just a small handful of greens with vinaigrette and a sprinkle of cheese. I know potatoes are cheap, but so is arugula and I'd wager the prep and cooking is simpler/cheaper. Anyway, after subbing the potatoes for the Arugula, my meal was $39. I don't mind spending money at all but I like to see it up front. If I were told that my meal was going to be $39 instead of $32, I either would have just skipped the potatoes altogether, or ordered something else. With tip, it was around $175 for the three of us, and although I'm happy spending money, especially on locally owned businesses, I felt like charging me $7 for a handful of Arugula when I'm about to drop $175 for three of us is a bit of unnecessary nickel-&-diming. Hopefully this is just a training issue. I'll update my review and rating if this improves on our...

Little loud, but the atmosphere was great. Had the short rib pasta. Excellent flavor. Nice portion of every ingredient. If you like a lot of meat, it might be underwhelming, as I prefer meat as an accent, not the main ingredient. The French Onion is by far the best I have tasted in a long time. Considering I just had oral surgery to have a "marpe expansion" put in, and I could not use half my mouth to taste, it said about lot that the flavor the soup and pasta dish had kept me fulfilled on flavor.

My husband had the burger, and we both agreed that where you get every ingredient in the bite, it was perfect. Wish there was a little more sauce spread to cover the perfectly toasted bun.

Their Negroni was not made with campari but a substitute. We prefer traditional. Even though we didn't care for the drink, what stood out was the fact the server let us know the change before ordering and allowed us to switch it out if it didn't suit our palate. That's HOSPITALITY.

My father was a chef for 30+ years, and I worked as a barista and in the restaurant and hospitality industry for 9 years. When you believe in service, you have high standards. If you like a place and want them to succeed or improve, you let them know.

This place deserves to be another one of the places we will refer friends, family, and business acquaintances to, alongside West Side Tavern, Sugar Beet, Carcoffi's, and Flavor of India.

The server was extremely attentive walking past the table often and eyeing the table every 3-5 minutes from afar. She cared about our experience being pleasant. That was extremely nice considering the amount of pain I was in. She would have made it worth the visit alone if it weren't for awesome food with perfect portioning.

I truly recommend this place. Love the decor and setting. Not too high and fancy to make up for high prices (which these were shockingly low), and not too plain that you felt a public...